The Disney Comics Thread

Vicar created and still creates a lot of good comics. There are lot of Duck artists between Barks and Rosa that are seriously underestimated - Tony Strobl, Dick Moores, Jack Bradbury and my own favorite Al Taliaferro all deserve medals!

Among today's writers I like David Gerstein, who tries to bring back Mickey into the Uwerks-Gottfredson's spirit- a less serious, more mischievous mouse.

This is the third thread I post this on, and I swear it'll be the last.

Me getting an autograph from Don Rosa◊.

I haven't read more than 5 or 6 Vicar stories starring Donald Duck, but from I have seen, the nephews seem too disrespectful of their uncle and Donald seems too much of a hopeless loser, characterizations that I wouldn't consider on someone who has been called the closest to Barks by the man himself. Then again, I'm missing out a lot of his work. If anyone knows of a Vicar story that truly feels like a Barks', let me know. Or any awesome Vicar you wanna share.

Catel is absolutely right in that Donald is never the same in Barks' stories. Here's a very interesting article on the subject Here

Oh, pretty damn cool, Kerrah.

So are we talking about the Boom! Studios comics ITT too, or is that a different thread?

Huh? I never found the nephews to be terribly respectful of Donald in Barks' stories? And Donald has always been a loser...

Anyway, Vicar is a breadwinner artist - he produced heaps of stories. The main complaint I have seen of him was actually that he basically copies Barks without being Barks; that other artists of the era wrote their own stories which happened to have Donald and Co in it, but Vicar leaned rather too heavy closely to Barks. That was before everyone started worshipping Don Rosa as the second coming; I wonder what they (some Swedish Donaldist in a fanzine) would think today?

Two of my favorite Vicar stories are about Donald becoming the world's greatest gardener and searching for the Fountain of Youth. Both stories, of course, end in tragedy, but the way there is fun in very different ways. I should track down exact data for comics before I recommend them, so I won't say more.

The theme of the article in the link, how Donald can be used in so many different stories and still be the same, is very much on the spot. Continuity was never the biggest draw of Disney Comics. Until recently, of course.

Erik

edited 14th Oct '10 2:47:48 AM by ErikS

It's worth noting that, even in Barks' stories, Donald gets thrown a bone when he does the right thing, like when he travels to the Arctic (to save GLADSTONE of all people) and in the final Barks story published, where Donald tolerates an obnoxious customer as long as possible, and is promoted for his trouble.

I'm going to echo the earlier sentiments about Rosa: he's good, but his handling of the characters can be wonky.

Of course, I'm not asking for a characterization of the nephews where they kiss the floor their uncle stands on, nor I'm asking Donald to become Disney's Bugs Bunny. It's just that in the -admittely very, very few- Vicar stories that I have read, the triplets not only openly mock their uncle and state out loud nothing but flaws about him, they actually leave him to his fate when he's endangered by an angry mob or some other predicament, laughing along the way. In Barks' stories, there was much more of a sense of care...They wouldn't walk away leaving Donald alone, they mostly commented on their uncle's bad luck, but with sympathy. And about Donald's loser status, it's still greatly exaggerated on the Vicars I read.

As said before, though, I'm basing my judgement on the low, low quantity of Vicars I got the chance to check. I'm gonna look for the ones you suggested, Eric, perhaps inD.U.C.K.S can prove helpful...

Indeed, punchy, Donald got his ocassional victory in Barks' tales. How sweet that is...Althought all of the times were he lost were handled in such a genius manner (for the most part) that I couldn't help but love the stories.

It should be noted that Vicar very rarely (if ever?) writes his own stories (which is a main reason why he's so profilic). It's actually rather rare for Disney artists to do both - Barks, Rosa, William and Noel van Horn, Daan Jippes, Romano Scarpa, Marco Rota come to mind (and Scarpa at least illustrated dozens of stories he didn't write).

I think the moment Don Rosa really lost me was Gyro's First Invention. Who cares how Scrooge got his money back after A Christmas for Shacktown? Talk about something that was never meant to be explained. Don Rosa at his peak was probably the most original, creative Duck artist ever, but I find much of his later work to be incredibly self-indulgent and tedious. I find it sad that he doesn't have a high opinion of some of his best work - An Eye for Detail, The Once and Future Duck, His Majesty Mc Duck - which are filled to the brim with fantastic gags, even if they aren't 'historically accurate' or filled with Continuity Porn or whatever. (not that I have anything against these things per se, I love The Life and Times of Scrooge Mc Duck as much as the next guy. But some of Rosa's later work has nearly nothing else going for it)

Ooooh! Well, talk about making a tantrum for nothing, then, heh...I must have Don's bad luck with the Vicar stories I got to read. I'll keep on looking further, then.

Rosa dislikes An Eye For Detail? Really?! Woah, is there a link available to read it?

I really haven't had time to check out the other two, but I'm all up for well-done gagfests. I wonder what's his opinion on the reality-bending storylines with Donald and Scrooge that we commented on earlier..

My favourite Barks stories would have to be The Old Castle's Secret, Back to the Yukon and The Phantom of Notre Duck. My favourite Rosa stories are A Letter from Home and The Dream of a Lifetime. The latter of those is ripe with distracting Continuity Porn, but it's just so darn funny!

Some of my other favourite stories include the Orb Saga, a Crisis Crossover story arc between the Mickey and Donald comics where Mickey and Donald have to take on Meringue the Malevolent, an Evil Sorcerer trying to forge an invincible power sceptre out of two magic orbs magically bound to Mickey and Donald. I'm not entirely sure who wrote the arc, but the art was passed around to several different artists, including Vicar.

Another story I like but sadly can't recall the title of was a European one where after stupidly putting on a cursed necklace, Donald sets free seven demonic Donald look-a-likes representing the Seven Deadly Sins who threaten to eventually merge into a God of Evil and enslave the earth. Donald and the nephews Gotta Catch 'Em All before that happens or Donald will vanish forever.

• duck lust*

Richie: Rosa used to write short commentaries on each of his comics for the German 'Don Rosa' album series, and he was rather dismissive of the works I've mentioned (he called An Eye for Detail 'an embarrassing result considering it was a good idea'). At least he realized how brilliant 'A Matter of Some Gravity' is, I guess.

Dr Dougsh: You're thinking of 'The Seven Deadly Donalds', I think. http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+96370

A great idea, but I think the art style (by Miguel) is rather hideous. Miguel, along with others such as Xavi and Joaquin, was responsible for the many horrible Mickey Mouse comics at the turn of the millenium that attempted to bring Mickey 'back to his roots' by making him less of a goody two-shoes/know-it-all and returning him to his no shirt/red pants outfit. It was an idea by Byron Erickson, the boss of Egmont (the Danish company that produces the majority of Disney comics these days), who also commissioned Rosa to write 'Life & Times'. Unfortunately Mickey behaved like a retarded man-child in most of the stories (and looked ridiculous in his classic outfit since everything around him looked modern), a far cry from the carefree adventurer of Floyd Gottfredson's work that Erickson obvioulsy had in mind. Italian comics (by Scarpa, Massimo de Vita, Giorgio Cavazzano etc) have always been the gold standard for Mickey comics, but I guess they're virtually unknown in America?

edited 20th Oct '10 3:45:52 PM by Rax

Virtually, but Boom! Studios has started bringing them over.

I figure I should ask this here:

Here at Venezuela, Disney comics were never credited (so I still have some problems tracking who did which story). They never were well categorized either, so often I'd get puzzled about a character without being able to know their origins and first appearances.

There was, for instance, this weird character who showed up in a few Mickey comics. They named him 'Escualido' here, and he was a small thin humanoid with a huge nose, shirtless and barefoot, who only wore black shorts. He apparently was from another world (the stories I read never explained it well), and he had some sort of weird dog-thingy pet named 'Pflip' here.

Then there was some talking crow, short and wearing only a shirt and cap, who showed up in a few Goofy comics as kind of a Mickey replacement (that is, playing The Straight Guy to Goofy). They renamed him 'Amadeo' around here.

What was the whole deal with them? I haven't been able to find info about them anywhere.

Does anyone know what that one story where Magicia De Spell disguises herself as Daisy and try to use Donald to get Scrooge's Number One Dime is called? I can't for the life of me recall it.

biznizz: Here it is! Coincidentially, I immediately knew what story you were referring to because it is listed as an example on Becoming the Mask.

Rax: Good, good, Gravity is by no means a story that deserves anything less than applauses. I wonder if Rosa would change his mind regarding the other stories if he read some Barks comics first, then those. Ironically, it's the lack of Barks' Continuity Porn that makes those 'feel' like modern-day Barks stories...At least to me.

About the Seven Deadly Donalds, it's an absolute shame the art style doesn't match up with the script...Makes you appreciate some artists more, eh?

Oh, and no idea, Over Master!?, but I'll look around...

edited 13th Mar '11 3:20:20 PM by Richie

Over Master, the characters you're thinking of are Eega Beeva and Ellsworth, two characters that originally appeared in the comic strips of the 40's and made their way to the comic books thanks to Italian artists, especially Romano Scarpa.

Richie: I actually don't think Rosa ever wrote stories that feel like Barks's stuff... and that's a good thing. The majority of Duck artists try to emulate the style and feeling of Barks' stories, most notably Daan Jippes and Vicar. Whereas Rosa's underground-esque art style and edgier, Simpsons-esque humor style is totally different from Barks and makes him very unique among Disney artists... which is no doubt one of the reasons for his success! But I've always found it funny that he was declared Barks' successor when he was one of the few artists who did his own thing stylistically, no matter how much he referenced Barks' work.

^ Those are they! Thank you!

Rax: You've got a good point there, and one that I can easily agree with. Just to clarify, when I said that those specific tales remind me of Barks' work, it wasn't in the sense that they're akin to Carl's style, be it artistically or humor-wise; what I was getting at it's that those stories' main purpose is simply to entertain the reader along with a well-crafted tale starring the Ducks. Not ambitious like some of Rosa's epics, just comics that are easy to pick up, read, and enjoy the helluva out of. In that regard, I had a Barks' sensation going there.

Unholy stepmother of Jesus, is the kiss Donald gives to Glomgold in Don Rosa's The Last Lord of El Dorado the Squick-iest thing I've ever seen on a ducks comic or WHAT.

I've only seen Eega Beeva Atomo Bleep-Bleep in one comic, which was a mystery one where his role was basically the Do Anything Alien, and we learn that Baby Mickey was once kidnapped by baby Pete. Yes, really.

I was more a fan of Paperinik myself. I remember a particular one involving four aliens with Mind Probe helmets, whom he eventually defeated by tricking them into mind-probing a gorilla.

Edit: Found them.
Edit2: Null edit to restore strike markup.

Edited by Medinoc on Dec 3rd 2021 at 1:43:35 PM

Depends often on what characters are made popular by the publications of the different countries. In France we've had many Paperinik or Brigitta Mc Bride stories, sometimes Eega Beeva, and quite NEVER Bip-Bip or Paperetta, though they are all Scarpa's characters (except Eega Beeva who's created by Gottfredon).

My favourite is the "Guardians of the Lost Library". I also enjoyed the recent "The Duck Knight Returns" story.

Disney comics are hard to get here, though.