IDW's Uncle Scrooge #412 and Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #725

For some reason my local comic shop haven’t received Donald Duck #8 (375) yet. So while I’m waiting, here are some comments on last week’s Disney comics from IDW.

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Uncle Scrooge - The Peril of Pandora's Box

Another story (I’ve read a few) with Pandora’s Box, that in Greek mythology actually is a jar... In Boxful of Troubles in Gemstone’s Mickey Mouse Adventures #4, Minnie finds the box at a local flea market. In this story Magica finds the secret entrance to the Temple of Pandora with the box inside. And what is she going to do with it? Well, it’s going to help her steal Scrooge’s number one dime of course! The general plot is not that original, it’s just another story with Magica trying to steal the dime. But what is a bit different, and what I liked about this story is that instead of running after Magica trying to fight her off, the ducks make a clever plot to trick her and get the dime back. And it’s actually the usually short-tempered Donald Duck that suggests this strategy! Also I like Magica as a character, so I enjoyed reading this story.

Minnie and Magica both find Pandora's Box

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The Beagle Boys - Sleep Tight

A one-pager with the Beagle Boys in prison. In my last blogpost I asked about the expression "Jumpin’ Jacksnipes". Here we have "Jumpin’ Jailbirds". Are those just some silly expressions made up, or do people really say that in real life?

There are two things to be noted in this print of the story. First, IDW again use "Grandpa Blackheart" for the Italian looking grandpa, so it seems they are trying to establish that as his name. I wrote another blogpost just about that two months ago.

The other thing is that he’s not that "Italian looking" in this print, because IDW has removed his pipe! They didn’t find it necessary to do that in Uncle Scrooge #6…

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Gyro Gearloose - The Doorman Doormat

When the Carl Barks estate was auctioned off, several unfinished scripts and plot ideas were sold. I believe that’s the origin of the plot idea for this story. According to Peter Kylling’s great webpage about everything Barks, the very basic idea for this story was written on the back of a Nursery invoice. And it seems it ended up in Daan Jippes’ hands and he developed it into a complete story. Daan Jippes also did another story, "Outcunning the Canines" based on a basic plot idea by Barks, that haven’t been published in the USA yet. And John Lustig also wrote several stories based on unfinished Barks scripts that were drawn by Daan Jippes. We got one of those in last month’s issue of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories, and you can read more about it on Lustig’s own blog. I’m sure more of these will be published by IDW next year.

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Uncle Scrooge - The Dashingest Dudebro

If the Magica story wasn’t that original, this one certainly is! Donald is trying to give out free samples of a men’s magazine no one wants, while Uncle Scrooge has his own problems with obsolete currencies and diamond mines in the middle of a mustache war (!) I don’t think I need to say more, it’s a crazy and fun story.

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The Search for the Zodiac Stone – Part 5

I don’t read these stories actually – I’m waiting for all parts to be published first, and might do a post about it then.

The IDW titles Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse all get collected in trade paperbacks with 3 comics collected in each. And next year they are also going to be collected in hardcovers with 6 comics collected in each book. But the first WDC trade, or "Donald and Mickey The Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories 75th Anniversary Collection" (puh..!) that it’s actually titled, is not going to be collecting the monthly titles this way. Instead it collects the Anniversary special and the supporting short stories in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. But not the "Search for the Zodiac Stone" story.  So this story is probably going to get its own series of trade paperbacks later, or hopefully collected in one single publication. I don’t think I’m going to get these though, as I already have two different Norwegian prints of the story and also get the monthly IDW titles. But I’d rather have the entire storyline in one book than divided into several trade paperbacks.

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Bucky Bug - Dinner Time

I have to admit I’ve never cared much about the Bucky Bug stories. I don’t have a special reason why, I’ve just never found them funny or that interesting. This might change when I get the first volume of the Silly Symphonies collection, which is scheduled for release March next year. I’m really looking forward to that collection! I believe all the Bucky Bug Sunday pages are going to be collected in the first volume, so this one-pager is a little teaser for what’s coming.

Pre-release cover of the upcomming Silly Symphonies collection

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Chip 'n' Dale - Defective Detectives

The most interesting thing about this old Chip and Dale story is the coloring. The original coloring had a white hen stumbling into the chipmunk’s home. But in the IDW print the hen is clearly colored to be the Wise Little Hen from the cartoon with the same name (and Donald’s debut). I wonder if that’s who Harvey Eisenberg originally intended to draw.

The original coloring and IDW's coloring of Defective Detectives

The cartoon to the left, and IDW's coloring of Defective Detectives to the right.

In the cartoon the hen have the name Wise Little Hen on her mailbox, while in the Sunday page adaptation she is simply called Mrs. Hen. In this story however, Chip call her Mrs. Henny.

From the Silly Symphony cartoon The Wise Little Hen (1934)

From The Wise Little Hen Sunday pages (1934)

From Defective Detectives

Action in Rundetårn (Round Tower)

IDW's Donald Duck #7 (legacy 374)

Donald Duck #7 (legacy 374) came out earlier this month. The main story is Truth or Consequences, written by Lars Jensen and drawn by Flemming Andersen. It's the 6th story in the TNT (Tamers of Nonhuman Threats) series, the first five were published in Gemstone’s Donald Duck Adventures about 10 years ago. The stories work fine as individual stories, but if you are unfamiliar with the series, I would recommend trying to track down the first story before reading this one.

In Europe we just got part 25 published, and you can find a complete list of the stories in the inducks database. But here is a list of the American prints:

• Story 1 – Blue Rain - Donald Duck Adventures #4 (Gemstone 2004)
• Story 2 – Return to TNT - Donald Duck Adventures #5 (Gemstone 2004)
• Story 3 – The Ghost Rats of Hamelin - Donald Duck Adventures #6 (Gemstone 2004)
• Story 4 – Mission: Sasabonsam - Donald Duck Adventures #15 (Gemstone 2005)
• Story 5 – Let's Get Kraken - Donald Duck Adventures #18 (Gemstone 2006)
• Story 6 – Truth or Consequences - Donald Duck #374 (IDW 2015)

It’s actually not the first time "Truth or Consequences" is published in English. Egmont in Europe have a series of pocket books in English that is published in several countries, and this story is in one of them. The purpose of the books is to learn English, the pages have selected glossary with translation at the bottom and the Norwegian edition of the series is offered as class packs to schools.

Some books from the Norwegian edition of Egmont's English pocket books.

Glossary at the bottom of the pages

I believe the text in these books is close to the original script, so I thought it would be fun to compare with the American print to see how the dialogue is localized. As most of the story takes place in Denmark and I actually have the Danish print of this story too, I did a couple of comparisons to that translation as well.

Different comics, all with "Truth or Consequences" inside

Not that much have been changed really, but here are some examples (the American print is to the right):

Can someone explain the "jumping jacks/jumpin’ jacksnipes" expression to me please..?

In the next example, I wonder what the original script is. Two street names in Copenhagen, "Landemærket" and "Købmagergade" are used the American and Danish text, but not in the European-English print. And it seems the text box have been slightly enlarged to make space for the names.

And the next example has a fun joke. I wonder if that is in the original script or not. The European-English version have "come on", but both the American and Danish print have the Danish text "kom så". That’s a common and typical Danish expression. Even we Norwegians that have almost the same language use to say "kom så" when we are making fun of the Danes :)
 

In addition to Rundetårn (Round Tower) where part of the story takes place, there are a lot of other famous real-life buildings in the story. But for a Disney fan, the last panel have the most important one, it’s outside the Egmont office in Copenhagen!

Outside the Egmont office in Copenhagen, Denmark

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The week after "Truth or Consequences" was published by IDW more action happened in Rundetårn, both in real life and in the comics. The Danish comic festival "Art Bubble" was held inside, and one of the guests was Don Rosa. The tower was again used on the cover of the Danish weekly, with Scrooge, Magica and Don Rosa (!). And the poster for the festival also had the tower with various Disney characters.

All covers with Rundetårn

If that wasn’t enough the Danish weekly even had a story inside featuring the tower AND Don Rosa.

Scrooge and Magica running to the comic festival inside Rundetårn. Drawn by Marco Rota

Scrooge is meeting Don Rosa

And the "money shot", Don Rosa is shoving his homegrown chili in Magica’s beak.

 

Happy Birthday Mickey sweepstakes

I made a post about Mickey’s birthday party September 28th. But that’s not the official date for Mickey's birthday, so I guess I’ll have to make another post today. Steamboat Willie premiered November 18, 1928, and that makes Mickey 87 years today!

I’ll celebrate that by sharing this rare birthday story:

It’s printed on a sweepstake folder with a coloring game and a coupon on one page, and the comic story on the other page. The back is blank.

 

I found it on eBay a while ago and got curious about what it was. The seller called it a “Walt Disney World Premium”, but after a bit of google searching I think I found out what it really is. In the Billboard magazine July 1, 1978 I found this article:

From Billboard magazine July 1, 1978

And the details about the competition described in the article fits perfectly!

The size of the folder (when folded in two) is about the same as a LP record too. So according to the article, this little comic story was bundled together with a cardboard display prepack with Disney records to be sold. And it was probably given away to customers in record shops in 1978.

I don’t think this story was produced in Europe. In USA in 1978 Román Arámbula did the daily strips,  Manuel Gonzales the Sunday pages, and Paul Murry used to make most of the Mickey stories for the comic books. But the art doesn’t look like anything from those.  My guess is that this story is drawn by someone at Jaime Diaz Studio, that used to make (S-coded) stories for the international market at the time. They also used to team up Clarabelle with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy in a lot of stories. But I have to admit I’m not always that good with art recognition.

If anyone know who made this story, or know more about this item, please let me know! 

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One last fun-fact related to this item. The happy birthday logo above the rules can also be found on Disney covers from Western, published from August to December the same year. Slightly edited but still the same. Now you know :)

1978 issues of the "core four", all with the Happy Birthday logo

Minnie’s BILLY bookshelf assembly instruction

The Norwegian Donald Duck & Co #45/2015 and an IKEA instruction manual

What do a Donald Duck comic and an IKEA instruction manual have in common? And now that I have the comic, can I get rid of the manual?

This week’s Norwegian weekly Donald comic has a story about Mickey and a magical mirror. It’s written by Olaf Moriarty Solstrand and drawn by Massimo Fecchi. At the end of the story while Mickey is doing the yak-yak-yak, Minnie is busy assembling a bookshelf.

From "Mirror, Mirror" (D 2015-005), by Olaf Solstrand and Massimo Fecchi

As I have half my comic collection in BILLY bookshelves from IKEA, I immediately recognized the design! I don't think I really need any instructions if I'm going to set up more shelves. But if I do, I’ll use this story the next time :)

Distracted by Mickey, Minnie is about to put the top shelf the wrong way!

But it looks like she figured it out.

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!