Adventures in Comic-Boxing: One Way OUR COMICS are Better than THEIRS!

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!  

At least Fantagraphics keeps it as small as possible!  And YAY for them! 

Ripples in Time Redux!

What better way to "re-do" a "Ripples in Time Redux" post than by leading off with the "B" Cover of MICKEY MOUSE #3 / Legacy Number #333 (Fantagraphics Books, Non-Displayed Cover Date: April, 2026)!

Worry not because here's the "A" Cover for "Ripples in Time", right on its time-traversing heels!  

...And, speaking of "time-traversing heels"... The Rhyming Man bids a fond adieu, to our heroic two! 

So, why "re-do" a "Ripples in Time Redux"?  

Because our new and much-valued friend "Mouse Maestro" has written a great piece on his Blog on "Ripples in Time: Part Two", and we feel that it deserves a linking post of its own in addition to simply leaving it buried in depths of the Comments Section of our previous post!  

So GO READ IT - RIGHT NOW! 

And if, like Mickey, Uma, Goofy, and ol' Slimy Rhymey, you have the ability to travel in time, go back 30 minutes or so and ENJOY IT AGAIN -- for the FIRST TIME!  Repeat until done to a fine golden brown!  

And, if you get caught in an infinite time-loop of reading Mouse Maestro's piece again-and-again-and-again... well there are many worse ways to spend eternity!  

LIKE THIS ONE!

AND THIS ONE!

Naw, don't do that... Better to concentrate on FAR SUPERIOR THINGS... like THESE...

"Ripples in Time" Part One!

                    

Kari Korhonen's magnificent "McDuck Journals" series!

...And the fine works of Mouse Maestro! 

 ..."Casty and BEYOND", anyone?  

My Latest Gemstone Script: UNCLE SCROOGE # 380.

UNCLE SCROOGE # 380 (Released today: October 08, 2008) contains my latest English language script for Gemstone Publications, which I titled “A Game of One-Cupmanship”.

The original story, as most are today, was produced in Europe by the very talented Kari Korhonen, and it is a sequel to a series of one-page gags by Uncle Scrooge’s creator, Carl Barks, where Scrooge continually finds ways to scam a poor diner owner out of a cup of coffee.

This was actually a fairly famous group of gags that appeared in DELL FOUR COLOR # 386 (Better known as UNCLE SCROOGE # 1), US # 7, US # 10, and US # 12, in the early-to-mid 1950s. All of these gags are also reprinted here and are deftly scattered throughout the book to set up the issue’s conclusion with “A Game of One-Cupmanship” to marvelous effect! Just another of the many, many things Gemstone and its dedicated editorial staff do so skillfully!

What worked well in the classic one-pagers works even better in this new tale’s ten-page format – as the ante between the two caffeinating-combatants is steadily raised and the frustration level at each defeat for the java merchant brings things to a percolating boil! The escalating gags and superb pacing of Korhonen’s tale takes what Carl Barks did all those years ago to new levels of laughs!

Indeed, this is the outright funniest original story I’ve had to work with since beginning my freelance dialoguing work – and I’ve had some really good ones, particularly from writer Lars Jensen, so the bar is already pretty high! My editor, David Gerstein, told me that I really “…got into the spirit of what Kari was doing!” with a number of additions and twists of my own to add to the fun. Hope you enjoy it!

The issue’s featured story is Don Rosa’s “Island at the Edge of Time” (1993), another superb effort by Rosa which “does right” what the conclusion of the “Bubba Duck Serial” on DUCKTALES did so very wrong! (Watch the DVD, if you don’t know – or don’t remember – what I’m talking about!)

You should buy the book for that alone! But, if you crack a smile at “A Game of One-Cupmanship”, I wouldn’t mind at all! In fact, I might even treat you to a cup of coffee… provided I get it at the price Uncle Scrooge pays! Tough times, you know!