Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Life is Like a Hurricane... And Full of SURPRISES, Too!

I don't know if I'm the first to break this, but it'll be common knowledge soon enough...

But, to anyone who dared brave the expected torrent of (all together now) "Marvel Specificity" and picked up WHAT IF...? DONALD DUCK BECAME WOLVERINE (Marvel Comics, Released July 31, 2024)...

 ...And cracked the cover (NO, not THAT kind of CRACK!), they would see (GASP!)... THIS!  

 Yes, it's a FANTAGRAPHICS AD for THEIR DISNEY HARDCOVER BOOKS!  

Don't know the details - and don't care! Let's just call it a welcome sight, and hope it's a sign of future synergy to come!   

...And hey, that is ONE AMAZING BOOK pictured in the ad above, and also below.  It's even got the fabled Marco Rota Donald Duck biographical story... which I've wanted to see in English since discovering it in 1984!  

Not only did I get to SEE it, but I also got to WRITE THE DIALOGUE for it!  


...Sometimes, dreams DO come true!  

We're still in the thick of taking comments for the previous post on Huckleberry Hound, so look for more on that subject later!  But, now I really had to have this "Fantagraphics Ad Thing", jump the line a tad! ...Your comments are welcome on BOTH posts! 

Huck probably wishes that someone "jumped the line" ahead of HIM, in THIS CASE!

2 comments:

Sérgio Gonçalves said...

Congratulations on a book you translated being featured in the ad, Joe!

I had a feeling that "What if Donald Duck Became Wolverine?", as bad an idea as it is, would have a silver lining, but this is a far thicker silver lining than I ever imagined.

Surely, some readers of "What if Donald Duck Became Wolverine?" will be intrigued enough to check out Fantagraphics' Disney comics. And many of those people will become fans!

The mere thought of this coming to pass brings to mind another line from the classic Ducktales theme song: "The worst of messes become successes!"

Joe Torcivia said...

Thanks, Sergio! Indeed it *was* “a far thicker silver lining” than one might have expected! And, in the *best* Disney tradition (…of which something like "What if Donald Duck Became Wolverine?" falls somewhat short – due to its high quotient of that dreaded “Marvel Specificity”), I hope your wish, dream, or [Insert Noun Denoting Optimism Here] comes true.

…Or, as we say in New York… “It couldn’t hoit!”

I don’t mean to make this post about self-promoting plugs (AHEM! …Aw, heck, let’s do it!) but there are actually TWO books that I worked on featured in the ad! The Mickey Mouse volume at the lower left of the ad, has two Donald Duck stories that I “translated and dialogued” which debut a new character to the USA… and a deceptively multi-layered character, I might add. Don’t know when it’s out, but I’ll probably be soon if it’s in the ad.

Finally, the magnificent Marco Rota Birthday/Biography story (“magnificent” due to ROTA, not me!) I refer to in the post is THIS ONE… information from I.N.D.U.C.K.S. as I haven’t entered it into GCD yet!

I got a German copy of this in 1984, and an Italian copy some years later. Since 1984, I’d longed to see this story in English… and only imagined what it was really like when attempting to read it via my rough high school and college German! It was as great an honor as can be imagined to get to be the “English Dub” of such a story!

…One could say MY “wish, dream, or [Insert Noun Denoting Optimism Here]” came true!

There are a couple of quirky, non-canonical things in there, some – but not all – were easier to accept in the pre-Don Rosa mid-eighties, but we do a good job of working within Rota’s original vision. You’ll love it, as I’ve loved it for exactly FORTY YEARS!