Donald Duck's Halloween Scream! Mini Comic #2

This mini comic from 2017 features a William Van Horn classic. Donald has decided to become a house painter. His first job is to spruce up a haunted house. Only Donald accepts the job without the knowledge about the home's spooky history. Nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie have heard that the place has a dubious history and they decide to play a little prank on their uncle. But as Donald chalks up the strange goings on in the house as age and disrepair, the nephews turn up the heat only to become victims of a real poltergeist!

I've read this tale somewhere before and it never fails to disappoint. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this story eventually became a Disney animated short. So maybe that's where I remember this tale from. I've checked my entries on this blog and despite having owned this Halloween ComicFest freebie for a long time, I can't find when and how I've come across this story before. 

Carl Barks is definitely my favorite Duck creator. Don Rosa follows. I may have to give serious consideration for Van Horn being my pick for number 3. His art is clean. His word play is brilliant. And I love how his Donald is smarter like Don Rosa's version of the character. I'm just not sure if I like a mischievous Huey Dewey and Louie or not. I think I like it better when they're the experts on everything thanks to their massive time of knowledge, the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook. But the guys sure can pull off some great pranks on their Uncle Donald.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Donald Duck Adventures #38

Living legend William Van Horn crafts the cover feature in this 1996 issue of Donald Duck Adventures.

The story has Donald attending an auction. Most of the stuff is out of his price range, except for a tiny chest that sells for all of 50 cents. When Donald opens the chest back home, he discovers a medallion that bears a treasure map. Donald's nephews are able to determine that the map is of an area in Florida and the medallion was crafted by Spanish explorers in the 1500s. Spanish explorers might mean buried treasure of Spanish doubloons and precious stones.

So Donald and his nephews head down South where they learn that the medallion points to a fabled area of swamp called 'The Hauntland'. According to Native legend, a terrible horror haunts the swamp and locals swear to steer clear of it. Determined to find riches and glory, Donald presses on. Only he won't find buried treasure. What Donald will find is the discovery of the century and it was only several million years in the making. 

The next story again has Donald seeking riches. His new dog, a massive Saint Bernard, is eating him and the nephews out of house and home. When Donald learns of a money making opportunity back on Bear Mountain, he takes his dog up for a try out. As the last Saint Bernard was injured making a delivery run, Donald has his work cut out for him including an encounter with one of Bear Mountain's namesake grizzlies!

Both stories were great duck tales starring Donald Duck along with Huey, Dewey and Louie. However, this comic book does show a decline in quality. 1996 is just a few short months away from publisher Gladstone Comics' ultimate demise in 1998. One cost cutting measure taken by Gladstone was to replace the glossy paper of the cover with the same dingy newsprint used to make the interiors. The whole thing looks like those flimsy free comics you'd get as a kid at Shoney's or Red Lobster. Nostalgic, sure. But the stories in this issue deserved more respect.

The cover promises chills. Not very much a scary story as it's a fanciful story set in a spooky place. It's rather magical, honestly. And the back-up story was a hoot.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #568

Great cover- but it's also a bit of a spoiler.

It's time once again for holiday fun with the cast of characters from Disney. This is issue stars my favorite Disney character, Uncle Scrooge. And in the cover story, Scrooge McDuck is in total Scrooge mode!

With just a couple of days until Christmas, Scrooge is singularly focused on one thing- salvaging the lost treasure from a sunken ship. To do this, Uncle Scrooge has drafted Donald and his nephews to captain a submarine. Huey, Dewey & Louie are afraid that Santa won't find them. But they find solace in that Donald mailed a letter to Santa on their behalf. Only Donald forgot to mail it. Uh-oh!

The second story stars a character called Bucky Bug. Based on the appearance of Buck and his friends, this story looks like it might be from the 1930s or 40s. It involves Bucky getting ready for a holiday event for the local children involving a visit from Santa. Unfortunately, the Santa suit is in disrepair and there's not an appropriate substitute suit to be found.

The last story wasn't Christmas themed. It was the first of a 5 part series involving a wondrous invention made by Mickey and his nephew Morty. This adventure was taken from a series of newspaper strips and was lots of fun. I only hate that I don't have the rest of the story!

The Uncle Scrooge story was great. The Bucky Bug story was heartwarming. But the level of rhyming in this story starting to get nauseating. I'm not kidding. At one point, the flow of the narrative was too fluid and I act felt a wave of vertigo. 

Featuring the talents of Carl Barks and William Van Horn, this was a recent find. Well worth the couple of bucks I spent for it. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #567

Day 3 of my Thanksgiving reads stars Donald and Mickey! 

In the first story- 'Turkey Shoot', Donald's nephews win a turkey in a raffle. Only the turkey is alive and they don't want their new pet to become Thanksgiving dinner. So Donald enters a turkey shoot in hopes of winning another bird to feast on. Only the charity sponsoring the event have fixed it so nobody can possibly win! 

Then we visit the woods to spend Thanksgiving with the L'il Bad Wolf and his Pop. The Big Bad Wolf is tired of having beans for Turkey Day. So he does the unthinkable and actually does an honest day's work; attempting to earn his own bird! Only the other residents in the forest seem to think that the Wolf's legitimate feast has been stolen!

Lastly, Mickey is ready for his Turkey Day feast. But this bird has grown big and mean over the year and it's fighting back! Watch as Mickey tries to off a Tom Turkey and get pulverized a being of pure evil!

(Sorry- I have a mortal fear of turkeys... Maybe I got a little bit biased. But I doubt it! Turkeys are mean!)

There's a fourth story in this issue. It wasn't seasonal. But it was funny. Based on Goofy's series of educational videos from the 1940s, the anthropomorphic dog takes readers on a tour of the history of shoes. 

This issue features works from Carl Barks and William Van Horn. Full of classic Disney charm. This is the House of Mouse I remember as a kid. And I loved every panel of it! Though I do think it a little weird that a family of ducks want to eat turkey for Thanksgiving...

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.