Fantagraphics' Uncle Scrooge #1

 Fantagraphics' Uncle Scrooge #1, all cover variants

When IDW stopped publishing Disney comics five years ago, I wondered if we would ever see a continuation of the "core four" series again. That being Walt Disney's Comics & Stories, Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. And I must admit I didn't really think that would ever happen… But here we are with Uncle Scrooge #1 (legacy #461) from Fantagraphics in stores, and with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck joining the party in the coming months!

While having their own numbering starting with #1, they will also continue the legacy numbering the same way as IDW did. So, while the last Scrooge issue from IDW had the number 56 (460) the new one is now 1 (461). And both numbers are printed on the cover even if the legacy number is printed really small.

The first issue of Uncle Scrooge is published in four different cover variants, with the A, B and C variants in regular sale and the D variant being a 1:10 incentive variant. This means the comic store has to order 10 copies of any of the other variants to get one of these. Usually, those variants are sold for a bit more than the cover price if you buy them online, but if you make a deal with your local comic shop you can probably get them for the same price. While the regular variants have ads on the back, the D variant is a wraparound cover going on both sides. Other than that, the inside content is identical.

Back cover for all 4 variants

In total including the covers the comic book has 44 pages with 40 of those being used for the comic story! Not many other publishers can beat that! Usually, we get a lot of ads or preview pages for other comic books inside. 

And speaking of other publishers – with the new Scrooge comic from Fantagraphics we now have the strange situation of having two different series of American Uncle Scrooge comics in the store at the same time – from two different publishers! The other one is the Earth's Mightiest Duck mini-series from Marvel. This might be a bit confusing for some, especially as they have almost identical logos (if you look closely there are some minor differences). But the two series are two different things, just sharing the same title character.

First two issues of Marvel's Uncle Scrooge: Earth's Mightiest Duck

To kick off this new series from Fantagraphics we get the first part of Flintheart Glomgold's Sinister Secret!, with two more parts to go. I think it was a good idea to start with a short series to hopefully get new readers to buy the following issues too. But not too long to discourage anyone from following it. Ex. The Search for the Zodiac Stone! that ran in 12 parts from WDC&S #721 to #732 might be a bit too long for these comic books ["the core four"].

If you have been following Disney comics from IDW and Fantagraphis the last decade, Flintheart Glomgold's Sinister Secret also feels like a natural story to publish. One thing IDW was great at, and Fantagraphics with their Disney Masters series as well, was to lay the groundwork for future stories by printing first appearances and other key stories that other stories are based upon. But I felt we missed out on the big payoff with this strategy when IDW stopped publishing Disney comics. Well, Flintheart Glomgold's Sinister Secret is one of these payoff stories so to speak. It has references to and builds upon several other stories. 

First, we have Shellfish Motives (last printed in IDW's Donald Duck: Timeless Tales 1), with the first appearance of Gideon and the first time American readers got to see The County Conscience.

The County Conscience office building

The story is not a direct sequel to, but could also be seen as a follow up to Scrooge's Last Adventure by the same creator team (last printed in IDW's Uncle Scrooge: Timeless Tales 3). That story got a lot of hype when it came out in Italy as Flinthead Glomgold was a previously rarely used character in Italian comics. And he still was at the time Flintheart Glomgold's Sinister Secret! was created too.

Then we have The Unsinkable Kildare Coot! in last year's Disney Masters #23, with the first appearance of Kildare.

And at last, the story has several references to The Second-Richest Duck by Carl Barks (Fantagraphics' Carl Barks Library #16).

All these are stories I recommend as a warm up before reading Flintheart Glomgold's Sinister Secret! But of course, they are not needed to understand and enjoy the story on its own.

Recommended warmup reading

***

Nerdy details? Of course there are!

If you looked closely at some of the images above, you can see that there is a cameo appearance of Jiminy Cricket on top of The County Conscience office building and behind Kildare inside the office. So it seems he is some kind of mascot figure of the newspaper. We saw this in Shellfish Motives too.

Panel from Shellfish Motives with Gideon on the right and Jiminy Cricket as a statue.

As Jiminy was Pinocchio's conscience in the animated movie, this makes sense. And the original Italian name for the newspaper is Il Grillo Parlante, which translated means "the talking cricket".

In the first part of Flintheart Glomgold's Sinister Secret! we don't actually get to see Scrooge's brother Gideon – he is just mentioned. Earlier it has been hinted that he is younger than Scrooge, and we got that confirmed in this story too.

But in the Crosstalk editorial text in the beginning, we also get to know that Gideon was born after Scrooge went to America! I don't think this fact has ever been stated in any stories before, but could act as an explanation for why he is missing in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck and such.

The following panel from the story however kind of suggest that they lived together as kids.

Another interesting detail in the story is this description of Huey, Dewey and Louie.

I can't remember that they have been described this way in any classic comic stories before – but this is exactly how they are described in Quack Pack!

Egyptian Disney comic distributed to Iraq

I recently acquired a small collection of comics from all around the world, including the one in the image above. What got me most curious about this one was that the previous owner had marked it as being from Iraq. And to my knowledge, Disney comics have never been published in that country. A quick search in the inducks database and checking details inside reveals that this is in fact an Egyptian comic from 1963.

Image from inducks.org

But there's also a stamp on the cover, and I was told this read "Arrived by plane" and that the price is 40 fulūs. According to Wikipedia 1 Iraqi dinar = 1000 fulūs, while this is not a currency that has been used in Egypt. So, it sounds likely that this comic actually was distributed to Iraq and sold there in the 1960's.

***

One interesting fact about Egyptian comics is that artwork is usually mirrored compared to how it was originally drawn when not produced locally. This is so it can be used with the right-to-left Arabic language.

Egyptian comic compared to Ludwig Von Drake #4 (Dell)

If you look closely at the image above, you can also see that for some reason the hats are removed in the Egyptian print. This is more noticeable later in the story.

And here from the story "Voodoo Hoodoo" by Barks.

I've been trying to find out the reason for this, but have no clue why. If anyone knows, please tell!

 

 

Walt’s People vol.30

I just received the latest volume of Walt’s People that was published earlier this month. This series is a collection of mostly interviews, but also other texts all about people that have worked on various Disney projects. Everything from animators, writers, voice actors and even a casting director in this book. But my main interest is comic books, and this book has an interview with Carl Barks that I was curious about.

The interview is made by the Italian Disney comic writer Carlo Chendi in November 1974. It's printed over 7 pages in this book, with short and direct questions and answers. If you have been reading other books or interviews with Carl Barks there's not much new and interesting details here – but it's a nice little early interview and was probably of great interest for fans back in the 70's.

The Carl Barks Collector and Die Kunst der Comics

It's not the first time this interview has been published. I have it in both in The Barks Collector #25-26 and a translated version in the German book Die Kunst der Comics. And it's partly also used in the Italian La Grande Dinastia dei Paperi (and translated editions). It would be strange if it wasn't published in some other Italian fanzine or magazine in the 70's too.
 

The interview in The Barks Collector and Die Kunst der Comics

For some reason Chendi is credited as Chantal in The Barks Collector, and there is some conflicting info about when and how the interview was conducted in the various editions. I talked to Simone [check out his blog Eco del Mondo] that provided the interview for this book, and he got this version directly from Carlo Chendi. Chendi never met Barks until the Europe tour in the 90's when he visited Italy, so the info about visiting his home as said in the Barks Collector must be wrong. It was probably done through mail correspondence.
 

Walt's People Master Index

But it's great to have this interview collected in Walt’s People and more available for anyone interested. While most of the content in this series is about people that hasn't worked on comic books, there are some interviews with comic creators in-between, including another one with Carl Barks in volume 8. For a full list I recommend the Walt's People Master Index, that you can find over at The Imagineering Toolbox. Here's a link to the post about the update for volume 30, but I'm sure the index will be updated for future volumes as well.

Disney Comics Around the World in One Hundred Years

Target excluive (left) and Deluxe edition (right)

In September 2023 Fantagraphics published a book called Disney Comics: Around the World in One Hundred Years as a Target (American retail stores) exclusive. And in December last year we got a deluxe edition of same book in regular distribution. I've seen people ask about the differences between the editions, so I'll try to make a quick summary here.

The most obvious difference is the cover color, and that the deluxe edition comics with a slipcase while the Target exclusive does not. The Target edition also has the Disney 100, and "only at Target" logos on the top front. Most Target copies probably also have a 30% sticker on the front, as it was sold at a 30% discount from the start.
 

The Deluxe Edition comes in a slipcase

It's a bit hard to see the size just comparing these two books, but they are huge compared to a regular sized comic book and most other books published by Fantagraphics.

Size compared to some other books from Fantagraphics

Size compared to a regular sized comic book

The book is divided into chapters for each decade starting with 1923-1932, 1933-1942 etc. all the way up to 2013-2022. And every chapter starts with a one-page article about that decade. These articles have been revised and slightly extended for the deluxe edition, sometimes also with different illustrations.

Target exclusive (left), revised article in the Deluxe edition (right)

There's also a total of seven new comic stories added to the deluxe edition:

1923-1932 – no new comic stories
1933-1942 – Donald Duck – The Secret of Mars (18 pages)
1943-1952 – Li'l Bad Wolf – The Practical Pig (8 pages)
1953-1962 – Uncle Scrooge - The Round Money Bin (10 pages)
1963-1972 – no new comic stories
1973-1982 – no new comic stories
1983-1992 – The Great Mouse Detective – Ratigan Strikes Back! (8 pages) (new to the USA)
1993-2002 – Mickey Mouse – A Mouse and His Dog (10 pages)
1993-2002 – Donald Duckling – The Awfullest Day Ever (17 pages) (new to the USA)
1993-2002 – Gyro Gearloose – Forward to the Past (1 page) (new to the USA)
2003-2012 – no new comic stories
2013-2022 – no new comic stories

Overall, I think both editions of the book have a great selection of stories representing the different decades. There's also a variety of different kinds of stories and featured characters. And I would recommend the book both for people not familiar with Disney comics and longtime fans. There are several new-to-the-USA stories inside, and getting comics printed in a large size like this is always a treat!

My personal highlights come at the very end of the book. First, we have Spies Like Us! – one of only two DuckTales '17 stories by Disney Publishing Worldwide that didn't get published in IDW's run of DuckTales comics. I've been wanting to read these two for years, and hope the last one will be published in English too at some point. The other one is the Estrella story by Casty, printed for the first time outside Italy.
 

DuckTales '17 and Casty's Mickey ending the book

While reading the book I couldn't help noticing some nerdy details too.

In the very first article for the 1923-1932 decade, we get to see a rare ad strip for the Mickey Mouse daily strip series. The same one is also printed in the Floyd Gottfredson library vol. 7, but there the text is translated back to English from Italian. In the meantime, a version with the original text has been discovered and I think this book is the first time we have seen a reprint of the original text.
 

First panel of the ad strip - Translated text in the FG library (left) and original text (right)

From the various examples of early comic stories around the world, we get to see a page from the Italian newspaper Il Popolo di Roma. This page has also been reprinted before it the Floyd Gottfredson library, but new this time is the coloring. A rabbit seen as a delivery boy is colored with blue shorts and then looks a lot like Oswald. It's probably not originally intended to be him (maybe inspired by?) but now I like to think it is! The rabbit is just called il fattorino (the delivery boy) in the original text, and baker's boy in the translation.
 

You might notice that it's not a literal translation, but that because the story is written in rhyme. If the blue coloring was intentional chosen to make it Oswald, it's not the first time this kind of thing has happened with the Il Popolo di Roma comics. The first two comic pages had a cat that was probably drawn as or inspired by Felix the Cat, a non-Disney character. But later reprints have turned this cat into the similar looking Disney character Julius the Cat. In the book Mickey and the Gang he was even colored green.
 

Black cat in the original (left) is called Julius and colored green in Mickey and the Gang

Later in the book we have The Crazy Crime Wave, with the same kind of panel layout as Gladstone used in 1986 (only 4 tiers instead of 3). But the cover Daan Jippes drew for that print is now used as a title panel – and I like it!

 

The Crazy Crime Wave in Mickey Mose #224 (left), the book (middle), and the cover of MM #224 (right)

A story I never expected seeing in an American translation is The Captive Fairy's Quest by the Italian team of Martina/Scarpa/Gatto. This story really has some not-for-fainthearted-kids scenes, and is a story of pure madness. I've read it before in fan translation and a heavily cut version in the British Walt Disney's Weekly. But I'm glad more people get to enjoy this story! Compared the British version some scenes are quite different both in coloring and dialogue.

British print (left) and American (right)

British print (top) and American (bottom)

In The Awfullest Day Ever, one of the extra stories for the Deluxe Edition, we get to meet young Donald as Donald Duckling or just Donny living on Grandma's farm. Even Grandma Duck calls him Donny here. One thing to notice in these stories is that they do not take place in Duckburg, but in Quacktown, a rural village outside of Duckburg. I think this is the first time we've seen Quacktown in American comics.

Exploring a Vietnamese comic book

In another attempt to get some life into this blog, I think I'll start with something random! I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before on here, but one of my collecting goals is to have a Disney comic from every country where one is published. And not long ago I finally got to check Vietnam off the list.

Inside and featured on the cover is A Matter of Some Gravity, one of my favorite Don Rosa stories. Published in January 1997 soon after the story was created, no official cover for this series existed – and I guess they had to make one themselves. But looking at the inducks gallery, it looks like they did the same for the rest of the comics in this series too.

From inducks.org

 

So how did they make the cover? Well, it's just art taken from a panel on page 8 of the story, with some background editing.
 

Panels from page 8 of the story, the first one is used as a cover

Not the best editing work I've seen and they should have time traveled to 2014 to get the cover Don Rosa made for this story instead.

Comics from from Fantagraphics, given away on Free Comic Book Day 2014 , promoting the Don Rosa Library

If you look closely, you can see that the two variants of the FCBD comic above actually have the same artwork! It's just rotated.

***

Another fun thing with the Vietnamese comic is that it's bi-lingual in both Vietnamese and English. And the way they did it is by numbering all the dialogue and adding the English text at the bottom of the page.
 

Englsh text printed at the bottom of the pages

I expected the English text to be simplified, but it looks like they used the original dialogue here.

Dialogue in Vietnamese

English text from the bottom of the page in the Vietnamese comic

Original American dialogue

But why...

 

Also, if you look closely at the two versions of the first panel above, it looks like they used the Egmont edit in Vietnam, where that panel was slightly cut to make space for editorial text at the bottom of the page. But that wasn't really necessary in this print.

ZiZ the Amazing Electric Bulb-Head Robot

 

Ever heard of the character ZiZ? I hadn't until I read some old British Disney comics, but there the name is used for Gyro's helper. I haven't seen it used anywhere else and guess it was invented for this occasion.

The name is used in a series of text stories in Walt Disney's Weekly, first appearing in, and announced on the cover of #6/1961

Walt Disney's Weekly #6/1961

 Here you can read the full first story:
 

(click to enlarge)

 

If you know your Barks, then you can probably tell that this is an adaptation of the story That Small Feeling.
 

Panel from "That Small Feeling" by Carl Barks

 

And we get similar text stories in the following numbers of Walt Disney's Weekly with the last one in #14/1961.
 

More stories with ZiZ

All comics containing text stories with ZiZ

 

Seeing the name ZiZ in these comics got me wondering if Gyro's helper really has an official name? The robot is usually referred to as Little Helper, but I don't think Carl Barks ever used that as a name – and I'm not sure when it was first used. I tried to do a quick read of some of Barks' Gyro stories and only found the helper referred to as Gyro's helper or just Helper in the comics.

But in a plot idea the name Bulby is used.
 

I think Egmont's official name for the character is Little Helper.

Original art for D 4480, The Missing Screw

And that name was also used as the title character in IDW's Disney's Comics and Stories #754

But is it really a name or just something the robot is referred to as being?