The Walt Disney Company officially celebrates it’s 100th anniversary on October 16th, 2023. The worldwide celebration of Disney 100 Years of Dreams kicked off earlier this year. There have been plenty of merchandise released to help celebrate this momentous milestone, but the nicest treasure is a new Target exclusive Disney 100 book, “Disney Comics Around the World in One Hundred Years”, from our friends at Fantagraphics. We are rarely caught by surprise on new duck merch, but this one hit the shelves at Target before we had even heard about it.

Disney Comics Around the World in One Hundred Years

Book Description:

What creative whirlwind brings Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, the Evil Queen, and the Beagle Boys together?

The Walt Disney Company is celebrating it’s 100th anniversary by launching Disney 100 Years of Wonder—and with it, Fantagraphics is bringing you international comics to celebrate!

Disney Comics have existed since the dawn of the studio. Now grown-up fans can explore the history of Mickey, Donald, Uncle Scrooge, and their supporting cast with a chronological collection—featuring the most beloved Disney funny-page talents from around the world!

See Mickey outsmarting counterfeiters in Floyd Gottfredson’s 1934 “The Crazy Crime Wave”…José Carioca upstaging a malevolent magician in Renato Canini’s 1974 “The Great Josédini”…and Uncle Scrooge founding his own nation in Don Rosa’s 1989 “His Majesty McDuck!”

Plus more—hundreds of pages more, including star characters from Super Goof to Lilo and Stitch, many in stories all-new to North America or unavailable for decades!

Included Stories:

There are 26 stories in the 256 pages of Disney Comics Around the World in One Hundred Years. David Gerstein provides an educational editorial about each comic decade as we progress through 100 years of Disney Comics:

1923-1932

• Lost on a Desert Island (Mickey Mouse)
• ‘Ear! ‘Ear’! (Mickey Mouse)
• A Fudge Cake Exquisite to See (Mickey Mouse)
• Low Driver (Bucky Bug)

1933-1942

• The Crazy Crimewave (Mickey Mouse and Goofy)
• Hook, Line and Succor! (Donald Duck)
• They Fell for Donald’s Line (Donald Duck)
• Donald’s Nephews (Donald Duck)
• A Born Scientist (Goofy)

1943-1952

• Mystery of the Swamp (Donald Duck)
• Have Brain, Will Travel (Ellsworth)

1953-1962

• The Captive Fairy’s Quest (The Seven Dwarfs)

1963-1972

• The Thief of Zanzipar (Super Goof)
• High Society (Uncle Scrooge)

1973-1982

• The Great Josédini (José Carioca)
• Quoth McDuck, Nevermore (Donald Duck)
• Coat of Harms (Daisy Duck’s Diary)

1983-1992

• His Majesty, McDuck (Uncle Scrooge)
• Ogre Easy (Adventures of the Gummi Bears)

1993-2002

• Battle Beasties (Donald Duck)
• Movie Mayhem! (Lilo and Stitch)
• Bugged (Recess)

2003-2012

• The Untimely Terror of the Time Turtle (Darkwing Duck)
• 3D TV (Huey, Dewey, and Louie)

2013-2022

• Spies Like Us (DuckTales)
• The World Under the Bottom of the Sea (Mickey Mouse)

Review

There have been quite a few books that have been published to celebrate the momentous 100th celebration of the Walt Disney Company, but this may be the best one. Each included story has been expertly curated for this collection to tell the story of 100 years of Disney Comics. This is a great sample of stories of characters from some of the most creative Disney Comics writers and illustrators of all of the Disney decades this past century. I love the decade introductions from David Gerstein that educates the reader on some of the comics from that period. It is truly a great history lesson.

The book starts off with an except of some comic strips, “Lost On a Desert Island”, written by Walt Disney and penciled by UB Iwerks. I wonder if they did anything else in their career? In this story Mickey Mouse builds the plane that Disney fans might remember from the classic Mickey Mouse animated short, “Plane Crazy” (1928).

Mickey and Goofy have had a historic career of grand adventures together in Disney Comics. “The Crazy Crime Wave” published in 1933 was the first serial comic strip to feature Mickey and Goofy or as he is called in this early story, Dippy Dog.

“Donald’s Nephews” from the American Silly Symphony Sunday strip published on October 17, 1937 was written by Ted Osborne with art by Al Taliaferro. It marks the first ever appearance of Huey, Dewey, and Louie anywhere.

The Carl Barks story in this collection is “Mystery of the Swamp”, which was published in 1945. I bet it was hard to select the Carl Barks story to include with so many classic stories in his library. The Don Rosa story, “His Majesty, McDuck”, is one of my favorite non 12 chapter Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck stories.

Stories of Bucky Bug, Super Goof, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Daisy Duck, José Carioca, Recess, Lilo and Stitch, and Adventures of the Gummi Bears round out the collection to make for a great representation of Disney Comics through the decades.

Again, I had no heads up that this book was being created. It was a magical surprise to see it on the shelf at Target. I opened the book, and the first thing that I noticed was the design on the back inner pages featured profile head shots of Disney characters and DuckTales 2017 Webby, Launchpad McQuack, and a very James Silvani Darkwing Duck were among them. That’s when I flipped through the book and saw that one of Joe Caramagna’s DuckTales 2017 stories, “Spies Like Us”. That story was originally intended to be published by IDW in issue #8 of their DuckTales (2017) comic series, but it was pulled because it had spoilers to the DuckTales (2017) episode “From the Confidential Casefiles of Agent 22!”. It was then published in Indonesia and never in the US until now. The one remaining DT 17 comic story that we still need published in the US is “On the Tail of the Run-Amok Raven”.

The Darkwing Duck story in this book is written by Disney Afternoon Legend and DW’s dad, Tad Stones. It is illustrated by Darkwing Duck legend, James Silvani. “The Untimely Terror of the Time Turtle” was one of the stories included in Boom!’s Darkwing Duck Annual #1. You may have also been lucky to read this story in Darkwing Duck: The Definitively Dangerous Edition which I would really love to see Fantagraphics re-release as a nice hardback collection so that fans who missed out on the long out of print title can have the ultimate Darkwing Duck comic experience. That is the dream title. Let’s Get Dangerous Fantagraphics!

HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Thank you to Fantagraphics for allowing us to go through this Disney comics journey. I am looking forward to another 100 years of Disney Comics.

As mentioned before, this must own book is a Target exclusive. It is available in Target stores and on their website.

Order: Disney Comics Around the World in One Hundred (Target)