The Star Wars #8

The Dark Horse Comics adaptation of the original George Lucas rough draft of Star Wars does indeed come to an end in this issue. Issue #8 doesn't appear to have an expanded page count. So either Dark Horse made an error in planning for how many issues this miniseries should run or Lucas had so many different ideas in how to wrap his story up that he failed to pace things out properly. It's got to be George Lucas' fault. I say this because so much happens in the finale compared to some parts of act one and two that drag out to a snail's pace. Star Wars was such a lucrative property for Dark Horse, if the publisher felt like a 9th or 10th issue was warranted, they would have approved an extension as this sort of thing happens all the time in order to boost sales. 

So what does happen in this closer:

* Annikin Starkiller infiltrates the Empire's Space Fortress in hopes of rescuing Princess Leia who's being interrogated under threat of torture.

*General Luke Skywalker and Han Solo somehow manages to teach a bunch of primitive Wookiees to fly Imperial fighters and organizes an assault on the gigantic space station.

* A new ally emerges.

* Lots of people die on both sides of the conflict.

*Lastly, we get an ending satisfying enough that should ticket sales be dismal, you feel like there was a happy ending. But you don't close things out too perfectly less the studios decide to green-light a sequel.

For those who finish this miniseries, you'll have to settle for option A. This was Dark Horse's swan song with the Star Wars franchise. With Disney buying Lucasfilm in 2012, the House of Mouse had plans for a new series of films as well as giving Marvel, which was also owned by Disney, carte blanche on publishing the further adventures of Luke Skywalker and company. In other words, Disney had no intention of looking backwards; nor were they willing to share a piece of the lucrative Star Wars pie.

Ironically, thanks mostly to the pandemic's crippling effect on the comic book market, Marvel had to source out some of its Star Wars catalog back to Dark Horse. Another irony, instead of giving them any of the established trilogies or the new generation series that was coming to movie screens, Dark Horse was given free reign to establish history of the Old Republic. While in 2014 it didn't look like 'The Saga of The Ophuchi', the proposed next chapter in The Star Wars, perhaps with multiverses being the main focus of the big 2 publishers and their visual arts media, maybe the time is right to continue the adventures of Annikin Starkiller...

I know I'd buy it.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge "Only a Poor Old Man": The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol.12

I'm having a bit of a rough time right now, waiting for several medical appointments to hopefully diagnose that mystery ailment of mine. Thus, I have needed a pick-me-up. Thankfully I still had a Carload Barks Library volume on hand. 

Starring my favorite of the Disney Ducks, this edition contains the first four Uncle Scrooge solo issues by Dell. Though Uncle Scrooge has previously appeared in issues of Walt Disney Comics and Stories and Donald Duck, the contents here are not to be overlooked! There is a Duckburg money bin sized amount of origin story and key first appearances of supporting characters and relics. Glittering Goldie, Scrooge's lucky dime, and his biggest foes, the Beagle Boys! Although, by this time, it would be the 3rd appearance of the Beagles. In the other 2 times, they were cameos with no lines. The title tale 'Only a Poor Old Man's, sees the crooks finally talking and actively attempting to rob McDuck of his vast riches. 

Major events in Scrooge's early days are explored here. His discovery of the massive Goose Egg nugget when a sourdough in the Klondike is retold. We'll also learn some of the major talents the entrepreneur has gleaned over time building his fortune. Fluent in several languages, Scrooge can also communicate with various animal species.

It's not just Uncle Scrooge whose backstory is being developed. Donald is pretty much established. But his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie are beginning to transition from mischievous brats to valuable resources in Uncle Scrooge's globetrotting adventures for fabled treasures. The Junior Woodchuck Handbook begins to see wear and tear in epics that see the ducks discovering Atlantis and a Utopian, or Duck-topian version of Shangri-la. 

The stories are still a bit rough around the edges. It's like the first season of a now classic TV sitcom. The lighting isn't quite right. Background information on a character might be a bit inaccurate from the eventual finished product. Heck, you might even find that some of the original cast will be changed over time. Still, to see the early version of my all-time favorite Disney characters was so awesome. 

(Note: The first three issues were originally published as part of the massive Dell Four Color Series, #s 386, 456, & 495. They are retroactively known among collectors as Uncle Scrooge #1-3.)

The director's cut commentary by several noted 'Duck experts' was as usual. The backstory information and history of Carl Barks was so interesting. I'd love to read a biography about this iconic comic creator. But when these experts start to wax philosophic about how some random item in the background of a single scene was Barks' silent protest against totalitarianism.  Have these experts never taken advice from Sigmund Freud? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Dell Giants #39 'Walt Disney's Merry Christmas'

I found this 1960 Dell Giants over the summer at a used book store. The cover was hanging by a thread and prayer. But otherwise, it was in really good condition. None of the holiday activities were scribbled in and all of the pages were intact. That alone was a Christmas miracle considering how many crafts and games juvenile readers were encouraged to partake in.

This special opens with Donald and his nephews pondering what to get Uncle Scrooge for Christmas. They instead get tricked by their rich relative to board a rocket ship bound for the moon. Only Scrooge forgot to set the ship's coordinates and they wind up stuck on the North Pole!

Then Mickey Mouse plans an ice skating event to raise money for Christmas presents for the local orphanage. The star athlete has refused to go on, leaving Mickey scrambling for a replacement. It comes in the form of Goofy, who turns out to be a real pro; as long as he skates in his sleep. Now too afraid to go back to sleep, Mickey hires a hypnotist to break Goofy's subconscious hang ups.

Brer Rabbit goes around the countryside asking for items to decorate his Christmas tree and winds up becoming an ornament himself in a trap set by Brer Fox. Gyro Gearloose teams with the Three Little Pigs when the Big Bad Wolf creates some gadgets, based on Gyro's blueprints, to kidnap the piggies for a Christmas dinner to remember. Dale becomes a private investigator in hopes of raising money to buy a Christmas present from Chip. He ends up becoming his own client when his deer slayer hat goes missing.

My favorite story was a Disney crossover. True, a couple of the other stories I mentioned had some unlikely pairings that I consider unexpected. But it wasn't as massive as my personal fav. It's got Dumbo and Daisy Duck's nieces helping Gephetto and Pinocchio solve the mystery of the missing dolls. Every time Gephetto completes a toy, it immediately disappears. With time running out before Christmas, the girls become bait to get to the bottom of all this and discovered that the person swiping all the presents is the Witch from Snow White! 4 different franchises all coming together in 1 tale. I loved it!

A couple of the stories in this book could have been set at different times of year. Christmas might have just been added as a place holder for the action. But the final story was absolutely not set anywhere near the holidays. Minnie Mouse and Clarabelle the Cow are reporters for the local paper, sent overseas to cover the birthday party of a princess. Only when the girls get to the palace, they learn that the princess has gone missing! It's a charming mystery. I just don't understand what it's doing inside a Disney Christmas special.

Lots of fun. Festive... mostly. All of the stories were entertaining. But half of them could've been more at place in a winter special which was something Dell did put out from time to time. Very Disney and it's something that I very much welcome into my holiday comics collection.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Full-Color Manga Edition (Family Comic Friday)

Let's finish out my Halloween readings for 2025 with a Manga adaptation of a film that has become a classic of not just Halloween, but Christmas as well! 

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas has become a holiday classic that people enjoy from October all the way through to the New Year! I didn't see the movie when it first appeared in theaters in 1993. Probably because I went to a Christian school and was too afraid of expressing any interest in a film that was clearly 'pagan'. It wasn't until I was in college working at a shopping mall video store that I became introduced to the film. But even through our showing the film on the myriad of television screens, I didn't really appreciate it until years later. Now I absolutely adore it.

My local library had this book in their new release section and I thought it would be the perfect transition between Halloween and Christmas comic book reading; though I won't be diving into holiday time comics until Thanksgiving week. This is a 2025 release from TokyoPop. Now you might be thinking 'Didn't TokyoPop release an adaption of this movie in 2016?' Well, you would be right. But that was a black and white edition and the artwork was not very faithful to the vision of Tim Burton. It was more sketchy in look and for those not familiar with the Manga style, it was very much maligned.

With this deluxe color hardcover edition, the artwork looks more polished. The format is still traditionally Manga, meaning you read from the right going leftward. Same with interpreting the panels. The sound effects are in Japanese with English subtitles. But compared to that black and white edition, this volume is 10 times better. 

The classic story is still the same. The King of Halloween Town, Jack Skellington, has become bored with the same old Halloween traditions year after year. A chance encounter into the realm of Christmas Town inspires Jack to celebrate the season of giving. But it's done with Halloween flare. So when Jack has Santa kidnapped in order to take his place as 'Sandy Claws', things go horribly wrong. 

My favorite scene from the movie is when Jack as Sandy gives a human boy a wrapped present. The parents ask the lad about what Santa gave him for Christmas. The boy pulls out a shrunken head and his parents faint. Classic scene. Unfortunately, TokyoPop changed it. Instead of a shrunken head, the kid pulls out a bat. It's not even a scary looking bat. The parents still freak out. But the magic of that scene is no more. 

As with any adaptation, scenes get cut or edited. (But why did they have to change my favorite one?) Another thing  that underwent what I thought was an unnecessary alteration was the antagonist, Oogie Boogie. He just kinda shows up out of nowhere, putting Santa Claus and the rag-doll character Sally in mortal peril for no seeming reason. He's much more developed in the film and there was no prior eference to his one-armed bandits that plays a critical role in the climax of the story. (Russian playwright Chekov would be mortified at this!)

TokyoPop has an origin story about how Jack and Oogie Boogie started out as friends and then had a falling out. Perhaps, they are heavily editing the villain's impact in this volume in hopes of enticing readers to go out and buy it. Thanks to the ad for that volume at the end of this book, I want to read it. But I also feel like cutting out a lot of Oogie Boogie's backstory, of for the sake of additional sales is a little underhanded, if that's what TokyoPop did in fact do.

If you love Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and you can get past the alternate direction of reading that comes with Manga, you'll love this book. In fact, if you are a collector, you might even say that you need this book. The adaptation is decent. They do a fairly good job of trying to portray some of the musical numbers from the film. The coloring was beautiful and I was absolutely enamored by the art until the very last page. Why did artists Jun Asuka and Manuel Puppo decide all of a sudden to make Jack's ghost pup Zero look like he was CGI instead of illustrated pencil and inks as he (and the rest of the Manga) appears in the book? It was an error that ruined a perfect holiday feel-good feel!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

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.

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: 'Return to Plain Awful'- The Don Rosa Library, Vol. 2

Don Rosa gets a lot of hate from Duck fans. But no matter how much a collector might despise his work, the harshest critic of Don Rosa is Rosa himself. And I just don't know why. 

Rosa is a disciple of the greatest Duck creator of them all, 'the good Duck artist' Carl Barks. And sure, you never want to exceed your hero. But while Don Rosa is no Carl Barks, I think it should be said that Carl Barks is no Don Rosa either!

The artist originally born as Keno Rosa has a style in the vein of Harvey Kurtzman with tiny little inclusions of hidden images and inside jokes- usually in the background. I absolutely love that. Each Duck story of Rosa's that I read, I feel like a detective trying to find all the Easter eggs hidden in every panel. Thank goodness Rosa wrote his own commentary situated at the end of this volume as sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I just can't find where he hid the word 'D.U.C.K.' in the art of the first page. (Note: you should also be on the lookout for hidden Mickey's and portraits of Barks throughout...)

In this volume we get to enjoy a number of adventures throughout Duckburg and the furthest reaches of the globe. The cover story sees Uncle Scrooge tagging along with his nephews to Plain Awful in hopes of securing the market on square chicken eggs. But he'll have to beat rival Glomgold Flintheart to Peru first! 

My favorite story has Scrooge declaring his money bin a sovereign nation. The headaches that come about with tariffs, passports and an invading army of Beagle Boys makes this story so relevant to today's headlines that you would swear that this story wasn't written over 35 years ago.

There's a couple of real hidden gems that I don't feel like Rosa gives himself enough credit for. First is a storyboard for a never published promotional comic highlighting Donald and his nephews' inaugural trip to Disney MGM Studios. As it's Rosa's only story to have Donald and Mickey interacting in the same universe, it's not to be missed! Then there's Rosa's only foray into the DuckTales realm. He only penned it and it's less than 8 pages, but this prehistoric time travel romp with Magica De Spell was so fun!

I needed this book as a bit of retail therapy and a pick-me-up after a very difficult weekend. I had a ball with this book. I laughed, I examined and I appreciated the artwork and I distressed. I just wish Don Rosa knew how much somebody appreciated his body of work. He's ton better than he gives himself credit for!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

DuckTales #4 (2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers. TailSpin. Darkwing Duck. Without the success of their predecessor DuckTales, none of these classic Disney cartoons from the late 80s-early 90s would have existed. In fact, the Disney Channel as it operates today as a leader in children's programming as well as the streaming juggernaut Disney+, if not for the pioneering nature of DuckTales.

Production for DuckTales began in 1986. At the time, it was a big gamble for Disney who was fledgling against a wave of new animation studios that was poaching quality talent away from the House of Mouse. In 1985, Disney saw a moderate success with the weekly TV series Adventures of the Gummi Bears. Debuting on NBC, the show was an all-new property, though loosely based on the popular gummy candies. It's surprise popularity enticed Disney to begin production on a daily syndicated series that would air in the late afternoon when children would be home. It needed to be based on a Disney icon. Instead of focusing on Mickey Mouse producers wanted a lead character with a bit of an attitude. And of you wanted attitude in the Disney universe, you headed over to Duckburg, Calisota!

Based upon the classic Duck universe comic stories of Carl Barks, DuckTales was an adventure heavy animated series that saw Uncle Scrooge and his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie seeking treasures from across the globe; even the Moon! Enemies such as the Beagle Boys, Flintheart Glomgold and Magical De Spell would be the standard flies in Scrooge's ointment as he constantly looked for new ways to fill his already overflowing coffers. 

To the dismay of Duck fans, Donald Duck would be missing. Due to an internal edict by Disney, the main trio of Mickey, Donald and Goofy were forbidden from being used in the newly developed television animation department. Thus, Donald was sent away to join the Navy (He already had the hat and tunic!) and the larger than life Launchpad McQuack was introduced to pilot Scrooge and his nephews around the world. (The policy forbidding the use of Disney's major Golden Age characters would be overturned in 1992 with the release of the syndicated series Goof Troop starring Goofy and his son Max. Again, thanks to the popularity of DuckTales!)

As DuckTales quickly dominated the airwaves, Disney immediately looked for ways to market the series through merchandising. The first thing Disney approved was a comic book series by their American license holder of the Disney comic book rights, Gladstone. The first few issues had Studio Program material featuring Donald in the episode based adventures. Yet on the covers it was  Launchpad on the engaging with Scrooge and family; not Donald! The rest of the book was filled with a classic Barks story, which also featured Donald.

I realize the mastery of those stories in my older age. But for a 12 year old who was a fan of the TV show as well as a subscriber to Gladstone's comic adaptation, the stark contrast of art styles between the TV show and 1950s Disney Ducks was confusing. Having Donald acting out stories that he wasn't even involved in on the TV didn't help matters much either. Once Disney 's Studio Program realized that Donald was absent from the series, the remainder of the first volume of DuckTales' 13 issues featured Launchpad instead. Those first tales featuring Donald are now considered non-canon by fans.

In 1990, Disney revoked the licensing rights form Gladstone. The studio decided to publish their own comics. Len Wein was hired as the Editor-in-chief. With a full length feature film hitting theaters later in the year, Disney Comics published the second volume of DuckTales. The 18-issue series was nothing like Gladstone's book. An all-new multi part story saw Uncle Scrooge, the nephews and Webby, the granddaughter of McDuck's housekeeper, Mrs. Beakley attempting to recover Scrooge's lucky dime from the clutches of Magica De Spell. 

In this issue, the Duckburg estate is celebrating the safe return of Webby from being held captive by Magica. As a present, Scrooge takes his nephews and Webby on a cruise where bad weather causes McDuck to be swept overboard. He awakens, marooned on the tropical island of his dreams because the native monkeys pay him in trade for coconuts and other fruits in rubies, diamonds and emeralds. However, everything becomes less than ideal when a giant ape arrives on the scene literally throwing his weight around!

While the story ends with a 'To Be Continued' blurb, thankfully things on Ape Island satisfyingly end to prevent readers from having to wait for Scrooge's rescue in issue #5. 

Volume 2 ran for 18 issues right up until the publisher imploded in 1991, cancelling all but a trio of series. DuckTales #4 was written by season one screenwriter Frank Ridgeway. Covers and art by Cosme Quartieri and Robert Bat.

Completing this review completes Task #4 (A Comic Book Based on an Animated TV Show) the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: 'The Son of the Sun'- The Don Rosa Library, Vol. 1

I was so enthralled by Don Rosa's epic undertaking of making a cohesive structure of the how of Scrooge McDuck made his fortune. Rosa poured over the countless stories of Uncle Scrooge created by the good duck artist Carl Barks and wrote and illustrated what is considered by many to be one of the greatest comic book miniseries ever made. Needless to say, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck turned me from a Don Rosa admirer into a Don Rosa fanatic.

This past holiday season, I decided to add this book to my Christmas wishlist. I was very fortunate to have my bride get it for me, this beginning my opening foray into Don Rosa's portfolio as the second best good duck artist. 

The Don Rosa Library is a chronological omnibus of Rosa's career as an employee of Gladstone Comics. In this volume roughly covering the years 1986-1987, Rosa has returned to creating comics after having to quit for several years to run his family construction business. A chance encounter with an issue of Gladstone's run of Donald Duck inspired him to take a huge gamble and offer his services as a creator of Uncle Scrooge stories. Having passed his audition, Gladstone hires Rosa to craft a full story. 

Using an old script he wrote years ago, Rosa decides to set his story firmly in the universe established by Barks. 'The Son of the Sun' has a dateline of the 1950s, right around the sweet spot era when Barks was crafting some of his best Uncle Scrooge adventures and when a young Keno Rosa was experiencing those tales his older sister had collected over the years. The main antagonist would be the Scrooge antithesis, Flintheart Glomgold, who challenges McDuck in a race to see who can find a fabled horde of fabled Incan treasure in Peru.

This volume contains about 2 dozen other works starring Scrooge along with nephews Donald, Huey, Dewey, Louie and the uber-lucky Gladstone. Not every story was written by Rosa, but it's all of his handiwork as Gladstone Comics quickly began to rely on Rosa as their go-to artist. 

I love the Complete Carl Barks volumes of Disney Duck stories. But what makes this book superior to them is the commentary. In the Barks volumes, the commentary is by a number of scholars who try to equate a can of soup in the background of a single panel to the artist's opinion on social economics in Communist countries. I don't care for that sort of exposition. But I do love learning about the backstory and history of how and why a story or character was created. By having Don Rosa narrate his personal commentary, it's almost 100% the type of facts and figures I want to learn about. Plus, it's where I learned that Gladstone Comics was named after the character of Gladstone Gander!

Being his earliest Disney works, Rosa is a bit harsh on himself here. Well, they do say that we're our own harshest critic. I just wish Rosa could see his brilliance even in his rawest forms. There's a panel of Glomgold pointing a gun at off panel Scrooge while he's escaping a crashing plane that I kept coming back to again and again. So powerful. So much movement. So full of anger and emotion. Got to be one of my top 10 comic book images all time.

I've long wondered how to classify Don Rosa's art style. He puts so much detail into his work like a George Perez. But he also puts tiny jokes into the background like a Harvey Kurtzman. In the words of the master, he considers himself a student of the school of underground comix. That's fine with me.

I'm looking forward to volume 2! Can't wait to see Rosa's evolution and learn more inside information about one of my favorite characters ever!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Dell Giant: Christmas in Disneyland #1

Instead of gifts from Santa, a little boy and girl ask Santa to take them on a magical trip to Disneyland in this 1957 Dell Giant. 

Santa obliges, telling the children an assortment of stories based on the various lands and rides throughout the park. The Carl Barks classic 'The Black Pearls of Tabu Yama' starts things off with Uncle Scrooge and his nephews marooned on a deserted island at Christmas. Chip n' Dale must rescue Jiminy Cricket from the clutches of Br'er Bear, who forces the wise insect to teach him how to become Santa Claus. Mickey and Goofy attempt to deliver a payload of gold to a group of miners before Christmas Eve. The L'il Bad Wolf thinks his papa is making him a snow blowing machine to help him in his snow shoveling business. And in the surprise of all surprises, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell attempt to rescue Santa Claus who has been kidnapped by the dastardly Captain Hook!

I was extremely excited about that Peter Pan story. The 1953 Disney classic plays into the story of how my wife and I met. I had no idea about the existence of this story. It was such a great read and I loved seeing the Tick-Tock Crocodile fly after getting sprinkled with pixie dust.

There were also several arts and crafts activities and a fun and games section in the back. Considering that this issue is nearly 70 years old and only 1 of those pages was torn out, probably by some child who had zero idea how collectible old comics would one day be, I consider myself very lucky. I paid less than $10 for this issue and if that page hadn't been missing, the book would probably have been priced out of my price range. 

On my wish list of Christmas comic books, I've got issue #38 of Gold Key's Walt Disney Comics Digest. The front invites readers to enjoy 'Christmas at Disneyland'. I have a feeling that the contents of this special are reprinted in that digest edition. I'm still keeping that book on my wish list. However, as I now own this book, in 99.% entirety, obtaining the Gold Key book is on the back burner for now.

Sure, this was a big ol' commercial for Disneyland which had opened less than 2 years prior in California. But the whole thing was jammed packed Christmas fun starring many of my favorite Disney characters and it's a treasured addition to my Christmas comic book collection!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney's Autumn Adventures #1

I could have finished this book earlier. I started in in mid-October. However, once I realized that there was some Thanksgiving themed stories, I decided to wait until now to complete.

Walt Disney's Autumn Adventures #1 doesn't just cover Halloween which is what I thought based on Chip and Dale hauling a gigantic jack-o'-lantern on the cover. Had I been a bit more keen, I would have noticed Gyro Gearloose using one of his new inventions to capture a turkey! No, this really is a book that runs the entire Fall season gambit.

The book is essentially divided into 3 sections: the coming of Autumn, Halloween and Thanksgiving. In the first part, Huey, Dewey and Louie get in trouble playing hooky during the first day of school in a Carl Barks classic while chipmunks Chip and Dale contemplate going south for the winter.

In the middle section, Donald's nephews and the Junior Woodchucks explore a haunted house owned by Uncle Scrooge in a DuckTales themed Halloween romp. Readers get to marvel at the genius of Barks once again when Donald tries out Gyro's latest invention: a jet powered broomstick, to disastrous effect. 

Thanksgiving stories include the Three Little Pigs and Li'l Bad Wolf feeding some turkeys when the Big Bad Wolf decides to use it to his advantage in another attempt to eat the piggies. Meanwhile, Pluto must save Horace Horsecollar's prize winning turkey from poachers after Mickey's dog accidentally lets the bird loose.

From the early 90s when Disney was self publishing it's own comics after the shuttering of Gemstone. It was a very brief affair that later lead to Marvel and then IDW publishing Disney comics for a time. Unfortunately, I can't accurately date this book as there's no copyright inside the book. However I do know that before they went defunct, Disney released another Autumn Adventures the following year. I'm on the lookout for that...

I had no idea that Len Wein was the EIC here. Based on his resume of horror works, heading Disney's comics division seems odd for him. Apparently, Wein brought some DC talent with him as Marv Wolfman among others is listed as one of the writers of a couple of other releases for the month in the back of this book.

A wonderful Fall holiday read that lasts the whole season.

Worth Consuming!

Rating:9 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney's Donald Duck "Trick Or Treat": The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol.13

I ordered this one specifically in time for Halloween. Featuring the complete, unabridged, almost 100% unedited version of Carl Barks' adaptation of the Donald Duck cartoon 'Trick or Treat', this volume is a treasure. Dell, Disney or both felt that Barks' introduction was too scary. Thus, a full page and a half was scrapped and redone in a more friendly time. Tasked with 32-pages to fill based on an about 8 minute long cartoon, Barks padded the middle with the inclusion of a 6-armed ogre named Smorgasbord. Again, someone high up didn't like it and those pages were just removed and the story was trimmed to a 24-page book.

Over the years, many of the original lost pages were recovered. Thanks to Fantagaphics and Rich Tommaso, all except for the last panel were recovered, remastered and re-added to present the Good Duck Artist's original vision. (As of now, only the last panel has never been found.)

'Trick or Treat' is a masterpiece; both on celluloid and in print. I'm so glad that I waited and saved some of my Amazon gift cards to get this book. After the main story there's a couple of one-pagers involving Halloween and an 8-pager that isn't really a Halloween tale. But it does involve some strange goings-on to make it a seasonal read for this time of year.

Halloween isn't the only holiday covered in this book. Thanksgiving sees Donald fleeing to Europe to avoid having to host lucky cousin Gladstone Gander for Turkey Day. Christmas sees Donald trying to trick Uncle Scrooge into paying for his holiday feast. There's even some Valentine's Day love in the air when Donald takes a job as a mailman and must deliver a Valentine to his sweetie, Daisy. Only Donald didn't send her the card! Gladstone did!

Daisy makes a couple more appearances in this book, which also sees the introduction of Daisy's nieces, April, May and June. Daffy inventor Gyro Gearloose besieges Duckburg with some of his out-of-control creations. And there's tons of nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie and my favorite, Uncle Scrooge to be found in this cozy little volume.

My love for the stories is unparalleled. However, I'm starting to get a little annoyed with the expert commentary on the stories. They're all so negative and snobby about it. Sure, you're an academic and that's how you are trained. But I want to know more about the backstory. The inspirations for these tales appeal to me. I don't need to know how the position of Donald's wrist in panel #6 of the third story is a commentary on the plight of Nebraskan hog farmers. Just give me the facts, PLEASE!

As jaded as the experts say Carl Barks was, there just isn't substitute for the amount of joy his world has brought me over the past 40 plus years!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Disney Gargoyles Halloween Special (Family Comic Friday)

Taking off from where the 1994 animated series left off, series creator Greg Weisman has been given the chance to continue the story of Disney's Gargoyles.

It's Halloween night and young Nashville wants to experience trick or treating for the very first time. As other Big Apple children are dressed as Gargoyles, Gnash, 'with a silent G', should blend in with the humans quite well. Why would Gnash need to blend in with other trick-or-treaters if his Gargoyle brethren have revealed themselves to the world? It's because there's a group of anti-Gargoyle sledgehammer welding militants called the Quarrymen who long for the old days when the demonic looking creatures were cursed to a millennial long slumber. As the Quarrymen have plans to disrupt a community festival between humans and Gargoyles, it's up to Gnash and his new friends to prevent this from becoming the worst All Hallows Eve ever in New York history.

I'm a little familiar with Gargoyles. My little sister watched them a little bit first run because the little boys across the street were obsessed with the syndicated cartoon. So I'm not sure how accurate to the flow of the original series this 2023 Halloween special is. Though I imagine with having the shows creator behind the new adventures to help keep things seamless. I appreciated that the saga of the New York Gargoyle clan is kept in the 90s making these comics a continuation and not a reboot.

There are some more modern ideals in this 90s set one-shot. But it's left up to the reader how to interpret. For instance, there's a character with the last name of Jones dressed as a witch. Jones later reveals that under the mask and dress, the character is a man. Is the character transgender? Homosexual? Just a dude dressed up for Halloween? It's never really revealed and since Gargoyles was originally an all-ages franchise, it's left innocuous in order to not be too controversial for families who might not feel the time is right to talk about gender norms or human sexuality.

The Quarrymen are some pretty nasty dudes who spew hate and bigotry. There's a couple of scenes of bullying, a big fight between Quarrymen and Gargoyles and two Gargoyle 'dogs' that look pretty intimidating. Not really unexpected for a book rated 'teen'.

If Gargoyles was a show you watched as a kid in the 90s and it's a legacy property you wish to share with your children or other young readers in your life, then this is a Halloween read that will be enjoyed by all. If Gargoyles is a property that is completely new to you, I recommend parents and guardians read it first to ensure it's age appropriateness. 

Back issues can be found on eBay and other comic book retail websites.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

What If... Donald Duck Became Thor #1

Back in 2007 or 2008, I was in Charlotte, NC for HeroesCon. Don Rosa was in attendance. He was selling prints of famous DC and Marvel comic covers that he had 'Disney-fied' with the Ducks of Duckburg. One such print that really struck my fancy was a parody of Journey Into Mystery #83. That famous comic introduced the Mighty Thor to the Marvel Universe and in Rosa's take, he had Donald Duck welding Mjolnir against those evil Rock Men from Saturn. Oh, how now I wish I had bought a copy of that print. But it was out of my price range.

Anyways, jump ahead to right before the pandemic. So it's probably 2019, I think. It's been a decade since Disney bought Marvel. They had been nice for a while, allowing the contracts over their licenses to be assigned out of house. But now Disney was ready to solidify its properties to only being produced solely by companies under the Mickey Mouse umbrella. It's one reason why IDW lost the rights to the Disney catalog even though the company was doing a fantastic job.

At right about the same time, Disney decided to go after artists who were making money off of unsolicited and unlicensed intellectual property. Disney was having some success getting a lot of independent, small artists to stop making Etsy type goods for sale without any royalties going to Disney. It looked like the days of buying a Star Wars themed tee from Teefury or a sketch of Pinocchio from a dealer at a con were over. That is until Disney made the mistake of going after Don Rosa 

Lawyers issued Rosa a cease and desist order. Unless he started paying Disney a chunk from every unlicensed Disney print he sold, Rosa had to stop selling things like that Donald Duck as Thor picture. Undaunted, Rosa dug into his ledger. But instead of paying Disney for what he owed, the controversial Duck artist showed where Disney and several subsidiaries still owed him for unpaid work! 

Then COVID. Disney backed off of their all out war over unlicensed works produced by craftsmen and artists. And they quietly tried to forget ever challenging Don Rosa. However, Mr. Rosa didn't forget. Just like Scrooge McDuck, the artist had been short changed on services rendered and wanted his money - with interest! A compromise was apparently reached. While the terms of the deal have never been officially disclosed, word on the streets from Disney Duck aficionados was that Marvel world release a Donald as Thor cover and possibly a What If... type story with some proceeds going towards paying back what was owed to Don Rosa.

When I saw this book being solicited over the Summer, I assumed that this was what fans on message boards and in person has been talking about. It's one reason why I pre-ordered it as soon as possible. Only, there's no mention whatsoever about this storyline being the idea of Don Rosa! The Thor created byline naming Stan and Jack are on the credits page. There's also special thanks to several people for developing this one-shot. Only Rosa isn't one of them. So did the artist get screwed over again? Is Disney trying to be hush-hush over the unpaid work? Or are the fans I interact with about all things Donald and family just an urban legend? 

The cover looks almost exactly like Rosa's print. The story is essentially an exact retelling of the 1962 first appearance of Thor, only with Ducks. Unlike the previous What If special that saw Donald becoming Wolverine, there's not really anything new to Donald's discovery of Thor's hammer, disguised as an old cane that turns him into the god of Thunder when struck. Heck, I just realized that Thor's human alter ego, Dr. Donald Blake has the first name as this issue 's hero!

The artwork is done in that more modern style of Disney Channel animated series like Mickey's House of Mouse; meaning that all of the characters look classic, except for way too heavy inking. If this was a Kingdom Hearts comic, I might be more of a fan. But it just doesn't work for Donald nor his nephews. However, artist Giada Perissinotto's design of the Stone Ducks of Saturn's World Destroyer blows the classic design of the Asgardian Destroyer out of the water... big time!

It was an enjoyable read. I just wish that we got more of an overview of what Donald's career as Thor would have been like instead of a complete rehash of JIM #83. Hopefully, What If... Minnie Became Captain Marvel will give readers a more original story and mean that there's more Disney/Marvel mashups to come!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 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 Comics and Stories: 75th Anniversary Special

This year is the 90th anniversary of the debut of that rascally Disney character Donald Duck. So when I saw this issue for sale, at a local coffee shop that sells comics, I thought that this was a tribute issue to Donald. Instead, this book from 2015, is an 75th anniversary salute to Walt Disney's Comics and Stories in all of it's various incarnations thanks to the license being passed through several publishers, including IDW, the latest and currently last company to produce the long anthology.

There are a total of 10 stories and shorts in this giant sized collection, split over a dozen segments. While Donald and his nephews kick off things in a story about a war of pranks amongst the ducks, Disney's brightest star Mickey Mouse stars in a 3-part story divided throughout the book. Titled 'Ridin' the Rails' from 1955, whomever did the restoration job on that story should have won an Eisner or other similar award. They made Mickey and Goofy and Grandma Duck look so modern and not from a 60 year old book. 

Some forgotten characters such as Little Hiawatha and Bucky Bug from Silly Symphonies, the Li'l Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs and Walt Kelly's World War II rapscallions, the Gremlins, all make appearances that fall under IDW's editorial trigger warning that some material in this book may be culturally insensitive but kept in the retrospective for historical purposes. Less offensively, there's visits by Scamp, the young son of Lady and the Tramp as well as a lesson on dinosaurs presented by Ludwig Von Drake!

But really this is a Donald Duck book because he appears in 3 stories. Along with the aforementioned opener, Donald is given the runaround by the antics of Chip and Dale before wrapping things up with Huey Dewey and Louie once more. In that story, the fellas take on Magica de Spell in a caper that doesn't even star Uncle Scrooge, even though the enchantress is trying to steal McDuck's singing flea! Even the variant cover stars Donald Duck. But where is Uncle Scrooge in all this? He's a WDCAS icon who made his very first appearance in any form in the pages of this series. He belongs here! At least Scrooge's creator Carl Barks is featured...

Be sure to read David Gerstein's article at the end of this issue. It dives into the history of the long running anthology and has some interesting in-depth info. So good, I'd love to read a book about the history of Disney comic books.

This 75th anniversary collection was a good read. But to not have Uncle Scrooge involved, other than his name in passing, seems a tad unforgivable. So I'm going to knock a couple of stars off of my rating. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime #1 (Family Comic Friday)

If Don Rosa's The Old Castle's Other Secret is the quintessential ending to the story of Scrooge McDuck, then this tale is the epilogue!

Jason Aaron pens a story that asks what if on that fateful snowy Christmas on Bear Mountain, Donald and his nephews never showed up? Scrooge would still be motivated to discover all those hidden treasures. However, without the bonds of family to experience those adventures with, McDuck would still be wanting more. Thus, when he uncovers an enchanted mirror that can breach the barrier between worlds, that world's Worlds Richest Duck will seek to become the richest duck of all the worlds!

I'm actually surprised that there hasn't been such a story before this. Multiverse type stories are extremely popular right now and it seems like every franchise from Rick and Morty to Scooby-Doo has done such a story in one medium or another. 

A bevy of artists contributed beautiful work on this book which might seem a little expensive with a $7.99 price. However it's got a ton of extras including the story that inspired this comic, Christmas on Bear Mountain, which introduced readers to Uncle Scrooge way back in 1947. That debut story is remastered to crystal clear perfection and worth the extra cost.

Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime is the first Disney Ducks comic book ever from Marvel. The House of Ideas had tested a Disney comic in the early 90s, featuring popular franchises like the Little Mermaid, but they were victims of the comic book bubble. I've had this book on my wish list ever since I learned about its existence back in March. I would have gotten it the day it dropped in stores if I wasn't so gosh darn tired from driving all the day prior back from vacation. So I got it the next day after a big rest. But I didn't have to worry about it selling out because I made sure to order a copy from my favorite comic book store early!

Speaking of orders, thanks to the special material at the end of this book, I've got not one but 2 more Disney one-shots by Marvel to look forward to in the next couple of months. Donald Duck is being given the What If... treatment in 2 new specials that ask what would happen if Scrooge's nephew was subject to the Weapon X program and then found the hammer of Thor. With an Aliens What If... miniseries just wrapping up and these Disney issues forthcoming, I'm hoping that Star Wars is next to go under the watchful eye of the Watcher.

I'm not sure if Jason Aaron is ready to be listed with the likes of Rosa, Carl Barks and William Van Horn. But he's got my blessing to write more stories starring Scrooge and his nephews. Aaron crafted a perfect all-ages adventure that includes appearances by inventor Gyro Gearloose and those dastardly Beagle Boys. (Be sure to look out for a cameo made by the adult version of Simba from The Lion King!) I only wish that with the Christmas time book-ending of this story, and the inclusion of Scrooge's holiday set debut, that this book had come out in December. You're welcome to wait and read this book closer to Christmas. But where's the fun in that?

Oh... Can someone please tell me what happened to Donald and his nephews that kept them from visiting McDuck that Christmas on that alternate Earth? That's a mystery I'd like solved! Maybe Jason Aaron can explain that in a follow up to this funtastic multiverse romp!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime debuted in print and digital formats on June 19th, 2024.

Walt Disney Comics and Stories: Donald and Mickey- Quest for the Faceplant

IDW presents a rather charming collection of comic stories starring Mickey Mouse, Donald and his family and other iconic characters from titles originally published previously all over the globe.

Obviously, Donald Duck is the star of this collection. The best two stories costar Donald's cousin Gladstone who's literally a lucky duck! Usually Gladstone and Donald are rivals. But in the opening story based on the cover, Gladstone teams with Donald to photograph a rare plant that's about to bloom for the first time in years. With Donald's photography equipment and Gladstone's luck, the pair seems to have the edge over the competition. That is until they meet up with another contestant out to win the large cash prize: Scrooge McDuck!

Donald then gets a chance at being lucky for once when his wish to be as blessed as cousin Gladstone is mysteriously granted. It's a classic episode of blunder, satire and screwball comedy when Donald's luck runs out unknowingly right before he's about to perform the most insane stunt ever imagined!

In the Mickey arena, there's a pair of mystery stories. One involves the Phantom Blot. The other, Peg Leg Pete. Both co-star Horace Horsecollar, which is kinda odd, since Goofy tends to be the sidekick in those stories. Instead, Goofy have been saved for an adorable story in which he creates a series of mysteries for Mickey to solve in order for the busy amateur sleuth to finally have an exciting day of fun.

Stories starring some of the more lesser known characters of the Disney Universe include the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs, Bucky Bug and his insect friends, Brer Rabbit and his country-time enemies, and an adorable one-pager starring Chip n' Dale. Plus, there's plenty of fun with Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, including an epic sized riverboat adventure starring a character called Garvey Gull. A brand-new character to me, the jury is still out as to whether I find this little guy to be charming or annoying.

The love for the international Disney comics keeps growing within me. I think I have Don Rosa to thank for that. But IDW should get a little bit of the credit as well.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Darkenblot

Let's face it. Mickey Mouse is just too much of a goody-goody. Other than occasionally getting called out by girlfriend, Minnie, when he's trying to do right but his good intentions end calamitously, Mickey lacks the ability to be a bad guy like Donald Duck or Uncle Scrooge. That's why Mickey needs a perfect antagonist like the Phantom Blot!

The Blot is almost pure evil. No, not evil like a demon. He's just got zero redeeming qualities. Everything the villain does is for his own selfish gains. Truly, he's the antithesis of Mickey, unlike Peg Leg Pete, another Mickey Mouse foil, who does have the occasional soft spot. 

From the cover of this IDW collection of Mickey Mouse comics, one would think that Darkenblot is set in a gritty dystopian future like Akira or Blade Runner. Instead, this high tech story is set in the present day in a city designed to be everything ol' Walt Disney himself envisioned with the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow: EPCOT!

Avantegarde City is nearly 100% automated. Only the police force still uses humans as partners to robotic cops as a previous model was deemed to strict and abusive. Lately, the approved models have been acting up as well. Suddenly, an android version of the Phantom Blot begins terrorizing the city with electronic drones of his design. A visiting Mickey decides to stay in Avantgarde City to assist with the capture of this upgraded cyber villain calling himself the Darkenblot!

The Darkenblot story makes up probably 85% of this book. The remaining pages give readers a Mickey one-pager guest-starring Pluto, a Super Goof adventure in which the long-john donning hero takes on a mad scientist with a weather controlling machine and a yarn involving Horace Horsecollar. For those of you unfamiliar with Horace, despite looking more bovine, he really is a horse. Introduced in 1929, it's his girlfriend Clarabelle, Minnie Mouse's best friend, who is the more well known character. 

Despite my initial disappointment at Darkenblot not being set in the future, the story turned out to be really enjoyable. It lacked the formulaic traps that most Mickey Vs. Phantom Blot stories fall into. Perhaps because it's just Mickey to the rescue here. None of his beloved sidekicks like Goofy or Donald are available for comic relief. I kinda wish IDW had used one of the international covers. They present a more accurate feel of what the story was actually like instead of the American one which looks more cyberpunk.

The Super Goof story was silly.. uh, make that goofy. Horace's story was a delight, mostly if only for the unfamiliarity with the character. So I didn't know what to expect. And the one-pager, involving Pluto and an alley cat, was a delight that I re-read at least 3 times before moving on to the next story and I enjoyed it once more while writing this review.

I'm really becoming a fan of the international Disney comics. They're actually good! I want more!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge "Maharajah Donald": The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 4

I actually finished this book about 2 months ago. However the theft of my goat was heavy on my mind and I was too distracted to review it at the time. Only after doing some organizing of my piles of books to review did I realize that I had overlooked this very fun entry in the Complete Carl Barks Library.

The title story sees Donald taking a trip to India. He's supposed to be going alone. Except his nephews Huey Dewey and Louie stowaway. Once in India, Donald is unexpectedly made the ruler of a small kingdom in a caper that combined hijinks, international law and a hint of racist stereotypes.

As I've mentioned before, Barks' works are indeed peppered with cultural stereotypes and prejudices that would make today's youth request the cancellation of the amazing cartoonists career. Thankfully, Disney and Fantagaphics has decided not to cull away these works in hopes of creating dialogue about how much our societal norms have changed as well as point out how much further we've got to go.

There's holiday stories a plenty in this book. The nephews win a turkey for Thanksgiving. Only it's a live bird and the boys are too attached to it to kill it. In a fantastic Christmas set story, Donald is a lighthouse keeper who forgot to buy gifts for the boys. A looming maelstrom prevents Donald from going ashore on Christmas Eve. So any chance of a Christmas to remember rests on an albatross tasked with delivering a letter to Santa.

Now all of these stories come from comics that are quite valuable and really hard to find. But it's the inclusion of the Donald Lighthouse story along with a tale in which involves Donald, an atomic bomb and a sneaky spy are what makes this book really worth it's cover price of $35! Both stories are freebie premiums that mostly found their way into the waste bin. The Christmas story was given away by various toy stores and department stores during the 1946 holiday shopping season. The Atomic Donald adventure was part of a 4-issue set of minis included in a box of Cheerios cereal.

Oh, and how can I forget Donald's houseboat adventure titled 'The Terror of the River'. His experience with a river bound sea monster contains some of the most epic images crafted by Barks! It's breathtaking!

Maharajah Donald contains some of the earliest Donald Duck stories produced not by Disney, but Carl Barks as well. There's only 3 volumes of earlier material out there. There's no sign of a sophomore slump or early development kinks here. Without Uncle Scrooge, who's still a couple of years away from debuting at this point, many of the stories in this volume are about as close to the adventuresome duck epic formula that made me such a fan of the Disney Ducks back in the 1980s!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Minecraft/Incredibles 2 Free Comic Book Day 2019 #1

That day where I was stuck in my car with no phone and nothing good on the radio netted 2 comics that somehow fell out of my bag of books to share with the students at my school. This one is a double feature starring the world of the popular video game, Minecraft and Disney's Incredibles. 

I've never played Minecraft. I don't really know that much about the game. There's this green thing called a Creeper. Kids get really good designing stuff on the game. That's about it. 

I learned a little bit more about the game from this short story. There's players who like to destroy people's property called Griefers. The destruction is done with impunity and the poor victims have to start all over again just for the whole process to repeat itself. If that's how the game is, I sure don't want to play it. However, I did enjoy this game set ghost story. While I might not want to play Minecraft, I wouldn't mind reading another story or two about the comings and goings of the franchise.

Story #2 involves the super powered Parr family from Disney and Pixar's Incredibles franchise. During a seemingly fun day at a parade, robotic drones attack the giant balloons. Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and the kids save the day. However, the big baddie gets away. 

The event leaves mom and dad really drained. Thinking some alone time is what they need, Violet and Dash arrange to babysit baby Jack-Jack while the folks go to a movie. To ensure that date night isn't ruined by calamity, the kids go on patrol, only wind up face to face with the villain from the parade and squad of his souped up drones!

It was interesting to see these two separate franchises in the same book. Sure, this is a Free Comic Book Day promotional item in which both properties were released by Dark Horse. All that makes sense to me. Only I thought Disney was so anti-cross promotional, that I didn't think it was possible here. From what I know about modern Disney, I would expect the Incredibles to be solo stars of their own FCBD release or be teamed with another Pixar franchise. 

Go figure. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.