Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Universal Solvent

The Don Rosa Library #6

by Don Rosa, Don Rosa

Using Gyro Gearloose's super solvent, Scrooge “digs” a tunnel straight to the Earth’s core... and risks destroying the world in the sixth complete, chronological book of Duck adventures by Don Rosa! Stories in this latest volume also include “Hearts of the Yukon” (an untold tale of Scrooge, Glittering Goldie, and the Klondike Mounted Police), “The Lost Charts of Columbus” (featuring the evil Azure Blue), and the Beagle Boys face bug-size battlers in “The Incredible Shrinking Tightwad!”

Contents:
The duck who never was --
The treasury of Croesus --
The universal solvent --
An eye for detail --
The lost charts of Columbus --
The incredible shrinking tightwad --
Hearts of the Yukon --
Behind the scenes --
This should cover it all!, additional covers, 1995-1996 --
Phalanx.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Fiction, Comic Book, Adventure, Humor

207 pages, Hardcover

First published October 22, 2016

About the author

Keno Don Hugo Rosa, known as Don Rosa, is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his Disney comics stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and other characters which Carl Barks created for Disney-licensed comic books, first published in America by Dell Comics. Many of his stories are built on characters and locations created by Barks; among these was his first Duck story, "The Son of the Sun" (1987), which was nominated for a Harvey Award in the "Best Story of the Year" category.
Rosa created about 90 stories between 1987 and 2006. In 1995, his 12-chapter work The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck won the Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story.

Reviews

[Baal Of · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun volume with a mix of some great stories, and a few that are a bit weaker. My favorites were The Universal Solvent which takes a cue from Journey To The Center Of The Earth allowing Rosa's imagination to run wild with an absurdly improbable journey that actually fulfills the title of Verne's novel. One of the things that, as a kid, I loved about the duck comics was the freedom to throw a lot of reality out the window, and just revel in the fantastical, and this story is right in that realm. I don't remember having ever read this one before.

My other favorite was The Incredible Shrinking Tightwad which again plays fast and lose with physics and reality, which makes for an thoroughly engaging tale of ever changing size scales, Donald and Scrooge climbing through a vast real of coins, giant fleas, hairs the size of tree trunks, and ultimately the money bin also shrinking but retaining its weight. It all comes together as an entertaining and fast-paced farce, and because it's about the imagination, the story doesn't carry the moralistic tones that occasionally drag down some of Rosa's stories for me.

Overall, another solid entry into the Rosa library.

[Rudi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finishing the "Life and Times"-series, Don Rosa fuels ahead by serving adventure and science fiction-like stories that makes his mid-1900s influences really appereant. There's one about a shrinking ray, one about a journey to the center of the earth and several historical adventure stories. My favorites in this collection is "On a silver platter" and "Hearts of the Yukon".

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how much my son loves these. The talkies ones lose him a bit but not entirely. So the lost library of Alexandria wasn’t as big a hit as the universal solvent.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection with some really good stories. I especially enjoyed "The Universal Solvent", "An Eye for Detail", and "The Incredible Shrinking Tightwad". I would have given this book five stars, but I found "The Lost Charts of Columbus" to be deadly dull, followed by an unengaging "Hearts of the Yukon." Overall, I'm impressed by Don Rosa's work and he is a worthy successor to the great Carl Barks.

[Dan Forster · Rating 5 out of 5]

I prefer Barks to Rosa, but Rosa is still incredible, obviously.

[Björn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hér er ein af uppáhaldssögunum mínum eftir Rosa, um svarta efnið sem étur sér leið að miðju jarðar. Hún er eins góð og í raun aðeins undarlegri en mig minnti. Á þessum tímapunkti er maður kannske hættur að tala um þetta standard góða stöff: hversu spriklandi lifandi síðurnar eru, skalinn á sögunum, þessi sögulega vídd sem er stundum dálítið iffy en stækkar veröld andanna svo mikið, pínulitlu brandararnir sem hann molar niður í öðruhverju skrefi. Þetta er allt betra en svo margt annað og þetta er allt til staðar hér.

En hvernig eru þessar sögur miðað við hinar sem komu á undan? Ég fékk þá tilfinningu með nokkrar sagnanna, allrahelst þá um gullhjálminn og "landnám" Ameríku, að þær væru of langar. Það er aldrei beinlínis dauður punktur en það eru svona einum tveimur of margir vendipunktar í þeim, ef það meikar sens. Uppbyggingin er ekki eins föst og í betri sögunum hans, heldur er svona langur hali sem maður skröltir yfir í lokin.

Á móti kemur að betri sögurnar í bókinni eru dásamlegar. Uppleysiefnið minntist ég á, það er eitthvað svo brjálæðislegt við það hvernig endurnar umgangast þetta gereyðingarvopn, sem þær eru þó dauðhræddar við. Senan þar sem Jóakim hleypur í gegnum stofuvegg Andrésar með regnhlífina á undan sér er fyndin en um leið hrikaleg, og það kemur hvortveggja í ljós á svipnum á Andrési. Dansinn í kringum slummuna í miðju jarðar er sagan í örfáum römmum: ofsalega vel uppsett, lífshættulegt slapstick inní undarlegri eðlisfræði.

Gullgrafarasagan -- Hearts of the Yukon? Hún inniheldur eina af uppáhalds Rosa síðunum mínum, það er þegar rumurinn ríður í bæinn á birninum. Það er fullt af æðislegum smáatriðum í þessum örfáu römmum, það sem ég man alltaf helst eftir er snákurinn sem gæinn hefur tekið sem belti. Það eru svona furðulegir visúal brandarar sem gera þessar sögur að einhverju og meira, og þeir eru, náttúrulega, mest áberandi í svona frekar hljóðri senu.

Ég ætlaði ekkert að skrifa svona mikið.. Jæja. Aukaefnið í bókinni er líka vel þess virði að lesa og bætir helling við. Fyrri útgáfur af uppleysiefnis-sögunni sýnir tildæmis hvernig einfaldari teiknistíll og þessi lausbeislaði húmor sem Rosa færði öndunum, eða öfugt?, gera þetta þegar áhugaverða sæfæ plott að einhverju miklu áhrifaríkara í framkvæmd.

Minnkunargeisla-sagan er síðan eitthvað sem væri hægt að skrifa heilmikið um. Í raun og veru sömu element og ég hef minnst á þegar, en mikið óskaplega er þetta vel gert hjá honum. Það þegar frændurnir eru orðnir á stærð við bakteríur og umkringdir öllum þeim óskapnaði, þetta var martraðastöff hérn aí denn og mér fannst hálfónotalegt að lesa það núna.

Æðisgengið.

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe four and a half stars?

This volume contained quite a few comics from Rosa that I had never read before, such as the 60th anniversary Donald comic, the shrinking Scrooge story, the Azure Blue sequel, and the Croesus story. Thus those stories did not benefit from the sparkly wonder of nostalgia! However, I really enjoyed the anniversary Donald comic and the Shrinking Scrooge one. The Azure Blue/Golden Helmet one not so much--the conceit that the entire continent could be claimed out from under the current governments because of an obscure artifact struck me as too absurd even in the original Barks tale. The Croesus story also was a bit unsatisfying for me, since Scrooge--who loves money so much--opts to (MASSIVE SPOILERS) give away the FIRST COIN EVER MADE in the end of the story.

Still, I had a lot of fun reading and revisiting the stories I had seen before and discovering new ones and getting a glimpse at the creative processes and seeing alternate takes and abandoned projects in the appendices.

[Sha · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books are a lot of fun- the stories have to be read with a bit of disbelief suspension in mind-
(The Universal Solvent was a VERY interesting concept but I don't think the fallout works like that. Also, it's not a solvent as much as a disintegrator if it was a solvent it would have run out of molecule space a few kilometers in- but this is nitpicking and also I could be wrong soo...)
BUT I am reading about talking ducks who can swim in gold so it's not really that much of a stretch of imagination. And it's a lot of fun. Donald 's lines are downright hilarious and it was funny (and a little sad) to see li'l bulb in his more benign avatar.

Also Can I just say I was vastly amused by the Native Americans popping up on screen occasionally during the Columbus story and pointing out they WERE HERE a long time before all these upstarts showed up? Please and thank you.

[Krzyś Dz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again excellent part of Rosa's heritage and wonderful selection of stories. Actually I could list allmost of them: known to me before "An Eye For Detai", "The Duck Who Never was" or additional chapter of "Life and Times..." called: "Hearts of the Yukon" with very heart touching ending. We can find here also fantastic "Incredible Shrinking Tightwad" (loosely based on old sci-fi movie) or epic "Lost Charts of Columbus" and "The Treasury of Croesus". But my personal favourite here is title story "Universal Solvent". It is fantastic combination of fiction and science when traveling into the core of Earth. I really appreciate it!

Also to every comic we have personal Rosa's comments with many interesting trivias, facts and unpublished pages as well as stories drafts. Definitely must have!

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know why I put off reading Don Rosa's collected comics for so long. I guess I had it in my head that they were inferior to Carl Barks' comics, but his stories are actually quite excellent, and there's significantly less racial stereotyping (I know they were written in the early 20th century but the "Tonto-speak" in Barks' comics get old). I especially enjoyed the titular story, which gave me a geology refresher as the ducks explored the Earth's inner core. Rosa's comics sometimes break the fourth wall. You'll find hidden jokes and callbacks to Barks stories (like the Terries and Fermies from "Land Beneath the Ground!"), but it never feels like it's shoved in your face.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderful set of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics. These are all great!

[BVZM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review is coming (probably), be patient.
//
Recensione in arrivo (probabilmente), abbiate pazienza.

[Zofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Przeczytałam "wakacje w kosmosie " ale nie ma jej tutaj. Znowu nie wymagam zbyt wiele