Disney Comics Around the World in One Hundred Years

by Carl Barks, Floyd Gottfredson, Don Rosa

WHAT CREATIVE WHIRLWIND BRINGS MICKEY MOUSE, DONALD DUCK, THE EVIL QUEEN, AND THE BEAGLE BOYS TOGETHER?

The Walt Disney Company is celebrating its 100th anniversary by launching Disney 100 Years of Wonder—and with it, Fantagraphics is bringing you international comics to celebrate!

Disney Comics have existed since the dawn of the studio. Now grown-up fans can explore the history of Mickey, Donald, Uncle Scrooge, and their supporting cast with a chronological collection—featuring the most beloved Disney funny-page talents from around the world!

See Mickey outsmarting counterfeiters in Floyd Gottfredson’s 1934 “The Crazy Crime Wave”... José Carioca upstaging a malevolent magician in Renato Canini’s 1974 “The Great Josédini”... and Uncle Scrooge founding his own nation in Don Rosa’s 1989 “His Majesty McDuck!”

Plus more—hundreds of pages more, including star characters from Super Goof to Lilo and Stitch, many in stories all-new to North America or unavailable for decades!

Genres: Comics

258 pages, Hardcover

Published September 26, 2023

About the author

Carl Barks was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck. He worked anonymously until late in his career; fans dubbed him "The Duck Man" and "The Good Duck Artist". In 1987, Barks was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
Barks worked for the Disney Studio and Western Publishing where he created Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck (1947), Gladstone Gander (1948), the Beagle Boys (1951), The Junior Woodchucks (1951), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Cornelius Coot (1952), Flintheart Glomgold (1956), John D. Rockerduck (1961) and Magica De Spell (1961).
He has been named by animation historian Leonard Maltin as "the most popular and widely read artist-writer in the world". Will Eisner called him "the Hans Christian Andersen of comic books." Beginning especially in the 1980s, Barks' artistic contributions would be a primary source for animated adaptations such as DuckTales and its 2017 remake.

Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never heard of this book until my parents gifted it to me for Christmas, however that didn't stop me from prioritizing it in my growing non-fiction TBR. While I'm not a huge comics person in general, I enjoyed seeing how the art styles changed over the past 100 or so years and getting a bite-sized taste of what this branch of the company looked like. The most interesting thing to me was how integral Italian artists were to the success of Disney comics, as I have very little (if any) perspective on how Disney translated overseas.

That said, the overall lack of context was my biggest challenge with this book. Yes, each decade opened with some sort of insight into what was happening in Disney comics as a whole, but I would have loved a bit more meat on the bone. This lack of depth really made this book feel like a "100 years of Disney cash grab" to me, and that's always a bit of a sour taste to swallow.

However, I love that the flyleaves at the front and back of the book show the evolution of characters and art styles, and did chuckle aloud at a few of the stories this volume included, making me happy to give this a non-committal 3/5 stars.

[Mansour S منصور السدحان · Rating 5 out of 5]

Different times, different artists/writers, same lovable characters! And a little bit history on each era. This collection includes the timeless Don Rosa story: His Majesty McDuck! And Carl Barks: Mystery Of The Swamp, full of Carl’s sense of adventure and his simple yet charming style. And a fun detective story when Goofy was Dippy Dawg! And many more.
Mickey Mouse/Donald Duck comics are always an escape for me, and we live in darker times where an escape is much needed.