One comment

1. How appropriate that I’m posting this comment on One Saturday Morning’s 26th anniversary!

   Although I’ve always considered myself more a fan of the Disney Afternoon when it comes to Disney’s 1990s animation blocks, and more a fan of Kids’ WB! when it comes to late 90s cartoon programming blocks in general, I did watch plenty of the One Saturday Morning Era shows when they were on TV. 101 Dalmatians, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Teacher’s Pet, and House of Mouse are still among my personal favorite Disney shows, and I’ll even admit that I actually had a soft spot for Teamo Supremo despite its flaws.

   That being said, while I do still prefer the Disney Afternoon Era, I was actually pretty excited to hear about this book when Fantagraphics announced it last year. David Gerstein has mentioned that, unlike the Disney Afternoon collections, they could probably only make this one volume for the One Saturday Morning-based comics because, sadly, there aren’t that many of them. And I think I understand why he said that. I’ve collected almost every Disney Adventures issue from the first issue all the way up to May 2001, and I can’t help but notice how they changed the focus of the comic section over time. During the Disney Afternoon Era, almost every issue had multiple comics based on the shows (except for the occasional special issues where they devoted the comic section to running an adaptation of the latest Disney animated feature). But after One Saturday Morning began airing, they oddly seemed to run only ONE comic based on any of its shows per issue (this was around the time they were also running excerpts from Jeff Smith’s Bone comic and the backup stories from The Simpsons comics). And after the comics’ editor, Heidi MacDonald, left the magazine in 1999, DA’s comic section seem to turn into a knock-off of Nickelodeon Magazine’s own comic section, with actual Disney cartoon-based comics often only being 1- or 2-page gags that took a back seat to stuff like the Jet Pack Pets and Society of Horrors (if you’ve read the Kim Possible comic collection that IDW put out a few years ago, you can see how badly her comics turned out). In fact, if I recall correctly, Hercules: The Series, Teacher’s Pet, and Lloyd in Space only appeared one time each in DA’s comics section, and The Weekenders and Teamo Supremo didn’t show up there at all.

   That’s why I too am glad this collection was made, especially since it has so many stories I had not seen before outside of low-resolution scans on INDUCKS. While the Teamo Supremo gags aren’t anything to write home about, their inclusion here really surprised me, since Disney has never acknowledged that show since it went off the air in 2006. Plus, I think the characters are actually drawn better in these comics than on the actual show. I am also pleased that one of my favorite stories from DA’s post-Heidi MacDonald era, Buzz Lightyear’s “Monday, Monday!”, made it into this collection. (That’s another show that Disney hasn’t acknowledged in over a decade, by the way, not even when they released Lightyear last year.) And while the Winnie the Pooh and Mickey & Friends stories here technically AREN’T actually based on The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse Works/House of Mouse, it’s still cool that those stories are included as a way of representing those shows (and besides, it’s not the first time Disney rebranded a comic starring their classic characters to fit a newer series; back in 1991, Disney Adventures ran a 1979 Beagle Boys comic and put the DuckTales logo on it).

   If I may criticize, why was Lloyd in Space left out of this collection, though? Admittedly, I didn’t watch that show much, but like I said above, it DID appear in Disney Adventures once, and I know from INDUCKS that there were a few more 1-page gags for it printed in the United Kingdom. Couldn’t they have dropped that one Hercules two-pager that’s clearly based on the movie and not the TV series to make room for Lloyd? (101 Dalmatians and The Weekenders aren’t represented here either, but to be fair, there aren’t that many 101 Dalmatians comics to begin with, and apparently The Weekenders never got any comics AT ALL.) And I kinda wish that they had included “Doug is In” from the February 1997 Disney Adventures issue or “Doug’s Tall Tale” from the September 1997 issue, probably because I had those issues when I was young and read those stories plenty of times. (Oddly enough, I can actually imagine “Doug is In” appearing in a Nicktoons comic omnibus.) Also, since Mickey is Disney’s mascot, I can’t help but think “History Re-Petes Itself” should’ve switched places with that last Teamo Supremo 2-pager. But these nitpicks are pretty much the only complaints I have.

   And now, some fun facts not mentioned in this review:
   * The majority of “Gus’ Journal” honestly feels like an extension to Gus’ introductory episode, “The New Kid”. It helps that it was written by Recess creators Paul Germain and Joe and Ansolabehere, and the upper panels on its last page are directly adapted word-for-word from a scene in the actual episode.
   * “Food for Thought!” and “The Long Hot Recess” were both later adapted into episodes of their respective shows – “The Nose Knows” and “The Coolest Heatwave Ever”.
   * Similarly, “The Emperor’s New Throne” was also adapted as a flashback in the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command episode “First Missions”, and was also included in digital form on the DVD for “The Adventures Begins” pilot movie. If I recall correctly, Disney also published it in a brochure promoting the video’s release.
   * I’m guessing they picked “Tigger’s Last Bounce!” for this volume because there’s a New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh episode with a slightly similar plot. Same deal with “Donald’s Lighthouse”, which is loosely adapting one of Donald’s Mouse Works shorts.
   * “Sabotage at Sea!” is the newest comic featured here, having made its first appearance in Denmark only two years ago. Interestingly, while Mortimer Mouse would be a frequent pain in Mickey’s neck on both Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse, Captain Nathaniel Churchmouse still has yet to make the jump to animation.
   * “Teachers in the Mist” wasn’t made into a Pepper Ann episode, but its plot WAS reused for a Recess episode, titled simply “Teacher’s Lounge”.
   * While the comic promoting Doug’s 1st Movie is included here, the Recess: School’s Out! tie-in comic (which appeared in digital form on its DVD) oddly isn’t. (And BTW, from what I’ve seen, the Teacher’s Pet movie movie didn’t have any tie-in comics at all.)
   * The yearbook photos of Doug, Pepper Ann, and Spinelli at the back of the book come from an article in the March 1998 Disney Adventures issue, where they presented a pseudo-yearbook of cartoon kids. The other characters featured were Bart Simpson, Tommy Pickles, and Bobby Hill. Funnily enough, only one of those characters is NOT owned by Disney now.

   #PutHouseOfMouseOnDisneyPlus

   LikeLike

   Reply