Two Danish Anniversary books

Personally I've always found it a bit weird celebrating an author, celebrity or any other well-known persons birthday. And especially if you keep doing it after they have passed away. But recently we got two different anniversary books published in Denmark – to celebrate two of the best-known Disney comic creators.

First we got Carl Barks 120 år at the end of last year, as it's now 120 years since he was born. Then we got Don Rosa 70 år to celebrate Don Rosa becoming 70 years old this summer.

Both are really nice 400+ page books in hardcover and I got a bit surprised by some the content. So I figured I'd write a few words about them on here.

Let's start with the Carl Barks book. As expected, it mostly has a selection of his Disney comic work, dived into sections like the 40s, 50s etc. Each decade has a newly written introduction article, and there's also a lot of other thematic articles in-between.

Several classics inside

 

From Carl Barks' stories that he didn't draw himself, I was glad to see that this book didn't just focus on the later Jippes versions (like some of the library series do) but instead reprinted an entire story drawn by John Carey and one finished by Tom Anderson and Vicar.
 

Two stories written by Carl Barks, but finished by others

In addition to the Disney comics there are also some content from the Calgary Eye-Opener, story boards for Barks' time in the animation department, oil paintings and a story with Barney Bear and Benny Burro.
 

Some of Barks' non-Disney comic work

 

The book even managed to squeeze in some new material as well. First we got an article about the new panel that was discovered a couple of years ago, and the restored one-pager as first seen in Kalle Anka Extra (check out my blog post about this)

Then we get an article about Pip Squeeks with the same text as in Egmont's Carl Barks Library, but with a lot of (13 images) model sheets that I don't think I've ever seen on print before!
 

 

Over to the Don Rosa book, this one also has a selection of Don Rosa's Disney comics. In addition we get rarities like Return to Duckburg Place (translated to Danish), a few pages with Captain Kentucky (also translated), the unofficial speedskating story, the unfinished Disneyland story and the 2015 tribute story drawn by Marco Rota.
 

There's also a ton of bonus material in this book. The most notable and also never before seen on print includes:

* A 12-page long birthday interview with lots of private photos.

A new long interview

* A 12-page long fax document with figurine sketches by Don Rosa, reprinted in full-page size.

A couple of pages from a 12-page fax with sketches

* 12 pages with fan drawings in full-page size

Two fan drawings

* Sketches for the entire story "Attaaaaaack!"

Sketches for "Attaaaaaack!", reprinted in its entirety for the first time

I didn't expect this much new bonus material in the book! It really is a worthy anniversary book with a lot of editorial work behind. If you can read Danish, I highly recommend both this one and the Carl Barks book!

Recent "off-model" Disney comics

Disney comics has traditionally been drawn in a very similar style by different artists by using model sheets or trying to mimic the style of others before them. Italy have their Disney Academy and Egmont also have a kind of mentor program for new artists. But this year (2021) we have seen several examples of very off-model comics compared to what we are used to!

First we got Mickey All-Stars from Fantagraphics – originally made for the French publisher Glénat, just like Mickey's Craziest Adventures and A Mysterious Melody (but they were published in English by IDW)

 

Two other books from Glénat, published in English by IDW

The book was originally created to celebrate Mickey's 90th anniversary in 2019, but didn't get an English translation until this year. The whole book has an interesting concept where 47 different artists made one page each, but together they form a long story. With the exception of the very first and last page the other pages doesn't really have much to do with each other story vise, and can be read as single one-pagers. But every page starts and ends with Mickey entering a door to a new place.

All the different artist uses their own style and it's fun to just flip through the book and look at the different styles and drawing techniques used. Some of the pages have a fun gag while others just have "things happening" without much of a story.



 

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Doorways to Danger was published by IDW this summer, and it looks like that will be the last Disney comic from this publisher.

This is a 92 page (if I counted correct) long adventure story with both Donald and Micky with friends participating in a tv-show.
 

If you get used to the art style it's a decent story and got me immersed. But personally, I can't say I'm much of a fan of this style.

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At the end of the year we got the first two volumes of a new Minni Mouse series, with a 3rd volume planned for next year. [edit: looks like the 3rd got cancelled]
 

These are published by Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic and probably targeted at someone a little bit younger than me 😊  
 

They really went for the big-eyes=cute look here!

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We also got two books titled Duckscares, under the Disney Spookyzone logo this year. They are not comic books but is illustrated with Huey, Dewey and Louie in a very off-model style, so I figured I include a few examples from this series too.

Do not feed the bears!

In the 1940s a Donald Duck newspaper strip was used for public service announcements in American national parks. The strip was printed as posters and put up in parks with bear problems telling visitors to not feed the bears.
 

Image from Heritage Auctions

 

The strip used is the May 19, 1941 newspaper strip, but according to a note I found in a 1944 Conservations of Wildlife Resources hearing, the posters were probably printed and used from that year on.

I've seen pictures of this poster pop up here and there on the internet. But what I didn't know until recently is that they also made postcards with the same strip.

The back side is marked with "U.S. Government Printing office 1944", and the front have the same version of the strip as the poster. Compared to the original newspaper strip, not much is changed – but the panels are numbered and "Sequoia Park" is changed to "National Park".

The strip is printed in IDW's Donald Duck newspaper archive vol.2