Just looking at my gallery, it should be pretty much clear that I love Disney.
I also love Giorgio Cavazzano's art, he's one of the main reasons I still love comics today.
And I do love Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle's most famous creation that was and still is a major inspiration for so many people as of today.
Combine all of the above and you have the comic book adaptation of the 1986 Disney animated movie "The Great Mouse Detective", written by François Corteggiani and marvelously illustrated by Giorgio Cavazzano. And for me, mid-80's Cavazzano is at the very top of his game.
"The Great Mouse Detective" is the 26th Disney animated feature film, directed by Burny Mattinson, David Michener, and the team of John Musker and Ron Clements. The main characters are all mice and rats living in Victorian London.
Based on the children's book series Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus, it draws heavily on the tradition of Sherlock Holmes with a heroic mouse who consciously emulates the detective; Titus named the main character after actor Basil Rathbone, who is best remembered for playing Holmes in film. Sherlock Holmes also mentions "Basil" as one of his aliases in the Arthur Conan Doyle story "The Adventure of Black Peter".
The Great Mouse Detective was released to theaters on July 2, 1986, to positive reviews and financial success, and as such, the new senior management of the company was convinced that their animation department was still a viable enterprise and this set the stage for the Disney Renaissance.
I was looking for Basil pages since I first started collecting comic book art, then 2020 came and the stars finally aligned.
Here's page 10, where we can see Professor Ratigan, Basil's archenemy, definitely not happy with one little drunken fellow that called him a "rat"... he kicks him out and he's ready to ring a bell (if you watched the movie, you know what comes next). Superb character expressions and beautiful crosshatching in the biggest (triple) panel.
Please check below the other pages I own from this story:
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page 03-
page 18-
page 23-
page 38Huge thanks to Fabio!
Paper size: 35 x 50 cm
