Gaetano Vitelli

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Gaetano Vitelli was an Italian cartoonist and one of the first Italian Disney comic authors, along with Giove Toppi and Antonio Burattini. He joined the Nerbini publishing house in Florence in 1932 and stayed until 1940. At the end of 1932, Topolino, the Disney weekly, debuted but rights were not yet secured. The early issue was temporarily renamed and a new character, Topo Lino, was created by Vitelli and Giove Toppi. Once the rights from King Features Syndicate were obtained, the original Topolino header was restored from issue 5, and the Topo Lino strips by Toppi and Vitelli continued through issue 6. Nerbini then secured the rights to publish Floyd Gottfredson’s Disney stories, and licensed Italian-made Disney stories as well; these were drawn by Antonio Burattini and Vitelli, making Vitelli one of the first Italian Disney authors alongside Toppi.

Vitelli also produced a couple of one-page Mickey Mouse stories and other non-Disney characters from 1933 to 1935. The Topo Lino series later reappeared as Sorcettino, still by Toppi and Vitelli. For Nerbini he created stories for L’Avventuroso and for Il Giornale di Cino e Franco, including Tony il Saltimbanco (1936), Le perle nere (1937), Il segreto dei giganti (1937–1938), and the series Scintillino e il fantasma (1938) on Pinocchio, Gli scorridori del mar dei Caraibi on Giungla (1938) and Il Palombaro Italiano on Pisellino (1940).

In 1948, for E.R.O.L.A., he wrote and drew Albi del Trio dell’Astuzia, a collection of Pinocchio stories and a Mickey Mouse–like figure that was distinct from Disney, as well as the short Album di Avventure featuring Gordon. He also contributed to the Collezione per i Più Piccini, with illustrated books about Pinocchio, Snow White, Charlot, Fortunello and several apocryphal Mickey Mouse tales. In the 1930s he also worked for Il Vittorioso and Cartoccino dei Piccoli.