Dylan Dog Color Fest 50

Dylan Dog Colour Fest 50 contains three short stories, reprinted and in some cases newly coloured, featuring Dylan Dog's sidekick and housekeeper, Groucho. I haven't read enough Dylan Dog to know exactly what role Groucho plays; he's a kind of valet, a cook, a companion, but not a great help in the supernatural investigation cases. His true purpose you feel, since he looks and behaves almost exactly the way you would expect Groucho Marx to behave, is to bring a sense of irreverence to the series and prevent things from getting too heavy. And occasionally he comes to the rescue, pulling Dylan out of difficult situations. The balance works well, fitting in with the general tone of Dylan Dog adventures, but in this Color Fest special he is largely given his own platform. The consequences, you can imagine are riotous and often very funny.

La cosa misteriosa che vive dietri il frigorifico
Story - Tiziano Sclavi, Art - Luigi Piccatto

The first two stories are reprinted and early pieces written by Tiziano Sclavi, the original creator of the series, coloured for this special collection. In La cosa misteriosa che vive dietri il frigorifico (The Mysterious thing that lives behind the fridge) a lady comes to seeking help, but Dylan is on a case elsewhere, so when he hears that the nature of her problem is that her cat sits immovable in front of their fridge, Groucho thinks this is something he can handle. All kinds of madness ensues, involving a talking pigeon (or is it a dove?) who goes urges the Conservative British Prime Minister, Mr Minor, to employ the armed forces to conquer Europe. The pigeon also advises Groucho to move the fridge and take a pickaxe to the wall, which Groucho tackles with relish. There is a lot of wordplay confusion between piccone (pickaxe) and piccione (pigeon) that infuriates the lady's husband.

There is indeed an effective horror element nonetheless, albeit very tongue-in-cheek, the dove coming from a dark portal into the void behind the fridge to wage havoc on the world. And take the Templetons into the void. Since the deranged British PM lost the election by one vote, Groucho considers their disappearance as not necessarily a bad thing, as the two of them would have probably voted Conservative and won the election for Mr Minor. Apparently based on a true story - at least as far as Tiziano Sclavi having a cat that sat staring endlessly at the fridge.

Horrorpoppin’
Story - Tiziano Sclavi, Art - Luigi Piccatto

If I was unsure about what his role entailed, Groucho clarifies this to some extent in Horrorpoppin', looking forward to a holiday after all these years of sitting in the office "doing nothing".

Taking it's lead from the 1941 movie Hellzapoppin', there is a lot of self-referential and fourth wall breaking here with Groucho challenging the authors who seem have little control over events or even the sequence of chapters. Chaos ensues (inevitably, again), the horror on the other side of a looking glass, with some psychoanalysis and self hypnosis thrown in. Groucho manages to have a lot of fun with a naked buxom lady and the corniest jokes imaginable are wheeled out to fill pages and panels - e.g. A lady walks into travel agency and asks, how long would it be if I wanted to go from Rome to New York?" The smiling sales assistant picks up and timetable and says "Just a minute, madam." Thank you she says the lady and leaves.

In its manner of breaking of the fourth wall, the authors declare themselves too embarrassed to put their names to this one - and no wonder - but it's amusing and creative in its absurdity as any work with Groucho ought to be. It does go on a bit though.

Una scatola di polvere
Story - Francesco Artibani Art - Giorgio Cavazzano

The new story in the collection is drawn (beautifully) in a modern hyper-expressive cartoony fashion, which suits the comic situation perfectly. Dylan is away on business again, so Groucho leaves aside his housecleaning duties to help out Mr Harry Spaulding. His father is recently deceased and has been cremated, but when ashes are returned he finds the family are haunted by a ghost. The ghost strangely though isn't his father's ghost but that of an unknown elderly lady.

They aren't sure how an old lady from Hackney ended up in the Spaulding household, but it turns out that she has returned because of her dissatisfaction over not being buried in the flowery dress she asked for, nor rested in a silk lined coffin. She's going to make life miserable for the Spaulding family and thinks Groucho is an imbecile also. There has obviously been a mistake, someone has switched urns somewhere, and even Groucho isn't so dumb he can't work that one out. Handling the bad guys responsible is another matter, but Groucho can be resourceful, particularly when he has supernatural friends.

Una scatola di polvere (A Box of Dust) is not quite a laugh a minute, but the attraction of this story is the artwork, the pacing and the visual slapstick. And the Dylan cameo is worth the two-thirds splash page.

Reading notes: Dylan Dog Color Fest 50 is a special edition published in August 2024 by Sergio Bonelli Editore in Italy. It's hard to purchase individual issues online from the publisher. I only managed to pick this one up while in Italy for some light holiday reading. I've since picked up a bundle of random back issues off eBay, so I may (or may not) review other issues over time.