'Paperino e il Mistero di Marte', AKA 'Donald Duck'.
Federico Pedrocchi was an Argentinian-Italian comic artist, who is best remembered as a writer and artist on the first Italian 'Donald Duck' comics in the 1930s and 1940s. He also scripted various realistic comics and was editor of publishing company Mondadori's children's comic magazines.
Federico Pedrocchi was born in 1907 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the son of Italian parents. His family returned to Italy in 1912. After his father's death, Pedrocchi cancelled his studies and started a graphics and advertising atelier in Milan. He collaborated as an artist and scenarist on Il Corriere dei Piccoli, Jumbo and Il Domenica del Corriere. For the magazine I Tre Porcellini, he scripted 'I Due Tamburini' for Kurt Caesar (1935) and 'Saturno contro la Terra' for Giovanni Scolari (1936). He cooperated on the launch of the Italian Disney magazine Paperino on 30 December 1937. For this magazine, he wrote and drew the first Italian 'Donald Duck' episodes, 'Paperino e il Mistero di Marte' and 'Paperino Inviato Speciale'. He then focused on the scriptwriting, leaving the artwork to Enrico Mauro Pinochi. On 26 October 1940 the Paperino magazine merged with the Italian Mickey Mouse magazine Topolino.
'Paperino Inviato Speciale'.
Pedrocchi also proved to be a versatile writer of realistic comics, cooperating with artists like Walter Molino, Rino Albertarelli, Bernardo Leporini, Edgardo Dell'Acqua, Pier Lorenzo De Vita, Libico Maraja and Nino Pagot. Among his best known works are 'Virus', 'Il Dottor Faust', 'Zorro della Metropoli', 'Aeroporto Z', 'Capitan l'Audace' and 'Saturnino Farandola'. In 1939, he became the editor of the children's magazines of Mondadori. During World War II he, Angelo Bioletto, Fernando Carcupino and Libico Maraja were among many well known artists who worked on the animated feature 'La Rosa di Bagdad' ('The Rose of Baghdad', 1949), directed by Anton Gino Domenighini. Because of the war circumstances production process of the film was slowed down and it would only premier in 1949. Federico Pedrocchi never lived to see this. In early 1945 he was travelling by train when the British Royal Air Force bombed the vehicle. Pedrocchi became one of the many fatal casualties. He was only 37 years old.
'Paperino Inviato Speciale'.