If it was, I'm pretty sure the cover would have said "Disney Masters".
I see. A “Yes” or “No” answer would have been sufficient.
Well... I don't work for Fantagraphics, so I can't say anything as definite as someone involved with the books. But the cover hints pretty clearly that Dragonlords will be a separate release. So I felt it made the most sense to post the cover art to illustrate.
It's nice that Fanta is making this book-length story available in English again. I loved it when I first read it as part of the Norwegian Hall of Fame series in 2004.
But the cover hints pretty clearly that Dragonlords will be a separate release. So I felt it made the most sense to post the cover art to illustrate.
It's nice that Fanta is making this book-length story available in English again. I loved it when I first read it as part of the Norwegian Hall of Fame series in 2004.
As the editor, I'm glad you posted a picture of the cover, too—I love Cavazzano's painted version of the art, which didn't exist at the time of Gemstone's printing.
Gemstone's version was terribly under-advertised, and actually promoted without Donald's or Scrooge's names in the title, so I've repeatedly met longtime fans who had no idea it existed. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to reprint it, and at Fanta I've included some extras from French and Italian editions (Cavazzano painting, Rota covers, extra interview with Cavazzano) that weren't in the previous English edition.
It's not a Disney Masters volume because I preferred the idea of such a story being presented more like an action/adventure graphic novel, albeit in hardback.
And speaking of the Masters—right now our plan is to have slipcases in the fall, about a year from now, though that could still change.
But the cover hints pretty clearly that Dragonlords will be a separate release. So I felt it made the most sense to post the cover art to illustrate.
It's nice that Fanta is making this book-length story available in English again. I loved it when I first read it as part of the Norwegian Hall of Fame series in 2004.
As the editor, I'm glad you posted a picture of the cover, too—I love Cavazzano's painted version of the art, which didn't exist at the time of Gemstone's printing.
Gemstone's version was terribly under-advertised, and actually promoted without Donald's or Scrooge's names in the title, so I've repeatedly met longtime fans who had no idea it existed. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to reprint it, and at Fanta I've included some extras from French and Italian editions (Cavazzano painting, Rota covers, extra interview with Cavazzano) that weren't in the previous English edition.
It's not a Disney Masters volume because I preferred the idea of such a story being presented more like an action/adventure graphic novel, albeit in hardback.
I hadn't seen that art before either! It looks really nice. That bonus interview with Cavazzano sounds interesting too, I don't remember that in the Norwegian 2004 edition. Will the book be the same size as the Disney Masters?
I agree that a story like this is best presented as its own thing, it always felt like a strange fit for the Norwegian Hall of Fame. But I'm glad Egmont in Scandinavia got the whole epic out in book form, so in that sense it was worth it.
Speaking of the older U.S. edition... I'm noticing that on Gemstone's cover, the dramatic dragon fight in the background which the ducks are looking at and talking excitedly about is actually edited out! (Comparison below with a Finnish publication of the same art.) That takes away quite a lot from the motive.
First of all thank you for bringing us this amazing collection! I am glad the slipcases are making a comeback next year. I was used to getting two of these every year so was concerned these might have been cancelled.
There is perhaps a less known artist known as Vicar (Víctor José Arriagada Ríos), or at least from what I've heard it was not very popular in the States, but was very popular over here in Eastern Europe where it was featured quite heavily in Egmont's Mickey Mouse magazine. I would love to see Vicar being featured in the Disney Masters series at some stage. He drew more than 1200 stories, so there's plenty of material to choose from. Thanks for considering!
There is perhaps a less known artist known as Vicar (Víctor José Arriagada Ríos), or at least from what I've heard it was not very popular in the States, but was very popular over here in Eastern Europe where it was featured quite heavily in Egmont's Mickey Mouse magazine.
I don't think Vicar has ever been "very popular" anywhere. His comics appeared in European Disney comics all the times not because he was popular, but because he worked like a machine and produced I believe over 10 thousand pages of Disney comics. Then again, he does have some fans in this forum, which always surprises me.
Vicar is absolutely popular. His artstyle is very clean and appealing and his absolutely MASSIVE output not only very quickly cemented it as "how a modern Duck comic should look" in the eyes of a lot of readers (much like Branca was prior to Vicar's era), but also ensured that those reading Duck comics at the time ended up with a lot of his stories among their favorites... that's just going to happen when he drew that much.
A lot of it is definitely "you had to be there to understand"-type nostalgia, but the man had such a massive output it's absolutely no difficult task to fill some volumes with high quality stories by him.
A lot of it is definitely "you had to be there to understand"-type nostalgia, but the man had such a massive output it's absolutely no difficult task to fill some volumes with high quality stories by him.
Also, I am not trying to criticise Vicar, his art is nice and since 99.9% of "Vicar comics" weren't written by him, it's not his fault they aren't memorable.