Archive for October, 2009

On November 4th, Boom! Kids will launch their new Donald Duck & Friends series with issue #374 (pre-order here). It’s the first new issue of Donald Duck & Friends in almost three years. The series originally started in 1952.

Boom is kicking off Donald Duck with another series from the pages of Italian Topolino. This 142-page saga is titled DoubleDuck featuring Donald as a secret agent. It was written by Fausto Vitaliano and Marco Bosco with art by Andrea Freccero, Francesco D’Ippolito, Marco Mazzarello and Vitale Mangiatordi.

Here is a preview of the covers and the first five pages of the story: More »

Swedish comic artist Joakim Gunnarsson recently bought two folders with scripts and plot ideas by Carl Barks and today Joakim posted that he found script pages from late 1961 or early 1962 for an unfinished Uncle Scrooge story. The title of the story is Happi Happi Island and on his blog Joakim describes the nine-and-a-half script pages of what would possibly have been a 20-page story.

This is very exciting. It would be great if this material was published somewhere once, or even better: completed and drawn by someone like Daan Jippes. And who knows what other material is still out there!

I recently got some nice scans of international Disney comics from my friend Tim Otterburg in Germany. Like me, Tim collects Disney comics from around the world and he’s got an impressive collection. With his permission I’d like to share some of these wonderful scans here. You can click the pictures to view them bigger.

Carl Barks Library (Iran)
The first one and my favorite is this album from Iran. It’s a direct translation of the Carl Barks Library in Color that was published in the 1990s by Gladstone in the United States, reprinting the work of Carl Barks in chronological order. At least 5 of these albums were published in Iran and it’s the only Disney comic from the country I have ever seen:

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On October 14th, Boom! Kids will launch the Uncle Scrooge series with issue #384 (pre-order here). It’s the first new issue of Uncle Scrooge in almost a year. The ‘richest duck in the world’ made his debut in the Carl Barks story “Christmas on Bear Mountain” in 1947. Barks used Scrooge a few more times in other Donald Duck stories and by 1953 the character had become popular enough for the publisher to grant him his own title.

While all other three of Boom’s classic monthly Disney comics are featuring long Italian 3-tier stories, this is the first comic to use 4-tier stories produced by Egmont Comic Creation in Denmark. However, as you can see in the scans below, Boom has cut up the story to show three tiers on each page. An interesting choice.

Boom is kicking off Uncle Scrooge with a series written by Swedish author Per Hedman with art by Argentinian artist Wanda Gattino. In the 6-part saga (this issue of Uncle Scrooge has the first chapter and part of the second) Uncle Scrooge and his nephews criss-cross through Europe in search of treasure as they are being chased by Magic De Spell who is, as always, after Scrooge’s Number One Dime.

Cover A is by Tino Santanach, Cover B is by Daniel Branca and an exclusive third Don Rosa cover is available at the Baltimore Comic-con this weekend.

I’m so excited that Uncle Scrooge is back! Head on over to Things from another World to order this first new issue of Uncle Scrooge for only $2.39. Here is a preview of the covers and the first five pages of the story. More »

This week, Boom! Kids in the United States is launching the new incarnation of one of the longest-running and most famous comic books of all time, Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories. Boom’s first issue, number #699 (available here), kicks off with the first chapter of a multi-part series titled Ultraheroes, which was produced by The Walt Disney Company Italy for the Italian weekly Topolino.

One of the writers of Ultraheroes is Giorgio Salati. I had a chance to ask Giorgio some questions about his work for Disney and writing Ultraheroes.

Disney Comics Worldwide: How did you get started writing Disney comic stories for Disney Italia?

(above portrait of Giorgio
by Marco Ghiglione)Giorgio Salati: After some novel and film script writing courses that I attended after high school, I realized that comics were the kind of media I really wanted to write for, having been a passionate comic book reader throughout my youth. That’s why I followed comic book writing courses at Scuola del Fumetto in Milan.

Teacher Riccardo Secchi — now a colleague and a friend — taught me this beautiful profession with a mix of passion and discipline. One day he told me: “You’re good at writing funny dialogues; you’ll sure fit Disney’s style”.

That was good news to me. I’ve been a Disney fan since I was born (my father is a Barks fan!). I got the e-mail address of a Disney Italia editor and sent him about ten plots and a pair of scripts. He called me and said something like: “Ok, you can write Disney comics. Now send me something that fits.” Gulp! Ten plots rejected! I pulled myself together and wrote new stories which fit (the main characters were Donald & Daisy Duck and Goofy), so… I signed a contract! It was the summer of 2003 and it was like a dream come true.

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Disney Publishing Worldwide is working on bringing traditional Disney comic stories to the digital age by making them available in ‘animated’ format (with the panels scrolling by) on mobile devices around the world. I first learned about Disney DigiComics back in July and then they were reported to target a launch by the end of this year. Today I’ve received some new information about this exciting project from the DigiComics team in Italy.

Disney DigiComics has an ambitious rollout schedule. They are still planning to release them this year! In December they will first be made available in Italy and English speaking countries, including the United States. This will be on Apple iPhone, iPod and Sony PSP.

In the new year, DigiComics will enter some countries where Disney comics have a strong history and the paper versions are already read by millions each week: Germany, the Nordic countries and the Netherlands. Later in 2010, DigiComics will become available in France, Spain, Poland and other countries like China and India. More platforms will be added throughout next year as well, including Nokia phones, Nintendo and more.

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A new announcement on the Boom! Studios blog talks about an exclusive variant Uncle Scrooge cover limited to 500 copies that will be available at Boom’s booth at Baltimore Comic-Con 09 this weekend. The cover was hand-picked by Don Rosa and celebrates Uncle Srooge’s 62nd anniversary. This is an exclusive cover for Uncle Scrooge #384, the first new issue in the series in almost a year, which will come out on October 14th.

This is a great cover and it’s also nice to read that Don Rosa is involved. I wish I could make it to Baltimore this weekend to pick up this limited edition Scrooge comic. Mr. Rosa is even listed as a guest at the event!

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A new magazine titled Disney Fan is launched in Mexico this week. The activity magazine features articles about everything Disney, as well as games and puzzles. The first issue comes in two different collectible covers: one with animation characters and another with the stars of Disney Channel. The new magazine is published by Mina Editores and is available at newsstands across Mexico for 25 pesos (approximately US$ 1.85). Japan has had a similar magazine since the early 1990s, ディズニーファン (Disney Fan), which is very popular there.

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Last week, a new album in the De Beste Verhalen van Donald Duck (“The Best Stories of Donald Duck”) series came out in the Netherlands. Album number 134 is the first new album in over a year.

“Beste Verhalen” has reprinted (randomly) each story by Carl Barks since 1975. The albums were published regularly for over two decades until the Dutch publisher ran out of stories last year. Album number 132 basically finished with the last few stories written and drawn by the Duck Man himself.

Since album 133, the series has started to publish stories written by Barks, but completed by other artists. There are not too many of these, but it will keep the series going for a little longer. Most significantly these include the 24 Junior Woodchucks stories that Barks wrote in the early 1970s after being lured out of retirement. More »

The next new Disney comics series to be released by Boom! Kids is Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories. Launched in 1940, WDC&S is one of the longest-lived and greatest comics of all time. Issue number 699 will be released on October 7th.

The series kicks off with the first chapter of a 9-part Italian multi-part series, originally titled Ultraheroes, which features all the superheroes of the Disney comics universe in an epic clash against the super villains to determine the faith of the world. The series was written by Giorgio Salati, Riccardo Secchi and Alessandro Ferrari and features beautiful artwork by Ettore Gula, Roberta Migheli and Stefano Turconi.

Here is a preview of the covers and the first five pages of the story: More »