Battiato and the tribute of Mickey Mouse: “That cover has become pop”
“Pippo dressed and portrait as Franco on the cover of” The Master’s voice “? The idea diverged me. And I’m sure he would have torn a smile even in Battiato, even if, from what I know, he was not a comic book enthusiast ». To speak is Francesco Messina, the author of the original cover of the album “La Voce del Master”, to which the illustrator Alessandro Pastrovicchio was inspired for the special cover of Mickey Mouse dedicated to Franco Battiato, created for the limited edition of the number 3627 of the comic magazine published by Panini on the occasion of the Etna Comics 2025, the festival dedicated to the world of comics scheduled from 30 May to 2 June.
How did you get to know?
«Through some friends who shot the images, circulated these days on the web. The idea of Pippo-Frranco made me smile. It is questionable, but it is not irreverent: it is fun. It seemed to me a good man: it is a quote, not a theft, as often happens when some publishing houses appropriate, without permission, of material to create the covers of their books “.
Did they ask you for permission to revisit the cover of “The Master’s voice” in the comic version?
«No, but they weren’t required to do it. After all, that cover has become pop and it is not the first time that someone pays homage to it: it has become a bit like “American Gothic”, Grant Wood’s painting which boasts a tide of versionsor the Mona Lisa of the Simpsons ».
Do you remember how the 1981 album cover was born, which made a pop phenomenon beat thanks to hits as “Cuccurucuucù” and “Permanent Center for Gravity”?
«Andum. That album was the ideal following of “Patriots”. I wanted to graphically represent the album with few elements, just like those who characterized the songs: very clean turns, functional batteries, simple harmonies. I did not pretend to tell that title. I didn’t want to be a didactic ».
And so, what idea could you think of?
«I said to the photographer, Roberto Masotti, to put Franco on an armchair that I would then have made disappear, putting his hand to the shot. I wanted Franco to be suspended, leaning against anything, except on the map of a part of the universe. The palm trees recalled his beloved Middle East. It seemed enough to me. It was already a masterpiece that pose of Franco, with the sandals and sunglasses “to have more charisma and symptomatic mystery” (laughs) “.
In Battiato the work liked it right away?
“When I showed it, he manifested some uncertainty because there were also other proposals that he liked. But we had to hurry: shortly thereafter we would leave for a holiday and there was no longer time. He said to me, “Are you sure it’s the right one?” And I: “Yes”. He trusted. “
Alessandro Pastrovicchio, the author of the cover of Mickey Mouse, is from Trieste and you live in Friuli: do you know?
“No. I had never heard of it before. But I am a graph that has little to do with the world of comics. My passions in this area stopped a life ago in Tintin, Michel Vaillant and the Jeff Hawke by Sydney Jordan. Of course, like all my generation, I grew up on bread and Linus. In this sense, some good friendship, Altan and Mattotti, to the example, brings together ».
How come the cover of “La Voce del Master” has become a work of art in itself, so loved?
«I have often wondered, since I have drawn many of them, if the success of a cover also depends on its authorial value or only on the value of the disc which in that case, however, came to overcome the million copies sold. Franco is a giant, I just hope I have made my little contribution ».
