Uncle Scrooge & Donald Duck

[Ivan Isaacs]

Diamond finally shipped the volume today and it's really nice.
Yes, compared to the übersized "Carl Barks Collection" volumes the FB edition is rather tiny but I prefer the paper stock and the coloring so much more.

I don't think I'll buy all volumes but I guess I'll buy the ones were my favorite Barks stories (Christmas on Bear Mountain; A Christmas for Shacktown, Only a Poor Old Man et al) will be reprinted.
No need to get them all only because they are in the english lagnuage.

[Captain Jim]

Yeah, I got my copy Wednesday too. Very, very nice.

[DavidB.]

Yeah.

For some reason, Fantagraphics seems to do mock up covers for many of their books which are never used. However, many of the on-line stores get the first mockup and never replace it.

That was the cover that was first shown, before we got the final cover.

They did the same think for the Mickey Mouse books (mock up cover is VERY different, and IMO better then the final one). The Pogo book had a different preliminary cover and so far.

Weirdest have been the cover mock ups which show the book in a horizontal orientation (or vice versa), when the finished book is in a different orientation (horizontal= wide, which is better for daily newspaper strip collections; vertical=tall, which is better for sunday strip collections and comic book collections)

Thanks, I guess I'll buy it tomorrow then!

[donaldpeter58]

I looked at a page side-by-side with an old newsprint issue of Barks. The size of the artwork was absolutely identical, to the millimeter. In terms of quality, though, there is simply no comparison. The newsprint has yellowed over the years, while these pages have a dashingly dark black and a crisp, permanent-looking white. The lines are crisp, no blurring anywhere-unlike the softcover "archive" of WDC&S 1-2 that Boom! Kids put out, which had a mediocre black and frequent blurring.

[Angilas-Man]

I really enjoyed this volume, but surprisingly it was the shorter pieces that stood out more.

I agree.

Lost in the Andes was spectacular, but I gravitated towards some of the shorter stuff like Donald's Worst Nightmare, Crazy Quiz Show (that one still has me chuckling), and The Sunken Yacht.

Uncle Scrooge was really a piece of work at this time. I'd read his first two appearances (Bear Mountain and The Old Castle's Secret) and he seems far more villainous here, a work in progress by this point.

[Angilas-Man]

Fanta will be putting out a Barks issue for Free Comic Book Day!


http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.p...tml&Itemid=113

[emb021]

I finally got my copy (Amazon).

Pretty good book. I was actually surprised by how much I don't recall ever reading. I would have thought that between my reading from Gold Key and my (not complete, but still) collection of Gladstone albums I would have seen most of this stuff.

The organization of the book was kind of unusual, with the stuff being in groups (long stories, shorts, one pagers). I guess I'm so use to issue by issue or chronological reprints that this is different.

Biographical article was great.

I found the listing of the original works at the end strange. Most people refer to Dell's "Four Color" as such, not calling it "One Shot". And they used both terms, which was even more confusing.

I didn't see anything on the spine or cover that would be useful in determining the order of this volume with others. Guess that's good or bad, as people can be free to get what they want and put them in the order they want without it being a problem.

[Polar Bear]

I found the listing of the original works at the end strange. Most people refer to Dell's "Four Color" as such, not calling it "One Shot". And they used both terms, which was even more confusing.

I remember thinking something similar when I read it and deciding that I didn't know what I was talking about. Glad to hear that I may have been right.

I didn't see anything on the spine or cover that would be useful in determining the order of this volume with others. Guess that's good or bad, as people can be free to get what they want and put them in the order they want without it being a problem.

I can truly see both sides of the argument. For example, the fact that Fantagraphics is releasing the volumes out of chronological order points to the wisdom of the way they're doing it--sales might have been discouraging if the only volumes a mom could buy at Books a Million were volumes 7 and 13. And really, seeing as the stories were extremely continuity-free, the publishing dates only matter to collectors, not the general public.

Hmm. I think I've just convinced myself that it's better this way.

[Captain Jim]

I found the listing of the original works at the end strange. Most people refer to Dell's "Four Color" as such, not calling it "One Shot". And they used both terms, which was even more confusing.

If I recall correctly, Dell actually used both terms at one time or another. Some of the issues had OS with a number behind it and others FC with a number behind it.

[Polar Bear]

For what it's worth, a comics historian has just decided that Uncle Scrooge was the #1 selling comic of the 1960s.

http://blog.comichron.com/2012/02/un...-of-1960s.html

"The series was quarterly as it entered the 1960s, and its sales of just over a million copies per issue was indeed enough for the top spot; only Walt Disney's Comics & Stories also topped 1 million, also in 1960.

"Not counting Mad, no other American comic book would sell more than a million copies until Star Wars #1, in 1977 — and no comics title has ever had more copies reported sold in its annual Statement of Ownership."

Pretty cool, eh?

[shaxper]

For what it's worth, a comics historian has just decided that Uncle Scrooge was the #1 selling comic of the 1960s.

http://blog.comichron.com/2012/02/un...-of-1960s.html

"The series was quarterly as it entered the 1960s, and its sales of just over a million copies per issue was indeed enough for the top spot; only Walt Disney's Comics & Stories also topped 1 million, also in 1960.

"Not counting Mad, no other American comic book would sell more than a million copies until Star Wars #1, in 1977 — and no comics title has ever had more copies reported sold in its annual Statement of Ownership."

Pretty cool, eh?

I knew this was true in the 50s, but it's hard to imagine Scrooge beating out Spidey, the Fantastic Four, and Batman while Adam West and Burt Ward were on prime time. Wow.

[Captain Jim]

Very interesting (and fitting). I had no idea.

[Gaastra]

Man i need to get this book. I love the classic disney comics.

[Angilas-Man]

I mentioned in another thread that someone dumped their Gladstone I era Disney comic collection at my LCS, who have been selling 'em for sale price ($1 or $2). I've been walking away with three or four issues (Barks reprints and first-run Rosa stories) every time I've gone to the store for three months now and there's still a bunch there! I'll be sad when it's fully depleted.



(images courtesy of Outducks)

My favorites have been under the Uncle Scrooge Adventures title, especially rich with longer Barks stories. My favorite issues are 20 and 21, which are both giant-sized and have two Barks stories with a Rosa story sandwiched in between. Since I'm a Scrooge fan first these and the main Unce Scrooge title were the ones I went after first - then I figured out that Gladstone's DuckTales series also reprinted Barks stories so I bought those up. Now it's mostly Donald stuff left, and speaking of Donald: Vactation Time is an awesome story! It's in my top-five Duck universe comics. Barks' artwork is gorgeous. Can't wait to see Fanta reprint that one.

[Gryphon]

Amazon has solicted the third volume in the series, which is the second donald duck collection.