Interviews

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!

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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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Boom! Studios is releasing the first issue of Monsters, Inc. tomorrow. It’s the latest comic book based on Pixar’s animated feature films. The first four issues are written by Paul Benjamin and drawn by talented artist Amy Mebberson. Besides drawing for the Monsters comic, she’s also working on the upcoming Muppet Peter Pan comic as well as covers for Finding Nemo and The Muppet Show. I asked Amy some questions about her work.

Disney Comics Worldwide: How did you get started at Boom! Studios?

Amy Mebberson: Much like Alan Porter said in your last interview, I had worked with editor Paul Morrissey at Tokyopop. Through the grapevine I heard that Boom! were building a stable of artists and writers for their Pixar and Muppet comics and basically, they couldn’t NOT hire me. I wouldn’t let them! So I got in touch with Paul, made some phone calls, followed him home a few times, received a restraining orde-… okay, moving on.

All the artists have to be approved by Disney as well, so I had to submit a whole lot of character model sheets for various titles and Monsters Inc. was the first one they approved me for. By a pleasant stroke of luck, I was paired with writer Paul Benjamin, whom I also knew from Tokyopop, so I got to start working with some familiar faces!

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Disney comics are back in the United States thanks to Boom! Studios, a relatively new publisher that recently landed the license for Disney Pixar’s movie characters as well as Disney’s classic characters like Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.

Boom’s first two Pixar titles, featuring all-new stories, were Cars and The Incredibles, which both hit newsstands in March 2009. The first issue of “Cars: The Rookie” sold out in one week and is now in its 2nd print-run. The Cars comics are written by Alan J. Porter with beautiful artwork by Albert Carreres (stories) and Allen Gladfelter (covers). I had the chance to ask Alan some questions recently about his work for Boom and his love for Cars.

Disney Comics Worldwide: How did you get involved in writing the Cars comic for Boom?

Alan J. Porter: I begged to do it! OK the serious answer, I already knew Paul Morrissey the editor on the BOOM Disney books as we had worked together at Tokyopop where he had published my manga story GOD SHOP. The day that BOOM announced the Disney*Pixar deal at San Diego Comic-Con in 2008, I found Paul and told him that I just had to write CARS. I pitched him a story idea there and then that he liked, so he asked me to send him some more story ideas after the convention. It seems that both Paul and the folks at Disney liked my ideas enough to give me the gig.

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Frank Stajano has the fifth part of his interview with Don Rosa on his Comics Podcast website. In this part Don Rosa talks about the twelve beautiful posters he did for Scrooge’s 60th anniversary in 2008. Each poster depicts a part of Scrooge’s life with scenes from some of Rosa’s favorite Barks stories. You can read the interview or listen to the podcast. Be sure to also check out the other parts of the interview: 4, 3, 2 and 1.

Andy Mooney

In this great article from CMO Magazine, Andy Mooney, chairman of Disney Consumer Products, talks about his introduction of active licensing at DCP. Unlike before his arrival at the company in 1999, their product managers now work closely with developers and licensees on the design of new Disney-branded products and new categories, such as Disney Princess, W.i.t.c.h., and the recently introduced Disney Fairies. More »