Depending on when you first read this, here's your first alert for a milestone book from Fantagraphics - or it's my "Go Out and Buy It, Already!" request for - "The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Volume 28: Uncle Scrooge: Cave of Ali Baba" (Fantagraphics, 2023)!
Its coverage of UNCLE SCROOGE #40 (the first Gold Key issue) is something we've seen relatively little of in the past.
While the text article for "Oddball Odssey" by Matthias Wivel hits on this in a minor way, my piece on Gyro Gearloose's "Posthasty Postman" may very well be the most comprehensive examination of the radical formatting changes introduced (...and quickly abandoned) by Gold Key that... well, that *I* have ever seen anywhere! An aside: It well exceeded my allotted word count for the piece, forcing me to cut from some of the other pieces I wrote just to get it all in - but it was worth it! ...And thanks to editor Mike Catron for allowing that!
I've written about this several times in the past... fanzine articles, this very Blog, Gemstone letter columns, etc., but pulled it all together and put it in one place - with some new information to boot! So, anyone who has as great an interest in this sort of thing as I do, will enjoy it.
EVEN MORE MILESTONING: This volume also includes Daan Jippes' finished version of Carl Barks' "unfinished" Gyro story "The Pied Piper of Duckburg"!
Not to be confused with the previous printing of Don Rosa's version of the tale, this is a new (...and different!!!) Fantagraphics Exclusive presented in English for the first time!!!
Oh, and this book MUST be a "milestone" in that it kicked me back into Blogging Mode... something I hope to better sustain going forward!
2 comments:
These Fantagraphics volumes truly are the best! Classic comics and informative, insightful commentary on them. It doesn't get any better than that. I've read a couple of them, most recently the "Lost in the Andes" volume.
Besides the title story of that volume, I particularly enjoyed "Race to the South Seas." Very amusing to see how Gladstone Gander effortlessly finds good luck everywhere he goes, while Donald Duck finds the opposite... until the very end, in which there is quite an unexpected twist. I had a good laugh at Gladstone getting his comeuppance.
“These Fantagraphics volumes truly are the best! Classic comics and informative, insightful commentary on them. It doesn't get any better than that.”
I couldn’t agree with you more, Sergio! In my view, the original comics and the various reprintings that have occurred over the years are analogous to old movies… with these books from Fantagraphics looking and feeling just like a brand-new, remastered Blu-ray or 4K version – with a great extra features and commentary tracks!
And “Lost in the Andes” just happens to be my choice for the single greatest comic book story of all time! Read a little bit of why in the SECOND POST EVER TO RUN AT THIS BLOG!
Hope you enjoy the “Dell-to-Gold-Key-Transition” commentary! Let me know, once you read it.
…That goes for all of you!
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