Although it became widely popular in Italy shortly after its introduction, Alan Ford remained relatively unknown outside Italy. The French, Danish and Brazilian editions soon failed but the only other foreign edition, in SFR Yugoslavia, was a huge success, becoming and remaining one of the most popular comic books in the former country and its successors.
Although the initial plot in the first few episodes develops around an agent called Alan Ford, he is later just one of the central group of characters: Group TNT is an assembly of misfit secret agents, who operate from a flower shop in New York City, USA, which they use as a front for their secret headquarters. They are incompetent and lazy, yet intelligent and cunning, especially when it suits their own personal interests. Their outlandish biographies are dwarfed by that of their iron-fisted and shrewd leader, the wheelchair-ridden Number One, a Methusalem character who embezzles the millions paid to the group by American government or city fathers for secret missions, while paying a pittance to his agents.
The comic book ridicules aspects of American society, including capitalism and racism. There were also direct references to local Italian reality, whose social ills were often satirized by Magnus & Bunker, as well as terms in Milanese dialect.Whenever I go to the Big Apple, I buy a can of Campbell Soup, each time picking a different variety amongst the many available on the market.
I started this "tradition" becasue I like some of the pop art work made by Andy Warhol, and in particular the Campbell Soup Cans paint. I bought the first can in 1999, therefore I didn't buy a can in 1992 and neither I did in 2012 when I forgot to buy it. I could buy two extra cans in one of my next trips, and fix the problem, but... I don't know how fair it would be.
For sure I'll go on with the tradition, provided that going through security with a can of soup in the luggage will be always possible.I went to the MOMA only once, and the Campbell's Soup Cans was one of the main reasons of my visit. I'll surely go there again in the future, I miss the view of the real thing!
Speaking about tastes, I tried the onion soup sold in Italy by Campbell : not bad I could say, but.... like in most of the cases, my mum's home made version tasted better.
I've visited the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh! And I have not seen anything related to my beloved Campbell soup cans... In the whole museum, something like 5 stories of stuff, there is not much about this important subject. I wonder why, it was rather disappointing.