Friday, February 25, 2011

Roger Rabbit meets Dylan Dog


For those who didn't knew, Dylan Dog is a Italian comic series about a private investigator who frequently deals with cases involving creatures like ghosts, werewolves, zombies ...and pink rabbits. You see, two stories in this series seem to be inspired by WFRR. They dealt with a toon called ”Pink Rabbit” who had managed to cross over into the real world and much like Judge Doom used cartoony methods to kill of people. Falling anvils, steamrollers and dynamite may seem funny in cartoons, but when you use those things on humans the outcome is of course far more horrific.

The Roger Rabbit influence is even more apparent in the second story, check out the Toontown-looking background on the cover for instance.

We are also introduced to a Jessica-inspired character.
And there is a part somewhat similar to the deleted ”Pighead scene” where the toons try to screw with the detective by pasting a toon mask over his head.

There may be even more that I missed, I don’t speak Italian so I didn’t understand all the dialogue in these stories. But I managed to figure out the main plot through some rough translations. If any visitors from Italy wanna tell me about any other references in these comics that I missed then lemme know.

Here are some links with more info if you're interested:
http://www.cravenroad7.it/wikidyd/index.php?title=I_conigli_rosa_uccidono
http://www.cravenroad7.it/wikidyd/index.php?title=Il_paese_delle_ombre_colorate
I could unfortunately only find Italian ones but you can try translating them with Babelfish.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello, I am italian and a big fan both of Roger Rabbit and Dylan Dog (and I have the comics you talked about). The first title is "The pink rabbits kill", the second "The land of colored shadows" and, yeah, they are an horror version of Roger Rabbit. The first comic was printed in September 1988, the second in August 1995. So, the scriptwriters ignored the deleted ”Pighead scene”, since it was inserted only into the DVD, 5 years later. I think that that scene is inspired by another Italian film (also inspired by Roger Rabbit): "Volere Volare" (1991) by Maurizio Nichetti. The scene of the "torn face" can be seen in this film at 2' 30":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX2XrEz4u7w&feature=related

I've almost forget: there is an other Dylan Doc comic with Pink Rabbit: "Horror Paradise".

Alex. G said...

Thank you for that informative comment Contix, highly appreciated.

I had heard about Horror Paradise but didn't knew Pink Rabbit was in it.
But he does fit into that story as it is from what I understand also about murders committed by movie characters who have entered the real world. I will see if I can find that one as well when I am done translating the two other stories, which seems it is gonna take quite some time.

During my research I also found out Pink Rabbit appeared in a issue from 2009: http://www.comicsblog.it/post/4549/dylan-dog-nel-2009-tanti-graditi-ritorni
But I wasn't able to understand much of it, the babelfish translation makes almost no sense.
Can you tell me anything about it?

Unknown said...

For Alex:

The article announces, for 2009, the return of several characters already appeared in other Dylan Dog's issues, and Pink Rabbit too. The comic was a special issue, "L'Almanacco della paura" ("The almanac of the fear"), which goes printed once in the year and in which there are stories out of the normal issues. I haven't that comic, but I've found the cover on-line:

http://image.forumcommunity.it/1/7/5/8/2/3/2/1243015966.jpg

Alex. G said...

Thanks again.
And by the way, that italian movie you mentioned looked interesting. If I can find a dvd with english subtitles I might check it out.

Anonymous said...

Excerpt 1:
"Hello, Willie!"
"Hello, Rabbit... How are you doing?"
"Jud... Judah dancer!" (?)
"Hee hee! Well, dad, I'm doing just fine!"
"You know, you had said to me that this world for nothing piece of meat, you do not last long and the games always end the same way!" (?)
"Yes, I remember!"
"Well, I changed my mind! In fact, I'm starting to take taste!"

Excerpt 2:
"No way! I've looked everywhere..."
"...Peter is not home!"
"Instead I discovered something interesting..."
"...this picture looks a lot like you!"
"That runt? But do not be silly! I'm much better looking!"
"Ha! Right, Betty. In your case, reality is stranger than fiction!"
"Hee hee! Thanks!"
"Come with me! We're going to look in the garage..."

Excerpt 3:
"A... A mask?"
"Hee hee hee! Liked the joke, Dylan Dog?"
"No, Jumpo!"

Alex. G said...

Thanks for the translation.