Disney Masters

Fantagraphics launched the Disney Masters Series with Vol. 1: The Delta Dimension in May 2018. Since then they have published a few new volumes in the Disney Masters series each year. 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. 15: New Adventures of the Phantom Blot

Book Description:

Disney’s infamous inky bad guy was the first Mouseverse villain to get his own comic book; by popular demand, the whole Silver Age series is collected in one volume!

The Phantom Blot – a power-crazed supervillain in a ghostly black cloak –  is on the loose, and Mickey, Donald, and Uncle Scrooge must assemble to stop him! From terrifying time travel to usurping “The Crown of Tasbah,” the Blot will stop at nothing to turn the world upside down! Classic Disney artist Paul Murry teamed with writers Del Connell and Bob Ogle to create seven comic book issues starring The Blot. In the process, they introduced Goofy’s new secret identity: Super Goof! Will the Blot move too fast for all our heroes? With allies like Mad Madam Mim, the Beagle Boys, and “The Mysterious Mr. X?” He just might! Full-color illustrations throughout.

Disney Masters Vol. 15: Mickey Mouse: New Adventures of the Phantom Blot was released by Fantagraphics in February 2021. The stories included in this volume were originally published in Walt Disney’s Comic and Stories between 1964-1966.

This volume of the Disney Masters series is 252 pages and features Disney Master Paul Murry.

A short biography on Paul Murry is included at the back of this volume. As an added bonus, we also get a bonus page that talks about the title hero of this volume, the Phantom Blot.

Disney Masters Vol. 15: New Adventures of the Phantom Blot 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 three new release volumes in the Disney Masters series have already been announced and are available for preorder:

Disney Masters Vol. 16: Donald Duck: Jumpin’ Jupiter

Disney Masters Vol. 17: Mickey Mouse: The Man from Alcatraz

Disney Masters Vol. 18: Uncle Scrooge: Pie in the Sky

Included Stories

There are 17 stories included in Disney Masters Vol. 15:

• The Phantom Blot Meets the Mysterious Mr. X
• The Phantom Blot Meets Super Goof
• Oh, What a Tangled Rope We Wield!
• Culprits, Inc.
• Safe Surprise
• The Phantom Blot Meets Madam Mim
• Me and My Shadow-Boxing
• Hi-Yo, Beagle! Away!
• The Crown of Tabash
• Tough Old Bird
• Dogged Pursuit
• Secret Sea Raider
• Blotless Blot
• Blotsa Laughs
• The Case of the Disappearing Diamonds
• By a Waterfall
• Stairways to Seeing-Stars

Scrooge McDuck is in a panic because the Mysterious Mr. X plans on robbing him of all of the money in his money bin in The Phantom Blot Meets the Mysterious Mr. X. Mickey comes up with a plan to have a Phantom Blot decoy go undercover to work with Mr. X. while the real Phantom Blot is in jail. You would have to be pretty Goofy or hypnotized or both to sign up for that job. The real Phantom Blot is released from prison which leads to a crazy finale with double the Phantom Blot.

The Phantom Blot escapes prison and heads out west with the goal of getting his name in the history books like western outlaw Blackjack Jake. It looks like he will reach his goal when he steals all of the steer in Crossbones, Arizona until The Phantom Blot Meets Super Goof. Goofy makes his first appearance as his super alter ego after he drinks fuel made by Gyro Gearloose for a super criminal detector machine.

Oh, What a Tangled Rope We Wield! is a one shot featuring the Phantom Blot practicing his lasso skills.

The Phantom Blot puts a personal ad for new henchman in the newspaper which leads to the Phantom Blot meeting the Beagle Boys in Culprits, Inc. Scrooge must hide his most valuable possession, money tree seeds, from Blot and the Boys in an adventure that won’t fit in the current time period.

Safe Surprise is a one shot featuring Phantom Blot and Scrooge McDuck.

The Phantom Blot has a disappearing and reappearing act in his prison cell as well as a new girlfriend when The Phantom Blot Meets Madam Mim. The Blot tells his Mimsy that he is turning over a new leaf and quitting his life of crime to be with her, but is it all an act or does he really plan to marry her and honeymoon on the moon?

The Phantom Blot is having a hard time sneaking up on Chief ‘O Hara since he started shadow boxing in a one shot appropriately titled Me and My Shadow-Boxing.

A beagle boy has to carry the Phantom Blot horse style when the getaway car breaks down in one shot Hi-Yo, Beagle! Away!.

The Phantom Blot has gone international Tabash where his plan involves posing as the Maharajah to take over the country and wear The Crown of Tabash. He would have gotten away with it to if it wasn’t for that meddling Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck who were vacationing in Tabash.

The Phantom Blot has met his match when he goes up against Grandma Duck in one shot Tough Old Bird.

Pluto tracks down the Phantom Blot’s hiding place with the help of a squirrel in one shot Dogged Pursuit.

The Phantom Blot dreams to be a pirate in Secret Sea Raider. Can you blame him? A pirate’s life is a wonderful life on the sea, and that is exactly where he goes once he escapes prison yet again and teams up with the Beagle Boys to try to take down Scrooge’s gold shipment vessel, pirate style. Mouseton really does have the worst prison security.

The Phantom Blot is shopping for the perfect pen to make blots in one shot Blotless Blot.

Goofy draws a cartoon sketch on top of one of the Phantom Blot’s threats in one shot Blotsa Laughs.

The Phantom Blot outwits the prison guards yet again, and he is out for a big score after stealing Gyro Gearloose’s Diamond Detector invention in The Case of the Disappearing Diamonds. Seriously, why do they even bother having prison guards watch the Phantom Blot. The Phantom Blot is like the Rocket Racoon of escaping prisons. So after he gets the Diamond Detector, he flies around in his helicopter until the detector finds the mother load of diamonds in a river bed between two countries. The Blot is out to create war between the two countries so that the explosions can do the digging for him. It is up to Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto to stop him before the war.

The Phantom Blot tries to crack Scrooge McDuck’s safe which is behind a picture of a waterfall, but all he finds is an actual waterfall in the one shot By a Waterfall.

The Blot is chased up some stairs at an airport that lead to a quick flight to the ground in the one shot Stairways to Seeing-Stars.

Final Thoughts

It is rare to see a Disney Villain take center stage in a comic book series, but the Phantom Blot pulls off that crime nicely. Fantagraphics collects all seven issues of the New Adventures of the Phantom Blot series in this one Disney Masters volume. Also included are ten one shot Blot stories which includes interactions with many different Disney characters. The Blot has always been a dangerous foe and arch-nemesis for Mickey Mouse, but he proves in these stories that he can also bring the humor. The Blot goes beyond terrorizing Mickey, Goofy, and Chief O Hara when he goes after Scrooge McDuck’s fortune. We are treated to the debut story of Goofy as Super Goof. The Phantom Blot lives out both his western and pirate dreams. Has a one sided relationship with Madame Mim, and he teams up with the Beagle Boys. New Adventures of the Phantom Blot has been my favorite Disney Masters volume yet.

I love the Disney Masters series because we get treated to stories and illustrations from more great Disney 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. 15 at the link below:

Order: Disney Masters Vol. 15: Mickey Mouse: New Adventures of the Phantom Blot

If you want even more terrorizing Phantom Blot, I highly recommend two other Fantagraphics books which include the Phantom Blot stories that came prior to this volume:

Review: Mickey Mouse Vol. 5: Outwits the Phantom Blot

Review: Disney Masters Vol. 5: The Phantom Blots Double Mystery

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