Today saw the release of the first issue in a new DuckTales comic-book series from Dynamite, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this debut installment.
The character of Uncle Scrooge McDuck got his start in Disney-licensed comic books by Carl Barks way back in 1947, so it makes perfect sense to continue his adventures via a new comic series that launched today. This iteration, published by Dynamite, is entitled simply DuckTales, and is indeed heavily inspired by the 1980s cartoon series of the same name– omitting the more recent reboot version of the show. Here, Uncle Scrooge dresses in his blue housecoat and pals around with nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie… as issue #1 starts off with these poor triplets counting the coins in Scrooge’s infamous Money Bin. That’s when Scrooge pops up out of his fortune and the nephews demand to know how he swims around in it, so we realize that this comic takes place at a point in the timeline when they don’t know much about their eccentric “quadzillionaire” uncle just yet.
Indeed, in this story Huey, Dewey, and Louie want nothing more than to hear tales of Uncle Scrooge’s youth and how he came about his money, rather than sitting around and counting it all day long. But if Scrooge isn’t counting cash, he’d vastly prefer making more of it to reminiscing about the past, so he challenges the nephews to seek opportunities for treasure hunting around their home town of Duckburg. Together they take the long way walking home from the Money Bin to McDuck Manor, and as readers we get a good idea of the layout of the town via a nice double-page drawing by Italian artist Tommaso Ronda. By the way, Ronda’s character artwork here is a little more exaggerated than the models of Scrooge and company we were used to from the cartoon, but by and large he does a good job of capturing the spirit of Barks’s duck universe.
The nephews spend the remainder of this issue learning lessons from Scrooge by exploring the mansion and, eventually, getting to hear a story (or three) about how he came by some of the more unique items in his collection of valuable trinkets. This was undoubtedly my favorite part of the comic, as the flashbacks pay direct tribute to Barks by having the artwork and coloring (by Ivan Bigarella) more closely resemble those beloved and decades-old comic outings. And I think writer Brandon Montclare (from Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur) also succeeds in crafting an overall perception of Duckburg and its inhabitants that matches what I remember so fondly about the show. There’s no sign of Donald Duck here yet, nor of Launchpad McQuack, Gyro Gearloose, or any of the other supporting players and villains that populate DuckTales and Carl Barks universes, but a panel on the final page promises that at least some of these fan favorites will show up as the series goes on. So far I’m really enjoying what Montclare and Ronda have put together, with the flashbacks being a major highlight, and the promise of things to come– in true DuckTales fashion, this debut story will be told across four parts– has me very optimistic for future issues.
DuckTales #1 is now available wherever comic books are sold.