The Don Rosa Library

Fantagraphics debuted the first volume of the Don Rosa Library, The Son of the Sun, in 2014. Since then, they have released two volumes each year. In November 2018, the tenth and final volume, The Old Castle’s Other Secret, will be released. The library will contain the complete chronological collection of all of his Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck stories. There were a total of 88 stories by Don between 1987 and 2006.

Treasure Under Glass

The title and cover art from Don Rosa Library Vol. 3 comes from Don’s 30th comic story, Treasure Under Glass. We will go through the individual stories later on in this review.

Don Rosa Library Vol. 3 is 196 pages, and it includes stories published between 1990 and 1992. Vol. 3 was released in September 2015. The majority of the pages are the stories, but there are also some supplement sections with a biography about Don’s life as well as behind the scenes pictures and stories about each and every story that is included in this edition. It is like bonus features on a blu-ray, and it is full of great and interesting information. I am glad that it is included in this volume and every volume of the Don Rosa Library.

Don Rosa Library Vol. 3 is available in hardcover and Kindle versions. It is also included in a two pack that includes both Don Rosa Library Vol. 3 and Vol. 4. A link to buy this book can be found at the end of this review.

Included Stories

There are 9 Disney Duck stories included in the Don Rosa Library Vol. 3:

• The Master Landscapist

• On Stolen Time

• Treasure Under Glass

• Return to Xanadu

• The Duck Who Fell to Earth

• Incident at McDuck Tower

• The Island at the Edge of Time

• War of the Wendigo

• Super Snooper Strikes Again!

In The Master Landscapist, Donald is hired my the mayor for a landscaping job. The mayor is having a fox hunt in his big backyard, and Donald only has a few hours to make a messy backyard look perfect. Of course chaos occurs, but really the mayor should learn to be a better planner and not leave such an important job to the last minute.

In On Stolen Time, the Beagle Boys steak a stopwatch invention from Gyro Gearloose which allow them to stop time to sneak into Scrooge’s Money Bin to steal his money.

In Treasure Under Glass, Scrooge, Donald, and the nephews are on a yacht salvaging old sunken ship wrecks. They find the ultimate Spanish shipwreck that holds a charted map of hundreds of shipwrecks. Pirates throw meat around the dive site to lure sharks into the area. This is of course the title story for this volume of the Don Rosa Library. I love Don’s treasure adventure stories and this one was a great one. I am also a sucker for shark stories.

In Return to Xanadu, Don gives us a sequel to Carl Bark’s untitled story about the land of Tralla La. Return to Xanadu starts off with Uncle Scrooge admiring his trophy collection. One of the trophies is the Crown of Genghis Khan. The JR. Woodchuck Guide Book states that Kublai Khan moved the treasure of the Mongul empire to Prestor John’s Land. Scrooge, Donald, and the nephews go on an exhibition for the treasure. They end up in Tralla La for the first time since Bark’s story. Tralla La is a paradise where everyone is happy and healthy because it is a peaceful land where there is no money. I am not going to spoil it, but their arrival in Tralla La could be the end of this paradise.

In The Duck Who Fell to Earth, Uncle Scrooge’s new Company is The McDuck Satellite Salvage Company. Using an old airplane made of spare parts picked up at yard sales, Professor Mollicule has built a plane that will allow Scrooge to collect satellites that are falling to Earth before they burn in the atmosphere. Then Scrooge will sell the high tech parts for profit. There is no way this plan could fail…or can it?

In Incident at McDuck Tower, Donald has a job as a window washer at the tallest building in Duckburg, McDuck Tower. Donald tries to show off to his nephews that he is no longer afraid of heights. Meanwhile…Scrooge searches the sewers for a missing nickel.

In The Island at the Edge of Time, Scrooge races against Flintheart Glomgold and time to get to and claim a newly formed island with a volcano that erupts gold.

In War of the Wendigo, Scrooge, Donald , and the nephews go to Canada to check out one of Scrooge’s new mills. The Peeweegah tribe see the effect that the mill is having on the nearby area and preserve. They take Scrooge captive. A character named Ravage Deflora runs the plant, and doesn’t want to close the mill down. It is up to the Peeweegah and the woodland creatures with to take Ravage Deflora down.

In Super Snooper Strikes Again!, Donald wants to prove to his nephews that he is a better hero than the comic character Super Snooper that they are such a big fan of. He drinks an experimental liquid that temporarily gives him super powers. The nephews find out in the end that Donald does not need powers to be super. This story is a sequel to a Carl Bark’s Super Snooper story.

Final Thoughts

Treasure Under Glass and Return to Xanadu were my favorite stories from this volume. Don is an excellent story teller and a great illustrator even though the latter he would probably try to convince people otherwise. I am having trouble putting these books down and often get through an entire volume in one or two sittings. He really gets these characters and it shows.

I am thankful to Fantagraphics for including that one. It would take a lot of time and money to compile a comic collection that included all of these stories. Anything that takes a lot of time and money would not be approved by Scrooge McDuck.

The bonus content on Don Rosa’s life and the behind the scene content on each story really completes this volume for a comprehensive experience. One of the really cool things that I learned about Don Rosa from this volume is how Don learned how popular Donald Duck comics are in Europe. Gutenberghus Publishing Service (Egmont) hiring Don was a fascinating story and led to his work on The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck which will start in the Don Rosa Library Vol. 4.

I am really looking forward to my next journey into the Don Rosa Library with Volume 4.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

You can order the book at the following link:

Don Rosa Library Vol. 3: Treasure Under Glass

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