Happy New Year 2025!

 Happy New Year 2025!  

...Or should I, as that famous TV game show goes, phrase it in the form of a question?  

 ...Happy New Year 2025?  

As far as my answer goes... I DUNNO!  

I see some very bad things (or, at the very least, norm-shattering, chaotic things) ahead for 2025 for both our country and the world as a whole! Most of you can probably guess what, as I nonchalantly sidestep the specifics of a topic that is out-of-bounds at this humble Blog.   

Of course, I'm referring to the sudden and unexpected cancelation of THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES...

...An unfortunate occurrence not to be confused with, or mistaken for, any "real world" events of a political nature - though some of those could stand to be suddenly and unexpectedly canceled too! ...Batman and Scooby, we need your team-ups now, more than ever!  ...There, was that nonchalantly-sidestepping enough for you?  If not, I can try again... Oh, you just want me to move on?  Yeah, I think I should too!  

On the other hand, looking inward (as opposed to the increasingly ominous view "outside", with no more BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES to enjoy every month), things are looking very bright - and that's where I will tend to keep my attentions focused!  

Like HERE! 

And HERE!

And the all-great, all-new, all-exciting things comics-wise that are coming in 2025... that, darn it all, I STILL can't talk about!  ...Sorry (at least for now!) 

Happy New Year 2025!  ...For Real!  

DuckTales is... "Dynamite"!

First I'd like to welcome you back to this too-long-neglected humble Blog!  Said period of neglect is my doing entirely... No excuses, but plenty of apologies for the long period of inactivity.  Same apologies to those I've owed personal communications for far too long a while!   

That said, let's jump headfirst into a hot topic for late 2024... 

The Issue At Hand is: DuckTales #1 (Dynamite Entertainment, Cover Date: November, 2024)!  

Dynamite Entertainment has become a publisher for which I've gained very much respect in recent times!  They have aggressively licensed popular properties from the many embedded tentacles of both the Disney and Warner media empires as well as other sources.  

Dynamite Entertainment first came to my attention with its DJANGO/ZORRO seven-issue series of 2014 which, oddly, Esther pointed out to me knowing my fondness for the "Spaghetti Western" movies featuring the mythical western hero/anti-hero Django!  The series was very well done - and was actually written by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino!  

 

In 2017 Dynamite offered another fine team-up series, the six-issue THE SHADOW/BATMAN, which was particularly welcome as I was no longer interested in the way DC was handling Batman... and most of their other characters in general. 

And, while I left it at that, I resolved to go back and sample other Dynamite titles and series based on other characters and properties I liked, but that would take until 2024 to happen.  

Dynamite DID license Disney properties from the Disney Afternoon and feature films, but I had little to no interest in those. However, in early 2024 they licensed and published 1960s Hanna-Barbera adventure classic SPACE GHOST...

...And soon followed by H-B's original adventure classic, JONNY QUEST...

...Both as ongoing series - and both have been GREAT!

Now, they've added an ongoing DuckTales series to what I fear may eventually become an oversaturated Disney comics market (...thanks, Marvel!), but I'm glad they did!  

I'm glad they did because, unlike the already-repetitive approach Marvel has taken with the greatest of Disney characters - where each of them are awkwardly cast as (...wait for it) Marvel Superheroes!

The notable exception to this was their first release: "UNCLE SCROOGE and the INFINITY DIME"...

...Which still suffered from too much "Marvel Specificity" and an overabundance of Marvel-style physical fighting...

...Resulting in a greater deviation from the evergreen foundations set down by Scrooge's creator Carl Barks than I'd prefer, it still wound up as a decent story! 

But we now have a new comic featuring Uncle Scrooge McDuck that's closer to "The Real Thing" than anything other than the Fantagraphics hardcover Disney collections!  

And while Dynamite's 24-page opening opus, "Four Corners of Your World Part One: The More things Change...", consisted essentially of set-up and establishing for future issues (...the curse of modern comics - sizing stories for the inevitable trade paperback collections), it's a good, solid, and entertaining entry set squarely in the mode of the DuckTales classic series.  

 You can read my detailed GCD index for the issue HERE!  

Though I'll offer a few tidbits below: 

The story, as well as the issue/series as a whole, uses the familiar 1987 DuckTales character models and continuity, rather than the more jarring and unconventional 2017 versions.

Within the overall story, are three flashback stories told by Scrooge that break with the "modern visual format" of the main story. These flashbacks are two pages each, are drawn in a retro-style that resembles that of master Italian duck artist Marco Rota and are rendered in the four-tiers-per-page, rectangular panel format used by the Dell and Gold Key comics from the Golden Age thru the Bronze Age.   ...Note the contrast in style! 

Completing the retro-look of the flashbacks (a clever way to indicate that these are "old stories" that Scrooge is telling) is the use of Carl Barks' "Dell Interior Logo 1", which has the name "Uncle Scrooge" in large straight letters reading on a diagonal from southwest-to-northeast with a series of nine coins falling about the logo. https://www.comics.org/feature_logo/625/

Each flashback sequence concludes with the "End" logo that was used during the Disney Comics (1990) era of a diagonal tilting "End" within an oval. Nice touch, but using the Western/Gold Key "The End" logo instead would have carried the retro feel further still.

 Coulda, shoulda been! 

Nevertheless, Dynamite Entertainment's DuckTales has now joined its Space Ghost and Jonny Quest titles on my comic shop reserve list, and I look forward to enjoying a good, long run. 

 ...And, hey... If you don't care for this particular cover, Dynamite offers a total of 31 (!) variant covers to choose from!  

We close with some wonderfully funny DuckTales #1 (2024) variant covers by our great friend Debbie Anne Perry!  ...Can we now claim 33 variant covers?  

GOTTA LOVE THESE! 

R.I.P. Pat McGreal

It's always sad to prepare a "R.I.P." post, as every one of them I create is in tribute to someone who "made my life a little better, or nicer", by either their presence or their accomplishments.  

But, it's all the more so when it's a member of the small creative community that I've been privileged to be a part of - the Disney comic book creative community.  

Pat McGreal passed away May 31, 2021. 

I never met, and know little or nothing about, Pat McGreal, but I DO know that he was too young to be the subject of a post like this!  

With his spouse Carol, Pat McGreal wrote some of the best contemporary Disney comic book stories, which have appeared in comics published by Gemstone and IDW.  

Among my personal favorites were the "Shambor" series of Mickey Mouse tales, and "Ten Little Millionaires", an outer-space version of  "Ten Little Indians" - with ROBBERIES taking the place of murders, of course!   The latter is reviewed in my Blog post on the issue!

In that post, I discuss a few "McGreal-isms" that have worked their way into Disney comic book dialogue - my favorite of which is Gyro Gearloose's exclamation "Great Tesla's Coil!" 

So much so that I integrated it into my own dialoguing work, because it's too perfect not to!  

From Luciano Bottaro's masterpiece "Uncle Scrooge's Money Rocket", as it appeared in Fantagraphics DISNEY MASTERS Volume 2 (2018). 

So, thank you, Pat McGreal, for your place in The Great Continuum of Disney Comics Creators, and for so many inspired and enjoyable moments on the printed page! 

Fantagraphics Disney Masters Volume 16: Luciano Bottaro - Joyously Jumpin' with Jupiter!

Lotsa jumpin' for joy goin' on 'round here today, an' here's why...

Yes, I finally got my copy today and all I can do is envy those of you who have had the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful book even sooner!  

In fact, I did something I have never done with any previous volume of Fantagraphics Disney Masters... I read it through COMPLETELY IN ONE SITTING!  ...Yes, really!  Me? Mister Horrifically Busy!  ...So, maybe I skipped a little housecleaning... and a meal... maybe a doctor's appointment... what of it?  

And, believe me, this volume has had some VERY strong competition... 

But, other than THE PHANTOM BLOT (...aaaand one future volume still in the works), there is none I anticipated more eagerly than this sequel to the previous volume dedicated to Italian Disney Master Luciano Bottaro (1931-2006)!

  Why?  Just one word... REBO! 

REBO: the ruler, the warlord, the imperious, impatient, and impetuous, and most importantly... the S.L.U.G. of  the planet Saturn!  (S.L.U.G. = Supreme Leader and Unquestioned General)  ...An acronym I created for the character with sheer delight!  

With his two obsequious generals in tow, this volume finds Rebo taking the battles (perhaps not nearly as hard-fought as he would have wanted) away from Saturn and his "target" Jupiter, and bringing them to Earth.  

We lead off with "Fear the Wrath of Rebo"... a title I admittedly cobbled together from two other genre favorites - "Fear the Walking Dead" and "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn".  

Having miraculously cheated death (as all the best villains tend to do), Rebo and his generals stow away on a Jovian SNARK ("Space Navigational Ark" seen above) bound for Earth and "The Great Hero of Jupiter"... Donald Duck (...?)

Rebo vows revenge on Donald for the humiliating defeats of the earlier Disney Masters volume, and the fun takes-over with the "pink and rubbery havoc" Rebo wreaks upon Duckburg, Rebo taking-over all the television sets in the city to deliver an ultimatum as if he were The Joker, and Daisy's uproariously indignant reaction to the S.L.U.G. of  Saturn by thinking it's all part of one of Donald's strange lodge initiations. 

A VERY worthy sequel by Mr. Bottaro, especially at it comes decades after the original "Uncle Scrooge's Money Rocket"!  

 Things To Look For:  

You'll find everything you've come to expect in my translation and dialogue efforts: puns and wordplay, "Bertram", "Goat-Ham City", Super Goof (...as a TV cartoon "Super Goof the Animated Series", anyone?) references.  Dog-face surrogates for Jimmy Olsen and Perry White, and not just one but two Lost in Space references - one obvious, and one very oblique (A "Tip of the TIAH Topper" to anyone who... "unearths" that second one!) 

Beyond that, Rebo is more over-the-top than ever, and his two generals all the more obsequious... though one of them is just a liiiittle more "obsequious-er" than the other!

Oh, yes... there's also a reference to the Carl Barks "Donald ducking-out on Daisy's spring cleaning" story from WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES #213 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: June, 1958) - where, as noted in our last post, Donald beats a rug! 

...And hey... this book was released in spring! 

We continue IMMEDIATELY where we left off (...literally, the same scene that closes the first story opens the next) with the book-titular "Jumpin Jupiter!", translation and dialogue by "Jonathan H. Gray with David Gerstein".  

Now, I don't know "who-did-what", but these stories are so nicely cross-edited - carrying over some of my characterizations and bits into this story, just as I followed Jon's lead in the "Ice Sword" stories... 

...that I figure at least some of this continuity-carryover might be attributed to David.  He is the best possible editor for this stuff (You'll see other reasons why, later in this post!), because NO ONE goes that extra mile quite like he does!  

Anyway, Rebo meets, and joins forces with Dr. Zantaf, another Luciano Bottaro creation whom you might remember from DONALD DUCK #9 (IDW, Cover Date: January, 2016).

They meet!

But, these things never end well. 

So, how did they go from "comrades-in-arms" to "arm-powered-combat"?  You'll just have to read (and enjoy) the story!  After all, this is a Blog, not a library!  

As if to cleanse the palate after all that Rebo-ranting and Zantaf... er, Zantaf... um, "whatever-he-does", we have a hilarious Bottaro Goofy story co-starring Witch Hazel...

...She of the epic confrontation with Donald Duck that spanned both animation and comic books!  

"Goofy and the Washed-Up Witch", with translation and dialogue by Thad Komorowski (and a better dialogue creator for Witch Hazel... and Magica DeSpell... and Gladstone Gander and other "characters of a certain type and attitude", you'll never find in this modern era).

In short, Hazel goes to extraordinary and absurd lengths to convince a dead-skeptical Goofy that witches exist - and that she is one!  

But, Goofy maddingly counters with the same solid and implacable denial that he once applied to the existence of Eega Beeva  - leading one to believe that Bottaro was directly influenced by Bill Walsh and Floyd Gottfredson's "The Man of Tomorrow" (1947).  

Another one of "those editing things" that I so love is the use of the "Paul Murry Goofy Logo"... 

 

...And the title, "Goofy and the Washed-Up Witch" done up in a "Paul Murry Lettering Font"!  

We end on another wonderfully weird sci-fi effort by Bottaro... alas, one published posthumously in 2007, after his death in 2006!  ...A story given one delightful surprise of an American English title, for a story about Scrooge and Gyro exploring the Black Holes of the universe - "Voyage to the Bottom of the Hole"!   

And, despite the English language reference to one Irwin Allen '60s sci-fi series in its new title, Luciano Bottaro visually recalls another Allen series with his unique artistic stylings... The Time Tunnel!  

I'm not so sure I can even recap this one, so best we let Luciano Bottaro, aided and English-abetted by David Gerstein (translation and dialogue), tell you himself!  ...And tell it he (and David) will in grand style! 

One more HUGE thing on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Hole"... not only was it named after my all time favorite TV series, but check out the title font...

 It's the VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA LOGO FONT!!!

DAVID, YOU ARE THE BEST!!!  What a surprise!  ...You had me at the "Paul Murry Goofy Logo and title font", but THIS?  WOW!  

It's enough to make a guy forget about REBO! 

 Just don't tell him, okay?  

The book is rounded-out by a biography of Luciano Bottaro, by Armando Botto.  

After all that, I can say no more beyond... GET THIS BOOK!  

Oh, wait... "REBO SAYS... GET THIS BOOK!"

Um... Better?