When it comes to Disney comics, the European nations have it all over us six-ways-to-Sunday-Monday-Tuesday-and-Wednesday!
To be sure, they DESERVE IT! They support these things to an extent that we dullards in the USA, would never do!
But, even as the dim, dogmatic, dictatorship-in-waiting that we've allowed ourselves to become in recent years, we still appear to have SOMETHING over those more-enlightened lands... OUR COVERS!
Just compare our cover of UNCLE SCROOGE #04/Legacy #464 Cover "B" (Fantagraphics [January 2026])...
...with that of Germany's MICKY MAUS #2019-19 (Ehapa Verlag, September 06, 2019)...
...and compare for yourself!
We get Kari Korhonen's full page of cover art without the distracting clutter, while they... they... they... aw th' heck with international diplomacy... they get way too much of it! And too little of Kari's art to boot!
To be fair, the Scandinavian countries, where this storyline originated, also do the covers right...
...And they even get one on us, because they don't have the cover-image-perfection-spoiling UPC CODE BOX!
6 comments:
In some of the countries that print these stories, their Disney comics are closer to Disney Adventures than a standard comic book, incorporating things like text articles, puzzles and other features into the magazine besides comics. And I’m also convinced that “classic character” Disney Comics in the US survive almost entirely because of fans like you and David Gerstein’s team. Without you guys, there’s a huge quality drop.
Deb:
Prepare for some serious editorializing here! I speak only for myself, but a general perusal of this humble Blog will reveal an overall agreement with many of the views I am about to express!
You write: “In some of the countries that print these stories, their Disney comics are closer to Disney Adventures than a standard comic book, incorporating things like text articles, puzzles and other features into the magazine besides comics.”
And THAT is precisely what I DO NOT LIKE, and why I avoided Disney Adventures (with their “teen celebrity of the week” on its covers) like the plague with strep and COVID add-ons! I *knew* that it was not for me, but aimed at a more juvenile audience… AND THEY COULD HAVE IT!
Translating that into “today”, that was also what I did not like about the original Gold Key Comics Club pages that began with the January 1967 releases! Six pages of juvenile features that took away from the comics I loved!
Ironically, after feeling that way for decades, it was I who suggested that present-day Gold Key revive the “Gold Key Comics Club” in the form of the “Gold Key Club Reader’s Page” (complete with similar logo), but aimed at contemporary adult readers while maintaining that undefinable nostalgic Gold Key feel! A new and improved link with the past, if you will!
Only one Reader’s Page has been published to-date but I have two more written and waiting to be loosed on an unsuspecting world. In the second completely new column (…next up is a modified version of the first to suit the book it will appear in) I’ve even offered a “challenge” to which we intend to award nominal prizes, so we’re going to have lots of fun with it! OKAY, end of completely gratuitous plug! …And aren’t you glad of that!
Deb sez: “And I’m also convinced that “classic character” Disney Comics in the US survive almost entirely because of fans like you and David Gerstein’s team. Without you guys, there’s a huge quality drop.”
And, on behalf of David’s team, I thank you very much for those kind words! And we’ve seen that exact sort huge quality drop” at the very end of the IDW run… and also (though more of less forgotten to the passage of time) the beginning of the Boom! Studios run that followed the end of Gemstone!
Having experienced the heights of Gemstone, those “legendary last three months of Boom!” the great majority of IDW’s run, and the recent triumphs of Fantagraphics, it’s become my opinion – as both fan and contributor – that no American line for the characters of Mickey, Donald, and Scrooge, should be done without the expertise – and extraordinary dedication - of our esteemed Mr. Gerstein! …Seriously! Mike (or keyboard) drop!
The Germans may be the worst at cluttering the covers, but the Scandinavians don't always do such a great job at keeping the cover art clean, either. Probably the Finnish and Icelandic covers are consistently the cleanest. (I should acknowledge here that Finland and Iceland are only loosely termed "Scandinavian"--that is technically just Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. They're all "Nordic," though.) And yes, I've also been very pleased at how Fantagraphics has kept the cover art clutter-free!
Elaine:
More serious editorializing here, again speaking only for myself!
I guess that vaunted German engineering and efficiency doesn’t apply to comic book covers!
And, I’ve not exactly been one to chant “USA! USA! USA!” in recent years but, strictly in the case of Fantagraphics, I’ll make an exception… “FAN-TA-GRAPH-ICS! USA! USA! USA!”
I do want to defend the European-style "magazine"-type books' non-comic pages here. I can't say that the crosswords and such ever held much interest for me, even as a young'un; but from the 90s the articles often included documentary features on the *history* of the comics themselves, interviews with creators like Don Rosa, and the like, similar to the BTS features in Fantagraphics books, if perhaps written for a less assumedly-clued-in audience; and that was integral to sparking an interest in the history of these things for many French kids.
Of course, that was then. While not as precarious as their American counterparts, the French Disney comics haven't being too well themselves, and a friend of mine who was in a David-like "archivist"/feature-writer position has found it imperiled in ways that would feel very familiar to the Fresh And New days.
Achille:
Sorry for the delay in posting your comment! Let’s get to it right now!
I guess I’m just an old purist when it comes to comic books! No matter how fancy a trade paperback or a hardcover edition can get, my preferred format is STILL the humble standard comics magazine!
It’s unencumbering! Something that you don’t have to hold while reading, because it can open flat! If I choose, while reading the “left side page” of an open comic, I can cover the “right side page” to avoid spoilers or prevent my eyes from wandering to that page prematurely!
And I have NO USE for any games, puzzles, riddles, or teen-celebrity-of-the-week spotlights taking the place of the comics material I paid to see and read! I felt this way AS A KID with the Gold Key Comics Club, so it’s not just a cranky old man telling publishers to get those game-playing, puzzle-solving, riddle-spouting teen celebrities off my lawn!
Ads, of course, are a necessary evil to keep cover prices down and, in some cases, even keep the publisher afloat! They can stay! Some of them are even “entertaining” (quotes intentional) in themselves!
However, the “documentary features on the *history* of the comics themselves, interviews with creators like Don Rosa, and the like, similar to the BTS features in Fantagraphics books, if perhaps written for a less assumedly-clued-in audience; and that was integral to sparking an interest in the history of these things for many French kids.” is something I would LOVED to have seen in the comics of the sixties and seventies! I truly envy you for having that! …And, in the “Funny How Life Turns Out Department”, imagine that I would grow up to actually write the very thing I longed for as a kid!
I am pleased to hear that French Disney comics are “not as precarious as their American counterparts” …actually what *could be*, other than a stack of anvils placed across a wet paper towel! But I am disheartened over any move that would invoke those… um, rather ill-advised “Fresh and Modern” days! …Or, “Frais et Moderne”, if you will! Thank you, Google Translate!
I hope that you survive this period – as we did - and return to your former glory!
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