Rebo


Rebo is an Italian comics character, created for the story Saturno contro la Terra by Cesare Zavattini, Federico Pedrocchi and Giovanni Scolari in 1936. He is the dictator of Saturn and wants to conquer Earth, but his plans are foiled by Dr. Marcus and Ciro.
In 1960, Carlo Chendi and Luciano Bottaro decided to reuse the character in Disney comics: Rebo made his Disney debut in Paperino e il razzo interplanetario, in Topolino #230-232, in which he tries to conquer Jupiter but his plans fail thanks to Donald. In the 1990s, Luciano Bottaro created another three stories about Rebo and his attempts to conquer Earth and Jupiter.

Saturn against the Earth

Saturn against the Earth was a comics series created by Zavattini, Pedrocchi and Scolari. This saga was published in installments in the weeklies I tre porcellini, Topolino, Paperino e altre avventure and then back to Topolino. In 1940 the first episodes of the saga were published in the USA in the comic book Future Comics. It was the first Italian comics story published in the USA.
In this saga Rebo, the dictator of Saturn, is a cruel leader, an outright representation of evil, whose crest resembles the feared dragons of antiquity. He allies with the Earthman Leducq in order to conquer Earth, but his invasion fails thanks to Earth scientist Dr. Marcus and his assistants Ciro and Bastiano, and Rebo is killed. The saga continues with the resurrection of Rebo thanks to the Saturn scientist Netro in "Rebo ritorna" , and the subsequent episodes The War of the Planets, Rebo's Shadow, The Ice Cloud, The Fire Sources and The Air Sphere. After Rebo's change of heart and the rapprochement between Saturn and Earth, the villain's role falls on the evil scientist, Netro, who hatches a plan to shatter the whole Earth. The series ended in 1946 with the last episode, The End of the World.
Chapter listing
  1. Saturno contro la Terra: I tre porcellini #93-98 -- continued in Topolino #216-238
  2. Rebo ritorna / L'isola di sabbia: Topolino #239-268
  3. La guerra dei pianeti: Topolino #269-294
  4. L'ombra di Rebo: Topolino #295-307
  5. La nube di gelo : Paperino #122-142
  6. Le sorgenti di fuoco: Paperino #143-149 -- continued in Topolino #468-489
  7. La sfera d'aria: Topolino #560-564 -- continued after a break in Topolino #565-587
  8. La fine del mondo: Topolino'' #588-610

    Disney stories

In 1960 Italian Disney artists Carlo Chendi and Luciano Bottaro created a story, Paperino e il razzo interplanetario, in which Rebo made his debut in Disney comics. In this story Rebo is the farcical dictator of Saturn, whose population was reduced to a total of three. Rebo wants to conquer Jupiter. When he finds out that the famous inventor Gyro Gearloose is on Jupiter with Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck and Huey, Dewey and Louie, he decides to kidnap him to force him to create fighting robots. Unfortunately his helpers mistake Donald Duck for Gyro, so they kidnap him. Donald Duck is forced by Rebo to create fighting robots, but thanks to Donald's inability, they are ineffective so the invasion of Jupiter fails. Donald escapes and returns to Jupiter where he is celebrated as a hero by Jupiter's inhabitants.
In 1995, Luciano Bottaro decided to create new adventures about Rebo. In 1995 he created Paperino e il ritorno di Rebo in which Rebo tries to conquer Earth but his plans fail thanks to Donald and Scrooge. Bottaro made other two stories about Rebo, Alla ricerca del papero virtuale and Paperino e l'invasione di Giove. In the Invasion of Jupiter, Bottaro reused Zantaf, a mad scientist appeared in the 1970s in some MIA stories. In this story Zantaf allied with Rebo.
In 2010 the four Disney stories about Rebo were republished in the volume Tesori #7: Paperino contro Saturno.
In the USA, the first two of Bottaro's stories -- Paperino e il razzo interplanetario and Paperino e il ritorno di Rebo -- have been published in the Fantagraphics Books collection Disney Masters volume 2, "Uncle Scrooge's Money Rocket".