This Saturday, May 3rd, is Free Comic Book Day. This annual event is a great opportunity to introduce your friends and family to the world of comics as many comic book stores across North America and the world will hand out comics totally free! There will be over 40 different free comics this year, including the annual contribution by Gemstone Publishing, publisher of Disney comics in the United States. This year’s free Disney comic is all about Duckburg’s most famous inventor: Gyro Gearloose. (more…)

Egmont, one of Scandinavia’s leading media groups, has received the Disney Milestone Award at the annual Bologna Children Book’s Fair in Italy earlier this month. Tommy Melle, Vice president of Egmont Kids & Teens, received the award for 60 years of mutual beneficial cooperation with The Walt Disney Company. (more…)

Today is the 75th birthday of Mickey Mouse’s nephews, Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse. They first appeared in Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse Sunday comic titled ‘Mickey’s Nephews’ on 18 September 1932:

(more…)

The seven space shuttle astronauts who returned to Earth with Space Shuttle Endeavour on August 21st will be honored in a day of ceremonies at Walt Disney World on September 10th. Check NASA.gov for a schedule of events.

On 25 May, one of the most famous dogs in the world turns 525 years old. Well, that’s in dog years of course (he is officially an anthropomorphic Dingo). In human years Goofy turns 75. He first appeared in the cartoon “Mickey’s Revue”, released on 25 May 1932. Directed by Wilfred Jackson, the short features Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow performing a song and dance show. In his first appearance Goofy (named “Dippy Dawg”; he later changed his name) is a member of the audience, irritating his fellow spectators by noisily crunching peanuts and laughing loudly.

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.

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…)

This month marks the anniversary of Brazilian monthly magazine Tio Patinhas (’Uncle Scrooge’), as publisher Editora Abril publishes the popular series’ 500th issue. The commemorative issue of Tio Patinhas will feature stories by several classic Disney masters, including Carl Barks, Tony Strobl, Marco Rota, William van Horn and Don Rosa.

Disney has just launched its new Disney.com. It was supposed to go live in January, but it is here today. There is a lot of videos, TV shows, games and music to explore. The revamped website allows users to share content, create playlists and simultaneously play games and engage with friends within a virtual world of Disney characters. The site is very heavy on your bandwidth and requires Flash 9. Be aware that the site may not work immediately when you view it from outside the United States (for me it redirected to Disneyinternational.com at first, but after several tries I got through). So go check it out and have fun! (more…)

This year is Uncle Scrooge’s 60th anniversary (he first appeared in 1947’s comic story ‘Christmas on Bear Mountain’ by Carl Barks), and for this occasion American Disney comic artist Don Rosa is creating twelve beautiful posters for the Egmont company in Denmark. Egmont publishes Disney comics and magazines in many countries around the world, and the posters will be featured in their magazines. In Germany the first one has come out in the January issue of Donald Duck Sonderheft. (more…)