The Future is (almost) Now!

Coming soon is another wonderful book from Fantagraphics (...they sure have some track record, don't they?) MICKEY AND DONALD: FANTASTIC FUTURES collecting the stories that fall under the group title "Once Upon a Mouse in the Future"! 

Another superb effort done for the Disney 100th Anniversary and available to everyone on or about February 06, 2024!  

This is a very interesting book, and not just because I did four stories for it, but because it's a whole bunch of different takes on Mickey and the Gang - different types of story, and different types of art - each of which takes a classic Disney animated short and reimagines it "100 Years From Now"!  

But, there's more to it than just Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and sometimes Pluto cavorting around as they often did in those classic shorts... While the cover doesn't show it, you'll find Dr. Einmug, Chief O'Hara, and the Phantom Blot in these pages! 

...The classic shorts were never like this!  

I'd just gotten my contributor's copy as I write this post, so I really haven't dug into it beyond a cursory reviewing of my four stories - but I must say that the best of those four is "Mr. Mouse Takes a Space Trip", which magnificently turns "Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip" on it's great big round ears!  

...And there's even a hilarious "great big round ears" gag in the story! I cracked-up even while translating it from it's original Italian!  

I'll say no more beyond it having art perfectly suited to its setting and subject matter, but enough!  I want you all to enjoy it - and the whole darned book - to the fullest!  

And, you WILL enjoy it, too, from the editing expertise of The Incomparable David Gerstein, to the the dialogue stylings you love by Thad Komorowski, Jonathan Gray, and yours truly, this Future's looking Fantastic indeed! 

Between "Fantastic Futures" and THIS, 2024 is off to a great start, comics-wise!  

Fantagraphics Disney Masters Volume 16: Luciano Bottaro - Joyously Jumpin' with Jupiter!

Lotsa jumpin' for joy goin' on 'round here today, an' here's why...

Yes, I finally got my copy today and all I can do is envy those of you who have had the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful book even sooner!  

In fact, I did something I have never done with any previous volume of Fantagraphics Disney Masters... I read it through COMPLETELY IN ONE SITTING!  ...Yes, really!  Me? Mister Horrifically Busy!  ...So, maybe I skipped a little housecleaning... and a meal... maybe a doctor's appointment... what of it?  

And, believe me, this volume has had some VERY strong competition... 

But, other than THE PHANTOM BLOT (...aaaand one future volume still in the works), there is none I anticipated more eagerly than this sequel to the previous volume dedicated to Italian Disney Master Luciano Bottaro (1931-2006)!

  Why?  Just one word... REBO! 

REBO: the ruler, the warlord, the imperious, impatient, and impetuous, and most importantly... the S.L.U.G. of  the planet Saturn!  (S.L.U.G. = Supreme Leader and Unquestioned General)  ...An acronym I created for the character with sheer delight!  

With his two obsequious generals in tow, this volume finds Rebo taking the battles (perhaps not nearly as hard-fought as he would have wanted) away from Saturn and his "target" Jupiter, and bringing them to Earth.  

We lead off with "Fear the Wrath of Rebo"... a title I admittedly cobbled together from two other genre favorites - "Fear the Walking Dead" and "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn".  

Having miraculously cheated death (as all the best villains tend to do), Rebo and his generals stow away on a Jovian SNARK ("Space Navigational Ark" seen above) bound for Earth and "The Great Hero of Jupiter"... Donald Duck (...?)

Rebo vows revenge on Donald for the humiliating defeats of the earlier Disney Masters volume, and the fun takes-over with the "pink and rubbery havoc" Rebo wreaks upon Duckburg, Rebo taking-over all the television sets in the city to deliver an ultimatum as if he were The Joker, and Daisy's uproariously indignant reaction to the S.L.U.G. of  Saturn by thinking it's all part of one of Donald's strange lodge initiations. 

A VERY worthy sequel by Mr. Bottaro, especially at it comes decades after the original "Uncle Scrooge's Money Rocket"!  

 Things To Look For:  

You'll find everything you've come to expect in my translation and dialogue efforts: puns and wordplay, "Bertram", "Goat-Ham City", Super Goof (...as a TV cartoon "Super Goof the Animated Series", anyone?) references.  Dog-face surrogates for Jimmy Olsen and Perry White, and not just one but two Lost in Space references - one obvious, and one very oblique (A "Tip of the TIAH Topper" to anyone who... "unearths" that second one!) 

Beyond that, Rebo is more over-the-top than ever, and his two generals all the more obsequious... though one of them is just a liiiittle more "obsequious-er" than the other!

Oh, yes... there's also a reference to the Carl Barks "Donald ducking-out on Daisy's spring cleaning" story from WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES #213 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: June, 1958) - where, as noted in our last post, Donald beats a rug! 

...And hey... this book was released in spring! 

We continue IMMEDIATELY where we left off (...literally, the same scene that closes the first story opens the next) with the book-titular "Jumpin Jupiter!", translation and dialogue by "Jonathan H. Gray with David Gerstein".  

Now, I don't know "who-did-what", but these stories are so nicely cross-edited - carrying over some of my characterizations and bits into this story, just as I followed Jon's lead in the "Ice Sword" stories... 

...that I figure at least some of this continuity-carryover might be attributed to David.  He is the best possible editor for this stuff (You'll see other reasons why, later in this post!), because NO ONE goes that extra mile quite like he does!  

Anyway, Rebo meets, and joins forces with Dr. Zantaf, another Luciano Bottaro creation whom you might remember from DONALD DUCK #9 (IDW, Cover Date: January, 2016).

They meet!

But, these things never end well. 

So, how did they go from "comrades-in-arms" to "arm-powered-combat"?  You'll just have to read (and enjoy) the story!  After all, this is a Blog, not a library!  

As if to cleanse the palate after all that Rebo-ranting and Zantaf... er, Zantaf... um, "whatever-he-does", we have a hilarious Bottaro Goofy story co-starring Witch Hazel...

...She of the epic confrontation with Donald Duck that spanned both animation and comic books!  

"Goofy and the Washed-Up Witch", with translation and dialogue by Thad Komorowski (and a better dialogue creator for Witch Hazel... and Magica DeSpell... and Gladstone Gander and other "characters of a certain type and attitude", you'll never find in this modern era).

In short, Hazel goes to extraordinary and absurd lengths to convince a dead-skeptical Goofy that witches exist - and that she is one!  

But, Goofy maddingly counters with the same solid and implacable denial that he once applied to the existence of Eega Beeva  - leading one to believe that Bottaro was directly influenced by Bill Walsh and Floyd Gottfredson's "The Man of Tomorrow" (1947).  

Another one of "those editing things" that I so love is the use of the "Paul Murry Goofy Logo"... 

 

...And the title, "Goofy and the Washed-Up Witch" done up in a "Paul Murry Lettering Font"!  

We end on another wonderfully weird sci-fi effort by Bottaro... alas, one published posthumously in 2007, after his death in 2006!  ...A story given one delightful surprise of an American English title, for a story about Scrooge and Gyro exploring the Black Holes of the universe - "Voyage to the Bottom of the Hole"!   

And, despite the English language reference to one Irwin Allen '60s sci-fi series in its new title, Luciano Bottaro visually recalls another Allen series with his unique artistic stylings... The Time Tunnel!  

I'm not so sure I can even recap this one, so best we let Luciano Bottaro, aided and English-abetted by David Gerstein (translation and dialogue), tell you himself!  ...And tell it he (and David) will in grand style! 

One more HUGE thing on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Hole"... not only was it named after my all time favorite TV series, but check out the title font...

 It's the VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA LOGO FONT!!!

DAVID, YOU ARE THE BEST!!!  What a surprise!  ...You had me at the "Paul Murry Goofy Logo and title font", but THIS?  WOW!  

It's enough to make a guy forget about REBO! 

 Just don't tell him, okay?  

The book is rounded-out by a biography of Luciano Bottaro, by Armando Botto.  

After all that, I can say no more beyond... GET THIS BOOK!  

Oh, wait... "REBO SAYS... GET THIS BOOK!"

Um... Better?  

Coming from Fantagraphics: Disney Masters: Massimo DeVita -- Mickey Mouse "The Ice Sword Saga" Book 2

...Or, maybe it's HERE ALREADY, for all I know!  

Disney Masters Volume 11: Mickey Mouse "The Ice Sword Saga" Book 2 by the great Massimo DeVita... and a host of others you may know!

Yes, it's the long-awaited follow-up to the amazing Book 1...

...Where Mickey and "legendary hero Goofy" (?!), along with the great wizard Yor, faithful Boz, and the "hero's hero" Gunni Helm (all pictured above) make a habit of saving the fabled land of Argaar from doom and destruction - coincidentally every Christmas Eve! 

As for that "host of others" all working in service to the wonderful storytelling of Massimo DeVita, that would be the "Disney Comics American Creative Core Four" of David Gerstein, Jonathan Gray, Thad Komorowski... and the humble host of this very blog, li'l old me!

A lot of you have missed us (and, it would seem, not without good reason, Joe editorializes), but we're back and (cliche warning) better than ever!

...Or, more likely it's Massimo DeVita's talents that just make us look that way!

Just as with Book One (first page of which is seen below), we begin again with a lead story written and drawn by DeVita, with "Translation and Dialogue" by Jonathan Gray, followed by one "T&D'ed" by me!

 Even Gunni Helm's ELBOW (at middle right) is *too heroic* to be contained by panel borders!  ...And this is only BOOK ONE, wait until he really gets started! 

But WAIT, as those TV pitchmen often say, there's MORE!  The DeVita delights continue with an additional Donald Duck story "T&D'ed" by Thad Komorowski - and an Arizona Goof story "T&D'ed" by David Gerstein!  

(Another cliche warning)... I feel like we're GETTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER AGAIN!

Buy your tickets (...er, COPY) now folks, seating is limited and we can promise no extra shows or make-up dates!  First come, first served...  and first delightfully entertained!  

If you haven't read any of "The Ice Sword Saga" tales yet, but think you "know it all" by (Third cliche warning)... "judging a book by its cover"... DON'T!  

For what it's worth, I am NOT a big fan of "sword and sorcery" or "fantasy/mythology" stories!

I didn't like "Wizards of Mickey" (for reasons well beyond its silly title), or "DonaldQuest", or anything in that vein...

...BUT, THESE ARE DIFFERENT!

THESE ARE "MYTHOLOGY" LACED WITH A HEALTHY DOSE OF SCI-FI!

And THAT, I LOVE!

Assisting our usual cast, in this final installment of the Saga, is SAN HOLO (Yes, I named him! Blame me!), "Interstellar Cabbie" (owing to the past DC Comics series "Space Cabbie" - see illustration further down), who carries his fares on a giant bug rather than a spaceship!

Space Cabbie...

Nice, but... "Next Time, Get a BUG!"

Just a few more quick items, before we bump up against "Spoiler Territory"!

Gunni Helm - the "hero's hero" (a character I really enjoy writing) is in top bombastically heroic form...

Taking my dialoguing cue from the also-bombastically heroic version of Aquaman, from the animated series BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD! 

Speaking of dialoguing influences, there's also the character of "Dragon Yorrfeet" (Yes, I named HIM too! Can't ya tell?) who, in both books, was written with Wally Gator in mind!  

It just wouldn't BE a story "T&D'ed" by me if there weren't a "BERTRAM" in there someplace!  

Only here with a sorta-Norse-mythology variant spelling, as are a number of other scattered variant spellings... like "Hjula Hoops" and "Bobby-Sjox"! 

And the occasional familiar quote...

A wonderful Carl Barks quote now said by Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, and Mickey Mouse... the later two courtesy of your's truly, who has loved that line from Barks since first reading it over five decades ago!  

Finally, Goofy has some fascinating interaction with a "Higher Power"... but that REALLY WOULD be spoiling!  

It's all here waiting for you in the fourth and final chapter of "The Ice Sword Saga", in a tale titled "Mickey Mouse and Goofy Meet the Sleeping Beauty in the Stars"!   (...See? I  told'ja it was mythology an' sci-fi deliciously smooshed together!) 

Join the journey now!  You're in for a great time with Chapters 3 and 4 of "The Ice Sword Saga" and Donald Duck and Arizona Goof to boot!  

And, just as we did (far more frequently) in the old days, let's all meet-up here in the Comments Section for some heroically-stirring discussions!  

(Final cliche warning, but true)... YOU'RE GONNA LOVE IT!  

Gunni Helm's heroic-honor, you will!