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. 23: The Riddle of Brigaboom

Book Description:

Mickey and Donald tackle arch-foes and family feuds in new-to-USA adventures by comics maestro Romano Scarpa!

From Minnie to Horace to Mortimer Mouse, Mickey’s friends and fiends are bewitched by Dr. Wrayspray and his amazing health tonic. But Mickey smells a rat ― and the trail leads to Wrayspray’s headquarters on Brigaboom, an amazing island that only appears once every five years… where Peg Leg Pete is cooking up a diabolical new racket! Next, it’s Donald in deep duck trouble when he’s forced to battle an army of AI-controlled evil toys in “Remotely Impossible” ― and his own unhinged cousin in “The Unsinkable Kildare Coot!” Finally, Goofy’s royal love interest returns in “The Famed Jumping Frog of Queen Zenobia”… with a criminal plot hot on her tail!

Disney Masters Vol. 23: Operation Galleon Grab was published by Fantagraphics in March 2024.

This volume of the Disney Masters series is 192 pages and features Disney Master Romano Scarpa. This is the fifth Disney Masters volume to feature Romano Scarpa (Volumes 1, 5, 8, 17, and 23).

A short biography on Romano Scarpa is included in the back of the book.

Disney Masters Vol. 23: The Riddle of Brigaboom 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 5 stories included in Disney Masters Vol. 23:

• The Famed Jumping Frog of Queen Zenobia
• The Unsinkable Kildare Coot
• The Riddle of Brigaboom
• Remotely Impossible

My Review

We are getting quite a library of Romano Scarpa Disney comics through Fantagraphics’ Disney Masters series. The Famed Jumping Frog of Zenobia is a sequel to The African Queen story from Disney Masters Vol. 17. Goofy’s girlfriend, Zenobia, is kidnapped by Pete, Trudy, and Portis as they are in search of the location of Zenobia’s former foreign African sovereignty location in their search for diamonds and gold. This is a Mickey and Ellroy detective story, but Goofy turns out to be the perfect dog on the case with the skills to find his missing girlfriend. A second Mickey and Ellroy story, The Riddle of Brigaboom, was a Romano Scarpa tribute in the style of Floyd Gottfredson’s serialized Mickey Mouse strip stories. It is presented in this volume in traditional comic book layout. Brigaboom is vanishing island that you are going to need to read this Disney Masters volume to find out how Mickey and Ellroy solves this mystery. The other two stories in this volume are duck stories starring Donald Duck. The first story, The Unsinkable Kildare Coot, marks the debut of a new cousin that Romano Scarpa created for Donald. In Remotely Impossible, Huey, Dewey, and Louie get a hold of a remote control from Gyro that brings images on Donald’s tv to life. I enjoyed my trip back into Romano Scarpa’s Disney world.

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. 23 at the link below:

Order: Disney Masters Vol. 23: Mickey Mouse: The Riddle of Brigaboom

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

Order: Disney Masters Vol. 24: Uncle Scrooge: World Wide Witch

*By purchasing from Amazon.com through the links above you are supporting DuckTalks at no additional cost to yourself!