Donald Duck - The Complete Sunday Comics 1939-1942

Donald Duck - The Complete Sunday Comics 1939-1942

I got this book a few weeks ago, but I still haven’t found the time to sit down with it. So this post will just be my first impression and some facts about the book.

The first volume collects all Sunday pages with Donald Duck from December 10, 1939 to December 27, 1942. So roughly 3 years of Sunday pages and a total of 160 pages of comics. In addition we get an intro article by Niels Houlberg Hansen.

Before Donald got his own series of Sunday pages, he appeared in the Sunday serial The Wise Little Hen (1934) and 67 Sunday pages in 1937-1938. They were all printed under the Silly Symphony logo and are not included in this book. Instead we can find them in the first and second volume of IDW's Silly Symphonies collection, where the first volume will be on sale next month. Donald also had some guest appearances in the Mickey Mouse Sunday comics, they can all be found it the two volumes of Mickey Mouse Color Sundays as part of Fantagraphics' Floyd Gottfredson collection.

Compared to the Donald Duck Daily Strip collection, this book has fewer pages and is more expensive. But all pages are colored using old file copies as a color guide – where the daily strip collection is in black and white. So I assume there’s a lot more work involved putting this book together, making it a bit more expensive. The Sunday collection is also a bit wider.

But both collections have the same height, so they look great together on the shelf.

My first impression of this book (and series) is really great! Everything from the source material used, paper, printing and binding are all good. And I think the size is perfect. By using the original colors as a color guide we get some weird looking colors now and then, like Gus Goose being all gray. But it’s also interesting to see how the original coloring was – so I don’t mind that. I’ve seen comments from people that prefer the daily strips and the Sunday pages to be printed together in the same book. Personally I think the books are better by separating the dailies and Sunday pages like IDW does.

A lot of the Sunday comics in this book have been published as 1-pagers in various Disney comics, but then some of the panels are usually cut. Sunday pages are also designed so they can be cut and printed in different layouts, so even if you’re a collector of newspaper clippings it’s hard to find complete copies. All pages in this book however are in the complete full format.

Here’s an example from two different Norwegian comics:
 

And the same page in the IDW book.

A few years ago they stared publishing the Donald Duck Sunday pages chronologically in the Swedish Kalle Anka Christmas album. I planned on collecting this series as I wanted to have the pages chronologically. But they were such a pain trying to get hold of. Now that IDW started a much better collection I don’t have to track down the Swedish comics anymore.

The IDW collection (top) vs. Kalle Anka Julbok (bottom)

Disney Princess #2 from Joe Books

Disney Princess #2 from Joe Books

The second issue of Joe Books’ Disney Princess continues pretty much the same way as the first one. Again we have a mix of individual strips and short storylines with characters from Disney movies featuring the various princesses.

Some characters are the same as we saw in the first issue, but we also have a storyline with Jasmine and her tiger Rajah, Mulan and her friends, and Tiana’s friend Charlotte is hanging out in Duke’s Café.



I haven’t seen Aladdin or Mulan in forever, and they were not exactly fresh in my memory when I read this issue. So I actually re-watched Aladdin this weekend, and plan on watching Mulan again too. That's a little bonus effect by reading these comic strips; they make me want to watch the movies again too. As I said in the blogpost about the first issue, you’ll probably get a lot more out of these comic strips if you know the movie stories.

Even if I enjoy the comic strips a lot, I’m starting to have a little problem with this series. I tried to overlook the fact that 1/3 of the first issue was a preview for something I had no interest in, hoping Joe Books wouldn’t do that again. But sadly, that’s exactly what they did! This time 1/3 of the issue is a preview for an upcoming Descendants cinestory. I have no desire to pay for a preview, so please stop doing that now! I already have a subscription on this series at my local comic shop, but if the next issue is the same I'm afraid I have to cancel it. Joe Books: you can put previews online on your webpage, use issuu like IDW does or even send a preview pdf to the distributor and they will put a download link to it on their PREVIEWSworld page. Just don’t force us to pay for it...

Back cover and preview for Descendants cinestory

I realize that the publisher might have a problem filling the entire comic with new original content, the credits intro is unnecessarily stretched out over two pages too. Amy Mebberson would have to work like crazy to be able to fill an entire comic with artwork each month, and that would probably lower the quality on the work too. So that part is understandable. But there are other options. A lot of existing short stories with the princesses exist that could be used to fill up the comics. Joe Books already used several short stories like that as fillers in their "Disney Princess Comics Treasury" book, so it shouldn’t be a problem to license similar short stories for the Disney Princess series too.

I don’t have a general problem with a few pages of ads. IDW use to have 3-5 pages of ads in the back of their Disney comics too and I’ve never had any problem with that. A few pages with a summary of Joe Books’ other comics or upcoming titles could actually be interesting! But using 1/3 of the comic to preview one other publication is way too much!

IDW’s Donald Duck #12

All three cover variants for IDW's Donald Duck #12 (379)

So far this year we haven’t had the 3rd "retailer incentive" cover variant that the IDW monthly Disney comics used to have last year. They are going to be back next month though, starting with another blank "sketch" variant just in time for the convention summer. But this month we got another special 3rd variant cover. IDW is having an Art Appreciation month in April, where selected series get an extra variant cover celebrating famous art. Donald Duck is one of those series (the only Disney one), and the cover is a parody of Vincent van Gogh’s painting "Self-portrait with grey felt hat".

Original painting vs. the art appreciation cover

It’s actually not a newly made cover for this IDW event, but a painting the Dutch artist Wouter Tulp made for the "Van Gogh Year" (125 years after his death) in 2015. And the painting was exhibited at the Van Gogh Museum last summer. The painting was also used as a cover for a Dutch Donald Duck comic last year, and as IDW’s Donald Duck logo is the same as the Dutch one the two issues looks almost the same!

Dutch Donald Duck #22/2015 and IDW's Donald Duck #12

We also got a couple of interesting stories in IDW’s Donald Duck #12. First we have Vicious Cycles, another story drawn by Scarpa – but this time written by Osvaldo Pavese. Doing a quick search in inducks it looks like this is the first story written by him that is published in the USA.
 

The story starts with business rivalry between Scrooge and Rockerduck, both having their own brand of bicycles called McDuckernaut and Thunderbolt. I’m not sure if McDuckernaut is wordplay for Juggernaut or something else, but part of the original pun might have been lost in translation. In Italian they are called Saetta and Folgore i.e. two names for the same thing. So Lightning/Flash and Thunderbolt might have sounded better imo (but it's not a big deal).

When the cycling champ and Thunderbolt rider Two-Wheel McHeel comes to town, Scrooge needs a champion of his own to show everyone that McDuckernaut is the best brand. And who is going to save Scrooge’s business by riding a McDuckernaut in the Duckburg Cyclethon? Donald of course…

This story has a lot of similarities with the Barks story Bubbleweight Champ. The boxing and the cycling champs are not only similar looking, but in Italian they even had the same name!

Italian names from "Bubbleweight Champ" (left) and "Vicious Cycles" (right)

In English they are called Boldan True and Two-Wheel McHeel, so the similarity is not that obvious. But we also have the boys as coaches and kind of a similar outcome. And we have the same milk/soda drinking joke.

From "Bubbleweight Champ" (top) and "Vicious Cycles" (bottom)

The next story is Free Spirits, the first story with Sonny Seagull ehm, I mean Garvey Gull. It’s actually not the first story with the character printed in the USA. He also had a small role in Healthy Choice published in Gemstone's Mickey Mouse Adventures #10. The character's English name in Egmont scripts is Sonny Seagull, but Gemstone decided to change it for the American printing. The reasoning was that Garvey Gull was a more tougher-sounding name for his mischievous characteristics, and that Sonny could be mistaken as slang for "kid" instead of his real name. Personally I think the name Sonny Seagull sounds a lot better, but I’m not American so I can’t really tell what is best sounding for American readers.

By introducing the character with his first story, I’m guessing IDW plan on printing more stories with Garvey in the future. And that is good news for readers unfamiliar with this free spirit! I’ve read all stories with him and there are some really good ones! Egmont haven’t produced any new stories with Garvey and Phelps in a while – but I hope they will soon. Because I got a bit jealous of American readers right now, I want to read new stories with Garvey too!

Donald and his 10 nephews

In a comment on another post there was a question about a Taliaferro strip described as "In a 1940s Donald Duck newspaper strip, Donald applies for child benefit as the sole guardian of Huey, Dewey, and Louie". It turns out the strip in question was the August 21, 1944 Donald Duck daily strip.

So this post is by request, just showing the newspaper strip.

Donald Duck daily newspaper strip - August 21, 1944

The text in the strip say:

"How to do trick photography" (the book Donald is reading)
"U.S. Mail" (post box and bag)
"Bureau of Internal Revenue" and "Pay income tax here" (the door)
"With love, Donald Duck and dependents" (photography)
"Donald Duck Hollywood" + something I can’t read (envelope)

So, it sounds more like a matter of tax fraud. Donald doesn’t apply for child benefit in the strip.

This strip will be published in volume 3 of IDW’s Donald Duck daily strip collection, coming this summer. This is a series I highly recommend for anyone interested in Al Taliaferro’s work or early Disney comics history. Especially interesting in the last volume and the upcoming one is seeing how wartime in USA influenced the daily comic strips. And Donald is prepared for anything, getting a bomb shelter in his garden!

Pre-release cover for Donald Duck - The Complete Daily Newspaper Comics vol.3

Return of the Gneezles in "Second Childhood at Gneezle Gnob"

Mickey Mouse in Second Childhood at Gneezle Gnob

Do you remember the Gneezles from "Mystery of the Swamp" by Carl Barks? If not, you should go read or re-read this old classic, because now they are back – in a Mickey story!

"Second Childhood at Gneezle Gnob" is written by Ivan Saidenberg and drawn by Roberto O. Fukue, both creators that worked for Brazilian Editora Abril. Originally published in 1981, the story is now finally published in a language I can read, and can be found in this month’s Mickey Mouse #11 (320) from IDW.
 

IDW's Mickey Mouse #11 (320) - regular and subscription covers

The original Brazilian printing of this story also had a dedicated cover. But for some reason the Gneezles are colored blue looking like Smurfs on the cover...

 

Cover of Brazilian Mickey #348 (1981)

According to Ivan Saidenberg’s daughter, the writer was a big fan of Eega Beeva and even got a nickname after the character while at school. But he probably liked Carl Barks’ stories a lot too, because "Second Childhood at Gneezle Gnob" is a real tribute story with a lot of ideas taken from "Mystery of the Swamp". Not only do we get to meet the gnome looking Gneezles again, we also have some of the same gags and scenery as in the original. It’s still a different story though and not a remake of Barks’ story.

The Gneezles still use an alligator skin for hiding.
 

From "Mystery of the Swamp" (left) and "Second Childhood at Gneezle Gnob" (right)

The same traps works just as well as when the ducks were roaming around the swamps.

From "Mystery of the Swamp" (left) and "Second Childhood at Gneezle Gnob" (right)

We see Gnasty Face on top of the temple in Gneezle Gnob.
 

From "Mystery of the Swamp" (left) and "Second Childhood at Gneezle Gnob" (right)

And the swellers are still looking for a fight.

From "Mystery of the Swamp" (left) and "Second Childhood at Gneezle Gnob" (right)

In the original story it sounds like the Gneezles have been living for hundreds of years. If you wonder how, we might actually get the answer to that in "Second Childhood at Gneezle Gnob"!

From "Mystery of the Swamp"

I'm not going to spoil the story by going into more details, but I have to say I enjoyed this story a lot! Yes, there are a lot of similarities and re-used ideas from Carl Barks’ story, but that doesn’t matter. I look at this as a tribute story, and it was fun reading about those pesky swamp dwellers again. As I've said before, I think it’s great that IDW find some of the more uncommon but still interesting stories to publish. Together with the Eurasia story, Mickey Mouse #11 have something for both new and longtime Disney comics fans.

"X-Mickey: In the Mirror" from Papercutz

The second volume in Papercutz’ series of Disney Graphic Novels is out. Even if the series title and volume numbers are not written on the cover or spine, the editorial page inside made sure to point out that series is called "Disney Graphic Novels", and that this is #2. That’s also how they are titled and numbered on online bookstores.

The first volume was a comic adaptation of the movie Planes, and I wrote a short blogpost about that one last year. The second volume is titled X-Mickey: In the Morror and contains stories from the first volume of an Italian series of X-Mickey comics.

Originally this series ran for 30 issues in Italy from 2002 to 2004. But part of the series has been translated and published in lots of different countries. In fact it’s not even the first time it’s published in English. The English translation was first available for in-app purchase in a Disney Comics app for iOS (not sure if this is still available), and then they were added to comiXology. Currently there are 8 digital issues for sale on comiXology, I’m not sure if more stories were/are available from the iOS app but I doubt that is the case. So the digital English translated comics are far from complete. At least the official ones, I have seen scanlations (fan translated comics) of this series floating around the net.

Looking at the preview pages on comiXology, it looks like that is the same translation as used in Papercutz book.

Inside "X-Mickey: Inside the Mirror"

X-Mickey is sort of a spooky horror inspired series, but there’s also a lot of humor. In it we find Mickey traveling through portals to another dimension and meeting new characters that are special for this series. Most notable is the Goofy-lookalike werewolf named Pipwolf, but we also have Manny that looks like an albino Minnie and several other characters that are recurring throughout the series.
 

Toppersby, Pipwolf and Manny - recurring characters in X-Mickey

X-Mickey used to run in the Norwegian monthly Mickey Mouse comic (not published anymore), so I’ve read a good deal of the stories – but not all. In the Norwegian issues the stories were not printed in the chronological (Italian) order, they were often cut and the issues featuring X-Mickey also had other "classic" Mickey stories. And instead of using the original great cover art, they made new covers by using art from the stories.
 

The Norwegian cover for "In the Mirror" is re-used art from the story

So the stories were not presented in a good way, and at first I didn’t like the series at all! I thought it was weird looking and far from the same as the Mickey stories I grew up loving. But after reading a bunch of stories and getting to know the characters and universe I started to like the series more and more. You just have to think of this as a separate series from the other Mickey-stories and not get too caught up in canon and continuity and stuff. Now I actually look forward to reading this series in English. From the vague talk in the editorial page in vol.2, it sounds like they are planning more issues with X-Mickey. If they do I really hope they keep to the original Italian order, and publish the volumes as complete as possible. Unfortunately only two of three stories from the Italian #1 (or #1000 actually – the original numbering went from #1000, #999… to #971) are printed in the first Papercutz issue. The supporting stories are not as interesting as the main ones, but I would still like to read them.

The future of Papercutz’ "Disney Graphic Novels"

Pre-release covers for "Disney Graphic Novels" vol.3 and 4

Two more issues are announced for this year. Vol.3 will be Minnie & Daisy: Best Friends Forever, scheduled for July – and vol.4 will be Great Parodies: Mickey's Inferno, scheduled for December.

The one I’m really curious about and that might be good news for Disney comic fans is Mickey's Inferno! Gemstone already printed a remounted and cut version of this story in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #666. I also got two different Italian prints, but they I can’t read without serious dictionary help. So I’ve wanted an uncut, uncensored and original layout version that I can read for a long time! And Amazon currently list that the book will be 88 pages, so that sounds promising. I’m also curious if this print will get a new translation. The story is written in rhymes and is not easy to translate, but Dwight R. Decker did a great job for the Gemstone print I think.