What to my wondering eyes should appear? But a box full o' great stuff, like all o' this here...
It may only be December 11, but it was Christmas Morning to me, when I woke to find this package waiting outside my front door!
For me, this was the very definition of "bittersweet"...
Two wonderful books from IDW, just the way we liked 'em best - but also the two volumes that officially end my tenure with IDW.
And if that tenure must end, it could not have ended better... Two collaborations with Casty!
CHRISTMAS PARADE offers "Mickey Mouse and the Coat of Christmas Magic" 27 pages of TRUE "Christmas Magic" written and drawn by Casty, with Translation and Dialogue by yours truly!
And, in the Mickey Mouse 90th Anniversary Collection, it is my honor to again provide American English dialogue for Casty's work in "The Eye of Topoltec", drawn by Vitale Mangiatordi!
With The Phantom Blot, no less! Again, if it HAD to end, could it have possibly have ended better? ...I DON'T THINK SO!
As if that weren't thrills enough for one morning, MICKEY MOUSE THE 90th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION also reprints Paul Murry's "The Return of The Phantom Blot" from 1964!
This is the story that got me hooked on Disney comic books for life, as discussed HERE!
You'll find enough great work by my colleagues Jonathan Gray and Thad Komorowski, throughout both volumes, to bring tears of nostalgia to your eyes!
My most sincere thanks to IDW for producing these two special volumes... and more importantly, for allowing me to be a part of their line of Disney comic books!
I've enjoyed that time more than any words can express, and hope that someday it can happen again!
Meanwhile... run out and get both these wonderful books from IDW!
It'll feel like Christmas... Or your birthday... Or just like a GREAT DAY OF COMICS!
...And what could be better than that?
18 comments:
I always look forward to these Christmas books. I won't be able to pick my copy up until Friday, unfortunately. Did they keep this one a square bound paperback like the other three Christmas Parades? It looks like they went with the "fresh and modern" style of lettering in the Christmas Parade excerpts you show here. This holiday tradition that for me started with Gladstone's beautiful 1988 and 89 Christmas Parade books, and the Disney Comics Holiday Parade issues. I sadly lost track of these specials when Gemstone was doing them (I had the first two or three). I still have Boom's Walt Disney's Christmas Classics hardcover (despite it being rather cheaply bound), as well as the first three Mickey and Donald Christmas Parade books and the Disney Christmas Classics that the Library of American Comics put out last year (that has no Mickey or Donald!). I certainly have no shortage of Disney Christmas comics for the season!
I'll have to wait until January to get the 90th Anniversary book, though, as it isn't available to the general public just yet. But that looks good too. I'm still eagerly awaiting the Greatest Adventures hardcover from Fantagraphics that I got at a pretty good discount on "Cyber Monday".
Deb:
Yes, CHRISTMAS PARADE is in the same square-bound format as its predecessors. Your observation on the lettering is correct… but, it’s not “what the lettering looks like”, but “what the lettering says” that counts. …And this story IS a goody! …As is the issue as a whole!
Seriously, both of these are great issues! With the likes of Casty, Romano Scarpa, Byron Erickson, Cesar Feroli, Ben Verhagen, Bas Heymans, Gil Turner, Paul Murry, Floyd Gottfredson, and so many other historically great talents involved, how could they not be so!
…the Mickey what now? How did I not hear about this?!… Okay, time to do some late Christmas-minded ordering. (My, the Blot looks diabolical here. Some of the Italians who use the Blot's unmasked self don't quite know what to do with it, but this alone shows it can be made to look fantastic. See also Stefano Turconi's take. And I'm glad you got to translate that story!)
Funny this post should come now, just a few days after I received my own incredibly-late Disney comic hardcover in the mail — namely, Disney Masters Vol. 2! Which was, of course, excellent, as I have told you in the relevant email. Coverage of it is well underway on the Wiki.
“…the Mickey what now?”
No, no, Achille… Not “Mickey What”… “Mickey MOUSE”… You know, like the song goes… M-O-U-S-EEEEE!
Fear not, per Amazon, it’s not due until January 08, 2019! But, my advance copy arrived this morning – and it’s just amazing!
So, even if all those other sources of information may not have told you about it – you DO know now! And I’m happy to be the one who broke the news! …And, given some of the “news” I see on my TV each day, SOMEONE MUST have “broke it”, ‘cause most of it’s sure in need of FIXING!
In the meantime, I’m so glad you enjoyed the Fantagraphics “Disney Masters” Bottaro volume! That was a hoot and a half to work on, and I’ll definitely offer assistance on its Wiki entry! Expect to hear from me on this, rather soon!
Not sure if I'm allowed to comment here anymore... but here goes.
That Christmas parade looks very generic to me.
Those two Casty stories are very good indeed, but "The Eye of Topoltec", despite making the most of its short length was overshadowed here by many later Casty Blot stories (am I right in saying "L'uomo ingannatempo" still hasn't been released in the US yet? Unbelievable! That story was a true, er, eye-opener for young me...) and by the fact that it was printed in the same book as "The Frozen Empire" (as Casty likes to call "L'impero sottozero"), the epic that finally cemented Casty's superstar status for me and many other readers. It features Atomo Beep-Beep :)
Don’t be silly, Spectrus!
You’ve always been welcome here, and you always will be! You, KKM, and the whole gang! We’re just one great big happy “family” who want the best Disney comics for their respective countries and audiences!
Not entirely sure what you mean by “generic”, but the Casty Christmas story was anything but! See for yourself, and check back with me once you do!
“The Eye of Topoltec” was a fine, classic “locked room mystery”, made all the better by the presence of The Phantom Blot!
If there is one regret I have over the whole current state of affairs it's that there are still so many great Casty stories that I’ve yet to read! And, should they ever appear in the USA, I truly hope they will “read” in a way that is worthy of Casty’s talents! …At present, I fear they will not “read” that way!
While I haven’t had time to read all of this year’s Christmas Parade yet, I did read “The Coat of Christmas Magic”. Rod Serling would have loved that one. It reminds me of two Twilight Zone episodes, “What You Need” and “Night of the Meek”, without ripping either of them off, as well as Floyd Gottfredson’s “Miracle Master” serial. This is one I will definitely put into my Christmas reading rotation every year. Leafing through the rest of the book, this one really seems to capture the old Christmas Parade spirit, with a nice looking selection of stories, including The Li’l Bad Wolf and The Beagle Boys in Wonderland! I can’t wait until I get home from work and have the time to curl up in a comfy chair and read the rest of this one!
Deb:
Yes, actually… “The Coat of Christmas Magic” DID have some of that good ol’ “Twilight Zone-iness” to it! Casty’s given us a new Christmas classic!
I’ve not yet read the Beagle Boys in Wonderland story… but something tells me I’m going to enjoy it immensely!
I meant the cover, that looks a bit bland to me... (I don't know why, each time I try to keep my messages brief and to the point, it ends up being confusing or misunderstood. Happens all the time on FeatherySociety too :-/ )
And yes, that Casty Christmas story is good. In this case it was also helped by appearing in an otherwise very disappointing Christmas LTB here, which only had this (plus another Casty story, but that was only drawn by him: https://inducks.org/story.php?c=I+TL+2720-1 - still good however! Although more of a winter than a Christmas story.) as a high point.
There are also (I think) two more Christmas stories by Casty, one of which (https://inducks.org/story.php?c=I+TL+2613-7 - the first one he drew himself!) I can't seem to find anymore, the other (https://inducks.org/story.php?c=I+TL+3187-1 ) being quite good but a bit more "out there" in its use of fantasy elements.
On the "Eye", the German changed the name to "Mikitek", as "Topoltec" doesn't make much sense to anyone who doesn't know Mickey Mouse as "Topolino".
Actually, Casty has been treated rather well, compared to some other more obscure geniuses of the Italian tradition. If I'm not mistaken, there has never been a single story by Giulio Chierchini released in the US, Francesco Guerrini only now had his long overdue US debut thanks to the - now apparently, sadly, cancelled - "Duck Avenger: New Adventures" (did you take a look at the art, incidentally?), Massimo De Vita didn't get a lot of limelight either (but now Fantagraphics seem to be out to rectify that mistake, thankfully!).
More soon...
Spectrus:
There’s no directive to “keep [your] messages brief” around here, so slather on all the detail you want. After all, it’s not as if I don’t do the same in my replies!
I’ve seen some better Christmas covers, and I’ve seen many more worse… So, I’m fine with it! Rather like it, actually.
Get ready for a MAJOR DOSE OF IRONY here… We had discussed the notion of changing the name of “Topoltec” for reasons similar to those you cite… “Topolino” and all that…
…And I said NO! Why? Because I WANTED to remain as close as possible to Casty’s original!
…Those sounds you hear are made by a large number of those “forum-folks” fainting! :-)
I figured those American readers who knew that “Mickey Mouse” was “Topolino” to Casty would appreciate that on some level. And those who didn’t would just look at it as something exotic. WIN/WIN!
Massimo DeVita will be VERY WELL CELEBRATED in an upcoming “Disney Masters” from Fantagraphics! There will be some GREAT STUFF in there!
Like Deb, I think I like "The Coat of Christmas Magic" enough to make it a regular on my (long!) list of read-every-year Disney Christmas comics stories. If it does have staying power in that way, it will be the only Mouse story that does. (Unless I count the Little Golden Book, Mickey Mouse Flies the Christmas Mail.) So, take a bow for contributing to this unique achievement in my world! I agree with Deb that this story has a Twilight Zone feel to it. I really love the nature of the happy ending. Changing the magical product from money to children's gifts makes for a very Christmassy conclusion.
I also enjoyed Jan Kruse's "Pearl Jams and Secondary Clauses," enhanced by Jonathan Gray's excellent dialoguing. Not so surprising that a Kruse Duck story would make my re-read list; maybe a half-dozen of Kruse's stories are on my favorites list. The set-up with the suggestion of hiding the pearls in the ornaments may be a bit far-fetched, but I enjoyed Daisy's role and Scrooge's comeuppance, and the Shacktown namecheck. All that, and redheads too!
Elaine writes:
“ Like Deb, I think I like ‘The Coat of Christmas Magic’ enough to make it a regular on my (long!) list of read-every-year Disney Christmas comics stories. If it does have staying power in that way, it will be the only Mouse story that does. (Unless I count the Little Golden Book, Mickey Mouse Flies the Christmas Mail.) So, take a bow for contributing to this unique achievement in my world! ”
Knowing you as I do, I regard that as a supreme compliment! And, all the more so because it’s a MICKEY story! My sincerest thanks!
Perhaps not-so-coincidently, you were one of the persons I was thinking of as I was preparing the dialogue for Casty’s wonderful story! I actually wondered if this story about a “mouse” could “squeak” into your annual reading tradition! If Casty were here (…or, if I were “there”) we’d be giving each other “high fives” right now!
Because, if Casty’s original “New-Christmas-Classic” weren’t SO GOOD in the first place, we wouldn’t be having this exchange! …Um, Casty “Disney Masters”, anyone? …Multiple volumes?
“Jan ‘n’ Jon” certainly did a great job with their story, but I also want to cite the Beagle Boys / Wonderland story as another true highlight of what has turned out to be a magnificent way for us to go out! Thad did a REALLY great job! Not only on the Beagle Boys, but with an extensive array of Wonderland characters that I would never want to have taken on! And, in some odd way, that story even had something of a “Paul Murry look” to it – making it a Win/ Win/Win for me!
Allow me to also pipe in with my appreciation of the Christmas Coat story. It's really not easy, I have observed, to write a Christmas story that really works as a Christmas story, and this one definitely filled the bill. I too am glad that the line could go out on a high note, though I also mourn the future stories we'll never see.
Thank you, Geo!
...Conversely, with things as they are at present, I mourn the future stories that we WILL see!
Seriously, I don't think Thad, Jon, David, and I could have had a better send-off! To my mind, this is exactly as these comics SHOULD be!
And, leading with such a superb Casty story made it PERFECT!
Happy X-Mas (and merry Comic-Boxing Day... ahem!) to you, Joe, and all the people reading this blog and others!
I still had a comment that got lost in the shuffle of slow internet speeds...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I always try to contain myself because I know I have a tendency to ramble on, and I'm often doing too many things at once (probably not a good idea).
Yeah, I get the irony. But I guess it also simply means we all have different ideas on what is the best approach. I'm not sure anyone would have complained at the adjustment of "Topoltec", I think - but then again I might be wrong. It's a question I should pass on to the other FS users though (*). Personally, I'm more worried about inserting random elements that don't really belong in the story, or massively altering the tone of interactions between the characters. But yeah, I'm not exactly impressed with the efforts of the new "team" (?) either, although I can't quite join in with the outrage just yet. Maybe it's because I'm used to far worse things (such as German translators constantly giving new names to already established characters - this despite generally being more faithful to the original texts than either version of the IDW "divide", at least from where I can judge things). I dunno.
Does that last sentence mean you're going to feature the Fantagraphics De Vita collection(s) on this blog? If so, hooray! And hip! And hooray again!
* completely random, but I just realized that the English FeatherySociety and the German F.I.E.S.E.L.S.C.H.W.E.I.F. forum can both be abbreviated with the initials FS. What a coincidence, FFS! (Sorry, couldn't resist ;-) )
The very same to you, Spectrus!
“Comic-Boxing Day”? I *like* it! …Don’t be surprised if I steal it, someday! :-)
Now, just because you’re “…used to far worse things (such as German translators constantly giving new names to already established characters…)” doesn’t mean you should quietly accept “plain old garden variety worse things”! I don’t, and will continue to stay my course, unless and until things improve – dramatically!
I have so many comics that are horribly drawn by Kay Wright and Bob Gregory, but that doesn’t mean I must suffer through THESE Fresh and Modern doses of bland and tepid dishwater, because I’ve already suffered through those! …Speaking as nothing more than a fan and long-time consumer of this product, a line must be drawn somewhere – and I’ve drawn it for me!
As much as I love them, and that they’ve become the BEST Disney comics in the USA, I’m a little reluctant to feature the “Disney Masters” books at my Blog because it may look too much like shameless self-promotion, or sour grapes, in view of recent events! And that’s a “line” I’ve drawn for myself too – not to sound that way, if I can help it! …Alas, it’s not always as easy as it may sound!
I can always say that hard cover books cannot be easily accommodated by my scanner without straining or otherwise damaging the binding! Yeah, that’s it! …And it IS true! But, the other consideration is uppermost.
Of course that doesn’t mean that other forum folks and Blog commenters can’t do so with a fully warranted sense of gleeful abandon!
“F.I.E.S.E.L.S.C.H.W.E.I.F.”? What Junior Woodchucks rank is THAT?
And, hey… If you can’t “ramble on” around here, where can you?
I'm not sure if there is a explanation for that acronym, but "Fähnlein Fieselschweif" is Erika Fuchs' translation of "Junior Woodchucks". So in English, the forum would be called W.O.O.D.C.H.U.C.K. ;-)
What I meant above is that I would still take these translations over no Disney comics at all, if I lived in the US. But then again I'm one of those who really only cares for Disney and very little other comics - and I assume there isn't many people like that in the US now. Where I live, you can literally buy the pocketbooks at any supermarket!!
To each, their own, Spectrus…
I, personally, would take NO Disney comics over the dull, uninteresting, and frankly inferior translations we’re getting now at IDW!
…And, from comments I’ve seen and things people have told me personally, I’m not exactly alone in this.
There are SO MANY great Disney comics out there, published PRIOR to this unfortunate editorial decision – and so many neither of us have yet read – that I wonder why ANYONE would continue with these… if they are unhappy with them, that is.
None of us have money to throw away like that, nor an unlimited amount of storage space!
…BUY WHAT YOU LIKE, NOT WHAT YOU DON’T! You can’t go wrong with this philosophy!
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