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| Talk about Mind-Blowing! |
If all goes as expected, one week from today, we will have in out hot little hands the first IDW issue of UNCLE SCROOGE!
That will be April 22, 2015.
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| The first IDW issue of UNCLE SCROOGE 2015! |
What amazes me is that we had another "first issue" of UNCLE SCROOGE - twenty-five years ago, at this time!
It was the first Disney Comics issue - part of Disney's initial onslaught of releasing all eight of their new line titles in a single day, in April 1990!
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| The first Disney Comics issue of UNCLE SCROOGE 1990! |
At this point, even I cannot remember the exact date, but that it was actually twenty-five (25!) years ago is today's mind-blowing thought!
Oh, and sorry for not posting anything for 15 days. For that you can blame THIS BOOK...
...And this guy!
Yes, he's coming! Beware!
13 comments:
There is just one small thing that bugs me about the new IDW Uncle Scrooge covers I've seen so far...they didn't spell it right! For DECADES the book's title has been "Uncle $crooge" (even on the new Fantagraphics Carl Barks and Don Rosa books). Why did someone decide to drop the dollar sign spelling of $crooge?
Hopefully, they will reinstate it on future covers. BTW, I had that Disney Comics Uncle $crooge issue...it was a fun comic. In retrospect, I like Disney's title logo for the cover a lot more now than I did when they first came out.
Deb:
It’s fascinating that I did not notice that about the logo, for all the very many times I’ve seen (and posted) those first three UNCLE SCROOGE covers!
You never know who’s reading my Blog, so maybe you will catch someone’s attention.
For what it’s worth, there were a very few issues where GOLD KEY did not employ the dollar sign. You can see this on their first issue # 40 (when they were REALLY doing all sort of oddball experimental things graphically), and # 52, and # 55 for example. And, I’ve had those issues since their original release – and I never noticed it until now! Everyone can see them at THIS LINK.
Your observation, and my lack of same, actually has me veering off in another direction of thought.
You are an artist, and I fancy myself a writer. I wonder if that could be why you immediately noticed the lack of the dollar sign and I did not. Perhaps artists “think graphically” and writers do not.
It’s a similar thing with the film appreciation class I attend, discussed HERE and other places throughout this blog. Our host comes from the perspective of having directed small indie films, and I always observe that, in the follow-up discussions, he approaches the subject from the perspective of a director and I do so from the perspective of a writer. Meaning he talks “visuals” and “shots”, and I talk “plot points” and “plot-hole fixes”.
The next time I see Jonathan Gray or Dan Cunningham, I might just ask them (as artists) if they noticed this.
I did notice it actually. I'd have to ask David but I think its because the dollar sign didnt look right on that logo style? I'm not ENTIRELY sure...
As I said, “You never know who’s reading my Blog”! Thank you, Jonathan! And, hey… I’ll be “reading you” on Wednesday!
That makes it Artists: 2, Writers: 0. in the “Dollar Sign Derby”!
Though you do such fine writing for these comics, I should really make it Artists: 1.5, Writers: 0.5.
I rather like the logo myself – but I’m still taken aback at not noticing the dollar-sign-deletion.
Wow! You'll never believe this, but I never noticed the missing dollar sign till now, either!
Our logo originates with Gladstone II's stillborn 1997 UNCLE SCROOGE & DONALD DUCK title, which always struck me as having a beautiful, modern-looking Scrooge logo that unfortunately didn't get reused later. This, I thought, was our chance...
This new topic begs the question - what is the proper title logo for RICHIE RICH? There's the diamond-dotted i's version, the one with the cent symbol replacing the c's, or - most ostentatiously - a combination of the two. It's enough to incur the wrath of Reggie Van Dough, and inspire a lame monologue by Jackie Jokers.
And what of the unfortunate toon plutocrats whose names do not contain C's, I's, and S's to graphically embellish ( i.e. Montana Max )? Are they to be condemned to an eternity of non-gaudy typography just because of the lesser talents of their artists/writers? Our two-dimensional one-percenters deserve better.
From an artist's point of view, the dollar sign logo has come to be just as much a part of Uncle Scrooge (or Uncle $crooge, despite spell check's objection) as the Money Bin and the Beagle Boys, in a way.
At first I assumed that the logo on the first new cover was a place holder logo until the cover art was finalized. Then when we started seeing more covers up to issue #3, I was starting to wonder if maybe someone at IDW or Disney didn't want them to use the dollar sign (which would seem weird, because Fantagraphics is able to use that logo). Maybe it is just a stylistic decision on the part of the editors, I have no idea. I guess we shall find out once we start seeing solicitations for later issues. (Maybe I'm making too big a deal about this, too...)
Gracious sakes alive!
Spend Friday night watching a Yankees game (they won for a change), a Peter Cushing horror movie (“Brides of Dracula”, 1960, if you’re curious), and go to bed…
…Wake up on Saturday morning and find all these great comments!
What’s a Blogger to do, except thank you for joining us, and take them in order…
David:
If you subscribe to my “Artist vs. Writer Perceptional Theory” (Hey, I kinda like that! It’s pompous, yet suitably nonsensical!), it would make perfect sense that you did not notice the omission of the design elements necessary to turn an ordinary “S” into a dollar sign. …Just as it was with me.
So, If you’re keeping score it was New York Yankees 5, Tampa Bay Rays 4… Oh no, wait… that was last night’s baseball game!
It’s now… Well, I guess it’s STILL: Artists: 1.5, Writers 0.5 – because both David and I did NOT add to the total of “Writers Who Noticed There Was No Dollar Sign”. I’m confused too… I guess that’s why I’m a writer and not a statistician.
Anyway, I liked that Gladstone Series II logo, and actually did figure the current logo’s origins were with it.
And, if you’re still reading these ramblings, you may also notice that I updated the UNCLE SCROOGE # 1 cover in this post with a REVISED version. I still like the logo, but have additional cause to like the cover as a whole. :-)
TCJ:
I originally considered banning you for a month, for having the temerity to mention RICHIE RICH in a post devoted to UNCLE SCROOGE!
But, anyone capable of coming up with the phrase “two-dimensional one-percenters” cannot help but be a welcome “Member-In-Good-Standing” of this commenting community in perpetuity!
…And, for all we know, maybe the “non-embellish-able letters of his name” could actually be why Montana Max never achieved his own comic book title! Stranger things have happened in this industry… like a thousand different RICHIE RICH titles in the ‘70s, for instance!
Deb:
Well, you asked the question about the UNCLE SCROOGE logo, and darned if this Blog didn’t deliver an answer!
Not only that, but your comment brought about a fun exchange among us all. So, I thank you for all of it!
When you say “From an artist's point of view, the dollar sign logo has come to be just as much a part of Uncle Scrooge (or Uncle $crooge, despite spell check's objection) as the Money Bin and the Beagle Boys, in a way.”, you illustrate exactly what I mean about artists vs. writers. And, it really did cause me to think.
For instance (and I didn’t give this a moment’s consideration until now), I have never written “Uncle $crooge” (with the dollar sign) when referring to the series title. But, as the weight of evidence that a survey of the cover logos used since 1952 shows, “Uncle $crooge” would seem to BE the series title! And, it wouldn’t surprise me if the current logo is eventually modified (even slightly) as a result of this exchange.
Far from making “too big a deal about this”, you’ve made the post and its comments a much more interesting read – and that’s exactly what I like about Blogging!
I usually write Uncle $crooge with the dollar sign, since Rosa does it that way. Where I find the dollar sign most important, though, is in the abbreviation. Since I will sometimes in the same paragraph talk about U$ comics and US comics (as distinct from European ones), it's nice to be able to avoid the Uncle Scrooge/United States confusion.
That’s another interesting distinction, Elaine.
To think, those “two sticks” or “one bar” vertically placed over the “S” can make a world of difference!
And, in just a few more days, we’ll have “U$” comics in the “US” again!
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