Disney Masters

Fantagraphics launched the Disney Masters Series with Vol. 1: The Delta Dimension in May 2018. Since then they have had new releases in the Disney Masters series published almost every month. Volumes have been alternating between the central character and story being Mickey Mouse related or Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge.

Fantagraphics presents Disney Masters – acclaimed artists from around the world working in the grand Walt Disney tradition. Many of these stories are new to American readers and appear here for the first time in English. Fresh new artwork, fresh new adventures, and fresh new laughs!

Disney Masters Vol. 10: Donald Duck: Scandal on the Epoch Express

Book Description:

In this collection of comics stories, Donald battles master spies and his own Uncle Scrooge!

Railroad porter Donald Duck can’t wait to serve breakfast to his action-movie idol, Sharon Stun. But Donald and his nephews get caught up in a real-life thriller when “Mystic” Max McMalefactor, disguise artist and sinister spy, infiltrates the Epoch Express! In “Scent-imental Romeos,” Donald vows to create the world’s stinkiest cologne. And in “Don Quiduck De La Mancha,” a hypnotized Donald thinks he’s a knight ― and helps the Beagle Boys rob Uncle Scrooge’s Money Bin! Each volume of our Disney Masters series presents acclaimed comics artists from around the world working in the grand Walt Disney tradition. Full-color illustrations throughout.

Disney Masters Vol. 10: Donald Duck: Scandal on the Epoch Express will be released by Fantagraphics on 4/14/20.

This edition of the Disney Masters series is 192 pages, and it includes stories that were originally published in the Netherlands. Many of these stories appear in English for the first time in this book. This volume’s featured Disney Masters are Mau and Bas Heymans.

A short biography on the brother team of Mau and Bas Heymans is included at the back of this volume.

Disney Masters Vol. 10: Scandal on the Epoch Express is available in hardcover and Kindle\Comixology versions. A link to buy this book can be found at the end of this review.

The next four volumes in the Disney Masters series have already been announced and are available for preorder:

Disney Masters Vol 11: Mickey Mouse: The Ice Sword Saga (Book II)

Disney Masters Vol. 12: Donald Duck: The Frogetful Hero

Disney Masters Vol. 13: Mickey Mouse: The Sunken City

Disney Masters Vol. 14: Donald Duck: Follow the Fearless Leader

Included Stories

There are 17 stories included in Disney Masters Vol. 10:

• Scandal on the Epoch Express
• Big Brain Blowout
• Scent-imental Romeos
• Winifred’s Revenge
• Don Quiduck de La Mancha
• Nothin’ Beats the Classics
• Healers of the Andes!
• The Daisy Chain
• Trapdoor Trick
• Regulationary War
• Forty-Wink Zeke
• Bargain Battle!
• The Laurels of Julius Pecunius
• Over Easy
• Daisy Duck’s Diatribe!
• Family Feud
• Dieu Dieu Duck

15 of the 17 stories are Disney Duck related. Forty-Wink Zeke and Family Feud are fun Big Bad Wolf stories.

In Scandal on the Epoch Express, Donald and his nephews help solve a mystery aboard a luxury train. A magician who turned spy may be on the train with the hopes of smuggling microfilmed military secrets.

A freak accident turns Donald into a brainiac in Big Brain Blowout.

Donald and Gladstone fight for a date with Daisy in Scent-imental Romeos. The winner will be whomever smells the best.

Duckburg’s local witch, Winifred, gets lost in a snow storm as she tries to fly south for Christmas and now she has lost her broom. She tries to take out her anger on Scrooge when he cuts down the tree that she crashed into over night. Nothing screams a great Christmas story like witches in Winifred’s Revenge.

Donald and Gladstone compete for Daisy again to see who can win the audition for the the part of Don Quiduck in Don Quiduck de La Mancha. Donald stays up all night studying to a point where he thinks he is actually the real Don Quiduck.

Donald‘s 313 car is a classic, and he wants to convince his nephews that Nothin’ Beats the Classics. Gyro accidentally fixes up his car with bulb technology.

Scrooge, Donald, and the nephews head back to the Andes to look for medicine to cure what ails him from drinking scam elixirs in Healers of the Andes!

Daisy wants to look good in front of her friend in The Daisy Chain. Gladstone thinks that he would make her look better as her date than Donald, but they end up getting handcuffed together.

The nephews sell tickets to Scrooge’s slide in Trapdoor Trick.

Donald tries to one up his neighbor Jones in Regulationary War, but the Department of Building and Housing keeps getting in the way of their war on each other.

Donald gets a job as an assistant security guard at a department store in Bargain Battle! Daisy wants Donald to give her a head start to all of the door buster deals.

Scrooge inherits a vacation villa in Rome, and he needs Gladstone’s help to find some valuable treasure on the property in The Laurels of Julius Pecunius.

Donald tries to trick his chickens into laying bigger eggs in Over Easy.

Donald goes on a vacation and Daisy house sits for him in Daisy Duck’s Diatribe! She doesn’t have to deal with neighbor Jones who is also on vacation, but she ends up having to deal with Jones’ cousin, Josie, instead. Daisy and Josie have to be more civilized than Donald and Jones…right?

Donald gets hired to provide art for an art expo when his nephews’ crashed lawnmower invention is seen as art in Dieu Dieu Duck.

Final Thoughts

There is no better time to stay inside and dive into some Disney Duck comics like the present, and this Fantagraphics Disney Masters volume is full of great stories to keep your mind on Duckburg. Daisy Duck is featured in several stories, and she really shines in two of my favorites from this book, Bargain Battle! and Daisy Duck’s Diatribe! The two Big Bad Wolf tales were also a great bonus to go along with all of the Disney Duck stories.

I love the Disney Masters series because we get treated to stories and illustrations from other great Duck comic creators besides the legendary Barks and Rosa. We may have never had a chance to read these stories outside of Fantagraphics’ Disney Masters series.

I am definitely looking forward to reading future volumes of Fantagraphics’ Disney Masters series.

You can purchase Disney Masters Vol. 10 at the link below:

Disney Masters Vol. 10: Donald Duck: Scandal on the Epoch Express

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