Tomorrow Boom! Kids launches a new series: Mickey Mouse & Friends. This means that Mickey is back in comics … well, in the United States at least. In the rest of the world he has never really been away. Comic books with Mickey and his friends remain very popular in other countries. In Italy, weekly Topolino (‘Mickey Mouse’) is read by over one million people every week, and in France bi-monthly Mickey Parade Géant is a 308-page comic book with a circulation of 187,000.

Four Color #79 (1945)
 

Mickey Mouse #295 (2006)In the USA, Mickey has had his very own comic book for well over 50 years. Officially, the Mickey Mouse comic that Boom is continuing tomorrow (keeping the numbering intact) was launched in 1952. The first Mickey Mouse comic book, pictured on the right, actually came out in 1945 and was the 79th issue in the popular Four Color series by Dell Comics, which highlighted a different character in each issue (The Riddle of the Red Hat in this issue was Carl Barks’ only Mickey story). A total of 27 of these Four Color ‘one shots’ were released with Mickey’s name on the cover until Mickey Mouse was launched into his own regularly published series in 1952, starting its numbering at 28.

Mickey Mouse was published first by Dell Comics, then Gold Key, Whitman, Gladstone and finally Gemstone Publishing from 2003 to 2006. Gemstone, founded by Steve Geppi in June 2003, began with a wide range of titles, but in the second half of 2006 they canceled most of their series, including Mickey Mouse, to focus solely on two prestige titles targeted at collectors: Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disney Comics & Stories. The last Gemstone issue of Mickey Mouse was number 295 of December 2006, and the publisher unfortunately lost the Disney license altogether two years later.

Now, after almost three years, the regular American Mickey Mouse comic book is back thanks to Boom! Kids, which obtained the license to publish comics with classic Disney characters earlier this year.

Mickey Mouse #296, which hits newsstands this Wednesday, is the first of Boom’s new Mouse and Duck comics (Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck will follow later). The publisher was kind enough to send me some preview issues to show them to you right here! There are three different covers: More »

Paperinik New Adventures (or PKNA) was published by The Walt Disney Company Italy from 1996 to 2001. The futuristic series followed the adventures of Paperinik, a superhero alter ego of Donald Duck.

The character of Paperinik was originally created by Guido Martina and Giovan Battista Carpi in 1969, but was revamped for this series and new friends and foes were created to form the basis of a new adventure series. The first issue of PKNA introduced a new enemy in the form of an alien race called the Evronians and two new allies for Paperinik: a very advanced artificial intelligence computer called Uno, and a journalist named Lyla Lay.

The Italian press praised Disney’s capacity to renew and develop this new style while respecting the integrity of its characters. PK was first launched in an experimental phase with three test issues. Following positive results (the second test issue sold 130,000 copies), the series was officially launched in November 1996 and became very successful. PKNA was reprinted in many other countries and fans of the series called themselves PKers.

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A while ago I posted pictures of four of the six new statues by Dark Horse of Disney characters based on the art of Carl Barks. The first one of Uncle Scrooge has now come out and the other five will be released in the coming months.

I received my copy of Scrooge a couple of weeks ago and it is indeed beautiful. The Syroco-style small statues come in a special tin with pin and booklet. Each statue is limited to 950 numbered pieces.

The latest two statues in the series will be of Gladstone Gander (release date December 16th) and Beagle Boy 176-761 (February 3rd):

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The Walt Disney Company has just announced that it acquires Marvel Entertainment and its portfolio of over 5,000 characters for $4 billion.

“This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney’s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories,” said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. “Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney.”

“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation,” Iger said.

“Disney is the perfect home for Marvel’s fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses,” said Ike Perlmutter, Marvel’s Chief Executive Officer. “This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney’s tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world.”

For more: Google News

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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I’m started a new category on this blog in which each time I’ll feature a different Disney comic title from around the world. The first one is Kisah Hidup Paman Gover (or The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck) from Indonesia. This new series, which was launched in July 2009, collects The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck in chronological order: the original 12 chapters as well as the additional “in-between” chapters. The work, for which Don Rosa earned the Will Eisner Award in 1995, tells the story of Scrooge’s life from 1877 to 1947 using references found in Carl Barks stories. Look at this gorgeous cover of the first issue:

Kisah Hidup Paman Gober is published by Kompas-Gramedia, the largest media conglomerate in Indonesia, which not only publishes books and magazines but also owns 5 radio stations and a TV station. Disney comics have a solid presence in Indonesia with several regular titles, including classic Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics and trade paperbacks, as well as modern titles such as Tinkerbell, W.i.t.ch. and Princess. The country’s flagship title is Album Donal Bebek, which has been published weekly since 1976.

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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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Back in May, Walt Disney Studios launched Kingdom Comics, a new division tasked with re-imagining and rejuvenating Disney’s live action films as 128-page plus graphic novels. The company’s other goal is to create original material that will have the potential to be made into new film projects.

The new division is overseen by actor and novelist Ahmet Zappa, producer Harris Katleman and graphic novelist, actor and producer Christian Beranek. Zappa commented: “The ability to create new publications based on properties from the Disney vaults, and to develop original ideas for graphic novels and possibly future Disney films, is a dream job filled with enormous fun and potential. Being a storyteller myself, I can’t wait to work with some of today’s top writers and artists in bringing a fresh approach to graphic novels and the movies. We’re also excited to discover and develop promising new talents in this field.”

At last weekend’s Wizard World in Chicago, Kingdom Comics co-founder Christian Neranek gave out some more details about his Kingdom Comics. “Think totally in the spirit of National Treasure and Pirates of the Caribbean,” he said. “Our purpose is to go back and re-imagine stuff that Disney may not have thought of, or they may have a mandate like ‘Look, we have a lot of equity in something that is thirty years old that people are fond of.'”

“We’re not going to be interested in doing the single-issue format,” he said. “It’s going to be on a book-publishing schedule every four months when we launch. We’re shooting to have the books out Fall of next year.”

Read more on last weekend’s panel at Wizard World on Comic Book Resources.

In last week’s giveaway I asked people to give their favorite Disney comics character. There were nearly 150 answers, so this was just a small survey, but it’s still fun to see what the results were. The most popular character was Donald Duck, with his rich Uncle Scrooge in second place:

It’s also interesting to note that 59% were ‘standard’ characters like Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, 21% of entries were Pixar characters, while 11% were from classic Disney features like Alice and Princess Jasmine.

Amazon has recently lowered the pre-order price on the upcoming hardcover editions of Don Rosa’s Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck books from $24.99 to $16.49. That’s 34% off! Most of the other future hardcover books from Boom! Studios listed on Amazon are $16.49 now too. They are:

• Cars: Radiator Springs
• Cars: The Rookie
• Donald Duck Classics: Quack Up
• Finding Nemo: Reef Rescue
• The Incredibles: City of Incredibles
• The Incredibles: Family Matters
• The Life & Times Of Scrooge McDuck: Volume 1
• The Life & Times Of Scrooge McDuck: Volume 2
• Mickey’s Hero Squad
• Monsters, Inc: Laugh Factory
• Toy Story: The Mysterious Stranger
• Walt Disney’s Christmas Classics Volume 1
• Walt Disney’s Valentine’s Classics Volume 1