Fantagraphics Disney Comics Collections

Been a long time. I FINALLY finished the Don Rosa Library. Maybe the actual reason I put it off is because I didn't want this to end. And then I realized that I OWN the books, so I can reread the entire thing again any time I like! How cool is that?

The final volume contains my favorite Rosa story "A Letter From Home, Or The Old Castle's Other Secret". I've recommended that story elsewhere and I always get shocked responses from people who've read it because they had NO idea Disney Comics were actually ever that good.

My advice is to read the entire Don Rosa Library first for more context. But the story will knock your socks off. The drama in it kills me dead. And Donald Duck freaking breaks the Holy Grail!

There are no bad stories in this volume, but I almost wish there were so this section would be longer. I don't wanna be done with my Don Rosa reviews, but Fantagraphics has basically gotten to everything!

One of the things I have appreciated most about Rosa is that although he is a fantastic artist (a quirk I do NOT share with him) he puts an unusual amount of dialogue in the pages via narration and character conversations. You might understand why I was drawn to him, but one of the things his comics share with my lesser ones is you don't just breeze through an issue in five minutes. With all of the words, not to mention insane details, it's a rare comic that you actually sit down and READ, which is something I love. You have to put in some work, which is my favorite kind of fiction.

I highly recommend his stuff. The book is positively yogo banana pellets. 5 stars.

Uncle Scrooge "The Dream Of A Lifetime"

Honestly, this is the best dream-based work of fiction I have ever read / seen. It always has been and nothing has ever topped it. It's Inception by way of the Disney Ducks.

What's amazing about the story to me is that Rosa understands something about dreams everybody actually already knows, but fictional writers pretend isn't a thing to add complications. Rosa is one of the most gifted writers I have ever read because he understands this facet of dreams that would occur during a dream invasion is quite a complication itself.

Oftentimes in fiction, heroes must enter a friend's dream and a big secret they are hiding needs to be processed before their friend can wake up. Rosa understands something obvious about dreams that writers are either too stupid to understand (possible for some) or don't mind writing unrealistic stories because they know their readers will never call them on their crap (likelier).

You can't hide a secret from an outsider in a dream. That's not how it could possibly work.

If somebody asks you a question in the dream, even if it's your deepest darkest secret, you will automatically think of it because that's how somebody asking a question you don't want to answer works. And if it's in your head, it's in the dream itself, and dream-you will answer automatically.

This is common sense and an amazing twist for a character trying to keep a secret like his bank vault combination from the Beagle Boys. What's amusing to me, is despite Donald doing everything in his power to separate Scrooge from the Beagles so the combination isn't revealed, that part of the adventure is actually quite besides the point. The Beagle Boys are already tied up in the real world. While they are in prison, Scrooge can just change the locks the next day.

In fairness, although that bit isn't the tension Donald thinks it is, they DO need to get the Beagles out of the dream so Scrooge doesn't go insane upon waking.

It's interesting Scrooge is a lucid dreamer. So am I, and I'm to understand it's rare. Rosa must be too because he understands something about the process pop-culture tends to get wrong when describing the phenomena. You can pretty much do what YOU want in a lucid dream and always know you are dreaming, but the dream doesn't always cooperate. Sometimes it takes a huge effort to get even a few seconds of the thing you want and just as often you can't make it happen at all. Lucid dreaming is about awareness, not control.

The fact that he's never gotten past the ice in the face before this proves it. I have lucid-dreamed about hooking up with Jennifer Connelly more than once, but it almost NEVER actually happens, even though I know I'm dreaming, and that it's okay. For stuff you want in a lucid dream, It's Always Something.

We got great flashbacks to The Life And Times Of Scrooge McDuck in the dreams and I loved the look of pure enjoyment on Donald's face as he realized the final Beagle Boy was about to get his butt whooped by Scrooge McDuck at his peak, A.K.A. The King Of The Klondike. Rosa famously frowns on violence in stories as a way to solve problems (it's one of the MYRIAD reasons he loathes the DuckTales reboot). He ALWAYS makes an exception for Scrooge's Klondike days, I suspect because he thinks the notion of young Scrooge as a two-fisted brawler is actually pretty funny. He's not wrong. It's also consistent with how Carl Barks portrayed the character in the uncensored version of "Back To The Klondike".

I get why the Beagles thought Scrooge was having nightmares instead of fun, but I kind of think Donald should have known this about his uncle already. Scrooge has intimated to Donald more than once he actually values memories more than money. In fact the only reason he values his money at all is the memories he's made of earning it.

Rosa cleverly has Donald excited to see Ma Hortense as a baby without Donald revealing to the reader if she's still alive. His joy could be because she's dead in real life, or because seeing her as an incomprehensible baby is quite the adorable gas. It could be either thing.

I haven't seen Inception, so maybe they did the whole "You can't keep a secret in a dream" thing. I suspect they probably did. Rosa mentions in the notes that somebody told him the movie was based on an Uncle Scrooge comic and Rosa dismissed that as patently ridiculous (no more than Under The Dome was based on The Simpsons Movie. Weird fictional coincidences DO exist). But when Rosa finally got around to seeing the movie he admitted there WAS a bunch of stuff from the story he saw there.

Rosa admits he is not entirely responsible for the idea for the story. It was a fan who asked to remain anonymous who gave him the premise. And Rosa later heard that the movie Cell was released two weeks after the fan wrote him the dream idea so that's probably another reason Rosa won't be filing a lawsuit against Christopher Nolan. By the way, I am with Rosa. I believe this is how fiction is supposed to work. Homages and different takes on familiar premises are fair game. You can copyright a specific story, but you can't really copyright a general idea or premise. I freely admit a LOT of my work shares a lot in common with stuff I love (including in some cases jokes). I don't believe society's protectionism about every level of creative output is a very realistic concern. It's also why I feel far less threatened by A.I. than other creators do, but since I don't cash paychecks for my work, I have less skin in that game, so I do get they have financial concerns there that I don't.

People don't understand this about the good Disney Comics. The best of them can be held up to the best of the rest of fiction and be their equals as far as quality goes. The problem is the Disney Comics writers outside of Barks and Rosa are always so hit and miss (and a great deal of them are underwhelming) so somebody who has only dabbled in the franchise has no way of knowing that. But Rosa is the real deal, and his work can stand up to many other popular and beloved creators like Vince Gilligan, Mike Flanagan, Dwayne McDuffie, J.J. Abrams, or Jordan Peele. And more often than not, he thinks of a new angle that nobody else has done (like here) and because he's only famous in Europe, American writers never borrow his ideas. I confess the automatic secret reveal is something I would surely have loved to take a whack at in my own work, but Gilda And Meek frowns on dream sequences because of how badly the rest of pop culture abuses them. I imagine if pop culture wasn't always treating the viewer / reader like a punk over that specific thing, I could have had some fun with the idea. Instead, it remains purely Don Rosa, which is why it's so amazing to begin with. 4 1/2 stars.

Uncle Scrooge "Trash Or Treasure"

Okay, you know Donald isn't gonna WIN at the end, it's the how he loses that's the surprise. Good twist.

And memory junkie or not, Scrooge actually DOES have an accurate measure of what OTHER people find valuable. Cool beans.

Cool to see underground Duckburg again too. I love it whenever Rosa brings back his OWN conceits, and not just Barks'.

Speaking of which, of COURSE Uncle Scrooge owns the Oolated Squigg factory. Of COURSE. It would be weird if he didn't.

Want to knock Scrooge out cold, Beagle Boys? Suggest he throw out some of his old stuff. Poor Miss Quackfaster.

Fun story. 4 stars.

Uncle Scrooge "A Letter From Home" Or "The Old Castle's Other Secret"

I think I've read Rosa appreciates how much fans love "Guardians Of The Lost Library" and that that's one of his favorites too, but for a long time I was fascinated by the notion (that held for AWHILE) that fans thought "His Majesty McDuck" was Rosa's best story, and he hated that fact. First of all, I think at the time they said it, it was true. And if I were Rosa it would also have driven me bonkers.

It's one of his EARLIEST stories. As a writer you want people to more appreciate the later stuff. Rosa always lamented that he thought his best story was in the future, and as great as "His Majesty McDuck" was, he did not give it His All at the time, because it was still early enough that he didn't actually CONTAIN His All yet. Which makes the fact that it might already be a better Duck story than Barks ever did kind of amazing.

"A Letter From Home" is one of the last stories in Rosa's output, and I think it's the best. I'm not sure if Rosa does, but it hits every sweet spot for me Disney Comics can hit. It's funny, it's filled with awesome history tidbits, some Rosa-ish slavish Barks continuity, tense and exciting adventure, and yes, real heartbreaking drama.

People in Europe understand how versatile the Disney Ducks are, but Americans almost universally have no idea. The closest to drama the Ducks got in America was the DuckTales reboot, and I frankly think that show was pure crap, and a disservice and insult to everything Barks and Rosa tried to do. Worse, instead of celebrating the unique premise Barks and Rosa made the Disney Ducks, the producers of that cruddy show turned it into standard modern genre fare, as cookie cutter as everything else on TV, animated or not. Barks and Rosa loved the Disney Ducks because they were special and a tough thing to pull off correctly. The reboot's producers cared nothing about the premise, so decided to make it like every other cartoon instead of taking the time and effort to work the premise correctly. After every episode of DuckTales I watched, especially as it went on, I kept thinking to myself, "I hope Don Rosa hasn't seen this." The choices they made, specifically to have actions scenes of the Ducks committing violence against their enemies instead of outsmarting them, I kept worrying if he saw the butchering they did to his most beloved fandom (and Rosa describes himself as a fan first and foremost in the introduction to this very book) he'd have a stress heart attack. If I were Rosa and had seen some of the stuff DuckTales 2017 did with these beloved characters (like turning Dewey and Louie into literal sociopaths), I'd be headed for an early grave.

I sincerely hope Rosa's initial judgment of the show (It's not the Disney Ducks, they can't even get Scrooge's hat right) led him to never seeing anything else but the Pilot. I would be devastated if he saw some of the horrible things that show did.

But the drama of Scrooge diving in front of the gun to save Matilda, him sobbing that he was ashamed to see her again because of his actions, and learning his father was proud of him and believed in him, and him pointing at Donald and his family saying they had the real treasure all along, and his nephew was far richer than he was slays me. Ironically, Rosa does NOT use a light touch here which is why it very much feels a bit like fanfiction. GOOD fanfiction, but it's a little much.

But remember, Rosa is a fan first. It IS fanfiction. So I appreciate it all the more on that level, even though it lacks the nuance I prefer in my drama. Scrooge's feelings are big because that's how Rosa sees them. He almost certainly was sobbing along with Scrooge as he wrote and drew that scene. Which is a sign of artistic strength.

Carl Barks' work, as much as Rosa loved it, was extremely problematic. Much more-so than Rosa was ever willing to admit. It's not JUST the casual racism that was the problem. For the most part Disney Comics are able to censor or simply not reprint the worst stuff. But the fact of the matter is Scrooge searching for and taking treasure from the native people of faraway lands is colonialism at its worst. Not matter how satisfying it is to see him find the Golden Fleece or the Lost Crown of Genghis Khan, Barks letting him keep them sent a bad message that Barks himself was entirely oblivious about. Hell, most people were at the time too. It's only with decades of hindsight and reappraisal does the work become problematic.

Rosa understood this (at least a little) so whenever Scrooge found an amazing treasure in a Rosa story, like the lost gold of El Dorado, the local government would invariably swoop in and claim ownership of it. This would invariably annoy Scrooge, but since he treasures memories more than money, the adventure is the more important thing. That's the right messaging for modern readers.

And yet... I won't lie. It always feels like a Narrative let-down when it happens. That can't be helped, but Rosa portraying the right thing ethically paradoxically makes the story itself weaker. Let me be blunt. I accept that trade-off completely. It's the right move. And yet...

In this adventure, which turns out to be Scrooge's FINAL treasure hunt (at least if you are like me and only consider Barks and Rosa canon) Rosa thought of ways to say Clan McDuck was one of the founding members and heroes of the Knights Templar, and not only was their treasure hidden beneath Castle McDuck, but Scrooge had a legal right to oversee its distribution among the people who needed it. In Scrooge's final treasure hunt Rosa pulls out all of the stops so Scrooge can have his cake and eat it too.

What's especially clever is what is a part of the treasury. The Ark of Covenant AND the Holy Grail are in the treasury, but y'know, it's Disney. They can't have Scrooge questing for the Holy Grail. But if it's part of the larger treasury for the Crusader Kings, why not?

Donald Duck accidentally breaking the Holy Grail, is one of those perfect moments in fictional story history. And most people who know about Donald Duck will never even be aware it happened. But it did, and it was hilarious and fabulous.

Full Disclosure: I pay tribute to that moment in an upcoming issue of The Terran Wars where Meek accidentally steps on and snaps the Spear of Destiny. Of course Meek's random clumsiness does not have the hero moment Donald's is attached to, but that's because I am not as good as writer as Don Rosa is and I never will be.

The flashback prologue, man. If nothing else told you this was gonna be the biggest Duck story ever, that was it. Uncle Scrooge's treasure hunts as written and drawn by Don Rosa are ALWAYS huge tributes to Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code. It's kind of funny, because it's the Ducks.

How big is this adventure? The answer to the final clue is NOT in the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook. The horrors.

Rosa chose a VERY interesting way to play the nephew's reaction to Matilda spanking Donald, and it's the reason I love Don Rosa, because ANY other writer would have leaned into some sort of malevolent glee in the nephews for seeing their mean old Unca Donald finally getting punished by an adult the way he does them. Any other writer (and I would think this is also true of Carl Barks) would play the comedy as a bit of karmic catharsis for the nephews.

Rosa, who always plays Donald and the nephews like they love each other like crazy, did a VERY interesting thing and made the nephews look awkward and pretend they weren't seeing it. They weren't actually bored, but they were acting like they were so as not to embarrass either Donald or Matilda even further. And I like that Rosa believes Huey, Dewey, and Louie would have THAT specific adult reaction to that. Imagine the creators of DuckTales 2017 being handed THAT specific scenario and what crass and mean thing they'd do with it. Rosa's comedic subtlety here is why he might be the greatest Disney Duck writer of all time.

It's good to learn the little guy Maurice is a good egg. Moray being part of the Priory of Scion feels like pay-off to Barks even BARKS had no idea was a thing at the time. Very cool.

This isn't just my favorite Rosa story. It's my favorite Duck story, my favorite Disney Comics story, and probably my favorite DISNEY story of all time, including everything that studio has released to film and TV. PROBABLY. I'm trying to think of something I love more and can't do it. 5 stars.

Uncle Scrooge "The Black Knight Glorps Again!"

I'm gonna go against Don Rosa for once.

I think he has an entirely backwards view of the Black Knight.

The Black Knight is the best original character Rosa ever created. He stands up with Magica DeSpell, the Beagle Boys, and Flintheart Glomgold.

And Rosa only used him twice. This feels like a mistake.

In fairness, Carl Barks only used Flintheart Glomgold three times. And both Lusene stories were at the later end of Rosa's output right before he retired.

But I think the real reason Rosa didn't go back to Arpin Lusene again is he got it into his head that every Black Knight story would have to top the previous one.

Rosa may be a better writer than me, but I have value because I understand this is a completely damaging (not to mention unnecessary) mindset and he clearly doesn't.

Rosa's reasoning here IS a bit sound. There is no denying it. But of the three main Scrooge baddies, Rosa himself has pointed out the Beagle Boys, Magica DeSpell, and Flintheart Glomgold have entirely different goals regarding Scrooge and his money. The Beagle Boys want to steal it. Flintheart Glomgold wants to prove he's richer than Scrooge, and Magica DeSpell wants to melt down his Number One Dime into an amulet to make herself rich. Rosa came up with a clever anniversary special where the three adversaries teamed up to get Scrooge because they believed their goals didn't conflict. It's only upon closer examination that Magica realizes that making McDuck poor would work against her own goals, but it was a brilliant way to show that Barks' main villains' each had unique conceits and things Scrooge has to watch out for.

Rosa wanted Lusene to be like that. I get the integrity of that want, but I think he's probably overthinking things. Lusene knows he can't singlehandedly empty out McDuck's Money Bin (Mooney Bean) so his goal is to use the Omnisolve Black Knight armor to DESTROY Scrooge's money. Making him a singular threat unlike any Scrooge has ever faced. He can't get destroyed money back (and Lusene even destroys some in this story, which makes him the most outright successful of Scrooge's villains).

So Rosa got it into his head that Lusene would ALWAYS try to destroy the money, no variations. And he had to bring back the Omnisolve suit of armor, because it's the only plausible weapon in Lusene's arsenal for that, so the second appearance feels entirely redundant to the first.

Me? Not only would I want to avoid repeating myself on my single greatest character, but I would have allowed some flexibility there because his chemistry with the other characters, which enhances EVERYBODY'S characterization, would be more important to me than the gimmick. Rosa did not need to bring back the armor to have Lusene send Scrooge the missing Carl Barks painting at the end with Scrooge exclaiming what a unique adversary Lusene was. Because the destroying the money gimmick isn't Lusene's most interesting facet. It's the fact that he does stuff like that.

I get Rosa having SO much integrity there. But I think it was a mistake. Lusene should have recurred frequently. If he had, Rosa might have retired a few years later than he actually did.

You don't have to top EVERYTHING, creators of fiction. Good stuff is allowed to stand on its own, and great things FROM the good stuff are allowed to develop a unique life of their own. As a creator I have definitely been guilty of overthinking things in my work. This story is Don Rosa's turn.

For the record, Donald yelling at Scrooge NOT to open the vault door, even though he's trapped with Lusene at his deadliest, is the character at his most cunning and brave. Of course, after the fact, Scrooge has to undercut how smart it was for Donald to simply wait for the Omnisolve to eat all of the oxygen in the air, so they'd both pass out, and they could safely remove Lusene's suit, by pointing out that when Lusene fell over unconscious, it just as easily could have been on top of Donald, and instantly (and gorily) killed him. I am very glad Donald did not reach this (very true) conclusion himself. Lusene might have won if he had decided against that plan.

It's good, but I think the Black Knight is more versatile than Rosa gave him credit for. What's weird about the Disney Ducks is that THEY are versatile too, but when you see how badly DuckTales 2017 abused the premise, you realize the premise is also quite fixed too. Rosa normally (correctly) understands, when it comes to the Ducks there are certain rules he must follow. I think when it comes to his original creation Arpin Lusene, he's totally overthinking things, and handing himself rules and restrictions he actually doesn't need. 4 stars.

Donald Duck "The Magnificent Seven (Minus 4) Caballeros!"

This is the only Donald Duck story in the volume.

I have reservations. Panchito Pistoles' and Jose Carioca's sunny optimism is played as half naivete and half stupidity. But it also feels kind of racist. As does the "educated" Indian chief calling his villagers savages. I feel like the racism of the Carl Barks stuff was a sign of the times. Whenever it was present for either Rosa OR The Disney Afternoon stuff, it's not okay. Folks knew better in 2005. Maybe folks know better in 2025 that they ought to object to it. But I think writers, INCLUDING Rosa, probably ought to know how harmful this stuff could be and did even back then.

The story isn't without its charms. The best thing was Jose and Panchito randomly mentioning a treasure hunt / adventure they'd like to go on, and Donald modestly admitting he has already been there, done that in previous Barks / Rosa adventures with Scrooge and / or his nephews. What's interesting to me is Donald IS modest about it instead of braggy, which is why comic Donald is so interesting to me to begin with. He takes The Adventures for granted, and never thought about how impressive they would seem to outside observers, especially if they were kind friends. You are meant to think Jose and Panchito are silly for always being impressed by Donald, but when you hear the things he's actually been a part of from the outside objective viewpoint, he DOES seem quite impressive. That was a very cool idea Rosa did there.

Rosa love the Caballeros because they are the only characters who treat Donald both kindly, and like an equal. They are true friends and Rosa digs that aspect to them. I have to say, as problematic as much of it was, there is definitely something narratively interesting there, which justifies Rosa "going back" to characters that weren't in a single Carl Barks comic.

The capybara in the Mickey Mouse ears and pants is Rosa going for the cheap gag. For some reason he always seems to feel he has more license to do that in Donald stories than Scrooge ones.

Mixed feelings about this one, which is a shame because it's the second-to-last story ever. I wish it were better. 3 stars.

Uncle Scrooge "The Prisoner Of White Agony Creek"

It was my understanding as Rosa was writing and drawing this, he wasn't aware this was his last story. But when he finished it, he understood it was. That's kind of powerful, isn't it?

What do I think? It is SO freaking American of the United States to consider itself SO pop-culture savvy, when the vast majority of people, geeks included, have never read the story where Uncle Scrooge and Glittering Goldie actually had sex. Yeah, you read that right. The fact that you didn't even know it happened, much less that Disney allowed it to be portrayed, is why American nerds aren't as nerdy as they think they are.

I feel on some level that's good. Because if Americans had gotten ahold of this story, I feel like its religious moral scolds would have raised the roof. Despite the scene being extremely understated and tasteful (we only KNOW what's happening; we see no part of it happening), this "controversy" would eat up 6 months of The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News. Maybe I am wrong to bemoan the fact that as nerds, Americans aren't very well-read. Because I fear if they were, nice things like this would be entirely controversial for no damn reason whatsoever.

I did mention the story would court controversy. But it says something about Rosa's clout that Disney allowed it. The only Disney artists / animators allowed this specific amount of leeway are Rosa and Carl Barks himself (although Bark was only granted it later in life). Mostly because their fame is huger than any other artists, even though it's internationally. Rosa hints in the forward his tenure as the Ducks' Steward never made him rich. But to be able to say "I had THIS much creative freedom in my work from The Walt Disney Company" is a bigger brag. They actually allowed a character to use "hell" as a curse in "The Life And Times Of Scrooge McDuck". Rosa is very clear he has little patience for creating original characters (which is where he and I completely differ). But why would he even need to with the creative freedom Disney gave him here?

The cool thing about the Life And Times and Life And Times-adjacent stuff is that Rosa always brings in real people with conveniently black dog noses. Usually (unless it's Teddy Roosevelt) the depiction suggests the legend is not all it's cracked up to be. That's the deal with Wyatt Earp, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, Bat Masterson, and Hanging Judge Roy Bean here.

To be honest, one of the interesting things about the story is despite the fact that Scrooge hurts Goldie so much at the end, the truth is she is acting contemptibly throughout the rest of the story. If Scrooge didn't remotely believe in her change of heart, it's because she spent the entire story insisting it never would.

By the way, it's interesting Goldie is moved by the lock of hair rather than squicked out. I get it's an old anachronism from old fiction, but it's actually quite creepy in modern day reality. It being Scrooge's most prized possession is also a wee bit unsettling to be truthful.

The idea that Donald STILL believe Scrooge values his money over everything else, even after all this time, frankly strikes me as a bit hard to believe. It's out of character. It's like Rosa needed SOMEONE to express that viewpoint, and Donald was the guy in the room. But in reality, he should know better by this point.

One of my favorite things about Rosa is that both he and Jeff Smith are the only other comic artists I read who have such a passion for pacing. Not just action and comedy sequences, but story beats too. Both Rosa's Duck stories and Bone play like a movie / TV episode put to page and that's something I do with my stuff too. It's this facet of Rosa which never made me crazy about his stories being serialized in Walt Disney's Comics And Stories. They never lent themselves to that, as each chapter break broke up the pacing and momentum. Thank God for The Don Rosa Library.

I get the logic of Rosa ending things here. And it IS a pretty amazing, special, and groundbreaking story. But it's doesn't FEEL like a last story, which is consistent, because Barks' "The Doom Diamond" didn't either. Of course Rosa was ALWAYS given more latitude when writing the actual comics than Barks was ever allowed until later in his life. But I had always envisioned Rosa's Scrooge going out big. I will never diminish the story or the fact that it was fearless in breaking new Disney ground. But I always wanted Scrooge to go out a LOT louder than that. Rosa disagreed and delivered an intimate memento piece instead, and since he's the better writer, I'll trust his judgment about it. He's earned it. 5 stars.

The Rosa Archives

Final Archives. End of an era for me. Amazing stuff. Overall: 4 1/2 stars.

My French Connection (Pin-Up Posters 2004-2005)

Never EVER would have spotted the D.U.C.K.s in ANY of these. 4 stars.

A Trip To The Hall Of Fame (Comics Specialty Art 2004-2010)

The Danish version of the Rosa Library had better covers than we did! Neat! 5 stars.

This Should Cover It All (Additional Covers 2005-2014)

These are amazing. 4 1/2 stars.

The Birthday Pin-Up Series (Pin-Up Posters 2007)

Spiffy! 4 1/2 stars.

Bonus Story: Uncle Scrooge "A Hot Meeting"

A story where Scrooge meets Don Rosa. Not by Rosa himself of course, but it's super cute. Rosa has high praise for artist Marco Rota in his notes.

I always suspected Rosa had the black dog nose in real life. 4 stars.

I'm going through my Fantagraphics Disney Afternoon Collections. Probably my second favorite thing Fantagraphics puts out after The Don Rosa Library.

There are just SO many memorable stories I loved as a teenager here. It feels like reliving my childhood. And the stuff written by Bobbi JG Weiss can stand up to other notable non-Barks / Rosa Disney Comics creators like Romano Scarpa. Neither she nor her husband David Cody Weiss draw their own comics, but they are just as great as many of the Disney European writers and artists.

The best stories in the collection are unsurprisingly TaleSpin stories (the two-part "Flight Of The Sky-Raker" and "The Long Flight Home"). The Darkwing Duck story "Salad Daze" was utter crap, even by Darkwing Duck standards. And that weirdly beloved mediocre franchise actually had very few of those, and those it had were quite low. The Goof Troop story "God Dog Card" is also terrible, but that's kinda the whole brand. Collection Overall: 4 stars.

TaleSpin "Flight Of The Sky-Raker"

I saw Bobbi JG Weiss' name in the table of contents and I knew it was gonna be good. You see a Disney Comic written by her or David Cody Weiss (or best yet, them both) it's gonna be good.

This is a two part story (that I am reviewing as one because that's how the Table Of Contents treats it.

The TaleSpin monthly comic only lasted 7 issues. And it was amazing. This was the first and second issues! SO glad to see stuff from that book FINALLY reprinted. I mean, I LIKE the Disney Adventures stuff, but there was something really cool about Disney Publishing's monthly comics in the early 1990's.

The whole trust thing felt sort of interesting for a Disney Comic and it's why Disney Comics in the 1990's tried new dramatic things. Some of it is clunky, but much of it is relatable and feels consistent with modern comics and TV shows. TaleSpin was ahead of its time on TV. I think that often describes the comics too.

I love Baloo asking how he was supposed to argue against Becky's reasoning. Even funnier was when Baloo tells Lily this isn't the time for an argument, she says she isn't arguing, she's telling. TaleSpin was a refreshing franchise, because although it did occasionally traffic in the unfortunate causal sexism of the era, it had some badass women characters anyways, so you forgive it a little.

One of the cool things about TaleSpin Comics (and this is also true for Chip 'N' Dale: Rescue Rangers Comics) is that unlike most Disney Comics, everything is on-model to the actual TV show. There is little distinctive artistic variation between the artists because they are essentially doing the Disney House-Style.

Most Disney artists have their own takes on things. The most well known "House Artists" are Vicar, and Carl Barks himself. He was known as the Good Duck Artist for a reason. I remember before DuckTales 2017 premiered, the promotional artwork was ugly and off-model (and frankly so was the show). Some ignorant fans speculated that it was to closer capture the spirit of Carl Barks. WRONG. Barks' whole deal is his art is indistinguishable from the classic cartoons. If the producers of DuckTales 2017 decided to make the characters randomly blocky and off-model, they didn't get that from Barks.

TaleSpin's stable artwork gives me similar pleasurable vibes. It's SO good!

The ending with the voice trick is not a surprise. Today. I think it was delightful in the early 1990's. Better yet, even though it's no longer a revolutionary twist, it still fits and feels all right. Even knowing it's coming, it doesn't feel old-fashioned or out-of-place.

What I like about the story is that Don Karnage is very cunning about the blueprints. He douses Lily in his swarthy charm, but seems to be paying attention to everything she says and does at the same time, and figuring out ways to use it to his advantage. I feel like a LOT of TaleSpin writers simply write Karnage as an oaf. While he DOES say and do stupid things, a lot of that bluster hides a secret wiliness that shouldn't be underestimated. Good TaleSpin writers like Weiss get there. Bad TaleSpin writers think he's a punchline and interchangeable with foes like the Beagle Boys. He's not, or at least he doesn't need to be.

The Weiss' are some of Disney Comics' most unsung heroes. Because they write scripts and don't do their own artwork. But if Disney were fairer, they'd give them their own Disney Masters book. They were the peak writers of Disney Comics in the 1990's. 4 1/2 stars.

Adventures Of The Gummi Bears "Your Bridges Are Hangin' Down"

This story is shady as hell. Not just for using modern devices in the medieval setting (which the show took great pains never to do) but by tasking Gruffi to guard the bridge in the first place.

A guard is literally one of the jobs a Gummi Bear is least suited for. Because the current crop of Bears near Dunwyn are all in hiding. That's the entire damn premise of the show. Cartoons in the 1980's were always built around big secrets, and that was Gummi Bears' bit. And the story is acting like it isn't even a factor, instead of the DEFINING factor.

The ending was dumb too.

The character stuff with Zummi and Gruffi was passable. A lot of dumb sight-gags are involved, but I liked Gruffi outright saying Zummi isn't a good magician. I feel like this is an opinion that ought to have been offered on the show itself once or twice.

Pretty lazy story. 3 stars.

DuckTales "Dime After Dime"

I see a lot of DuckTales 2017's Lena in Magica's niece's friendship with Webby here. Both are relatively bad eggs who only switch sides upon realizing Webby truly cares for her. Webby cared for Lena in 2017 because she was naive. Here I think it's just because she's stupid.

The story is poorly written, and if the dialogue isn't completely atrocious that's the kindest thing I can say about it. It still stinks.

Crappy. 2 stars.

Goof Troop "Good Dog Card"

I like the bustling art, but truthfully there is NO freaking way I am EVER handing a story that introduces a character named Johnson J. Johnson a passing grade. One of the sadder elements of both Disney Comics later on, and The Disney Afternoon itself at the time, is how little time and effort Disney would put into things.

For Disney TV Animation, it was started as a response to how bad things were on Saturday morning from other studios in the mid-1980's. And yes, Gummi Bears WAS actually amazing, and a turning point for TV animation. But DuckTales was hit-or-miss, Chip 'N' Dale: Rescue Rangers was boring, and although TaleSpin was also amazing, I felt it was only amazing for flying totally under the radar. It was a perfect subversive storm of a TV cartoon for kids refusing to do anything a kids cartoon should have done. For Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, and Bonkers, Disney's stated efforts to revitalize the industry just STOPPED. They were each by turns, poor in Darkwing's case, and dreadful when it came to Goof Troop and Bonkers. A couple of years later, Gargoyles was great, but Aladdin, Quack Pack, and Timon And Pumbaa were... not.

I don't like seeing mediocrity infect Disney Comics. I mean I KNOW a ton of it IS only passable, But Johnson J. Johnson, isn't actually passable. It's bad.

Not impressed by this and I think that even thinking Goof Troop is the worst Disney TV cartoon of all time. That doesn't mean the comics need to automatically suck. 1 star.

Chip 'N' Dale: Rescue Rangers "For The Love Of Cheese"

As on-model on the Rescue Rangers comics are, the truth is they aren't as well-written as the TaleSpin ones.

Still, the monthly title tended to be better than the Disney Adventures stuff. This was issue 17, which is sneaky because the first 14 or so issues were weirdly serialized arcs and this wasn't.

I think they are gonna have to reprint those arcs eventually (and the Marv Wolfman DuckTales arc stuff), but I can see why that might seem a little daunting this early on.

Perhaps I'm being unfair. Maybe portraying the Rangers as dunces and sociopaths is simply because the writers have seen every episode of the show and are writing the characters properly.

Not MUCH of an excuse for the lousy script. But a bit of one.

I believe the comics original character Roquefort is a recurring baddie. Which is cool.

And yes, the artwork is amazing. 3 1/2 stars.

The Lion King's Timon And Pumbaa "Isle Of Kablooey!"

Amazing artwork. Crap story. 1 1/2 stars.

DuckTales "Shake!"

The bad: It's not actually funny.

The good: It's just a single page wasted, so who even cares? 2 stars.

TaleSpin "It's A Plunderful Life!"

I noticed the different art style and beautiful colors and rechecked the table of contents. Romano Scarpa drew this! Amazing! The blended colors are simply gorgeous, and I imagine were quite breathtaking for that era of comics too.

As much as I love Bobbi JG Weiss, she messed up a couple of times in the script. I get the villain in disguise thing is a "classic" Disney trope, but it doesn't remotely make it either believable or acceptable.

Also, her currency rates are messed up. 15 grand in the late 1930's for a cargo delivery? Insane! And of dictionaries? Even in 2025 that would be nuts. And the reward for goods that clearly don't cost as much is 25 grand? The math don't add up here, Bobbi.

Still, that is one gorgeous story to look at. Even neater is Scarpa sticks VERY close to TaleSpin House Style. He tends to add his own flair in Duck and Mouse stories, but he keeps things very on-model here. 4 stars.

Darkwing Duck "Salad Daze!"

I also find unless John Blair Moore does the art, Darkwing Duck comics always look very bland. The same gripe can be leveled at all DuckTales comics not drawn by William Van Horn.

The script is lousy too. First off, there is absolutely no reason for Darkwing to disbelieve Launchpad about the killer vegetables, especially since one of his rogues is plant-based and has already pulled this exact same trick in every episode he appeared in (and that's what's going on now).

Secondly, Bushroot is NOT a lethal villain out to kill Darkwing. He's not even a villain really. He's a criminal by circumstance. On the show we are always made to feel sympathy for him simply because he's a bit kind-hearted despite being on the wrong side of the law.

Did I just compliment the Darkwing Duck cartoon for having nuance? I guess I just did. Crazy day. Especially since I guess I only realized this after seeing Bushroot done WRONG. In fairness, I never imagined it would be too hard to do Bushroot RIGHT. But you can tell how lazy the writers are here by doing this. He actually calls his underlings "Fools!" which is NOT the type of thing Bushroot would ever do. Bushroot actually LOVES his plants. His entire shtick is that he treats them better than people (mostly because they treat HIM better than other people do). Talking about missing the entire point of the character.

I fart in this comic's general direction. 1 1/2 stars.

Adventures Of The Gummi Bears "Duke Igthorn's Bridge"

Usually when it comes to Deux Ex Machinas, they are forgivable if the notion is at LEAST set-up. Even if it's just a clue. The water goddesses at the end here? What da frak?

I liked the bit at the beginning of the Troll Bridge, which Duke Igthorn ruins because Iggy is why we aren't allowed to have nice things. Good opening gag though.

David Gerstein did the lettering? That's unexpected.

Decent but that is a super dumb (and unfair) ending. 3 stars.

TaleSpin "The Long Flight Home"

Amazing story. Despite being the last issue before the title was unceremoniously canceled, it's amazing for giving us Kit Cloudkicker's legit backstory that the show stubbornly refused to either acknowledge or remember past the Pilot. Kit is an orphan. He has no parents. He joined the Sky Pirates for awhile. These are all facts that the show found itself glossing over past the Pilot because the themes might be a little traumatizing for sprogs on a recurring basis.

But a comic story by Bobbi JG Weiss, who is clearly as big of a fan of the show as anything? Oh, my yes. Let's do that.

My one real complaint is the framing adventure of them being captured on that island is simply not strong enough compared to the flashbacks and Kit's reunion with the hobos. It ends in a very paint by numbers fashion (not usually a Weiss problem) and frankly I think the subject matter of plantation slavers is pretty inappropriate for kids anyways. I understand why the resolution had no complications in it (this is NOT an issue you ever want to confuse) but that's probably why Weiss should have chosen a different adventure to begin with.

But honestly, the story is a pure pleasure, especially for fans of TaleSpin. There aren't a TON of comics based on TV shows or movies that I would consider a pleasurably read for fans of the Parent Show. But yeah, this issue qualifies. Because Bobbi JG Weiss is probably the biggest TaleSpin fan there is.

Fun Fact: Did you know Don Rosa wrote two episodes? They were good ones too, and that fact still astounds me!

The ending being the dude was just on vacation at first glance seems sort of underwhelming. But I actually think that's kind of the point. Kit thinks the entire world is out to get him, and part of him accepting his new life is to understand the status quo is normalcy, rather than fragile. As a twist ending it leaves a lot to be desired. As a teaching moment for a character who needed it? It really resonates.

I loved this back in the day and I still do. 4 1/2 stars.

Darkwing Duck "Vogue's Gallery"

Huh. Bobbi JG Weiss scripted a Darkwing Duck story for Disney Adventures, so for once it's not terrible. Even more impressive, the non-John Blair Moore artwork doesn't actually suck. Not bad! 4 stars.

TaleSpin "Catch Of The Day"

They didn't forget to print the back-up story from the final TaleSpin issue. It's only two underwhelming pages long, but that's the actual reason it would have been unforgivable to skip it. 3 stars.