He’s got more than just a security blanket
- By : Nat
- Category : Classic finds, Reviews
The latest addition to the AAUGH.com Reference Library is an issue of Linus, an Italian comics magazine that mixes translated English language strips with original Italian material. The magazine launched in 1965, and is still running today – the issue that I grabbed up is from Maggio (May, most likely named after famed baseball player Joe Dimaggiagio) 1968. In addition to a month’s worth of “Peanuts” (February 1968’s strips), it also includes the British strip “Bristow”, a couple pages of Feiffer, about a month’s worth of “Barney Google” dailies from the mid-1930s (including some racist imagery that wouldn’t fly today), “Pogo”, “B.C.”, “Wizard of Id”, “Little Orphan Annie” from 1961 (lead into by an article “Little Orphan Nixon”, which seems to be a look at “Annie” creator Harold Gray’s conservatism – and it should be noted that this issue was released before Nixon was elected to the US presidency), and what appears to be Italian originals including “Manuel” and “Hibernasconi”. (I’m really unsure of the source of the comic book format “Supercar” feature, drawn by a French artist and bearing the name of a British TV show.)
All in all, it’s a nice package, taking comics seriously, and with a nice attention to detail – they do a good job of matching the style of the translated lettering to the original strip lettering, which is not always true of translations.
The magazine does have a letters column, “La Posta di Charlie Brown”, which doesn’t quite meet what you’d expect from letters to Chuck. The first letter quickly degenerates into talking about whiskey. The third asks “Who do you think is more likely to end up in the White House?” (The answer, as best as I can translate an automatic is translation, is “Not Humphrey, because he’s like Bob Hope. Not Reagan, because he’s like a bad actor: Reagan. Not Nixon, because he’s like a little better but funny actor: McMurray. The leaves McCarthy, who we think is suitable: his face befits a presidential stamp, and also a $50 bill.”)
