Donald Duck

Given that they're completely identical with the exception of their favorite colors and pretty interchangeable in terms of personality, I know a lot of people out there can have a pretty difficult time telling Donald Duck's three nephews apart. I myself used to have the same difficulty, but then I came across a useful mnemonic that --- while it might sound pretty vague --- has legit helped me to remember ever since I came across it: Dewey is blue, like the dew, Louie is green like a leaf, and that leaves Huey to have a bright red hue. Now you can tell them apart, which is good, because it would be a shame if you picked up the pretty amazing looking box set from Hero Cross, which is up right now for pre-order, and didn't know which was which.

Everyone loves Disney and IDW's line of Disney Comics have provided modern-yet-classic takes on the corporation's most iconic character, but have yet to make the jump to digital platforms. Thankfully, that all changes next month as IDW and Disney are bringing Mickey, Donald, Uncle Scrooge and everyone else online as Disney Comics will be available via digital reading applications for the first time!

In the latest of our galleries celebrating the best covers of the year, we're looking at the best covers from IDW. IDW maintained its impressive and diverse line of licensed properties in 2016, from Ninja Turtles to Little Ponies, as well as ambitiously expanding and collating its Hasbro properties under the "Revolution" banner, and reviving and reinventing the Micronauts, M.A.S.K., and Rom.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years on the Internet, it’s that there’s no aspect of comics that can’t be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of five or ten. And since there’s no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we’re taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Five lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. 'Tis the season, and so this week we're taking a look at some of the oddest, zaniest, and just plain weirdest Christmas comics of all time!

Before the DuckTales relaunch, this year's Mickey Mouse Holiday Special will feature a guest appearance from Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and even Daisy Duck, all of whom are sharing a very uncomfortable moment in a hot tub. And nothing says Christmas like that. Check out an exclusive clip below!

Comics as a medium has no shortage of good artists. But to those in the know, there's only one man they mean when they say “the Good Artist” with a capital G and a capital A, and that's Carl Barks, Disney's duck man. In the earliest days of Disney comics, writers and artists worked anonymously, with all stories being signed with Walt's name. But fans could tell a difference in the Donald Duck stories written and drawn by a certain artist — the one who introduced Scrooge McDuck, Magica DeSpell, the Beagle Boys, Gladstone Gander, Gyro Gearloose, and many more — and they would refer to him among themselves as the Good Duck Artist, and would continue to do such even after some enterprising fans uncovered his identity in the late 1950s.

Welcome to Cast Party, the feature that imagines a world with even more live action comic book adaptations than we currently have, and comes up with arguably the best casting suggestions you’re ever going to find for the movies and shows we wish could exist. This week we're doing one that's been in the back of my mind for a while: A Disney Uncle Scrooge movie. This movie will of course be an epic, globe-trotting adventure for the whole family. It'll be based primarily on the comics by Carl Barks and Don Rosa, but I've incorporated elements and characters from the classic Ducktales TV series, mostly because they already solved some of the problems of adaptation. Uncle Scrooge himself would be the first to point out that it's wasteful to reinvent the wheel.

Life is like a hurricane, with all these reboots and revivals coming at us. It's a duck-blur. But today on Twitter, Disney got everyone's attention by releasing the first promotional image from the new incarnation of Ducktales, which arrives on Disney XD in 2017. The image was first tweeted from the Twitter account of Disney D23, the official Disney fan club, and was then shared by other official Disney sources.

On the short list of comic book creators responsible for genuine masterpieces of the medium, Don Rosa's name is pretty darn close to the top. Born this day in 1951, Rosa is best known as the most popular writer and artist of Disney's Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge for thirty years, including the Eisner Award-winning Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, an adventure story that spans seventy years in the life of the Richest Duck in the World, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. In his time on the Ducks, Rosa was responsible for over 80 stories that include some of the best comics of all time, as well as an ongoing fight for creator recognition and control over his own work.

Last week, I mentioned that Lost in the Andes, Fantagraphics' amazing new book Donald Duck stories by Carl Barks, had one of the weirdest Christmas stories I've ever read. And for me, that's saying something: Christmas comics are one of the few things I go out of my way to collect regardless of who the creators are and who puts them out. I love the darn things, and over the years, I've read hundreds of 'em, going back through my favorites every year. And even with all that, The Golden Christmas Tree might just take the fruitcake. After alll, most of the other Christmas stories I've read don't involve a harvest of tears or someone turning into a woodchipper.