Disney Comics

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This article is about Disney Comics, a publisher of comic books. For comics starring Disney characters, see Disney comics.
This advertisement for Disney Comics ran in the issues published at the milestone of their first year.
This advertisement for Disney Comics ran in the issues published at the milestone of their first year.

Disney Comics was a comic book publishing company operated by The Walt Disney Company which ran from 1990 to 1993. Before 1990 and after 1993, Disney only licensed their comic books to other publishers.

In its first year and a half, Disney Comics published:

Additionally, during the company's first year, eight trade paperbacks called Disney Comic Albums were published. These mainly featured older stories too big for the regular titles.

  1. Donald Duck and Gyro Gearloose
  2. Uncle Scrooge and the Phantom of Notre Duck
  3. Donald Duck in Dangerous Disguise
  4. Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot
  5. Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers: The Secret Casebook
  6. Uncle Scrooge in Tralla-La
  7. Donald Duck in Too Many Pets!
  8. Super Goof - The World's Silliest Super-Hero!

Giant-sized seasonal specials included two issues of Holiday Parade and one issue of Summer Fun.

In this period plans for expansion were announced. At one Comic Con panel slides of a realistic European barbarian strip were previewed as part of a new line of books that would also include superheroes. Also at one point a second imprint, Touchmark Comics, was announced. Among the scripts it acquired was Sebastian O by Grant Morrison.

Editor-in-Chief Len Wein's Marvel Comics-esque approach to the Disney characters was criticized by many older Disney fans. The hiring of Wein has been championed by the comic book creative community as an alternative to the much disliked former Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, who had made a favorable impression when interviewed by Disney management. Prior to the launch of the comics division, Disney management proclaimed their intention to quickly become a dominant presence in the comic book market, competing with industry leaders DC and Marvel.

These unreasonable expectations, coupled with poor sales, led to a mass cancellation in 1991. Echoing what had been called the DC Implosion of the 1970s, Duckburg Times editor Dana Gabbard dubbed this the Disney Implosion. Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, Uncle Scrooge, and Donald Duck Adventures were the only surviving titles. (No indication has been given whether or not the fact that they survived had anything to do with Donald Duck being a starring character in all three.) Following the implosion, the three titles continued being published along with an occasional mini-series based on a TV show or a movie. These included:

All the expansion plans were cancelled. The unpublished Touchmark inventory was sold to DC, which published some of the material as part of its new Vertigo line. Wein left and Marv Wolfman concentrated on being comics editor of Disney Adventures. In a mini-renaissance, editors Bob Foster, Cris Palomino, and David Seidman brought an appreciation of the classic Disney characters to the three continuing titles. Foster especially after a lifetime of involvement with Disney comic books and strips specialized in reprinting rarities even seasoned fans were unaware of. The Disney Studio finally decided to shut down its comic book publishing division in 1993.

In 1990, Gladstone Publishing was granted a new license to publish a series of softcover albums aimed at the collectors market, reprinting in color the stories of Carl Barks. After Disney Comics shut down in 1993, Gladstone regained the comics license for the classic Disney characters, which they resumed publishing until 1998, while Marvel Comics obtained the license for the modern Disney characters in 1994 and published them until they sold their rights to Acclaim in 1997.

[edit] Trivia

  • Peter David, who did the scripts for the Little Mermaid and Sebastian mini-series, named one of his daughters Belle.
  • Famed X-Men and Superman artist John Byrne did the cover of Mickey Mouse Adventures issue 8.
  • Much of the production work was subcontracted to previous licensee Gladstone. To disguise this, Gary Leach adopted the nom de plume Gary Gabner and Geoffrey Blum was Giles Moran. Leach continued using the Gabner name even after Gladstone reacquired the license.
  • The introduction to Disney Comics Album #8 (Super Goof) was based on articles by fan Joe Torcivia previously published in the fanzine Duckburg Times.
  • The cover art to Donald Duck Adventures #11 is a parody of the cover for the first issue of MAD Magazine.
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