A panel of judges have arrived at the 2007 nominees for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, considered the “Oscars” of the comic book industry. Among the nominees of this year is Don Rosa’s “The Black Knight Glorps Again”, from Gemstone’s Uncle Scrooge #354 (buy for $6.96), nominated for Best Short Story. It is the third story by Rosa to feature his original character, The Black Knight, whom first appeared in 1997. (more…)

Italian weekly Topolino (”Mickey Mouse”) has started the second series of comic stories in the Wizards of Mickey saga that stars Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck in a new world of wizards and castles. The first chapter, written by Stefano Ambrosio and drawn by Marco Palazzi, appeared in issue #2680 of Topolino this week. The new series, titled “The Dark Ages”, is accompanied by a large advertising campaign in Italy; check out this great promotional website. The first series of Wizards of Mickey started in October 2006; you can download all ten chapters of the first series on this official website.

German publisher Ehapa has relaunched the official website of Germany’s weekly Micky Maus magazine, at www.micky-maus.de. The website features a fresh new look with an animated header that shows Duckburg and contains mini games. The site has many activities, including a drawing course, an interactive map of Duckburg, games, puzzles, and much more. In March, the website of monthly Lustiges Taschenbuch was also renewed. (more…)

Did you know that, with approximately 50% of the market, Disney is the largest publisher of children’s magazines and comics (excluding manga) in the world? Disney comics and magazines are published in 85 languages in 75 countries, from Czech Republic to China and from Israel to Indonesia. 27 countries have a weekly Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck magazine that together sold a total number of 114.9 million copies in 2005 ¹. Disney comics may be dying in the United States — in the rest of the world they are still very much alive! (more…)

The Karikaturmuseum in Krems, Austria has an exhibition titled “Donald Duck … and the duck became human, The Drawings and Poetic Works of Carl Barks”. The exposition is from 25 March to 4 November 2007 and has more than 400 original works of art, including 290 from the collection of Gottfried Helnwein.

This week, Gemstone’s Uncle Scrooge #364 (buy for $7.⁵⁰) features three Easter-inspired Uncle Scrooge stories. In Pat and Carol McGreal’s “Scrambled Eggs”, Scrooge’s antique Fibbergee Egg gets swapped with a decorated ostrich egg; in Lars Jensen’s “The Nest Egg” huckster architect Lardo J. Porkington rooks Scrooge into building an egg-shaped money bin; and finally Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard’s “The Egg and Why” has Scrooge’s Number One Dime swallowed by Fethry Duck’s hungry hens! The issue also has two Beagle Boys tales, starting off with a feature-length Carl Barks classic from 1963, “Case of the Sticky Money”, in which the crooks are suddenly rich and nephews Huey, Duey and Louie invent a strong super glue. Following this unusual premise, we meet the B-Boyz, the future Beagle Boys, when Gyro Gearloose travels “Into the Future” with his time-machine-borne descendant, Chip. (more…)

Today would have been Carl Barks’ 106th birthday. He is considered by many to be the best comics creator of all time. He created many characters, including Scrooge McDuck, Gladstone Gander, The Beagle Boys, Gyro Gearloose. The quality of his scripts and drawings earned him the nick names The Duck Man and The Good Duck Artist. Fellow comic writer Will Eisner called him “the Hans Christian Andersen of comic books”. Barks died in 2000 at the age of 99. (more…)

When shopping at a Real,- supermarket in Germany yesterday, I came across a display of Disney food products, by ‘Disney Magic’. There were many different items (pasta, juice, popcorn, etc.), but the most interesting one for me as a fan of Disney comics was “Dagobert’s 1. Taler”, or “Scrooge’s First Taler” (Taler is the fake currency used in German Disney comics). They are cookies in the shape of coins with a big one on them. Disney comics are very popular in Germany — today nearly one million fans in Germany read Micky Maus every week, and a recent study has shown that approximately one-fifth of parents also enjoy reading along. (more…)

Spring Fever is the first of a new seasonal special from Gemstone. The annual series will feature spring-themed stories. This year’s volume (out on 25 April; pre-order here for $9.50) contains the stories “Mystery of the Swamp” - a classic Donald Duck adventure by Carl Barks, “Lost on a Dog and Nap in Nature” - Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck short stories by William Van Horn, “Spooks Island” - a vintage Mickey classic from the 1950s. The cover is by Dutch artist Daan Jippes. (more…)

On Free Comic Book Day, participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their stores. This year’s 6th Free Comic Book Day will be on Saturday 5 May 2007. Gemstone Publishing’s contribution this year will feature a story by 2006 Eisner Award Hall of Fame honoree Floyd Gottfredson’s; “The Robin Hood Adventure” (1936) takes our hero, Mickey Mouse, to Medieval times, where he must prove himself a warrior — sword-fighting, jousting, and risking his life to rob the rich! (more…)