October Gemstone Comics

[Thad]

What did everyone think of the past batch of Disney comics (http://funnies.goldenagecartoons.com/comingsoon/#October2005)? This month we got the Barks/Block/Lustig collaboration "Somewhere in Nowhere", Don Rosa's "Escape from Forbidden Valley", and the vintage Fethry Duck story "It's Music?" Great stuff this month, IMO.

Also, I plan on updating the Disney Comics page when I get my computer back up and running again... I do know that January's Mickey issue has the complete "Return of the Phantom Blot" serial by Paul Murry, and the C&S has a 1931 Gottfredson (!!!) Mickey story. :mickey:

-Thad

[rodney]

I haven't found the Rosa story yet (forgot to call another comic store today to see if they have one left), but I did pick up the Donald issue with Turkey Trouble, which I've not read before.

[Thad]

I put up January's line-up (and deleted November's stupidly... Ooops!)
http://funnies.goldenagecartoons.com/comingsoon/#January2006
-Thad

[Thad]

I thought a lot of stuff was good this month... Even the Egmont back-up stories were decent. "The Scrooge Museum" has to be the funniest modern non-Rosa story I've ever read.

Great to see Hard Haid Moe make his American debut in C&S too! :fethry:

-Thad

[ohmahaaha]

"Return to Forbidden Valley" was pretty good, but not as good as the previous 2 Rosa offerings in "Uncle Scrooge." It was definitely the best story of that issue, however, and very much worth your time if you haven't gotten around to it yet.

I bought Donald & Friends this month, and I enjoyed the classic Barks 10 pager with it's Thanksgiving theme. IMO this was right about the time Barks started to transcend "good" and become "great."

I passed up Mickey & Friends and WDC&S this month.

*** SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT FOR "SOMEWHERE TO NOWHERE" ***

I just finished "Somewhere to Nowhere/North of the Yukon" this morning. I thought that "Somewhere to Nowhere" was pretty good, but it could have been a lot better.

First let me say that I LOVED Pat Block's artwork - he did an excellent job and I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of it.

As for the story - no John Lustig, I don't want to tar and feather you - but I think the story could have been a lot better. One thing that turned me off is something I've commented about numerous times on this forum: the fact that the story starts out right in the middle of a situation with no lead up or back story - I thought this poor pacing initially. Lo and behold, in the text section in the middle of this book we see Barks' original outline, and to perfectly illustrate what I mean here - look at how Barks spends a lot of time setting up the initial situation, which to me as a reader felt a lot more comfortable. It looks to me like Barks had a full page of action in mind there, rather than the single panel that it wound up being reduced to.

Another word as to pacing - I disagree with John Lustig's supposition that this outline had the makings of a "Barks 10 pager" (sic). I think that properly paced, without this catering to short attention span as I mention above, this could have been more like an 18 or perhaps 20 pager.

Anyway, my main complaint about "Somewhere to Nowhere" is the complete absence of Huey, Dewey & Louie in the final story, without any explanation as to their whereabouts. Barks has them in the original outline, and I think it was a major faux pas to excise them from the story as printed. It has been well-established in continuity (such as it is) that HD&L live with Donald, and he is their legal guardian; HD&L go to school in Duckburg. Barks makes special note in his plot outline how HD&L are at odds with the idea of moving. So in the final story, how could Donald just pick up & go to Alaska for an open-ended amount of time?! And furthermore, how could Scrooge offer him a permanent position (even as part of a machiavellian plot) without figuring HD&L into the works?! When did Huey, Dewey & Louie become the ultimate "latchkey kids?!" I think the story wasn't SO long that it couldn't have been expanded for better initial pacing and the inclusion of our favorite Junior Woodchucks.

Onward: Christmas Parade # 3 comes out in comic shops this week, if like the last two that should be very enjoyable.

[Thad]

Ohmahaaha,

You might want to pick up C&S 662 sometime, if you want to see what happens when Fethry tries to record country music from a trigger happy hillbilly! Funny stuff!

-Thad

[Duck Dodgers]

Ohmahaaha,

You might want to pick up C&S 662 sometime, if you want to see what happens when Fethry tries to record country music from a trigger happy hillbilly! Funny stuff!

-Thad

Oh is that story ?

That is a favorite of mine ! The character of the farmer became a recurring character , extremely popular in brazil where , like Joe Carioca , happened to star in an incredible number of stories as the lead character .

[Jon Cooke]

I put up January's line-up (and deleted November's stupidly... Ooops!)
http://funnies.goldenagecartoons.com/comingsoon/#January2006
-Thad


I just added the Gemstone update to the GAC main page. I am really looking forward to Rosa's new Three Caballeros story. :)


-Jon

[ohmahaaha]

Ohmahaaha,

You might want to pick up C&S 662 sometime, if you want to see what happens when Fethry tries to record country music from a trigger happy hillbilly! Funny stuff!

-Thad
Thanks for the recommendation Thad, I may do that! I got the Christmas Parade # 3 today, it looks GREAT - but, it's a little too early for me to read anything Christmas related so I'm going to stash it away for a couple of weeks.

[Thad]

Thanks for the recommendation Thad, I may do that! I got the Christmas Parade # 3 today, it looks GREAT - but, it's a little too early for me to read anything Christmas related so I'm going to stash it away for a couple of weeks.

Geez, it came out ALREADY? Good lord ... Gemstone is making us break the bank, aren't they? I may consider dropping the digests though as I'm not enjoying them as much as I used to (I'll get whichever ones have Fethry though of course :fethry: )

-Thad

[ohmahaaha]

Geez, it came out ALREADY? Good lord ... Gemstone is making us break the bank, aren't they? I may consider dropping the digests though as I'm not enjoying them as much as I used to (I'll get whichever ones have Fethry though of course :fethry: )

-Thad
Yeah, I did a double take when he rung up the Christmas Parade. No wonder the comic shop had it next to the graphic novels!! :p However - I don't mind $6.95 - $9.95 a pop IF the quality is worth it. I think that higher page counts warrant longer adventure stories, or continued serials at least - rather than a collection of 5 or 6 10 pagers.

[David Gerstein]

I think that higher page counts warrant longer adventure stories, or continued serials at least - rather than a collection of 5 or 6 10 pagers.But... er... this issue of CHRISTMAS PARADE isn't like that! It includes a 20-page Barks Donald adventure, a 14-page Scarpa Mickey, and a 16-page Rota Scrooge! Didn't we do right?

[Thad]

But... er... this issue of CHRISTMAS PARADE isn't like that! It includes a 20-page Barks Donald adventure, a 14-page Scarpa Mickey, and a 16-page Rota Scrooge! Didn't we do right?

I think Geoff is saying that the CHRISTMAS PARADE is how to do one of the pricier books right.

-Thad

[ohmahaaha]

I think Geoff is saying that the CHRISTMAS PARADE is how to do one of the pricier books right.

-Thad
Thank you Thad, that was exactly what I was saying - sorry I wasn't more clear David.

One of the things that I am most happy with Gemstone about is the Christmas & Vacation Parade issues that you've put out - EXCELLENT on the whole; nice long stories with a nice balance of shorter stories, so please don't change ANYTHING about these. In short, you did GREAT!

What I was referring to in regards to "4, 5 or 6 10 pagers" was mostly in reference to "Walt Disney's Comics & Stories" and sometimes Uncle Scrooge when a longer adventure is not present. - Geoff

[Thad]

My dad went and picked up the Christmas Parade and MMA (as well as that little reprint of "Hobblin' Goblins") for me (ain't that ducky?:scrooge: ).

I thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas Parade! I loved reading the 'banned' Barks story, but I thought a one-page article would accompany it. :donald:

One question for David here though, regarding the nice Scarpa Mickey story - can you give us a bit of a history on Ellsworth (who looks like one of the crows from DUMBO), and that blue guy sitting next to Eega Beeva at the end? I'm a little bit in the dark on those guys...

-Thad

[David Gerstein]

You bet, Thad!

Ellsworth, the Yale-educated talking minah bird, is a 1949 creation from Bill Walsh and Manuel Gonzales in the Mickey Mouse Sunday strip. He was originally Goofy's smart-alecky pet. Over time, though, while he continued to fly and outsmart a hungry cat now and then, he otherwise became more and more human, eventually functioning as Goofy's ward or roommate.
Ellsworth was a Sunday-only character until 1956, when he began to appear in the Mickey gag-a-day strip. He disappeared when Bill Walsh stopped writing the strip in the 1960s, but by that time Italian, French, and Dutch creators were using him, so overseas he remains a highly visible character even today.
FYI, the Dell editors seem not to have liked Ellsworth. They never used him in a story of their own, and when they published Mickey Sundays as filler pages, they systematically avoided almost all of his appearances. I think I've only seen him in two or three vintage WDC&S, though there are actually hundreds of Sundays in which he appeared.
In Ellsworth's earliest days, by the way, certain features of his attitude (and, now and then, his mode of dress) make it very clear that he was inspired not by Dumbo's crows, but by another studio's crow cartoon star. I wonder if the license fee cost two dollars?

The blue-skinned character is Atomo Bleep-Bleep (Italian: Atomino Bip-Bip), a Scarpa creation. One of a race of atom-sized beings, he was enlarged to Mickey's size by Dr. Einmug in a late 1950s story. He's characterized as a naive, adoring kid with atom-related super powers.

[Duck Dodgers]

The blue-skinned character is Atomo Bleep-Bleep (Italian: Atomino Bip-Bip), a Scarpa creation. One of a race of atom-sized beings, he was enlarged to Mickey's size by Dr. Einmug in a late 1950s story. He's characterized as a naive, adoring kid with atom-related super powers.

Good Ol' Atomino Bip-Bip...( David , you know very much about Italian comics,don't you?;) ) . He was casted in a number of epic stories by romano Scarpa.
Also , Ellsworth , known here as " Gancio " was casted in a number of stories by Scarpa , stories which looked like collages of Sunday Strips ( Ellsworth narrated some short funny stories with him as the lead character , three stories for a story , like the Simpson's Halloween Specials ! ) . He was also casted in a short adventure against Peg Leg Pete , and he found as a valid partner our Atomino . And he was also casted with some adventures starring Mickey .

Then Scarpa used Ellsworth ' s adopted kid " Gancetto" ( created by Scarpa himself , identical in aspect to Ellsworth but different for size and as a character ) in a endless number of stories . This character appeared in the majority of Scarpa's stories of the late 80s and in the 90s .