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. 20: 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea

Book Description:

Wild Silver Age comics classics follow squabbling Donald and Fethry Duck from hill country to the briny deep!

Who lives in a submarine under the sea? Donald’s cuckoo-bananas cousin Fethry, that’s who! He’s roping desperate Don into a two-week treasure hunt on the ocean floor… and a bear-taming trip to Duckburg’s deepest woods―and a mission to cure hiccups with scary rural remedies! Are fame and fortune worth it?

Cartoon story man Dick Kinney and beloved kids’-comic artist Al Hubbard jammed on Disney duck tales in the swinging ’60s―and by popular demand, Fantagraphics’ Disney Masters series continues to collect their best! From Fethry’s terrifying turn as Uncle Scrooge’s efficiency expert in “It’s Only Money” to Donald’s romantic woes in “A Midsummer’s Nightmare,” the mayhem keeps on coming!

Disney Masters Vol. 20: 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea will be released by Fantagraphics in August 2022.

This volume of the Disney Masters series is 184 pages and features Disney Masters Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard. This is the second Disney Masters volume to feature Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard (Vol. 14: Follow the Fearless Leader).

A short biography on Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard is included in the back of the book. Additional bonus material include a behind the scenes article of the story Fall Guy and an article on Fethry Duck’s art style from Al Hubbard to Tony Strubl.

Disney Masters Vol. 20: 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea is available in hardcover and Kindle\Comixology versions. A link to buy this book can be found at the end of this review.

Included Stories

There are 27 stories included in Disney Masters Vol. 20:

• It’s Only Money
• Mountain Magic
• Do It Yourself
• The Missing Hair
• Matador-to-Door Salesman
• Flock Together
• Bah Wilderness
• Water Sports
• The Contest
• Out of the Depths of Despair
• Vet Day
• Suds in Your Eye
• The Piggy Bank
• The Case of the Renegade Circus
• The Superior Intellect
• Old Trusty’s Scent
• A Midsummer’s Nightmare
• 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea
• Satisfied Customer
• A Goofy Look at the Newspaper
• The Bouncing Ball
• The Carpet Baggers
• The Pioneer
• Fall Guy
• Chased Chaser
• Law Trouble
• There’s No Place Like Home

Fethry Duck gets hired by Scrooge McDuck as an efficiency expert to try to get his employee, Gus Goose, to put it a hard day’s work in It’s Only Money.

Fethry takes Donald to the mountains to help cure his hiccups with the help of hillbilly Hard Haid in Mountain Magic.

Fethry fires Donald’s handyman and talks him into saving money by fixing all of his house problems himself in Do It Yourself.

Duckburg’s crusader, O.O. Duck, is on the case to find a movie star’s missing toupee in The Missing Hair.

Fethry and Donald attend a bull fight in Mexico where Fethry mistakenly accepts the role as the bull fighter in Matador-to-Door Salesman.

Mickey Mouse ends up buying a parrot and gets persuaded to buy all of the parrot’s pet shop friends in Flock Together.

Fethry and Donald go on a camping trip where nothing goes right in Bah Wilderness.

Donald tries out water skiing for the first time in Water Sports. Water skiing is even more difficult when cousin Fethry is driving the boat.

Scamp and Speedy compete in several challenges to determine who will win a bone in The Contest. They are evenly matched with ties in all challenges..

Fethry and Donald go deep sea fishing in Out of the Depths of Despair. Fethry can’t swim and Donald is more interested in a sunken treasure off the coast of Duckburg instead of fish.

Donald calls a cab to help bring him and his cat, Tabby, to the veterinarian in Vet Day. The cab driver is Fethry.

Daisy hires Fethry to be the caterer at her big garden party in Suds in Your Eye.

Jiminy Cricket teaches Pinocchio the value of saving money in The Piggy Bank.

O.O. Duck heads to Duckburg to stop the diabolical organization, Blonk, from stealing Scrooge McDuck’s money in The Case of the Renegade Circus.

Fethry read a book on the care and feeding of the common house cat, and he is ready to share his knowledge with Donald and his cat, Tabby, in The Superior Intellect.

Scamp and Trusty try to sniff around for scents in Old Trusty’s Scent.

Fethry runs a Lonely Hearts Club business where he finds eligible husbands for lonely clients in A Midsummer’s Nightmare. The client chooses Donald Duck. What would Daisy say?

Fethry takes Donald on an undersea adventure in a homemade submarine to treasure hunt in 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea.

Chip and Dale’s nap gets interrupted by a hungry woodpecker outside their home in Satisfied Customer.

Goofy is a lucky reporter who is always in the right place and the right time to get the breaking news stories in A Goofy Look at the Newspaper.

Scamp plays with an oversized destructive bouncing ball in The Bouncing Ball.

Fethry opens his own detective agency, and his first case is to solve a mystery involving a giant moth and stolen flying carpets in The Carpet Baggers.

Fethry and Donald go to the wilderness to camp and live off the land like their forefathers in The Pioneers.

Fethry dreams of becoming famous from going over Niagara Falls in a barrel in Fall Guy.

Scamp gets a little bit of his own medicine after chasing a cat when he gets chased by a lather dog in Chased Chaser.

Fethry becomes Donald’s lawyer in a dispute over a $2 parking meter ticket that ends up costing him a lot more than $2 in Law Trouble.

Hard Haid Moe comes down from the mountains to visit and stay with Donald in There’s No Place Like Home. This story is the sequel to the second story in this volume, Mountain Magic.

Final Thoughts

Disney Masters Vol. 20: 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea is a great follow up volume to Disney Masters Vol. 14: Follow the Fearless Leader. Both volumes features the work of Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard. The two volumes make up a nice library collection of some of the best Fethry Duck comic stories. Fethry Duck fans rejoice!

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. A big thank you to Fantagraphics for sending us this book to review so that we can continue our education and journey through the history of Disney Comics.

You can purchase Disney Masters Vol. 20 at the link below:

Order: Disney Masters Vol. 20: Donald Duck: 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea

The next new release volume in the Disney Masters series has already been announced and is available for preorder:

Order: Disney Masters Vol. 21: Mickey Mouse: The Monster of Sawtooth Mountain

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