Do you remember Darkwing Duck, the terror that flaps in the night? The 1990s superhero duck from Saturday mornings on ABC returns in his own comic book mini-series from Boom! Studios this June. Lanchpad McQuack, Gosalyn Mallard and the fiercest of Darkwing’s rogue gallery all join the daring duck of mystery in an all-new, completely original four-issue mini-series: Darkwing Duck: The Duck Knight Returns.

More »

One of the most successful paperbacks in the world comes out with its 400th issue this month. Since Lustiges Taschenbuch was first published in October 1967, Ehapa Verlag in Germany has published over 215 million copies of this popular Disney comic. The 250-page books are published 13 times per year with a print-run of approximately 400,000 copies. Over the years several spin-off series have been added, including Christmas and Easter specials, a Ducks-only edition, a Mini version and even an English edition.

The 400th issue comes out on March 9th. To celebrate this milestone, Ehapa is also releasing a four-volume special edition presenting a selection of some of the best stories by the best artists. The four books will be released one per week in the month of March.

This week Boom! Studios released issue #703 of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories with the first part of The World to Come by Italian writer/artist Andrea “Casty” Castellan. If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, check out this preview of the first 10 pages to whet your appetite.

More »

CastyOn February 10th, Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories issue 703 (published by Boom! Studios in the United States) will start a new multi-part story arc titled “Mickey Mouse and the World to Come,” which was written and drawn by talented Italian artist Andrea Castellan, who goes by the name of Casty.

I had a chance to ask Casty some questions about his career as a writer/artist and his work for Disney. Casty shared with me his early start in writing comics, where he finds his inspiration, and details about an upcoming story that may be of interest to duck fans!

More »

Yesterday Boom! Studios released the first book collecting Don Rosa’s legendary epic story The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The hardcover album ($16.49 at Amazon) was released earlier than expected, but in case you haven’t seen it yet here are some pictures of this fabulous new book.

More »

Boom! Studios in the United States is launching two new monthly series this month: Wizards of Mickey and Disney’s Hero Squad.

Wizards of Mickey #1, on sale January 27th, will continue the epic tale of magical adventure that was started in Mickey Mouse & Friends issues #296 – #299. The stories proved popular enough to garner its own stand alone series. Wizards of Mickey follows the adventures of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy as they compete in the Grand Wizard’s tournament, determined to win all the pieces of the Sorcerer Supreme’s crown and free Mickey’s master from the clutches of the evil Phantom Blot! You can pre-order Wizards of Mickey #1 for $2.39.

Disney’s Hero Squad, which will also go on sale on January 27th, continues the Ultraheroes stories that were started in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #699 – #702. The series features Super Goof, Duck Avenger, Eega Beeva, The Red Bat and more coming together as Disney’s mightiest band of heroes, ready to stomp out the bad guys wherever they may lurk! Pre-order Hero Squad now for $2.39.

“The fan response to Wizards of Mickey and Disney’s Hero Squad has been completely insane,” says BOOM! Disney Editor Aaron Sparrow. “These characters have reached a whole new audience, and fans, old and new, have clamored to have these stories in their own dedicated series. Well, you demanded it and we delivered.”

So what will happen to Mickey Mouse & Friends and Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories? The first one will take a break for a while as Boom prepares the next wave of Mickey Mouse stories. This will delay the series milestone #300 issue, which would have been next. Comics & Stories #703 will see the debut of a new series by Italian artist Casty titled “Mickey Mouse and The World to Come” (I TL 2721-3P, “Topolino e il mondo che verrà”). For a preview of Casty’s work see this fan-made website about his work.

From this website you can even download a wallpaper for the story that is coming to Comics & Stories:

The United Kingdom and Italy now have a DigiComics section on their local Disney websites. The two sites can be found at disney.co.uk/digicomics and disney.it/digicomics. They are only two pages, but provide some official information about the service.

The homepage has two large features for Wizards of Mickey and Superduck:

More »

Amazon has another one of their great 4-for-3 deals for books under $10. This includes some of Boom’s latest trade paperbacks as well as lots of older Gladstone and Gemstone comics and albums that are still in stock at Amazon.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.

(This picture of Scrooge by Carl Barks was taken from Christmas Parade 5)

Last Thursday, PlayStation launched their new Digital Comics service for the PSP (PlayStation Portable). Comic stories can be purchased from the PlayStation Store and there’s a large variety of different genres, from Astroboy to X-Men. Disney comics are available too (or I wouldn’t be writing about this here) as part of the new Disney DigiComics program from Disney Publishing Worldwide. Right now there are a total of 40 Disney comics available for download and DPW plans to add five to ten new stories per week! The PSP service is currently only available in English in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States and South Africa. There are also sites for Ireland, Germany, Italy and Spain but these have a ‘coming soon’ message on the homepage. In 2010, other countries will be added and Disney DigiComics will become available on other platforms, like Apple’s iPhone and iPod.

Disney DigiComics is using the vast library of comics created by The Walt Disney Company Italy for Topolino and other Italian comics. The Disney stories are in a special section in the PlayStation Store on the PSP and they are organized by character. You can browse by Donald Duck, Daisy, Gladstone Gander, etc. Special series, like Double Duck and Wizards of Mickey, are listed separately. The short stories (around 25 to 30 pages) are $0.99 each and the longer ones (around 50 pages) are $1.99. There is one free 8-page comic for download, which is titled ‘Donald Duck and the Fussy Genie’ (I-2270).

More »