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Post by Nowhere Man on Feb 11, 2015 1:45:53 GMT -5
I'm reading the Carl Bark's Duck's library that's being printed by Fantagraphics and it struck me that beyond Duckburg, I'm unaware of any other fictional "Disney Earth" cities. Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge being the only Disney comics that I've ever read, I was wondering if Mickey Mouse has his own fictional local? Has Disney ever at least loosely connected all their various characters into a setting of some sort or has it always been nebulous?
I understand that with something like, say, A Christmas Carol, the various Disney characters are standing in for the Charles Dickens's characters, but what about the "default" characters as themselves? Kind of a strange question given the nature of humor comics, but it's something I've never thought to ask about before now.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2015 3:49:52 GMT -5
I don't remember if they named Mickey's town, but in the old Gottfredson strips he's from a small farm town, but travels a lot. Donald Duck is in the town in the 1930's strips, well before he was developed into the character Barks made him. But there was definitely a town and townfolk in the Mickey strips.  But no, I don't think there is any continuity between the Mickey strips and the Barks comics. A lot of newer Disney comics are produced internationally and not translated in English, I don't know if they have any more continuity. |
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 11, 2015 3:53:08 GMT -5
Mickey and Goofy never got the Donald treatment in comics; they never got a very talented creator like Carl Barks developing them from simple cartoon characters into complex characters with backstory, family and a realized world to live in, allowing later creators like Don Rosa and the people behind the cartoon Ducktales to flesh out that setting even more. (Also Mickey tends to be a rather schizophrenic character varying a lot in personality from writer to writer.*))
When they appear in the South American/European comics, Mickey and Goofy usually also live in Duckburg (even if they never name the city Duckburg in those instances, but whenever Donald and Mickey meet up in those comics, they always seem to live in the same city.)
For a more interconnected version of various Disney Worlds, there is stuff like the video game Kingdom Hearts that has the various Disney characters inhabiting various worlds (Beauty&the Beast is one world, Lion King is a world, Tron is a world etc. and there is travel possible between those).
Edit: *= To add, Mickey has gotten some more development over the decades as something of a detective. So he has received at least a supporting cast (Chief O'Hara, the Phantom Blot and so on).
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Post by Nowhere Man on Feb 11, 2015 9:38:05 GMT -5
Interesting stuff. It's strange that Mickey of all characters hasn't been fleshed out a bit more with a more concrete setting. I guess it really all comes down to Carl Bark's being a once in a lifetime type of creator.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 11, 2015 10:02:11 GMT -5
It's a combination of Bark being amazing (the biggest factor IMHO) and Mickey being the mascot for Disney so they kinda tend to be very protective about him. I'm trying to think of a big Disney project that had Mickey at its center and can only come up with Fantasia, which was 1940.
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Post by MDG on Feb 11, 2015 11:57:16 GMT -5
Also, the Donald of the Comics is very different from the Donal of the cartoons.
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Post by Action Ace on Feb 11, 2015 16:35:16 GMT -5
Cartoon Donald could give rage lessons to the Hulk.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Feb 11, 2015 21:36:50 GMT -5
Mickey and Goofy never got the Donald treatment in comics; they never got a very talented creator like Carl Barks developing them from simple cartoon characters into complex characters with backstory, family and a realized world to live in, allowing later creators like Don Rosa and the people behind the cartoon Ducktales to flesh out that setting even more. (Also Mickey tends to be a rather schizophrenic character varying a lot in personality from writer to writer.*)) I disagree with this. Carl Fallberg was hit or miss, but he spent A LOT of time with the characters in Walt Disney Comics & Stories, and there are definitely entire runs of issues where I like what Fallberg is doing more than what Barks is. However, Fallberg's premise was always that Mickey and Goofy were traveling to exotic new locales, so there was no fictional home base to which they returned to regularly. There was a police chief from their hometown that they regularly checked in with, but not a lot of time was spent in that town, and I don't think it ever received a name. |
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Post by Nowhere Man on Feb 12, 2015 8:14:17 GMT -5
I'll have to see if I can get my hands on some Fallberg comics. I bought DuckTales Vol.1 a few months back and I'm eager to find out if they still hold up. That was probably my first exposure to Bark's ideas and I always loved the Indiana Jones angle they took with it.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 12, 2015 9:10:15 GMT -5
Mickey and Goofy never got the Donald treatment in comics; they never got a very talented creator like Carl Barks developing them from simple cartoon characters into complex characters with backstory, family and a realized world to live in, allowing later creators like Don Rosa and the people behind the cartoon Ducktales to flesh out that setting even more. (Also Mickey tends to be a rather schizophrenic character varying a lot in personality from writer to writer.*)) I disagree with this. Carl Fallberg was hit or miss, but he spent A LOT of time with the characters in Walt Disney Comics & Stories, and there are definitely entire runs of issues where I like what Fallberg is doing more than what Barks is. However, Fallberg's premise was always that Mickey and Goofy were traveling to exotic new locales, so there was no fictional home base to which they returned to regularly. There was a police chief from their hometown that they regularly checked in with, but not a lot of time was spent in that town, and I don't think it ever received a name. Ah, interesting. I don't think I've ever read those (or if I did they didn't leave much of an impression.) Like most dutch kids I had the weekly Donald Duck magazine till around 1986 (and we had earlier years, I think my parents had them from 1974 and onwards. And it's the thing nearly everybody reads while waiting at the dentist/barber/doctor.) and they probably were in those, but just didn't leave the impression Barks stories did. Then again most Donald Duck stories by others didn't leave much of an impression. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Feb 12, 2015 9:25:23 GMT -5
I disagree with this. Carl Fallberg was hit or miss, but he spent A LOT of time with the characters in Walt Disney Comics & Stories, and there are definitely entire runs of issues where I like what Fallberg is doing more than what Barks is. However, Fallberg's premise was always that Mickey and Goofy were traveling to exotic new locales, so there was no fictional home base to which they returned to regularly. There was a police chief from their hometown that they regularly checked in with, but not a lot of time was spent in that town, and I don't think it ever received a name. Ah, interesting. I don't think I've ever read those (or if I did they didn't leave much of an impression.) Like most dutch kids I had the weekly Donald Duck magazine till around 1986 (and we had earlier years, I think my parents had them from 1974 and onwards. And it's the thing nearly everybody reads while waiting at the dentist/barber/doctor.) and they probably were in those, but just didn't leave the impression Barks stories did. Then again most Donald Duck stories by others didn't leave much of an impression. Fallberg's Mickey and Goofy stories were often the final feature in the American Walt Disney's Comics & Stories publication. They were usually three part serials in which Mickey and Goofy would travel to some exotic locale, stumble upon Black Pete doing something illegal, and would have to thwart him. While Mickey never did much more than play the straightman, and Goofy remained predictable but fun, Fallberg's talent was in visual concepts -- often finding ingeniously imaginative ways in which Black Pete was pulling off his heists. That plus Mickey's unerring goodness just made these stories fun escapism for me, especially as an older, more jaded adult. Bear in mind that the bulk of Barks' shorter stories done for WDC&S are rarely remembered/celebrated. He did his best work in the full length adventure stories. That's why I find it so impressive that Fallberg, in contrast, adapted his WDC&S stories into three parters as a means of coping with the limited page length he was allotted. |
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 12, 2015 9:32:09 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't think I've read any comics with Mickey&Goofy together, apart from the old Floyd Godfredson comics (sp? I have more problems with his name than with Sienkiewicz), so I guess they were never published over here.
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Post by gothos on Feb 12, 2015 17:04:37 GMT -5
FWIW I remember that in the 60s a fair number of Disney characters from both films and comic books crossed over, like Gyro Gearloose happening upon a conference of bad guys, including Captain Hook and I think the Wicked Witch. Haven't seen any of these in many many years and assume they were a short lived thing.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2015 1:32:59 GMT -5
Mickey and Goofy never got the Donald treatment in comics; they never got a very talented creator like Carl Barks developing them from simple cartoon characters into complex characters with backstory, family and a realized world to live in, allowing later creators like Don Rosa and the people behind the cartoon Ducktales to flesh out that setting even more. (Also Mickey tends to be a rather schizophrenic character varying a lot in personality from writer to writer.*)) The Mickey comics were fantastic, and he was a pretty well developed character for the 1930's. I believe he had the same writer for forty years. |
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