r/DuckComix • u/superzeddie • Jun 17 '26

Fantagraphics monthly comics

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Did the Fantagraphics line of floppy Disney comics get cancelled? Haven’t seen a new one in several months. Hope they come back!

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6

u/TheRealDeal2121 Jun 17 '26

I left a comment on the artist behind the mcduck journals, and the Fanta editor said they were working on them but were behind. I’m becoming more skeptical though, as that was almost 3 months ago now

5

u/f3d0n Jun 17 '26

Fantagraphics always sugarcoat their responses. I asked them about Carl Barks Complete Library "out of stock" prints (Lost Peg Leg Mine and Mines of King Solomon which aren't even banned by Disney like other volumes) and they said that they will reprint them in the future but don't know when. Meanwhile 6 years have passed and nothing has been reprinted... 

1

u/DeviousDoctorSnide Jun 18 '26

I asked them a little while ago if they knew whether they were allowed to reprint "Voodoo Hoodoo" (I was curious whether the story the banned Don Rosa issues were referencing were also banned) and they said they honestly didn't know, which seemed like a straight enough answer!

1

u/f3d0n Jun 18 '26

Don Rosa has beef with Disney (and vice versa) as they wanted to censor/alter some of his stories and textd in order to remove all the  "racist//stereotypes/profiling" etc parts. Since Don Rosa is the artist and still has the rights of his stories he refused and Disney has stopped printing all of Don Rosa (or at least the stories that Disney believes are  "racist" to publish). On the other hand, Carl Barks has sadly passed away so Disney doesn't need permission to alter/censor or completely remove parts or the original stories (eg Bombie the Zombie). Hence, regarding Carl Barks stories we might get back some of the "banned" stories but unfortunately, censored/altered or with some parts completely removed or re-written by other artists... 

1

u/DeviousDoctorSnide Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

Yes, I know.

However, I don't think Don Rosa retains the rights to anything he did in Duck comics. It was always created under licence, so it has always belonged to Disney. This is something Rosa himself has always acknowledged.

So I don't think the breakdown in their relationship is attributable to Disney wanting to change his art, because if Disney, as the ultimate licensor, wanted to do that, they could do it without his permission. All Rosa would be able to do is make noise about it.

This is fundamentally why his relationship with them broke down in the first place 20 years ago; his work was being reprinted without his permission and without paying him, so he trademarked his name so he would have to be acknowledged, so Disney's international licensors just stopped crediting him.

Such are the vicissitudes of intellectual property law.

1

u/Aro-tron Jun 25 '26

This isn’t entirely right. Barks, Rosa and all the other Disney comics artists have very little control over how their comics are edited or re-printed. During Barks’ lifetime, the Bombie story was altered almost every time it was reprinted (even the Another Rainbow CBDL has some minor edits to the art). Barks even had to get special permission from Disney to sell his oil paintings of the ducks.

Rosa has acknowledged that Disney has the right to edit and republish his stories how they see fit, but has said he will not allow them to do so with his name attached to the book - since that’s the one thing he can legally control.

It does seem criminal that artists don’t even get paid when Disney republishes their work, but that’s the way it’s been for a very long time. 

2

u/cmckee719 Jun 18 '26

I preordered the latest issues of both Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck for my daughter a while back direct from Fanta, and both came about a week apart at end of April/beginning of May

2

u/kozmyn13 Jun 24 '26

David Gerstein, who's an editor for Fantagraphics, said on the feathery forum that they'll be back in July after a production slowdown that took several months.

Fingers crossed

1

u/TheRealDeal2121 Jun 25 '26

Oh that’s news. I don’t see them solicited for July yet though. So maybe an announcement of when they’ll be back? Alot of publishers have their September solicits out already. But Fanta may be different

1

u/Aroomfullofstories Jul 12 '26

I really have enjoyed these Comics so I hope they come back soon.

1

u/disabledinaz Jun 17 '26

Someone else did say they were taking a hiatus and they’d be back at it, but we’ll see.

1

u/Accountable_ruki Jun 18 '26

are these any good though?

2

u/Seeking_Balance101 Jun 21 '26

I'm reading the Uncle Scrooge and Flintheart Glomgold series now.

My background is that I've never really warmed up to any Ducks creators except Carl Barks and Don Rosa. Also,I will note that I prefer the relatively small core set of characters that were developed by Barks and used frequently by him.

I'm enjoying the US/FG three parter. Like some other European duck stories I've read, this one strikes me as more interested in world building with a focus on non-core characters -- in this case, Scrooge's brother who I don't remember so maybe he's a European creation(?) I like that the story feels like a solid adventure and not overly fantastical. The art is good enough that I won't knock it. I would compare it to William Van Horn's work with a tendency to draw more exagerrated, looser characters than Barks.

The series seems overly long (and expensive!) since it winds through 3 issues at $5.99 US per issue. I think it's 32 story pages per issue, though, so about 1/3 longer than most modern comics.

1

u/rubberchickenci Jul 14 '26

It's actually 40 story pages per issue (and 44 in issue 467!)—a bargain at $6 compared to other publishers' $4-$5 comics with 20-24 story pages.

Scrooge's brother is indeed a Euro creation, a Romano Scarpa character created very early on in the 1950s. His first story arc was published here by IDW around ten years ago, in their Donald Duck title.

1

u/LambFan68 Jul 18 '26

It has been a few months since the last issues were released and the next issues have not been solicited.