Donald Duck: Timeless Tales, Vol. 1 by Romano Scarpa

Donald Duck: Timeless Tales, Vol. 1 Reviews

• 
  Katrina

  Okay, I loved this - and I'm kind of mad I didn't buy all the Timeless Tales volumes years ago. I know why I didn't; the price point was high, my space is limited, and I had no idea they'd be hard to find by the time I got around to really wanting them.
  
  I can't find any information about why this series was cancelled. Maybe they didn't sell well enough? (I'm sorry! I wish I'd done my part!) The production value is high, with attractive binding and vibrant colors in the comic reproductions. There was only one comic in this volume that wasn't quite as crisp and clear as the others - a 1947 cereal box extra that possibly didn't have a higher-quality source to print from.
  
  But all of these were just so satisfying, in the same way the Carl Barks stories are. I've been steadily collecting those for a while, and back when I saw
  Uncle Scrooge: Timeless Tales, Volume 1 in a local comicbook shop and tried it out, I'd said, "Oh no, I might have to add these to my collection, too."
  
  I think another reason I'd hesitated was because not everything in that first Scrooge volume was fantastic, and I'd really regretted buying
  Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: Treasure Under Glass. Everyone seems to find Barks and Rosa the two definitive Ducks artists, but I don't like Rosa's work at all.
  
  I shouldn't have let that sway me, because I enjoyed this book just as much as any of my treasured Barks ones.
  
  The Timeless Tales series doesn't focus on a specific artist/author, although some, like Romano Scarpa, are regularly featured. In this volume, we get a collection of Donald Duck stories from 1937 to 2005, from Australia to Italy to the Netherlands. Despite the wide range, they're surprisingly consistent; although some stories are better than others, and there are a few examples of artists who didn't really get the duck model down, all of the comics still felt familiar to me, a welcome continuation of the ones I've grown up with and have always loved. I laughed out loud at several points and smiled through the rest. Donald has always been my favorite, and his personality really shines here.
  
  There are a couple production issues that I would've handled differently - it's confusing to split two of the longest comics, "Shellfish Motives" and "The Diabolical Duck Avenger," into two parts. While of course they were originally published separately, it would make sense to have them run back-to-back in this volume. Both times I got confused and disappointed because the pages ended after Part 1, and there was no indication in the Table of Contents that Part 2 was also included....after several intervening comics by other artists.
  
  It ends up being fine, and of course on a reread it won't bother me at all, but I don't really understand the logic behind that printing choice.
  
  I also would've liked more commentary, especially since there's such a wide range of creators included here. It's interesting to see their names and the countries where the comics were printed, but the tantalizing tidbits in the opening and closing editor notes didn't give me all the information I craved. I'd like to know more about what brought them into the Duck fold, where their ideas came from, etc.
  
  The Duck Avenger is particularly funny, because Part 2's recap really reads like a "Donald deserved better" fix-it comic. The creators of this Donald arc really, really dislike Gladstone and his infuriating luck, which is understandable. I, too, enjoy Donald finally winning once in a while.
  
  I also enjoyed seeing some other characters, like Fethry, and Scrooge's journalist little brother, who obsesses over morality instead of money.
  
  Less positive: the inclusion of a Mickey Mouse comic!! I dislike Mickey Mouse; there's a reason I don't buy his collections. The editors' note at the end did explain why, although it gave me too much time to stew over it. This comic, from 1937, features Mickey's mischievous nephews, whom I've never seen before but who'd apparently preceded Donald's much more interesting nephew trio. I like seeing the history, so I suppose I'll forgive a little bit of surprise mouse content.
  
  I'm also not sure why there was a comic that only featured Gus Goose and Ludwig von Drake. I liked it well enough, but the title's Donald Duck, not "random assortment of duck characters."
  
  But those are minor quibbles. I thought this was a great collection, and I'm excited to get my hands on the others - at least the ones where that's still possible.
• 
  hissi

  A piece of my childhood
• 
  Mr. T.J.

  Thank you for reprinting classic Donald Duck comics! The art is wonderful. As an art major who's a huge fan of animation, like classic 2D hand drawn Disney and Warner Bros., I admire the cartoon craftsmanship, draftsmanship, and wish I could draw like that. The stories also reflect the time period and the jokes and philosophies back then.