Darkwing Duck Comics Original Series

[charontopia]

I started to see Darkwing Duck comics on the shelf last year and I mentioned that it had been ages since I've thought of Darkwing Duck. My friend asked me if I'd read the original series and, even though I was a fan of the cartoon, I can't remember Darkwing Duck previously appearing in comic books for the life of me. I have to assume the comics were printed during the run of the show but does anyone know how many issues the original ran for or how easy they are to come by secondhand? 

[The KKM]

You've posted this in the wrong subforum, by the way. I'll move it to the correct place.

Your friend likely meant the DW comics published by Boom! a few years ago, but back during the original run of the show, there were also comics running in the Disney Comics magazines of the time.

[squeakyboots]

There was a four issue miniseries during the early 90s released by Marvel that was an adaptation of the show's first episode.

There were various short comics alongside other Disney Afternoon show comics in early issues of the Disney Adventures magazine.

During 2010 and 2011, Boom Studios started a new Darkwing Duck series that ran for 18 issues before the lost the license. An omnibus style release collecting revised versions of the first 16 was released in 2015.

The current series is from Joe Books and started last year with seven issues so far. This is a continuation of the Boom Studios series.

[Matilda]

The 2015 omnibus book is definitely worth it: Darkwing Duck: The Definitively Dangerous Edition.

If you want to look for earlier stories...you can go to coa.inducks.org, the extremely impressive fan-maintained index of Disney comics worldwide. Go to the "characters" tab, which gets you to an alphabetical listing, and go to D. Click on Darkwing Duck. Go to the "index" tab at the top of the Darkwing page, and you'll get a listing of all the comics stories in which he has appeared. Click on any one of the story titles, and you'll get that story's index page. On that page it will list (by country) all the publications that story has been in.

One fairly easy way to get some of the earlier Darkwing stories is to find used copies (eBay, Amazon, whatever) of the two "Cartoon Tales" paperbacks that featured Darkwing: Cartoon Tales 7 Darkwing Duck: Just Us Justice Ducks and Cartoon Tales 9 Darkwing Duck Returns: Capes and Capers. I have been able to get those very cheaply online.

And buy the trade paperback collection of the current Joe Books Darkwing title! It's unclear whether it will continue past #8, and it is said that the decision probably hangs on the trade sales.

[charontopia]

Thanks for all of your help, everyone! I'm really impressed with that last site - checking through it now. Sorry for posting in the wrong forum. I'm new and still learning my way around. Thanks for your patience!

[Scrooge MacDuck]

The only thing left after that would be the "Dangerous Currency" arc, but it's unfortunately not really available anywhere. I got hold of not-quite-legal scans of it, but that was sheer luck.

[squeakyboots]

Dangerous Currency was a crossover between Darkwing and DuckTales taking up the final two issues of Boom Studios' Darkwing Duck series alongside the final two issues of their DuckTales series. It was allegedly released right before Boom's hold of the Disney license expired and apparently done so without approval by Disney. This is why it was excluded in Joe Books' Definitively Dangerous book and effectively retconned in the new ongoing series.

I swear Boom's trade release for this arc was only available for maybe a couple weeks before going out of print. Because of that, copies of it are very rare and go for high prices in the second hand market. I was lucky to have bought my copy right as it came out.

Unfortunately, the story isn't really good. There are plotholes, there are elements of the story that don't really make sense, and there are Life and Times of Scrooge references even though this is a DuckTales story. James Silvani's spectacular artwork is the only saving grace of it. I wouldn't bother trying to hunt this down unless you're a big Darkwing fan or are that curious about the arc.

[charontopia]

Yeah, I'm generally curious about rarities but, in this case, not enough to go through the tracking and high costs. If the storyline was better maybe but if it's subpar and full of holes and not endorsed by Disney, I might just consider it lost for the best.