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Book and Comic
Reviews
(10/30/06)
Mickey Mouse and Friends
#294 (November 2006).
Pardon me while I shed a tear or two at the keyboard. Gemstone has just
officially announced (through the medium of a missive to the Disney
Comics Mailing List) that this title, along with Donald Duck and
Friends and the two pocket-books (Donald Duck Adventures and
Mickey Mouse Adventures) is being discontinued "for the time
being." These "temporary" cancellations have a nasty habit of becoming
permanent. The Gemstone folks are planning to increase their rate of
release of such "Prestige Format" projects as Walt Disney Treasures
and the quarterlies, but with the derricking of the …and Friends
books, I think it's safe to say that any pretense that Gemstone comics
can be sold in the traditional newsstand format has been rudely
clobbered, and that's not a good thing. "Trick or Treat for Halloween,"
indeed…
At least MM&F
managed to slip this issue's book-length reprint of "The Red Wasp
Mystery," a much-loved serial from the late-60s Walt Disney's
Comics and Stories, through its vanishing "window of opportunity."
Though this adventure, written by Cecil Beard and drawn by the
inevitable Paul Murry, is a bit on the childish side compared to the
best Floyd Gottfredson continuities, it represents Disney comics' one
real effort to spin a story off the "superhero boom" that followed the
success of the Batman TV show. (No, I'm not forgetting Super
Goof, but that character was created, and his long-running title
launched, before Adam West's quarter-hour of fame arrived.)
Mickey acts on Chief O'Hara's behalf to locate the missing Red Wasp,
Mouseton's crimson-clad human (!) "crusader against the forces of evil,"
during a massive crime wave. Mickey locates the hero's cloud-bound lair
(with the help of Goofy, whom the Wasp had hired as a gardener), and,
donning a spare cape and cowl which ever-so-conveniently fit him, he
"buzzes off" to fill in as best he can. Having kidnapped the Wasp and
sent him on a one-way rocket trip to Mars, villains Dangerous Dan McBoo
and Idgit the Midget attempt to do the same to "impostor" Mickey,
eventually succeeding. On Mars, Mickey and the wayward Wasp join forces
to cobble together a workable space vehicle (see what I mean about all
this being "childish"?) and finally return to Earth in time to stop
McBoo and Idgit from reducing Mouseton to rubble with missile attacks.
The death traps and high-tech gimcrackery (courtesy of McBoo and Idget,
normally conventional bank-robbers and such) remove any doubt as to
what's being parodied. Indeed, this story was, as David Gerstein
comments in his editorial remarks, "a seismic rethinking of [Mickey's]
traditional world." Alas, it was just as "successful" as the earlier
Mickey Mouse: Super Secret Agent, in the sense that it left no
traces (except in Brazil, where the Wasp ultimately inspired a whole
regiment of Disney-character superheroes).
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(10/23/06)
Donald Duck Adventures
#20 (September 2006).
This issue's front cover spotlights the last story in the volume:
John Blair Moore and Flemming Andersen's Uncle $crooge tale,
"Crash Course". While it's not the best thing in this particular
package, "Crash" merits the distinction if only because of what it
teaches American readers about one of Scrooge's less appreciated
recurring foes, the free-spending John D. Rockerduck. Well-known to
European readers, JDR has only appeared a handful of times in this
country. In this caper, he and Scrooge race along "the most dangerous
road in the state" (you may now commence with the humming of the
Speed Racer theme song) to determine which mogul can manufacture the
safer car. The wild and wacky proceedings, illustrated by Andersen at
his most slapdash, are reasonably funny in and of themselves, but to me,
the real highlight is a brief exchange between Donald and Scrooge along
the way. Donald, while needling his uncle for paying him, Gyro
Gearloose, and the other crew members the usual pittance in wages,
responds to Scrooge's comeback "What [read: how little] you spend can
make a difference!" by noting, "[Rockerduck's] not the world's richest
duck, he doesn't care about that! But he does care about
showing you up!" I can't think of a better way to explain the
difference between JDR and the more familiar figure of Flintheart
Glomgold. It is easy for the casual reader to regard Rockerduck as
simply a Glomgold clone. All praise to Moore for making the distinction
crystal clear.
The lead story,
Michael T. Gilbert and Toni Bancells' "Lotsa Luck," likewise
tries to "enlighten" the masses as to the underlying realities of the
Duck "universe," but in a far clumsier manner. Gilbert floats the idea
that Gladstone's luck may depend upon a "Lucky Buck" that Scrooge gave
him while he was a child. Donald certainly buys the theory; after he
goes overboard with the "Lucky Buck" in tow and lands on a remote
island, he insists to the isle's alternately genial and dyspeptic chief
that the greenback gives him good vibes galore. This works about as
well as one might expect… but with Gladstone's cruise ship lost at sea
and menaced by bad weather, might there be something to the fanciful
story? The storyline is cluttered and confused, not up to Gilbert's
usual standards, and the connection to a Fu Manchu-type villain who
wields black magic (up to and including animating giant stone statues)
is pretty unconvincing. For once, however, Bancells' artwork is fairly
decent.
The Mickey
interregnum adventure, Stefan Petrucha and Xavier Vives Mateu's "The
Letter Mouse Trap," is the best story of the trio. Acting on a
request from Goofy – or so he thinks – Mickey finds himself traveling
the globe, collecting a number of packages from post offices while
dodging a gang of "clone" villains who resemble the Spy vs. Spy
title characters (if the latter wore scarves and spoke broken English,
anyway). Remarkably enough, this extended chase sequence blends
smoothly into a plot by a sophisticated but "megalomaniacal" robot to
"retrofit" Earth to make it inhabitable for an alien race. Petrucha's
"alien-themed" Mickey stories have traditionally been
hit-or-miss, to put it charitably, but this one's denouement
legitimately took me by surprise. Petrucha's experiences in writing
mystery stories for the comic-book adaptations of X-Files and
Kolchak: the Night Stalker definitely served The Mouse well here.
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Donald Duck and Friends
#345 (November 2006). The dear,
departed Daniel Branca returns to the pages (as opposed to the cover) of
Gemstone Comics in this issue's lead story, "Guard Duty." The
script, by Jeff Hamill – I'll always remember him as the guy who wrote
the backup story in the issue of Uncle $crooge containing
the long tale I dialogued – puts Don's Nephews in the highly unusual
position of trying to keep their desperate uncle from finding his way
into Scrooge's money bin to see the old miser. Unbeknownst to Donald,
HD&L are trying to earn some money to help their uncle take Daisy to the
Thanksgiving Day dance – the very same money that Don is trying to
borrow from Scrooge! The art is a glorious example of "late-period"
Branca, wherein the artist loosened up his pen line and doted a bit more
on distortions and extreme poses. Some people prefer Branca's earlier
style, but hey, his Nephews are still as cute as ever and the action
still flows wonderfully.
The Stefan Petrucha/Jorge
David Goofy story "Fish Face" would have rated four
"starfishes" (hyuck) had Petrucha not tried to cram the "twist" ending
into a single, dialogue-heavy final panel. Until that point, the story
is a classic showcase for Goofy as "the thinking man's crackpot"
(thanks, David, for the inspiration). Glimpsing a fish at the aquarium
with a face that looks just like his, the Goof is soon obsessed with the
idea of getting another look at the critter; he's even willing to take a
24-hours-a-day job as "staffer by day, watchman by night" so he can
"wait for [his] fishy all the time." As I said, the payoff doesn't
measure up to the buildup, but this is a Goofy story worthy of
Sarah Kinney (and yes, that's meant as a complement, in case you were
wondering).
A Carl Barks
reprint from 1945, "The Tramp Steamer," fills out the book.
Unemployed yet again – or perhaps, this early on in Barks' career, I
should say, "unemployed for one of the very first times"? – Donald
enlists the Nephews' help in trying to make a go of a cargo-hauling
business, using the title craft. Disaster duly follows disaster --
though, to be fair, very few of the bad things are directly attributable
to Donald himself. With his steamer in ruins, Don is left to pick up
the pieces and hope he can locate "a good corner to sell pencils!"
Donald's state of mind would have been far serener had he maintained
this stoic attitude throughout Barks' career… but then, how many of you
have ever heard of a funny Stoic?
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(10/9/06)
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
#673 (October 2006).
Here's yet another "quasi-Halloween" fun-fest, headlined by a reprint of
a 1991 William Van Horn tale, "Kid Stuff." Recall the early-50s
Carl Barks story in which the Nephews tried to queer realtor Donald's
sale of their decrepit "kids' hideout"? Consider this opus a sort of
"distant cousin" of that tale. As Donald prepares to paint a supposedly
"haunted" house, HD&L try to hassle him with "ghostly" gimmickry. The
boys are definitely in "brat" mode in this case, as there's no reason
whatsoever to make trouble, so you suspect right away that some real
phantoms will arrive to set things right (in a cosmic sense), as indeed
they do. Despite the predictability of the outcome, this is a most
entertaining and well-written tale, a worthy representative of Van
Horn's famed "hot streak" in the pre-"Implosion" Disney Comics'
Donald Duck Adventures. The splash panel of HD&L being confronted
by a cellarful of levitated junk is very nicely done.
Portrayed as a
dogged (and ultimately successful!) entrepreneur in "Kid Stuff," Donald
also "represents" admirably in Janet Gilbert and Wanda Gattino's
"Hotel Transylvania." After surviving a rugged training course to
earn his spurs as a hotel concierge -- strangely, he wears a
bellboy's uniform during his trial – Don is assigned the duty of
pleasing a hostel full of Transylvanian monsters. (Think the
DuckTales episode "Ducky Horror Picture Show," in which Uncle
Scrooge and the crew of McDuck
Mansion were forced to serve a gang of ghastlies on Scrooge's own turf.) Don
does quite well until the hotel chain manager comes to inspect his
efforts and a couple of bad breaks "break" at the same time. The hotel
winds up wrecked, but the monsters prevent the angry boss from firing
Donald because (1) he really has tried to "solve any
problem" for them, and (2) they like that "lived-in" look!
Remembering Donald's painful (and unlucky) demise in a similar Barks
story set in a backwater town, I'm sure he appreciated the customer
support.
"Dimes are
Forever" and "A Kidnapping
in Yubet," the first two parts of "The Orb Saga" – Pat and Carol
McGreal's second stab at a multipart crossover epic, on the heels of
"Mythos Island" – have nothing to do with Halloween, but they sure qualify as something
of a mystery. Little truly happens in these two unrelated
adventures, the first (drawn by Vicar) pitting Scrooge and Donald
against Magica De Spell and the second (drawn by Cesar Ferioli) matching
Mickey and Goofy against the Phantom Blot, other than the fact that
before the end, each "hero duo" comes into possession of a mysterious
orb. The Magica story was so uninspired that I could almost imagine Pat
and Carol checking off "Aspects of Generic Magica Story" as they went
along – "Scrooge's spies, check; amulet, check; Old #1 Dime, check; foof
bombs, check; Vesuvius, check…". In the Mickey tale, meanwhile, the
Blot kidnaps young La Dee Dama, the spiritual ruler of mountainous Yubet,
because the latter can levitate and the Blot plans to use that power to
aid his "criminal conquests." Unless Dama's abilities extend to
levitating bank safes and such, I can't honestly see what the
Blot is gaining from this gambit. Dama's annoying repetition of the
fatalistic catchphrase "What will be, will be!" adds little to the
proceedings apart from awakening memories of a Doris Day hit. The
McGreals usually have a higher "batting average" than this, so hopefully
they'll get the "real" saga moving next issue.
The issue's
"fillers" are reprints of a pair of late-50s stories. The Scamp
tale "Boo to You, Too" is one of the earliest Al Hubbard-drawn
pup-tales and still features the supporting characters in a distinct
Lady and the Tramp mode. Scamp and Speedy the dachshund (was that
his name in the movie?) team up to test the veracity of bloodhound
Trusty's long-winded tales of long-ago bravery by scaring him inside an
old abandoned house. The obvious similarity to "Kid Stuff" makes it all
the odder that this story immediately follows the Van Horn
reprint. In "The Broom Boom," drawn by Jack Bradbury, the Three
Little Pigs outwit the Disney Witch (or whatever the "official" name of
the Snow White character has become) in a rather contrived story
that starts with the Pigs inheriting a broom factory.
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(10/2/06)
Uncle $crooge
#358 (October 2006).
It'd be nice to pretend that this issue's lead story reflects some sort
of "Halloween" theme, but, in truth, the scariest things about Carl
Barks' 1966 tale "House of Haunts" are (1) the Beagle Boys'
grammar, which slips out of subject-verb "phase" more often than is
usual for them, and (2) the very idea of Duckburg possessing a
vaguely medieval castle built by a "mad Duke." A creaky, old, legendary
haunted house I would have been able to accept, but this notion is even
further "out there" than the "Cathedral of Notre Duck" Barks
created for his earlier story "The Phantom of Notre Duck." The Duke's
peril-filled pile is the site of Scrooge's latest attempt to sidestep
"the terrible menace of R-Day!", the day when the "rehabilitated"
Beagle Boys are once more released from durance not-so-vile. This time
around, the Beagles plan to use the degrees they've earned in "Studious
Hours School" to help them rob
Scrooge's money bin. Scrooge sticks his money in the mad Duke's
dungeons for safekeeping, but his craving to take a swim in it and
relieve his "banker's eczema" proves too much to control. The Beagles
use glowing paint to track Scrooge to his hideaway, then give Scrooge a
sort of localized amnesia. Covered with the ghastly puke-green paint, a
freed Scrooge jumps to the conclusion that he's a ghost – and, yes, it
really is as contrived and unfunny as it sounds. Even with
Donald and the Nephews' help, will Scrooge ever recover his memory? And
why will doing so ultimately help save the Beagles' behinds, as
well? Barks does what he can with these unpromising raw materials, but
it's hard not to classify this as one of his less successful late-period
efforts.
"Let Sleeping
Bones Lie," another Daan
Jippes redrawing of a Barks script from Junior Woodchucks, is, by
contrast, one of the funnier and cleverer entries from that series,
though it relies a bit too much on the repeated sight gag of the
"Woodchuck walla" (the JWs running about aimlessly, bumping noggins and
weeping and wailing) for my taste. Not exactly an "environmental
morality play" of the sort this series is famous for, this is more of a
story of the Woodchucks thwarting Scrooge's effort to profit from an
existing natural find – in this case, a gigantic preserved skeleton of a
hitherto unclassified dinosaur. Denied in his desire to grind the bones
into roadbed fodder, Scrooge switches gears and seeks to turn the
skeleton into a themed roadside restaurant. With key assistance from
their Official Hound (Pluto in the original John Carey-drawn
story), who slips some "vision weed" into Scrooge's tea and causes him
to hallucinate that the long-dead "colossosaurus" has come alive for
revenge, the Woodchucks succeed in preserving the debris' dignity, or
some semblance thereof. I love the gag in which the Woodchucks' mentor
d'histoire, the "Great J.A.W.B.O.N.E.," can't spit out his
elongated name and title fast enough to prevent Scrooge from
winning a race to the land office to lay claim to the "colosso"'s
carcass.
The book's
concluding story, "The Terror of Outer Space," purports to be the
introduction of a new adversary for Scrooge: Tachyon Farflung, an
ambitious alien villain who dreams of having his name added to the
"Annals of Villainy" by stealing "the single hugest fortune in the
universe!" As written by Stefan and Ulm Printz-Pahlsson and Donald
Markstein and drawn by Vicar, however, Farflung more closely resembles a
constipated green monkey with an attitude. The villain's grand scheme
of shrinking the money bin to portable size isn't exactly new, and a
subsequent fight between Donald, Scrooge, and Farflung on a "living
planet" lacks any real punch, mostly because Vicar's artwork is far too
prosaic (in this particular story, at least) for such exotic
doings. When Farflung bellows the inevitable "I'll be back!" on his way
back to the Galactic Gulag, suffice it to say that I wasn't shaking in
my size 11˝'s. A regularly-scheduled off-planet offender wouldn't be a
bad addition to Scrooge's rogue's gallery, but I have my doubts that
Farflung is a true "keeper," of the Michael Rennie (Lost in Space)
variety or otherwise.
The better of the
book's two crack-fillers is the Beagle Boys shortie "Hive Been
Better." By controlling the movements of a beehive's queen, the
B-Boys hope to enlist some airborne assistance in a "stinging" operation
on a local bank. David Gerstein's "bee" puns flow as copiously as honey
from the comb, and I'm not thrilled by Esteban's art in this particular
story, but the execution is decent enough. Fethry Duck has a harder
time manufacturing something worthwhile out of Ferioli, Manrique, and
Gerstein's "Dance of the Cuckoos," a trite tale in which the
eternal faddist – an "efficiency expert" this time around -- runs afoul
of a Teutonic-accented witch and her Frankenstein-monster-ish
maidservant while toting a load of cuckoo clocks to a mountain lodge.
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