Product Description: It's the second in a new series of Gemstone trade paperbacks - pairing Carl Barks' classic Duck adventures with Don Rosa's modern-day sequels! In "Donald Duck's Atom Bomb," armchair chemist Donald joins Professor Mollicule to save a hair-dissolving explosive from a scheming spy. Then Mollicule returns in "The Duck Who Fell to Earth," helping the Ducks recover satellites in outer space! Donald becomes "Super Snooper" by drinking radioactive isotopes; after which "Super Snooper Strikes Again" to rescue his nephews from a self-caused disaster! Finally, "The Trouble with Dimes" and "The Money Pit" have Donald trying to game the collectors' market with Scrooge's rare coins - both before and after Scrooge becomes aware of their "worth."
Reprints, yes, but new to me. Unlike some other reviews, I had never read these stories before. While a long time fan of both Barks and Rosa, I have never been as big a collector as some, mainly focusing on getting the albums and collections instead of the various disney comics over the years. So for me, this is all new stuff.
I will agree that the stories are not the cream of the crop from either Barks or Rosa. Am glad to have them, but look forward to more well known and better stories.
Something Old is New Again At first glance, there might not seem to be anything in this collection to appeal to seasoned Disney comics collector. Many of the stories in this album have been reprinted several times, particularly the Barks tales. Having these stories printed in tandem with spinoffs and homages by Don Rosa (along with an essay by Rosa about their creation and print history)is convenient for comparison's sake, and the print quality is state-of-the-art. But anybody who's amassed a collection of comics by Barks and Rosa may be tempted to give this collection the pass, were it not for one very important item: the first complete American reprinting of "Donald Duck's Atom Bomb" since its first appearance in 1947.
"Atom Bomb" is more slapstick farce than the human comedy and satire that characterized the best of Barks' stories. But it's also been a troublesome story both for the Disney Company and Disney comics collectors, since it presented an ethnic stereotype as well as some bad behavior for Donald Duck. Nor did it help that printing elements weren't available. Daan Jippes carefully redrew the story for the European market, but Disney kept the story off-limits in America till publisher Bruce Hamilton presented a compromised edition with altered text. It wasn't the happiest of outcomes, but it was either that or pay a hight price for the hard-to-find original, which had been a breakfast cereal premium.
This volume of "Donald Duck Adventures" restores "Atom Bomb's" original art and dialog, enhanced with new color. While this treatment doesn't elevate the story above its slam-bang humor, at least we finally get to see it as Carl Barks wrote and drew it. For that reason alone, Disney and Gemstone are to be commended, and this book is a must for all Disney comics collectors.
Three pairs of enjoyable tales, some better than others Although the cover promotes the first two tales in the collection, I found myself enjoying the unbilled adventures more than the titular ones. From the perspective of a person that has always read comics and enjoyed his collectibles rather than sealing them away forever in acid-free paper and plastic caskets, "The Trouble with Dimes" and "The Money Pit" hit close to home. These are wonderful stories that could be used to teach a child about scarcity in an economic market as well as deliver a lesson about the personal worth of belongings.
"Super Snooper" and "Super Snooper Strikes Again" were also fun, with Donald acquiring strange powers for a brief period. "Donald Duck's Atom Bomb" and "The Duck Who Fell to Earth" are serviceable. The link between the first two stories is very tenuous, where as the second and third pair in the volume are much more closely related.
All in all, this is a reasonably priced and enjoyable volume of the Barks/Rosa Collection, which pairs an original story by Carl Barks with a related or sequel story by Don Rosa.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
