Old McKenzie had a farm...
Lupo Alberto (Alberto the Wolf) is an Italian comic book created in 1973 by Silver AKA Guido Silvestri, and the name of its eponymous main character. Originally released as a comic strip, during The '80s it switched to a monthly comic book format, which then turned to bimonthly in 2020 and is still ongoing.The story is set in and around the McKenzie Farm, in some unidentified Anglo-Saxon county, home to a number of Funny Animals (humans are never seen). Alberto is a wolf who lives in the woods outside the farm, and often visits it in order to eat... but also because he fell in love with Marta, a hen who lives there and who loves him back, and so is antagonized by Moses (Mosé), the Angry Guard Dog that guards the farm. There are several recurring characters, farm animals who represent various archetypes, as Lupo Alberto is a comedic and satirical work that makes fun of several aspects of Italian society and also common comic book tropes.
Two seasons of an Animated Adaptation of the comic were made in 1997 and 2002, for a total of 104 episodes. In the first season the main characters were voiced by popular Italian comedians, Francesco Salvi (Alberto) and Lella Costa (Marta). In 1990 Italian software house Idea also released a video game for Amiga and Commodore 64, aptly named Lupo Alberto: The Videogame. But this is only a small part of The Merch, every kind of products with Alberto and his friends' faces on them have been released, especially at the height of the comic's popularity in The '90s. Because of his popularity among kids and teenagers, Alberto was used as mascot for several campaigns, especially one about safe sex and condom use that caused a few controversies at the time in Italy.
Lupo Alberto provides examples of:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: As seen in the page image, most characters do not wear any clothing, but Lodovico the horse always wears a bowler hat and bowtie. Cesira/Esther the mole also sometimes wears an apron and a bow on her head, as to differentiate her from her husband Enrico.
- Accidental Misnaming: Enrico debuted emerging from the ground and shouting "Heila, Beppe!" at Alberto, mistaking him for his never seen Alberto. In a later story, however, he actually refers to him as "Lupo Alberto", indicating he's figured out the mistake and by now Beppe is just his nickname for him.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Alberto has light blue fur. Originally it was supposed to be a reference to the blue reflexes on Siberian wolves' fur.
- Angry Guard Dog: Moses is the guardian of the farm, a huge bobtail (often mistaken by other characters for a bear) who is almost always seen with a big stick or a rifle in his paws.
- Brainy Pig: Alcide (AKA Kant) the hog is probably the comic's most intelligent, erudite and sensitive character. He reads a lot, writes poetry and is knowledgeable on a variety of subjects from history to philosophy. Interestingly, his best friend Glycerine/Joseph the mallard is the village idiot.
- Cartoon Creature: Alfredo (seen in the page image next to Alberto) is supposed to be a turkey, but in practice looks more like some Toothy Bird with a big nose in place of the beak. He doesn't even have the snood on his beak or the tail plumage!
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In the beginning Alberto, while in love with Marta, was an actual predator who ate other hens and animals, and Moses understandably always tried to murder him or shoot him on sight. Later on, Silver dropped this, so Alberto and Moses became "frenemies" almost to the point of being Vitriolic Best Buds. The other farm animals soon after accepted him too.
- Furry Reminder: A frequent source of humor is the characters suddenly acting or being treated as actual animals:
- Alberto howls at the moon... Or rather holds recitals. He's also known to eat chicken, and has tried to eat Marta's best friend once.
- Moses is easily scared by blank-only guns for the simple reason in Italian they're known as "dog banishers". Also, when Alberto grabbed his bat and threw it he ran to retrieve it.
- Enrico and Cesira have a very distinct mole diet, have poor eyesight, and are extremely good diggers.
- Silvietta the Dunnock eats worms like actual dunnocks, can fly, and is vulnerable to bird-specific game calls.
- The rabbit couple has a lot of kids.
- Hidden Depths: Enrico La Talpa is usually just an obnoxious Jerk with a Heart of Gold prone to make wild claims about his military career, but from time to time he shows unexpected skills such as reading hyeroglyphs (not as well as he thinks, but the facts he can do it at all and without books is already a lot) and possesses an immense knowledge of trivia, as shown when he accidentally left almost everyone in the farm stunned by comparing the rainy weather to the summer of Cherrapunji
and people repeating the comparison because nobody else but possibly the doctor was familiar with the place (the series of strips ends with Alcide trying to get the reaction from him... And Enrico quipping the rain is so bad it seems the spring of Cherrapunji, making Alcide scream).- Glicerina is the farm's idiot... Unless he's recently been in contact with his twin brother Anitro, at which point he suddenly becomes smarter and more knowledgeable than even Alcide until it wears off. Anitro was sent to live in the city because just speaking with each other on the phone also turns them into angry and explosive jerkasses.
- Informed Deformity: Enrico, Cesira and the other moles are supposed to be blind like real moles are (and their plus-shaped eyes represent their blindness), but they can do everything other characters do including reading and watching TV.
- Insufferable Genius: Marta's cousin Odoardo (AKA Einstein, the one on the far left in the page image) is the comic's most cultured character next to Alcide the pig, having multiple degrees... but he's also a smug, pompous know-it-all who looks down on the farm inhabitants because he's from "the city". So, nobody really likes him even when his expertise becomes useful.
- Interspecies Romance: Alberto the wolf is in love with Marta the hen, and she loves him back, but this is just the most important example in the comic.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Moses uses his authority in rather tyrannical ways and beats up Alberto whenever he shows up at the farm to meet with his girlfriend Marta, but the other animals are quite lazy and/or stupid and need a firm hand (Moses often goes overboard, but it's clear that it's mostly out of frustration at their antics) and Alberto is a wolf that has tried to eat one of the farm's chicken at least once.
- Best shown in the election story, where Alberto ran for farm leadership to tick Moses off and won the vote of everyone smart enough not to believe Enrico's bullshit by presenting Moses' policies better.
- Meaningful Name and Nickname: Glicerina's father thought he was funny when he named one of his twin children Anitro because he's a male duck ("anitra" being Italian for duck), and nicknamed the other Glicerina to make a nytroglycerin pun when their reaction to each other was to shout in anger incredibly loudly. It quickly turned out that the twins can't stand each other and turn into jerks with an extremely volatile temper whenever they're together or even speak to the phone with each other, though after contact between them was forcibly cut by sending Anitro to live in the city the former became a mostly harmless productive member of society and Glicerina a harmless and helpful nice guy, if rather dim.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Glicerina's name is actually Joseph, but the name is only mentioned once in the entire series.
- Only Sane Man: Many have a turn from time to time:
- The title character is consistently shown as the sanest character, often mocking the antics of the inhabitants of the McKenzie farm. It's implied that his refusal to marry Martha and move from the forest to the farm is motivated at least in part by the fact that would mean he'd have to live with the idiots, rather than just snark at their stupider actions and save them from their own stupidity from time to time.
- Among the inhabitants of the McKenzie farm, Moses, the farm's dog and leader, usually takes the role, keeping the other animals concentrated on their jobs... And often having to resort to threats of beating everyone up, as the other animals are sufficiently lazy and stupid to run the risk of running the farm into the ground if left alone for too much time.
- The election story, where the job of farm's leader was up for election, showed this clearly: Alberto was in the running alongside Moses and Enrico la Talpa, and won the votes of everyone smart enough to not believe Enrico's bullshit simply by presenting Moses' policies better.
- Krug the bull isn't too bright... But takes the role by simply following Moses' instructions and taking Alberto's advice, as he's the only guy Moses cannot beat up. He's also known to actually ask for advice when he realizes he need it or it's pointed out he's done something stupid, instantly making him saner than most of the farm and possibly even Moses.
- Martha, Alberto's girlfriend, is about as sane as Moses. Indeed, most of the time her only act of insanity is that
she's dating Alberto even when she's a hen and Alberto is known to eat chicken (Martha and her family are safe, but he tried to eat her best friend at least once). - Alcide the Pig, the resident philosopher and the smartest animal, has most common sense than the others, hence Moses usually leaving him in charge whenever he has to leave for a while. Sadly, this says more about the others than about him, as he's often dragged into their antics.
- Enrico La Talpa tends to show more sanity than the farm's animals by virtue of being the oldest character (he was shown to be on his honeymoon when Alberto, Moses and Martha were kids), and having had enough time to outgrow many of his antics. Considering he once bought a plutonium-powered heather to save on the electricity and gas bills, this tells more about the farm animals than about him.
- Operation: Jealousy: Attempted once by Martha during Odoardo's debut, as she tried to get Alberto to propose by telling him she was dumping him for Odoardo. It failed miserably due Alberto being completely unable to take Odoardo and his complete lack of common sense seriously.
- Seldom-Seen Species: Silvietta the bird is a dunnock. Silver chose this species because its Italian name, "Passera scopaiola", sounds like a Double Entendre to Italian ears, and in the comic it leads to various gags, especially regarding Enrico.
- Species Surname: Enrico the mole's full name is "Enrico La Talpa", which means... "Henry the Mole". His wife Cesira as well, obviously. There's also the Pigs family, who appear very infrequently in the comics and never in the cartoon.
- Too Dumb to Live: Glycerine the mallard is really idiotic and always unable to get even the simplest tasks right. Alcide the pig always tries to educate him, but to no avail. In turn, the duck often makes fun of him.
- Unnamed Parent: Marta's parents are never given names.
- World of Funny Animals: Humans do exist but pretty much never interact with the characters,note and all the animals speak and act like people anyway.
