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

***

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! 

***

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!

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.