Finnish cookbooks

If you are a fan or a collector you sometimes end up getting stuff you have no real use for, and that you immediately regret using money on. I’m no exception, one time that happened was when I got two Finnish cookbooks (!)
 

Of course they contain Disney comics too, and the main reason I got them was a series of food themed one-pagers by Kari Korhonen and Vicar. But I can't read a single word Finnish and the stories are not THAT interesting. So I'm still shaking my head when I spot the books in my bookshelf.

Inside the books

Most of the one-pagers are still not printed outside Finland I think, but one single story from these books is actually printed in the USA. It's an untitled Halloween story in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #695.

A Halloween one-pager (D 2005-153) by Kari Korhonen and Vicar

And it seems the boys are still using the same costumes as in the 1952 cartoon and the Barks classic "Trick or Treat".

From the 1952 cartoon "Trick or Treat"

From "Trick of Treat" by Carl Barks

There, I turned this boring post about cookbooks to be about something else :)
 
Happy Halloween!

Halloween ComicFest 2015

Only two/three (depending on timezone) days left until Halloween, and for comic fans that means Halloween ComicFest with free comics! You can check if your local comic shop is participating using the store locator on the Halloween ComicFest homepage, a lot of shops all around the world seems to have joined.

Among the free comics this year is Donald Ducks’s Halloween Scream! from IDW.

Donald Ducks’s Halloween Scream! from IDW

Earlier the free Halloween comics have usually been small in size and with few (typically 16) pages. This year however the Disney one is a 32 page regular sized comic, containing two Halloween stories by William Van Horn.

"Donald Ducks’s Halloween Scream!" compared to earlier giveaways from Gemstone and Fantagraphics.

When the news about new monthly Disney comics came in January this year I expected to see something on Free Comic Book Day (in May) advertising the new run. But that didn’t happen, probably because the comics need to be prepared a long time in advance. "Donald Ducks’s Halloween Scream!" has an ad for Free Comic Book Day 2016, so mark May 7, 2016 in your calendar! Hopefully we get something Disney next year :)

The origin of the Duck Avenger

The true origin story

IDW just published the two-part story The Diabolical Duck Avenger in Donald Duck #5 and #6 (legacy 372 and 373).

Covers of IDW's Donald Duck #5 and #6

This story, originally published in 1969 in Italy, tells the story about how Donald Duck finds Fantomallard’s diary and becomes the Duck Avenger. I’m a bit surprised it took 46 years to get this story published in the USA, in Europe the story is quite famous! The San-Diego comic-con magazine "Disney Comics – 75 Years of Innovation" (2005) even have a page telling that this story is an important milestone in the history of Disney comics.

For me this story is a bit nostalgic. The origin story is also the first story with the Duck Avenger I ever read. My local library had this story in one of the oversized books similar to the American Abbeville books. And I remember I loved the story as a kid and borrowed the book numerous times. So I really enjoyed re-reading the story with American dialogue!

The Norwegian book "Jeg Super-Donald"

I’m not going to do a review of the story itself, I’m sure some other bloggers will do that. But did you notice the cover made a point out of this being the true origin of the Duck Avenger?

The Disney Adventures origin story

Because the story is actually not the first origin story printed in English. The first one was The Secret Origin of the Duck Avenger in the May 2000 issue of Disney Adventures, and with a follow up part in the next issue .

In this origin story the "mad scientist Ludwig von Drake" has been captured by evil alien ducks from the planet Zondar, and needs Donald’s help. In Ludwig’s laboratory Donald find a super-suit and the Duck Avenger is born!

Donald becomes the Duck Avenger, here in a British print of the story

The logo used in this story is the same as IDW now use for the Duck Avenger, and I can’t remember seeing it anywhere else. So that’s probably the source for IDW’s logo.

The PK origin story

"The Secret Origin of…" story in Disney Adventures looks like it is inspired by the Italian PK series of the Duck Avenger, that got a huge fan base in Italy (and the rest of Europe) in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. But the PK origin story didn’t come out until two years after "The Secret Origin of…" , and wasn’t translated to English until 2012. You can find it on comiXology in the first issue of Superduck titled Superhero of the Day

When the Evronians invade the planet, Donald gets recruited in a hurry to be a "Guardian of the Galaxy".

After a signature..

..and a redressing, he is ready for action!

But in this translation as Superduck.

This story is actually a reboot of the PK series. Like every proper superhero series, of course we have a reboot… A similar story introduced the original PK series, but in that story Donald already is the Duck Avenger when he discovers Uno in the tower and starts fighting aliens. So it’s more true to the Duck Avenger canon. I don’t think the original PK introduction is translated to English.

The video game origin story

So we have 3 different origin stories for the Duck Avenger, that should be enough right? Well, there’s actually a 4th in the video game PK: Out of the Shadows! And the PAL version of the game (both the GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions) comes with a comic insert telling this story.

The PAL version of the Play Station 2 game

The story is called Evron Attacks and is pretty much just a short and slightly rewritten version of the "Superhero of the Day" story.

In this story the Duck Avenger is called PK.

The flashback origin story

Gemstone only published two stories with the Duck Avenger. The first one, Crisis (Donald Duck Adventures #14), is not that interesting. It’s just a typical Italian Duck Avenger story with nothing special in it.

From "Crisis" in Donald Duck Adventures #14

But the next one was the closet we had to a (translated) true origin story before IDW finally printed it. The story Legacy (Donald Duck Adventures #18) has a lot of references to “The Diabolical Duck Avenger”, and tells the origin story through flashback scenes.

In this translation the predecessor is called Phantom Duck, and not Fantomallard like in the recent IDW translation of the origin story.

"Legacy" is (kind-of) a sequel and extension to both "The Diabolical Duck Avenger" and the story "Paperinik alla riscossa" which gives more details about the Duck Avenger’s predecessor. I really hope that story is going to be translated and published by IDW too! And to get more insight into the backstory, they should also translate "Paperinik e il tesoro di Dolly Paprika".

Ultraheroes

During the BOOM! run of Disney comics we saw another version of the Duck Avenger. Eega Beeva assembles all Duckburg superheroes to form the group Ultraheroes.

Of course, the Duck Avenger is part of that group, but he used another suit when appearing as part of the Ultraheroes.

A new suit

The Ultraheroes story started in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #699, but from part 5 on it continued in its own title. The entire story was later collected in 3 trade paperbacks.

Single issues vs. Trade paperbacks

(For a comment on the recent IDW trade paperbacks, scroll to the bottom)

During the last decade(s) it’s become a common practice among American publishers to collect serialized comics in trade paperbacks (TPB’s). On comic forums and in blog comments I often see the question "should I get the single issues or the trade paperbacks?" Generally speaking, if someone asked me that question, I wouldn’t be able to give any advice. It all depends on various factors that can be different from series to series, and also on personal taste. The first time I started getting TPB’s instead of single issues was in the early 2000’s. Back then I was a huge fan of The Punisher, and living in Norway it was a lot easier to get the TPB’s. And I still get TPB’s or omnibuses (the Star Wars ones are awesome!) if I want to read old stuff. But in most cases where I have a choice and want to read something (new) on a regular basis, I personally prefer the single issues.

Some reasons for getting the TPB’s are:

• Usually cheaper than getting all single issues it collects
• Takes less space
• Serialized stories are collected in one publication
• Less or no ads
• Often distributed to book stores or available from online book stores; i.e. easier to get (comic book shops keeps getting closed down…)
• Also easier to get back issues as they are stocked

Some reasons for getting the single issues:

• You get to read the stories earlier
• Letters and commentary pages are often not collected in the TPB’s
• Support the comic book industry
• Often printed in a larger format and with better paper quality than the TPB’s
• Keep the interest going and be part of the fandom (easier if the material is fresh)
• Easier to stay clear of spoilers

BOOM!

Alright, this is supposed to be a blog about Disney comics. I think BOOM! was the first American publisher to start collecting Disney issues in TPB’s. We saw paperbacks and digest issues from earlier publishers too, but not this kind of collections. The closet to what I define as TPB’s must be Gemstone’s Scrooge's Quest by Marv Wolfman and The Gold Odyssey, that together collects most of the DuckTales run by Disney Comics Inc.

In BOOM!’s case if someone asked "single issues or TPB’s", I’d say "get the TPB’s!" But the reason for that is that BOOM! made such a huge mess out of some of their series, that they are a special case.

Examples:

Mickey Mouse on Quandomai Island and Minnie Runs Out of Time are two stories that were printed in 4 parts in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #707 to #710. Originally a 2-part and a 1-part story, BOOM! decided to break them up in 4. Especially the Minnie story became unreadable broken up like this. They were both collected in a TPB called Mickey Mouse on Quandomai Island, that makes them a lot better reading experience.

3 of BOOM!'s trade paperbacks with Mickey Mouse. All with Casty-stories

Ultraheroes also started up as a serial in Walt Disney Comics and Stories. But when they came to part 5, BOOM! suddenly decided to move the story to its own title starting with that part in "Disney's Hero Squad: Ultraheroes #1". The entire story was later collected in 3 TPB’s, a lot easier to keep track of than all the single issues.

The exact same thing happened with Wizards of Mickey. It started up as a series in Mickey Mouse, but from part 5 on it continued in its own title. The parts from both titles where later collected in TPB’s.

The DuckTales/Darkwing Duck crossover Dangerous Currency also ran as a serial in two different titles, and later collected in one TPB.

One of the issues printing the serial DuckTales: Rightful Owners was rushed out on the market without proper coloring and with one page of terrible editing work replacing unfinished art. The coloring was fixed and the page replaced in the TPB.

Even if I think BOOM! made some bad decisions, they did good work too. At the end of their run of the "core four" they printed a lot of interesting stories. Also they started up two series I don’t really count as trade paperbacks. Four Color Adventures and Walt Disney's Comics and Stories Archives had facsimile reprints of early Dell comics. Sadly only one volume of each came out.

Paperbacks from BOOM!, collecting old Dell comics

Disney Press

While BOOM! published traditional Disney comics, Disney Press did a few TPB’s too. But they were a bit "backwards" as they got published in single issues by another publisher right after they came out.

Prince of Persia: Before the Sandstorm collects 4 comics that where published by Dynamite.

Tron Betrayal collects 2 issues published by Marvel, but also has a Prolog and an Epilog that I’m not sure if is printed anywhere else. So here I’d go for the TPB.

Marvel

A movie adaptation of TRON got published in a TPB too. But this time Marvel did it their self. The TPB only collects two issues, but on a thicker and not glossy paper. With the color heavy comics inside, it looks a lot better on glossy paper, so I prefer the single issues in this case.

 
While waiting for a new publisher to take over classic Disney comics after BOOM!, Marvel did some single or limited runs of Disney/PIXAR comics. The size of the TPB’s that collect these issues are even smaller than the Tron TPB. So again, I prefer the single ones.

The Toy Story trade from Marvel is even smaller than the TRON trade.

Size of the TPB compared to one of the single issues it collects

IDW

Now, the most informal part of this blogpost is probably the IDW trade paperbacks (maybe I should have started with that). The first ones just came out and are collecting series that are currently in print. I’ve checked out the first TPB’s with Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck from IDW.

The first two TPB's with Disney comics from IDW

They are both collecting the first 3 issues of the monthly series including all the variant covers. What is missing is the Crosstalk page. But so far that page has mostly been a short summary of the content in the other titles that month, so you don’t really miss much. The TPB’s are $12.99 and collects 3 issues with a cover price of $3.99 (a total of $11.97). So unless you need all cover variants you won’t actually save any money on the TPB’s from IDW. Also, the TPB’s are printed a bit smaller than the single issues.

The TPB's are printed a bit smaller than the single issues they collect

So far we have seen a few stories printed in parts over two issues, like Shellfish Motives that is collected in the first Donald Duck TPB. But most stories are not printed in parts over several issues. For these two TPB’s we had to wait about 4 months from the first issue they collect until we could buy them (they were a couple of weeks delayed)

From the facts I’ve listed so far there are both pros and cons with the TPB, but none that I think is really important making me want to get one version over the other. Maybe the biggest difference is the size. Personally I prefer the large size.

But…

The TPB’s are impossible to read without completely breaking the spine! The pages are printed with just a tiny little border on the inside, so for a lot of pages I have to make press on and flattening the book to be able to properly read all the dialogue or view all of the art. And if I do this throughout the book, it won’t take long before I have loose pages and a ruined book. I found it really annoying trying to read the stories inside. For this reason alone; get the single issues.

Inside the Uncle Scrooge TPB.

Inside the single issue with the same story. A lot easier to see everyting in all panels.

Donald Duck: The Complete Daily Newspaper Comics volume 1

The first volume of Donald Duck: The Complete Daily Newspaper Comics came out last month. For the first time in English, the book is chronologically collecting the daily newspaper strips with Donald Duck. The first volume collects all strip from the beginning February 7, 1938 to July 20, 1940, roughly two and a half years with a total of 768 strips (if I counted right). The book is published by IDW as part of their Library of American Comics. I haven’t seen any info about this book being collected in future box sets like Fantagraphics like to do; instead it comes with a dust jacket.

This is an important piece of Disney comic history, which I think should have been published in a collection like this a long time ago. But initially I was personally not too excited about this book, mainly because I already have all of the strips inside collected in Norwegian books. And also because there are so many other publications coming out these days. With monthly Disney comics from IDW, and three different series of hardcover books from Fantagraphics there’s a bit too much on the market right now. Another reason is that I tend to get bored fast when reading collections of gag strips, I prefer the longer adventure stories, and wasn’t too excited about re-reading the early Duck strips.

But I decided to give the first volume a try and pre-ordered it this summer. The pre-release cover art was slightly different at the time I ordered the book. Not that much was changed in the final layout, but I like new blue one better.

Pre-relese cover (brown-red) and final layout (blue)

While waiting for the book to arrive in the mail I managed to hype myself up so much that I did a cover-to-cover read the same day it arrived! (and a lot of it again while writing this blogpost) I did this by reading other Taliaferro comics and articles and re-watching the early Donald Duck animated shorts that I knew shared a lot of similar gags and ideas. But at the same time refraining from reading the strips collected in this book. So I went from a bit reluctant to really excited while waiting for the book.

All strips in this book are drawn by Al Taliaferro and the book starts with the first part of an essay about him. The introduction tells us that Taliaferro have never gotten the fame he deserved like other Duck artists, but then goes on saying that Al Taliaferro is one of an elite group known as the "Duck Men" (a bit contradicting isn’t it?) Later in the article we can read that the other three members of this group are Barks, Rosa and Jippes. Really? Who defined those four as the Duck Men? That labeling is really stupid if you ask me. Yes, Carl Barks is commonly referred to as "the duck man" and sure Rosa and Jippes have a large fan base. But so does van Horn and others. If someone had randomly said "duck men" to me, one of the first persons I’d think of is Jack Hannah (and yes, Taliaferro and Barks too). So far IDW has done a great job with its monthly titles, printing lots of Italian material. Especially by Romano Scarpa that I think should get more attention, and with that showing the American readers that great Duck comics is a lot more than Barks and Rosa. So why suddenly try to label Taliaferro, Barks, Rosa and Jippes as the elite "Duck Men"? The intention is probably to give Taliaferro more fame, but now you give the casual reader the impression that those four are the best of the best. And that is highly subjective.

Ok, the little rant is over.

When I started reading the comic strips I got the impression they were printed in a larger format than the Floyd Gottfredson Library does with the Mickey Mouse strips. But when comparing the two books I found out that’s not the case at all. They both print the strips in about the same size. While I think this size works perfectly for the Donald Duck strips, I wish the early Mickey-strips could have been printed a bit larger. They are often very detailed with a lot of dialog and action going on in every panel.

Compairing the Donald Duck newspaper archive with the Floyd Gottredson library and a 30's newspaper clipping

Im not sure if the strips have undergone any major restoration work (I don't think so) but the source material seems to be good. According to the credits, the source for some of them are the "Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum", so it sounds like they try to track down the best possible source.

The early newspaper strips are made so they can be printed in both one or in two rows, where the first and second part of the strip are the same size. The Norwegian collection prints the strip over two rows, but I think it’s better to have the entire gag in one row like we have in the IDW book. Also, I think that's the most common way they were printed in the newspapers.

The first 3 books in the Norwegian collection, collecting the same strips as the first IDW volume.

Compairing the IDW Donald Duck newspaper archive to the Norwegian collection

As I said earlier, I recently watched a lot of the early Donald Duck animations. And I think this book is going to be a lot more interesting if you do that, because they are clearly used as an inspiration for a lot of the gags. Even if all strips are individual gags, there are some sequences that together make short storylines. I might have missed some, but here are the ones I wrote down while reading the book:

• The Gus Goose visit from May 9 to May 24, 1938
• Partly the same as Donald's Cousin Gus (1939)
•  The camping trip from July 18 – July 30 1938
• Spinoff/inspired by Good Scouts (1938)
• Donald’s polar expedition from August 15 to August 27, 1938
• Loosely based on Polar trappers (1938)
• Donald and the ostrich from October 3 to October 15, 1938
• Loosely based on Donald's Ostrich (1937)
• The golf game from October 24 to November 5, 1938
•  Spinoff/inspired by Donald's Golf Game (1938)
• Donald visit Gus’s farm from November 9 to November 19, 1938, continued with 5 days of Donald back home with the goat.
• Another camping trip from July 26 to August 5, 1939
• Bobo the elephant from November 6 to November  11, 1939
•  Seen in the Mickey Mouse newspaper strips and in Mickey’s Elephant (1936). Indented to be used in more animations that never made it to the screen. This story might be adapted/inspired by one of those drafts.
• Pirate treasure adventure from April 29 to May 25, 1940

Mickey and Donald are both buying Bobo in the newspaper strips (he is named in both)

An interesting thing to note is that all these mini-stories start on a Monday and the majority of them go on for exactly two weeks. And a few exactly one or three weeks. So they were probably planned out to be a serial of a specific length from the beginning.

As with most series of gag strips; the jokes can start to be a bit repetitive after a while. But we don’t see much of that in the first years of the Donald dailies. We do have some with the same settings, like finding a place to sit at the cinema or driving in front of the train, but the jokes are still different. It gets a lot worse later, especially the strips in the 70’s. (I wonder how many Donald stranded on a deserted island jokes exists...that’s a LOT)

Donald in the cinema. August 26, 1939, February 23, 1940 and April 15, 1940

Some examples of ideas from the animated shorts

The very first daily strip got the idea from Mickey's Circus (1936)

Lemonade, woodpecker and a hammock, inspired by Self Control (1938). We can see the woodpecker bugging Donald in a lot of other the strips in this book too.

From June 9, 1938 and the animated short "Self Control"

Donald’s polar expedition from August 15 to August 27, 1938 are based on Polar trappers (1938). We can see the same sign in the beginning.

From August 15, 1938 and the animated short "Polar trappers"

And Donald in a tuxedo disguise. A similar name was later used in the 1939 animation Donald’s Penguin where the penguin is called Tootsie.

From August 18, 1938 and the animated short "Polar trappers"

We first see a short serial with Hortense from October 3, 1938 to October 15, 1938, but he re-appears in several newspaper strips later. Under is Donald receiving a mysterious package in the newspaper strips and the 1937 animation Donald's Ostrich.

Gus Goose

From May 9, 1938 to May 24, 1938 we have a serial about Gus visiting Donald. The first two strips tell the same story as the start of the 1939 animation  Donald's Cousin Gus.

First we have Donald receiving a letter from Aunt Fanny.

Then *pooof* Gus gets right to the dinner table and starts eating.

The rest of the story is different in the daily strip and the animation. As the animated short came out a year later, the daily strip can’t be adapted from the finished version. Maybe it’s the other way, or maybe they both got the idea about Gus appearing on Donald’s door from an early script? It would be interesting to know the origin of that first part of the story. What we do know is that Gus was originally intended for another animation Interior Decorators, that was never finished. Some of the storyboards are printed in the Norwegian book Carl Barks – Tegnefilmene, part of a series of extra books for Egmont’s Carl Barks Collection.

Sketches for the unfinished animation "Interior Decorators"

The sequence where Gus appears on Donald’s doorstep does not seem to be a part of that story, but we do have a gag showing Gus' huge appetite. The August 1938 issue of Good Houskeeping also had an illustrated rhyming story with the same opening, but otherwise different story. It’s printed after the daily strip, but before the animation.

From Good Housekeeping #3808 (August 1938)

Donald’s car

Another interesting thing in this book is to follow the introduction 313, Donald’s now famous car.

It all started February 24, 1938 when he gets rid of his old car. Notice that the license plate on the old car says 113.

From February 24, 1938

The first time we get to see 313 is in the July 1, 1938 strip. The car does not have a license plate in this strip, and as the newspaper strips are in black and white, we don’t get to know the color in this first comic appearance. The car design and the later red coloring in the Dell comics are probably both from the 1937 animation Don Donald.

From July 1, 1938 and the colored 1941 print in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #8

The poor burro can't believe Donald traded him for a car

We usually see the whole car in this same gray shading, but one time the fenders were colored all black. This looks more like the Italian way to color the car where the fenders are blue.

From the August 9, 1938 strip and an Italian story

It takes a while until we actually see the 313 license number, but for a while we see the car with blank license plates. The first time we see the car with a back license plate is in the September 19, 1938 strip, and we don’t see the front plate until a year later (October 25, 1939) 

From September 19, 1938 and October 25, 1939

 A couple of times we also see Donald using another car

From May 20, 1939 and June 19, 1939

Then on March 22, 1940 we finally see the 313 number. This is the first time we see this number as far as I know, so the number is probably invented by Bob Karp or Al Taliaferro.

From March 22, 1940

The next time we see Donald use another car after this, there’s a hidden number joke. Look closely at the license numbers in the June 29, 1940 strip.

From June 29, 1940

When Western started making Disney comics they continued using the same car, and the good ol’ 313 is now synonym with Donald’s car.

Carl Barks first used the car in Good Neighbors (1943) and later we got to know what model and parts it’s composed of in Volcano Valley (1947)

Carl Barks using the car in "Good Neighbors" and "Volcano Valley"

Other notable moments in the book

The Silly Symphony Sunday pages started the whole Donald Duck universe and Mickey Mouse universe thing. Earlier they had been appearing together in the Mickey Mouse newspaper comics. But to not have the same characters in two different Sunday series at the same time, Donald stopped appearing in Mickey stories when he got his own Silly Symphony series in 1936. This continued in the Donald Duck daily strips making the Mickey and Donald comics appear as two different universes. But one little slip-up seems to have been made. The February 28, 1938 strip features Clarabelle, an at the time regular character in the Mickey-strips.

From February 28, 1938

The first ever comic appearance of Bolivar is in the March 17, 1938 strip. Earlier we’ve seen him in the animation Alpine Climbers (1936)

From March 17, 1938

We get to know that Donald won the pie-eating contest in 1930. But did you know he won it again in 1948?

From November 5, 1938 and August 9, 1948

In the March 15, 1939 strip Donald is trying to guess how Dewey spell "cat". In the original dialogue Donald is guessing the correct Norwegian word for cat (K-A-T-T). While in the Norwegian translation he say "C-A-T" (alright, this is probably not that funny if you’re not Norwegian ☺)

From March 15, 1939

Future books

About the same time as vol.1 of the "Donald Duck: The Complete Daily Newspaper Comics" was released, vol.2 and another book were announced. The new series will be called "Donald Duck: The Complete Sunday Comics" starting with Donald’s Sunday pages from 1939-1942. Bruce Canwell said in an earlier interview that they planned on doing a Silly Symphonies series, so I half-expected that to come first. But I’m not surprised they decided to do the Donald Duck Sundays first to see how they sell. I hope they still plan on doing the Silly Symphonies collections though; personally I’m a lot more excited for those! I really want to see Elmer Elephant and some of the other rare series collected!

The release dates can still be changed, but Amazon list January 14, 2016 for vol 2 of the daily strips and March 3, 2016 for the Sunday pages.

Pre-release covers of future books

To summarize; I had a lot of fun with volume 1 of this series, even if it’s just a collection of simple gag stories! Maybe one of the reasons was that the book didn’t have any articles with background info or trivia like we are spoiled with in the Floyd Gottfredson books. So I had to do all that research myself. But I’m so lucky I have a large collection of comics and articles to dig into. For a more casual reader of the book, I see a lot of wasted potential for interesting background articles! F.ex. about Gus Goose, comparison to the animated shorts, or about 313 as I wrote about in this blog. But an article about Bobo the elephant, similar to the one in the Floyd Gottfredson library vol.3 would have been nice too. Or just a simple gallery with covers inspired by the strips in this book. I’m definitively going to get the next volume too, but I hope we get to see more bonus material in future books.

No need to comment on this :)