New Titles

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.

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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.

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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:

I picked up a copy of Disney twenty-three today at Barnes and Noble (where I was pleased to also find all of Boom’s Pixar comics). I thought that the magazine was exclusive to members of the D23 community, but apparently they also sell it to regular people. It’s a huge magazine (11 by 12 inches) with 60 beautiful glossy pages full of large photos and interesting articles about everything Disney in the style of Disney Magazine (†2005).

The cover story of the new magazine’s second issue is about Donald Duck’s 75th anniversary. There’s a 10-page article covering his origins and cartoon career. Unfortunately, there’s hardly any mention of Donald Duck in the comic books. The article basically skips all this and jumps right from the 1940s cartoons to his appearance in Fantasia 2000, the video game Kingdom Hearts and the Mickey’s PhilharMagic attraction at Walt Disney World.

Carl Barks is mentioned briefly as “the artist who helped create many of Donald’s best cartoons and went on to make the Duck an international star of the printed page with his masterful comic book stories.”

The back inside-cover of the magazine does feature three vintage newspaper comics with Donald, Mickey and Bucky Bug.

More attention to the comic books is given on the website of D23 in this article about Huey, Duey and Louie, which was apparently written by comics writer and editor David Gerstein.

Searching for Boom! Studios on Amazon reveals a long list (see below) of upcoming trade paperbacks and hardcover books (Please note that these releases are not set in stone; in the past Gemstone titles listed on Amazon were later changed or never came out!). Some of the titles listed feature classic reprints of stories by Carl Barks, Floyd Gottfredson and Don Rosa. The first book, a hardcover Christmas album, is scheduled to come out in November and the other books in the first half of 2010.

A lot of fans will be pleased to see another reprint of Don Rosa’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, which has been out of print for a while and is still in high demand, but Boom’s version will be more expensive than the previous release. It will take at least three of their 112-page volumes to cover the more than 300 pages in the Life of Scrooge series, which will set you back $75. When Gemstone released these stories in 2005 and 2006 they came in two paperbacks (of 268 and 208 pages respectively) for ‘only’ $16.99 each. At least Boom’s books will be in hardcover. More »

Last month I wrote about the new English-language version of Lustiges Taschenbuch that Ehapa Verlag in Germany plans to launch on July 1st. I had read reports at the time that the 276-page comic would be available outside Germany, but it seems that this is not the case, at least for now.

I received an email from someone at the communication department at Ehapa who wrote that, for the time being, the English edition of Lustiges Taschenbuch will not be available to order outside Germany. However, I was not the first one to express interest in getting the books and they are actually thinking about alternative ways to distribute the new title through channels such as Amazon.

The main reason for publishing the new English-language Disney comic in Germany is not to enter the international market, but rather to bring local children in contact with the English language at an early age as English becomes ever more important as the world’s lingua franca. Editor-in-chief Peter Höpfner commented that they are publishing the new English edition of Lustiges Taschenbuch because English is becoming more and more important as it gets taught as early as pre-school and elementary school and secondly, because access to learning another language becomes easier in comic books when words and images are combined.

This month, Dutch publisher Sanoma Uitgevers has launched a new men’s magazine called DONALD, targeted at adults. The new 154-page glossy magazine features articles about lifestyle, cars, sports, gadgets, travel and more, as well as comic stories with Duckburg’s famous duck.

It is no secret that many grownups across Europe read Disney comics every week; being subscribed to the local weekly Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse comic is a tradition that is deeply rooted in local culture. Making a magazine just for adults makes sense, and I applaud the publisher for trying this out.

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Ehapa, publisher of Disney comics in Germany, has recently announced that it is planning to launch an English version of its hugely popular Lustiges Taschenbuch. The 256-page books feature 3-tier Italian and Danish Disney comic stories starring Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. Not much is known about the new English title, but the chief editor wrote in a German forum this week that the English version of the pocket books will launch on July 1st and will contain only stories that have already previously been published in Germany. More »

Disney Publishing Worldwide has announced a licensing agreement with Indian publisher Junior Diamond to publish Disney comic books in India. Two new titles are scheduled to launch this month: Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse will each be available in English and Hindi and the publisher is planning additional versions in regional languages for the south India market. The 32-page monthly comic books, which will sell for Rs. 25 (approximately US$ 0.50) will each have a printrun of 50,000 copies. More »

On January 22nd, Ehapa Verlag, publisher of Disney comics in Germany, is launching a new soccer Disney magazine titled Donaldo. The bi-monthly magazine will feature football-themed comic stories as well as news reports from the Champions League and Bundlesliga soccer championships, posters and activities.

The 52-page magazine is targeted at 7 to 10-year-old kids and will sell for €2,80. The first issue will have a print-run of 110,000 copies.