Dell Four Color #631- Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter (2026 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

From December, 1954 to February, 1955, ABC aired 3 one-hour mini movies starring Fess Parker as legendary frontiersman, Davy Crockett. The programming was part of a deal with the television network to produce weekly family entertainment in return for funding for Walt Disney to build his dream theme park: Disneyland. This deal also acted as a weekly advertisement in which Disney would provide updates on the park's construction.

The trio of Davy Crockett episodes were produced to highlight Disneyland's Frontierland, the park's tribute to explorers and cowboys. The three parts were titled 'Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter', 'Davy Crockett Goes to Congress' and 'Davy Crockett at the Alamo'. These films ended up becoming a nationwide success and sparked a fad in children wearing coon skin caps as well as boosting interest in Westerns as a growing genre in post-war television and movies. 

Seeing dollar signs, Disney repackaged the 3 episodes into a feature length movie. In May, 1955 Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier hit theaters and was an immediate hit. Grossing over $2 million dollars, that's about $30 million dollars in 2026 dollars. 

Historians know that Davy Crockett met his demise at the infamous battle of the Alamo. (Whether he died heroically in battle or was taken as a prisoner and executed at a later date is a subject for debate that will not be examined here.) After losing his Tennessee  congressional seat, Crockett sought to make a new start in politics further South. Texas was in the middle of a battle for Independence from Mexico and Crockett saw a chance to reap massive political and personal benefits should Texas win the war. He joined the garrison in San Antonio in the winter of 1836 and died a few months later at the regiment's last stand at the Alamo. 

As Fess Parker's character dies at the conclusion of the 3-episode miniseries, you would think that would be the end of Disney and the exploits of Davy Crockett. Never one to let a money making opportunity slip away, Walt Disney decided to produce another set of films based on the historical figure. Only they would be more fiction than fact and they would be set in between Crockett's time as a scout for the United States Army during the Creek Indian Wars and his brief stint in Washington DC. 'Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race' and 'Davy Crockett and the River Pirates' were brilliantly released in the fall of 1955, just in time to make Davy Crockett hats, bubble gum cards and pop-style muskets the most requested toys from American boys AND girls! An estimated $300 million in Christmas sales revolved around Davy Crockett themed merchandise.

The prequel episodes were edited and repackaged as another feature in the summer of 1956. Walt Disney's Davy Crockett and the River Pirates was released in July. It took earned over $2 million in ticket sales. However, by the time the film exited theaters, the fervor over Davy Crockett had become passé and American children moved on to the next fad.

This edition of Dell Four Color was published during the height of Crockett Mania. It adapts the first chapter of the Davy Crockett miniseries seeing Davy and his singing pal George Russel volunteering to join the U.S. Army under the command of General Andrew Jackson. They act as scouts and use their knowledge of animal tracking to procure food for the troops before returning home for the winter to hunt for their families.

Upon their return to the Army, Davy and George learn that Jackson has been transferred to New Orleans to help fortify the important port city against the British. The incompetent Major Norton is now in charge of the Army. His mission is to hunt down the remaining Creek warrior Chief Red Stick in hopes of ending the war. George is taken captive by Red Stick's men prompting Crockett to a tomahawk duel to the death! 

With the exception of 'Davy Crockett Goes to Congress', the other 3 segments of Disney's miniseries were given solo treatment in the Four Color series. Crockett's time in DC was included in the reprint heavy Dell Giant Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. Dell also produced a holiday special to cash in on the hoopla with Sears promo comic, the Davy Crockett Christmas Book that along with a dozen pages of comics including puzzles and games. 

The comic adventures of Davy Crockett would live on in reprint form through the 1980s in issues of Gold Key's Walt Disney Showcase and Walt Disney Comics Digest.

According to leagueofcomicgeeks.com Chase Craig scripted this issue. John Ushler is attributed by several sources for providing the pencils and inks. The front cover is a photograph image of Fess Parker as Crockett. Additional artwork for the background and the map of the Creek Indian Wars were provided by the staff of the Western Publishing Production Shop.

Completing this review completes Task #1 (Comic from the Golden Age (1938-1955)) of the 2026 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Walt Disney's Comics Digest #3

My biggest problem with a comic digest is if they are a holiday issue, that they're never 100% full of holiday material. It's not like Gladstone was hurting for Christmas stories. They could have made this whole 96-pager 1987, about Christmas, if they really wanted to.

The cover is obviously Christmas themed. It's a great gag by Walt Kelly. The opener is about Christmas. It's a Carl Barks classic that sees Donald Duck jealously battling his lucky duck cousin, Gladstone Gander, in a competition to see who is going to win the Christmas turkey raffle. Though in all honesty, you could have replaced Thanksgiving with Christmas in this story and you'd never know the difference.

6 stories remain. They star Disney comics mainstays such as Hazel the Witch, Mickey Mouse and the L'il Bad Wolf. And then there's a full length adaptation of Lady and the Tramp and I couldn't be in a more festive mood about it. 

I didn't realize it, but the 1955 animated film is book-ended by Christmas. Lady is gifted to her mistress on a snowy Christmas morning. Then the story ends a couple of years later with Lady having given birth to a litter on Christmas. These 2 scenes do not make Lady & the Tramp a Christmas movie. But I am counting it as part of the holiday cheer that comprises this book. 

(Side note: adding to Lady & the Tramp's connection to Christmas, a stuffed animal version of Lady was all the rage in the Christmas of 1985. Burger joint Hardee's offered versions of the pup along with a plush Pinnochio, Bambi and Dumbo. I remember how myself and all my classmates just had to have the whole set of 4!)

I should have reviewed this book a couple of years ago. I bought it 2 years ago after a trip to the mountains during Spring Break. I read it later that year. But somehow I accidentally filed it in my Christmas read box before giving my rating of the book. Overall, not a bad find for only a buck in a thrift store I had never visited before. And now it can go back into the correct section of my collection.

Worth Consumimg!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney Comics Digest #22

A while back, I was at my favorite comic shop, checking out when I saw this stack of Disney digests. I'm a fan of the books from Gold Key and Dell. I know that these treasuries are in high demand. Plus I just adore the Disney Ducks. So I took a chance and asked if they were for sale. Thankfully they were; but the owners hadn't come up with a price yet. After a touch of friendly haggling, we agreed upon a fair price and based on how much money I had left to spend, I bought 3. 

Wouldn't you know, I then misplaced these for about a year and I would have forgotten all about them if I hadn't been working on organizing my comic book collection during my summer break. 

The cover for this June, 1970 volume is what sold me. It's got Donald and Uncle Scrooge in a victory pose on the very center of the cover. While Scrooge is dressed as a champion prizefighter, his contest to prove he's got more money than anyone in the world isn't quite so pugilistic. Challenged by Flintheart Glomgold, McDuck must liquidate his assets to prove that he's got more money, by volume, than that of his legendary foe. With assists by nephews Huey, Dewey, Louie and Donald, Scrooge has to outfox Glomgold who's clearly cheating. Only without proof, it looks like McDuck's going to lose the contest. Should Scrooge fail, he has to eat his opponents hat, which for the Scottish businessman is a fate worse than death or losing all his money to the Beagle Boys!

A pleasant surprise running throughout this book was the team-ups. In one adventure Tinkerbell saves Dumbo the elephant from the clutches of Captain Hook. In another, Jiminy Cricket visits his bug friends of Silly Symphonies fame for a picnic! Chipmunks Chip and Dale have had a number of capers driving Pluto and Mickey Mouse crazy. But they've never teamed with Bambi's best friend Thumper to get the upper hand over Mickey and company before... At least to my knowledge!

Something Disney was noted for was its nature films. In this issue, we get part 3 of the comic book adaptation of 1953's Bear Country. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short, it's not a read where you have to know everything that has happened beforehand in order to enjoy it. There are also non-fiction one-pagers called 'Real Life Adventures' about dolphins and robins along with a longer essay on famous trains. Being that he was a lifelong railway enthusiast, I wouldn't be the least surprised to find out that old Walt Disney himself wrote that segment. 

Peter and the Wolf, Little Hiawatha, Li'l Bad Wolf, Pinocchio, Cinderella and many more stars of Disney's A, B and C level tiers appear in this digest filled with some puzzles, jokes and stories galore. A really enjoyable gem that felt like those Christmas mornings when I'd open a grab bag of comics up as a gift and just pour over the contents inside while the world outside melted away.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge "The Seven Cities of Gold": The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 14

According to the expert commentary at the end of this book, the time period covered here was a very difficult time creatively for creator Carl Barks. For those of you wondering, we're talking 1955-1960. Apparently, Barks and the editors at Western Publishing butted heads over the contents of several stories. All of a sudden, the editorial staff began nitpicking over every little thing and especially took issue with anything that they deemed to be too violent.

The commentators don't seem to know why the sudden change. How good a comic book historian can these experts be if they can't make the connection that Western Publishing was freaking out over concerns brought about by the Comics Scare of the 1950s and the newly established Comics Code?!

True, I purchase and read the volumes of the Carl Barks collection out of order because I shop for the books based on current affordability and not sequence. Maybe in a previous or later volume, the commentaries will dive into the Comics Code. I just think if you're going to question why about something, you really either need to figure out the reasoning or don't call yourself the authority on something. It just makes for poor research. But that's probably just the history major in me coming out.

Within this difficult time, it's said that Barks' productivity waned and his creativity stagnated. I just don't see evidence of that in this book. In fact, for someone who grew up on DuckTales, this volume seems to align with that classic 80s toon the most out of the several volumes in this set I now own!

Several amazing adventures starring Uncle Scrooge and his nephews Donald, Huey, Dewey and Louie take the ducks across the globe including an epic trek all over planet Earth in search of the fabled Philosopher's Stone. Then there's the sci-fi adventure The Mysterious Stone Ray starring those dastardly Beagle Boys. My favorite was The Golden Fleecing which I believe was adapted for the Disney cartoon series! Plus the origins of Scrooge's steamboat days are explored in action packed story titled The Great Steamboat Race. 

When I reviewed Don Rosa's The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, I commented how much I disliked the talent making Scrooge so ornery. Yet, this volume here confirms that Carl Barks was behind the anger because in reality, he was a very disgruntled man. I'd really like to read a biography about Barks. Though I'm not all that sure if such a thing exists. And if it does, I surely hope it's not written by the 'expert' who neglected to connect the damage Dr. Wertham did to the comic book industry in the 1950s to all the in-fighting between Carl Barks and his editors. For if it is, I might have to take a pass.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney's Mickey and Donald: The Big Fat Flat Blot Plot (Family Comic Friday)

Years ago, I wasn't a big fan of the IDW Disney books. While full of modern reprints compared to the classic works that comprised the Gladstone and Gemstone titles, the stories were from overseas; primarily from Italian and Danish publishers. The artwork was fantastic and clean. Just the English translations didn't have the right syntax. However, I believe I would like to amend my original view of these works.

I had read an early entry in IDW's run of Disney works. The publisher had the license from 2015 to 2020. I had gotten my hands on the company's first issue of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories. As with pilot episodes, things were a little rough. However, after reading this collection, which features IDW's first two issues of Donald and Mickey, you can tell that those early issue language barrier kinks have been worked out.

I've read a lot of Disney stuff lately. I've experienced having a beloved pet stolen and really needed some lighthearted things to read to help with the emotional toll of it all. An amazing assortment of comics starring the cast of characters from the House of Mouse have been such a mood lifter for me. As I review these books, I've done a ton of research on them and I've learned that even though the United States is considered the fore front of super hero comic books, our love of Disney comics is nothing compared to the rest of the world- especially Europe!

European Disney fans put us Yanks to shame. Now that I understand that those markets are actually leading the way instead of following in our footsteps (I know, that's such an arrogant American way to think), I appreciate these books so much more!

One way the international books overtook the American titles is their portrayal of Mickey Mouse and his eternal foil, the Phantom Blot. Mickey's creator, Walt Disney, made it virtually impossible for the mouse to be anything but a goody-goody. Why do you think Donald Duck was created? It was to be the bad boy when Walt mandated Mickey to be the saint! In the States, the Phantom Blot was merely a hooded thief who was constantly apprehended by Mickey Mouse. Mostly by shear dumb luck. Thankfully, the rest of the world hasn't been hindered by those domestic restrictions. 

With that freedom overseas, the Phantom Blot became a criminal mastermind that required a ton of pluck and a little bit of snarkiness on the part of Mickey Mouse to apprehend him. In the United States, Mickey would probably break down and beg for mercy on the Blot's part at a parole hearing. In Denmark, Mickey would jump on the parole board's table and proclaim,  "Are You Nuts???" 

In the title story, the Phantom Blot has figured out a way to reduce himself and his stolen loot to 2D thanks to some ingenuity. Eating this formulated candy, the Blot can go back and forth from 2D to 3D. Thanks pretty darn clever. But the villain points out that anything his flattens that is inorganic remains that way forever. You'd think after the first time you did this, you'd maybe stop stealing new stuff until you could figure out a way to change the booty back! However, I think the Blot just keeps doing it to get under the skin of both Mickey and the inept Mouseton Police Department. 

Mickey's other main foe, Peg Leg Pete, also makes an appearance in a super-sized story. Mickey and Goofy find a treasure map and take a job as a ship's mechanic and galley cook in hopes of getting close enough to search for it. Turns out that the captain of the boat is Pete and he's looking for the buried jewels as well!

Being a Donald and Mickey book, there's plenty of Duck to be had. The all-out war with his next door neighbor Jones erupts in a pair of stories. Donald also finds out what can go wrong for the entire city of Duckburg when he takes a day off from his hot dog stand. Lastly, Donald tries to find a job for a character named Princess Oona; a prehistoric ancestor that Gyro Gearloose brought into the present but can't seem to get back home!

Speaking of characters, this volume ends with a character called Eega Beeva. From the 1940s, but totally unfamiliar with me. Is he a highly evolved human from the year 4000? Is he an alien? Is he both? You decide! 

I really enjoyed this book. I feel that my original misgivings towards IDW's Disney run was a little premature. If I can find more of these on the cheap, I will definitely get them. Tons of fun for the whole family and pretty darn wholesome too!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney's Holiday Parade #1

It's 1991 and with a lineup of Ducktales, Tailspin, Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers and Darkwing Duck, weekday afternoons were dominated by Disney. 

I've long thought that holiday comics weren't for expanding the canon of a character but for a tremendous opportunity to advertise a publisher's characters and comics. From reading this book, I think I was on to something. At the end each of the 7 or 8 stories in this holiday anthology, there's a small blurb (at the page bottom) advertising what regular monthly comics the characters further appear in. 

Those stories are a mix of classic and all-new (to 1991) stories. They include:

• A Carl Barks favorite in which Donald's nephews try really hard to be good for Santa and fail miserably.
• Baloo and his beloved cargo plane are taken hostage in the tiny nation of Thembria, in a story that reflects the miracle of the first Hanukkah!
• Chip and Dale get an unexpected visitor in the form of a flying squirrel that flies in its sleep!
• Uncle Scrooge tries really hard to think of one good deed he's done in order to impress Santa.
• A snow drift threatens to keep Santa from coming to town. That is unless Super Goof can save the day!

Add L'il Bad Wolf and his Pop, Mickey, Minnie and Pluto and a host of other Disney favs and you've got a fantastic assortment of holiday themed stories!

If I had found this when I was a teen, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it. But now that I'm older, I long for simpler things. Walt Disney's Holiday Parade is a time capsule to the early 90s. It wasn't a perfect time. But it sure wasn't as cruddy as 2021 has been.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney's Comics #673

As I'm wrapping up my Halloween reads, I go to another one of my favorite go-tos for safe spooks. Just about any comic book by Disney is a great read. But the collective works of masters such as Don Rosa, Carl Barks and Paul Murry are considered some of the best when they A) star Donald Duck or one of his Duckburg kin and B) take place during the holidays. This issue of Walt Disney's Comics has both!

William Van Horn returns to illustrate the issue's cover. It features a Donald classic by Van Horn called 'Kids Play' in which the duck takes one a job to paint a haunted house. Only Donald doesn't know about the house's history. So, as he's doing a great job, his nephews decide to put the scare onto him. Only, there might actually be a haunt in this haunted house whose out to spook Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Then we've got Lady and the Tramp's l'il boy Scamp going to play hide and seek with some friends in a haunted house. In another classic, The Three Little Pigs inherit a broom factory in which the Old Witch from Snow White(?- that's what she looks like!); who really seems to have her eyes on what with the factories' precious inventory. And in a two-parter, Donald Duck has been assigned as a concierge at a hotel in Transylvania! And he's actually really good at it! Naturally, that success doesn't work out when his boss surprise visits in order inspect Donald's progress. 

Okay- none of these stories take place during Halloween. But with the inclusion of ghosts, witches and monster vacationers, this is a perfect read for a cool Halloween time night. But at least these stories are more suited for this time of year than the all-new two-parter that fills the rest of this 64-page beauty. 

'Dimes Are Forever' starring Uncle Scrooge and Donald and the Mickey and Goofy adventure 'A Kidnapping in Yubet' are two stand alone stories that make up the 7-part Orb Saga. I like that you could read the stories without really missing anything. And the presence of Magica De Spell and The Phantom Blot were classic touches. However, I don't think the pair do anything to read add to the Halloween ambiance that was established by the other reads. But that's okay as they were both really good stories. 

I had a lot of fun with this one. With a little something for everyone, this is spooky Disney fun for the whole family- without the nightmares!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.