Steampunk Willie

 

Mickey Mouse and the Amazing Lost Ocean is a steampunk sci-fi comic by Denis-Pierre Filippi and Silvio Camboni.

As with many European sci-fi comics the story doesn't make a lot of sense, but the visuals are incredible.  The colors by Gaspard Yvan and Jessica Bodart take it to another level.

I got this book from the library and read it in like ten minutes, but then spent close to an hour lingering over the drawings.  Recommended.

And The Infinite Sadness

 In which Disney Weirdness takes a look at a recent-ish comic book

I have been eagerly purchasing all of the Marvel Disney books as they are released, and then stacking them up in a pile and not reading them.  After consulting with the learned members of the esteemed Feathery Society, I decided to jump in with what is considered by experts to be the best of the lot, Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime.

Let's start with the positives:  The book looks fantastic. Marvel wisely decided to treat this book as an Italy showcase, with art from Paolo Mottura, Francesco D'ippolito, Lucio De Giuseppe, Alessandro Pastrovicchio, Vitale Mangiatordi, and Giada Perissinotto.  If the intent behind this book was to showcase what the Disney Italia artists are capable of, then mission accomplished.  If this book causes some teenage kid to check out PKNA or Double Duck or the Disney Originals series, it counts as a success.

The first appearance of Uncle Scrooge, "Christmas on Bear Mountain," which you already have in your collection, is included as a bonus story, for historical context and also (one assumes) to entice readers to check out Fantagraphics' Carl Barks Library series, and also to pad out the page count.

So it's a good-looking comic, what's the problem?  The problem is Jason Aaron.

Aaron is a superhero writer, and a great one.  But he isn't quite as comfortable in Duckburg as he is on Earth-616 or Bizzaro World or whatever.  In the introduction piece, Aaron writes that his introduction into Duck comics was through Don Rosa's "Son of the Sun" and "Guardians of the Lost Library."  Don Rosa, as much as we love him, is an atypical Duck scribe, in that his stories are continuity-heavy, meticulously researched, and reference deep cut comic book lore in a way that puts Roy Thomas to shame. That stuff is catnip to superhero fans.  

Aaron's imagined audience for this comic is a Marvel Comics reader who is dipping his webbed toes into Disney Comics for the first time.  Fittingly, it's a slam-bang action fest that pulls Uncle Scrooges from all over the (ugh) Multiverse to battle the Lord of Dimes (Scrooge, but evil).

It's an Infinity Gauntlet, a Secret Wars, a Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Which is fine, if that's your thing.

If you have a teenage nephew or someone else in your life who is super into superheroes, they ought to like this.  Hardcore Duck fans like us might bristle at Donald the berserker

but if you are only familiar with the animated cartoons you won't care.

SO overall, this ins't a bad comic. The story is fun for what it is, and the art looks great.  Here's hoping the next one will strike a better balance between action and humor.

Spider-Man Far From Home

 

Did you guys know that Duck Maestro Giorgio Cavazzano drew a Spider-Man comic that was only reprinted in English once, in the UK-only collection Marvel Europa?  Well now you know.

Unfortunately, the characters are not all drawn with dog noses like Uncle Carl here.

Instead he sticks closely to the style he used for the human characters in Dragonlords.

The story uses some convoluted plot mechanics to get Peter Parker to Venice

But the story doesn't matter; the real attractions here are Cavazzano's dazzling cityscapes.

The bad guy, Count Gianus, could totally be a Topolino villain.

Biff Bam Pow!

The story's official title is "Spider-Man in Venice: The Secret of the Glass," written by Dylan Dog and Topolino scribe Tito Faraci with art by Cavazzano, and first appeared as an original graphic novel published by Panini in 2004.

It's baffling to me that Marvel didn't reprint this as a movie tie-in, but they know what they're doing I guess.  If you want to read this story you can do what I did, and find the UK reprint, or bust out the Google Translate and figure it out for yourself.

Trumpolino?

 Can someone who speaks Italian hip me to what this is all about:

It's not just me, right?

Google Translate helpfully provides the following:

Description

A volume full of mysterious adventures, in which Mickey also pays homage to Martin Mystère, the detective of the impossible who turns 40 in April, with Topin Mystér and Orobomis the walking city: an electrifying homage-story proposed here for the first time since the first publication! Triumph of dynamic drawings in Mickey and the fantastic mister Magic and Mickey and the case of the "transmuter". Finally, surprise entry into the team also of the irrepressible Donald Duck in Mickey Mouse and the Ghostbusters.

Some Googling suggests it is an homage/ parody of a comic I've never heard of, Martin Mystere, which apparently was translated by Dark Horse at some point.

I'm seriously considering doing the Duolingo or some other kind of online language tutor just to figure out what the heck goes on over there.

Lost in Scanlation

 

Probably every fan of manga, bande dessinee, fumetti, manhua, etc, has looked at "scanlations" (fan-made unofficial translations) and thought, "I got Google Translate, how hard can it be?"

It's hard.

I gave up after 3 pages of this random issue of Topolino I found online:

If you ever want to find out what happens to Pete and this other guy you can a) learn Italian or (b) wait 6 months or so for me to finish, Google Scanman42069 dot Tumblr dot com.

SomeBODY once told me the world is gonna roll me

 

Guys, how good is Mickey All-Stars?

This book is so fun that it makes me angry.

These aren't even like, the best panels.  These are just  panels that I liked when I opened the book to random pages.

I don't think it is spoiling things too much to say that it's 50 pages of  all cute drawings like this.

Every Mouse artist that you like is in this thing.

They are all one-page gag strips, but some of them could support entire comics.

Slacker Goofy is my new Discord Avatar.

Anyways, get this book.  It's only like 15 bucks, you won't regret it.

Ernest Hemingway in Italian Disney comics.

Burn Baby Burn

The best damn Disney comics blog period, Duck Comics Revue, recently took a deep dive into the very strange Mickey's Inferno by Guido Martina and Angelo Bioletti, exploring its history as a very early Italian Disney comic and examining its relation to the source material by Dante Alighieri.  But is it weird?

It's pretty f**kin weird.

My library's copy has its own "Abandon Hope" message to the reader:

"Adult Collection" is right.  Look at these friggin harpies.

Nightmare Fuel

Thrill as beloved children's character Goofy gets cooked alive!

Tastes like chicken

Is it safe?

Oh hey, it's Mickey's pal Eega Beeva in the section where they torture the fortune tellers and diviners. Bet ya didn't see that one pcoming!

Watch as Old Dogface Man gets comically disemboweled!

This comic is GREAT.  I have the Papercutz promo minicomic that they gave away at Halloween; these pictures are from the full Papercutz edition.  Duck Comics Revue looks at the abbreviated version that ran in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #666 (seriously!).  Any and all versions of this story are well worth tracking down, especially if you like seeing beloved Disney characters in bizarre and violent scenarios, and come on, who doesn't.

Hell, boy.

Groovy.

The Groovy Age of Horror Presents:

A Disneyland Ride La Morte

Topolino Carnivore

Topolino 1170 covered by Fabio Chiesa.

Death Laughs In Disneyland

Groovy fumetti from the Groovy Age of Horror.