The Phantom Blot's Double Review

 Good news, everyone!

Mickey Mouse is back in comic shops (along with Donald Duck and Uncle $crooge)!

If you were a fan of the IDW series, like I was, you will want to pick these up, because it's basically the same comic book.  Edited by David Gerstein, a mix of old and new stories never before printed in the US, and an emphasis on the classic Gottfredson villains.  

We've got a Casty Phantom Blot story to kick things off, which is basically the best possible way to reintroduce America to Disney comics.  Then a Rhyming Man two-parter by Francesco Vacca guest-starring the time-travelling Uma, who I am going to assume is Mickey's future daughter because I've seen The Flash and read Jughead's Time Police.

Yes, yes, but what about the art?  It's in the super cartoony modern Topolino style for the main stories, by Marco Mazzarello and Roberto Vian, along with a zany Super Goof comedy short by Stefano Intini

and a fun 1970s Barks throwback by Giovan Battista Carpi,

Fantagraphics, my all-time favorite publisher, has unsurprisingly done a bang-up job on my favorite comic.  Highly recommended, nine ears up.

Can't Stop Messin With The Danger Zone

 

Disney's Doorways To Danger is another oddball comic that I found surprisingly enjoyable.

This book came out in 2021 but I ignored it, assuming it would be some kinda Wimpy Kid middle school YA thing. While Jeff Harvey's art style is definitely in that wheelhouse, story-wise this could be a totally normal modern-day Duck Mouse adventure.  

Our heroes find themselves in the cast of an Amazing Race style gameshow, racing in teams around the globe to locate a series of keys which will unlock a hidden treasure. Because this is an Uncle Scrooge comic, the treasure and the gameshow are more than they appear.  

The characterization and dialogue are all perfectly in-character; I am not familiar with Tom Angleberger's other works ,but judging from this he appears to be a fan of the classic Disney Comics.  Like Donald Duck Visits Japan, this is an off-model, offbeat take on the Disney classics that is enjoyable for kids and longtime readers alike.

Hey Kids! Comics!

While we wait for IDW's Disney comics to begin publishing, here are some comics I read.

Jimbo #1, Bongo (Zongo) Comics, 1995.  Ebay.

This is the best comic I've read in forever. Recently I fell into a Wikipedia hole and read up about the history of Bongo's Simpsons comics (which are great) and all about the short-lived Zongo Comics imprint, a venue to publish work by Matt Groening's friends Gary Panter and Mary Fleener. 

My experience with Panter's Jimbo character was limited to his appearance in The New Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Stories, but as a huge fan of Pee-Wee's Playhouse I thought I'd give it a shot.  

These comics are a sloppy punk-rock cover of a traditional newspaper gag strip, set in a post-apocalyptic urban wasteland inhabited by redneck chicken farmers and kilted road warriors. If you ever come across an issue of Jimbo pick it up because it's awesome.

Extinct! #1 and #2, Anti-Hitler Comics #1, My Terrible Romance #2, New England Comics 1991- 94.

  

"Timeless trash from when yesterday was tomorrow!"  These are black-and-white 'zine style reprints of "Golden Age" "classics" put out by NEC Comics, home of The Tick.  These comics are terrible (which is of course the point).

Racist, crude, nonsensically plotted, tragically ludicrous, ludicrously tragic. Whenever somebody tells you how much better comics were back in the day, you have my permission to punch them in the face.

My favorite characters are Satanas, basically Daredevil villain The Claw with a cyclops eye and magic space-fiddle, and Bee-29, the bombadier torturer of "germ-carrying" Japanese flies. 

 If you've ever wondered what a comic book version of MST3K would look like, buy these comics.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Avengers, Marvel 2014.  Wal-Mart, five bucks.

You might have read about this on Bleeding Cool. Last summer Wal-Mart offered el-cheapo reprints of popular Marvel trades. The paper is slightly crummier than a regular Marvel trade, and the covers aren't the heavy card stock you'd get on a normal TPB, but the contents are the same as the original. 

Steve McNiven's photorealistic style sells the space opera action and the quiet moments equally well. "Normal" people like Star Lord and Tony Stark look great, as do the wackier characters like Groot and Rocket. It's a Bendis comic so there's lots of dialogue, much of it quippy.  The story ends rather abruptly and the book is padded out with inessential backup strips by different artists including Michael Oeming.

Random trades like this are my preferred way to read Marvel comics these days; week to week you're mired in endless crossovers and filler but in a collection like this you get a complete story, more or less, that hints at the larger universe but doesn't require you read a bunch of other comics.   If you like the Guardians or Iron Man movies then it's worth your five dollars.

And finally, Street Angel , Hip Hop Family Tree, Atomic Robo. They're free. Go read them.

Comics Review Time!

My local library has Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer and Pinocchio and the Great Puppet Theater in the YA/ Teen section.  Both are well worth your time.

Art-wise the books are very much in the vein of Mike Mignola's Hellboy, but artist Dusty Higgins brings his own enjoyably quirky sensibilities to the story.  For example, Jiminy Cricket looks more like an abstract bunny than an actual insect, but it totally works.

This is a funny, imaginative comic that's a lot more fun than Once Upon a Time or Fables.  Don't take my word for it: the great Chris Sims of Comics Alliance gave it a favorable review.

I give this comic five wooden-nose-stakes up.