Donald Duck

If you're a regular ComicsAlliance reader, then you already know that I'm pretty fascinated by the weirder comics of the past, but at Christmastime, my thoughts turn to more heartwarming tales. As soon as that calendar flips over to December, 'tis the season for Santa Claus, presents, the occasional talking Christmas tree that Wonder Woman rescued from the Nazis by holding a door shut and talking about how it felt like being spanked. I mean, yeah, they're still pretty weird, but they've got that Christmas spirit! Case in point: "A Christmas For Shacktown," the title story in the latest Fantagraphics collection of Disney Duck tales by the legendary Carl Barks. At 32 pages, it's a sprawling epic (By Barks' standards, anyway) that hits those beautiful Holiday themes of altruism and the spirit of giving. Although to be fair, it does get a little closer to cannibalism than most other Christmas comics.Our story begins as Donald Duck's three nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, are taking a shortcut home from school through Shacktown, the hard-luck side of Duckburg where Calisota's poor gather together in sub-Dickensian poverty. Now, you'd think that a city built around the most successful businessman in the history of the world would be prosperous enough that even the bad neighborhoods would be doing all right, but apparently McDuck industries isn't the proven job creator that you might expect. If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably because its owner keeps three cubic acres of cash in a gigantic bin on top of a nearby hill, but I'm no economist. That's a different Chris Sims.

IDW seems dead set on taking as much of my money as it possibly can. Not only has the publisher produced high-end 'Artist's Editions' of some of my favorite comics, including Jack Kirby's Fourth World, Frank Miller's Daredevil and Walt Simonson's Thor, but as part of this year's New York Comic-Con, it's announced upcoming Artifact and Artist's Editions respectively for Carl Barks' and Don Rosa's Uncle Scrooge stories. The announcement comes as part of a resurgence of interest in the creators' work on the World's Richest Duck, which also includes new hardcover collections of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge from Fantagraphics. The IDW collections, however, will print the original art at its original size.

Each weekday, ComicsAlliance brings you a carefully selected variety of links from around the web about comics and comics-related media, including movies, video games, toys, and whatever else might be worth noting. Quite frankly, these are items you may just need to know about to have a productive day. Take a look at today's hand-picked links after the jump.

Comic-Con attendees who kept their eyes peeled may have been lucky enough to snag a copy of the first volume in Fantagraphics Books' series of reprints of Don Rosa's Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comics, The Son of the Sun. (Some even got signed copies!) Everyone else will have to wait until the book is available next month to get their hands on it, but Fantagraphics has at least given readers a taste of what they'll be getting. Check out a 17-page preview of the crisp, colorful, chronological reprints of Rosa's comics, which date back to 1987, after the jump.

Each weekday, ComicsAlliance brings you a carefully selected variety of links from around the web about comics and comics-related media, including movies, video games, toys, and whatever else might be worth noting. Quite frankly, these are items you may just need to know about to have a productive day. Take a look at today's hand-picked links after the jump.

Each weekday, ComicsAlliance brings you a carefully selected variety of links from around the web about comics and comics-related media, including movies, video games, toys, and whatever else might be worth noting. Quite frankly, these are items you may just need to know about to have a productive day. Take a look at today's hand-picked links after the jump.

If our weekly Ask Chris column isn't enough of definitive comic book (and pro wrestling) opinions for you, good news: ComicsAlliance is proud to present Here's The Thing, a series of videos where you can join our own extremely opinionated senior writer, Chris Sims, as he sits in his living room under a framed portrait of Destro, drinking a cup of coffee and sharing his opinion on comic books. This

Fantagraphics' reprints of the classic Carl Barks and Floyd Gottfredson Disney stories are some of my favorite things in comics today, so when eagle-eyed fans noticed that a new line had been added for pre-order on Amazon, I got pretty excited. Now, Fantagraphics has confirmed that next summer, they'll be publishing a series of hardcovers bringing the Duck stories by Don Rosa to America for the fi

With the holiday season upon us, we here at ComicsAlliance have decided to make things a little easier on you by highlighting some of the best presents you can get for the comic book reader on your list in our Holiday Gift Guide! Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes Published by: Fantagraphics Retail Cost: $24...

Reading Comics author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week. KEY: ´ Accent aigu ` Accent grave ˜ Tilde ¨ Umlaut ´ THE ADVENTURES OF HERGÉ Jose-Louis Bocquet, Jean-Luc Fromental and Stanislas Barthelemy's biography of the Tintin creator is executed in something like Hergé's own style, which is a clever idea. It's worth noting that some versio...