Any notable Disney comics artists working in US/Canada now?

[molochdhalgren]

It seems like all the biggest names who are currently active are European (mostly Italian), but maybe I'm a bit out of the loop. I know Don Rosa is retired by now, as I suspect William Van Horn also is (although William's son Noel still appears to be active). I'd be interested to know if the Disney comics scene is having any sort of resurgence in North America - and if so, who are the key figures that are leading it? (And even if there is no "resurgence", can anyone recommend some underground talents to watch out for in the US and Canada?)

[deb]

Jonathan Gray draws a new cover now and again. I don't know enough about current Disney comics production to know if there is anyone else in the US drawing comics with Disney's standard characters.

[Matilda]

Since IDW classic Disney comics (not counting DuckTales) have not been able to commission totally new stories, there aren't new people working in North America on creating classic Disney comics for publication here. There are/have been, of course, Americans working for Egmont who produce new stories: Pat and Carol McGreal, Laura and Mark Shaw (I think--there's no nationality listed for them on Inducks right now), Janet Gilbert, Michael Gilbert, Stefan Petrucha, Sarah Kinney, Terry LaBan....

The English-speaking new talent who I *wish* could get published is British: Sarah Jolley. Check out her stuff!

For a while there we had fine new Darkwing Duck comics from James Silvani and Aaron Sparrow.

I haven't been particularly impressed with any of the creators of the DuckTales comics--and I don't know whether any of them are North American. But my underwhelm-ment is probably in part due to my dislike of the artistic style and the differentiated nephews, neither of which is the comics creators' choice. As Deb has said, it might help if they were sometimes allowed to write one longer story rather than two short ones in every issue. The stories' impact has also been diluted by the tendency to repeat certain story formulas, even in the two stories in a single issue.

[RobbK1]

Apr 30, 2018 5:19:37 GMT Matilda said:

Since IDW classic Disney comics (not counting DuckTales) have not been able to commission totally new stories, there aren't new people working in North America on creating classic Disney comics for publication here. There are/have been, of course, Americans working for Egmont who produce new stories: Pat and Carol McGreal, Laura and Mark Shaw (I think--there's no nationality listed for them on Inducks right now), Janet Gilbert, Michael Gilbert, Stefan Petrucha, Sarah Kinney, Terry LaBan....

The English-speaking new talent who I *wish* could get published is British: Sarah Jolley. Check out her stuff!

For a while there we had fine new Darkwing Duck comics from James Silvani and Aaron Sparrow.

I haven't been particularly impressed with any of the creators of the DuckTales comics--and I don't know whether any of them are North American. But my underwhelm-ment is probably in part due to my dislike of the artistic style and the differentiated nephews, neither of which is the comics creators' choice. As Deb has said, it might help if they were sometimes allowed to write one longer story rather than two short ones in every issue. The stories' impact has also been diluted by the tendency to repeat certain story formulas, even in the two stories in a single issue.

The Shaws are American.  I worked at Hanna Barbara at the same time as Mark was still there.  I'm still working on stories for Sanoma Uitgevers and Egmont.  I work on them in USA (Los Angeles) part of the year.  IDW could publish them if they like them enough.  They are publishing both Dutch and Danish stories.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

I suppose that there are a lot of good young artists in the US that could bring a fresh approach in the characters design, and who would be more than happy to be involved into Disney stuff. Jonathan Gray is the paradigmatic example. Well, he is actually some kind of Disney scholar, and with his experience in re-dialoguing he is basically a Disney writer already. I do not know how good he is in conceiving new plots, but damn, I doubt he could be much worst than the average Egmont writer honestly. 

Here what I perceive from the outside of the comics industry.

1) IDW does not seem to be interested in producing original Disney material in the standard Mickey/Donald universe. If I were in their shoes I would give a try, but I can understand if they do not consider the effort worth, because of the low sellings. It seems to me that if not related to a successful cartoon with a certain fan base, any non-superheroes (and non independent) comics franchise seems destined to fail in the US. Is this impression of mine correct? It is a bit sad, but well, what one can do. Looking on twitter, fan-art sites and in places like this forum, I think to perceive a certain overlapping between US (relatively young) readers interested in Mickey, Donald and Scrooge with those who are into cartoon-related stuff. This is kinda striking from a European perspective, where such an overlapping is absolutely rare. Never met a Donald lover here who gives a damn about, say, Scooby-Doo, to give you an idea. People who are into (old or new) Donald Duck comics, if ever they are into anything else, then they are into some other...comics! [Ok, that was my 'amateurish anthropological corner' of the day, let's move on. ]

Could these American artists work within the European production? Hard to say. 

2) The Italian Disney comics word is the one always open to innovations and contaminations when it comes to art, and on a smaller degree even to new ideas on the writing side. But it must firstly and above all answer to the national market, with a pletora of readers who are accustomed to a certain narrative style, so I do not know how US artists and writers could fit into the equation. Also, they already have an overabundance of Italian artists to exploit. I add that the American comics creators working for Topolino should accept a pay probably lower than what they would get from any gig in the US. Not because in Italy comics creators are not well paid, just for reasons of differences in the living costs.

3) Egmont production MUST innovate itself if it wants to survive. They could attract the new generation of comics creators willing to work on Disney regular characters, from America as from anywhere else in the word, as they already did thirty years ago. But they do not even look to have entered the 21h century yet. Let's wait and see. The patient could wake up from the coma.

[Matilda]

Apr 30, 2018 8:47:25 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

1) IDW does not seem to be interested in producing original Disney material in the standard Mickey/Donald universe. If I were in their shoes I would give a try, but I can understand if they do not consider the effort worth, because of the low sellings. It seems to me that if not related to a successful cartoon with a certain fan base, any non-superheroes (and non independent) comics franchise seems destined to fail in the US. Is this impression of mine correct? It is a bit sad, but well, what one can do. Looking on twitter, fan-art sites and in places like this forum, I think to perceive a certain overlapping between US (relatively young) readers interested in Mickey, Donald and Scrooge with those who are into cartoon-related stuff. This is kinda striking from a European perspective, where such an overlapping is absolutely rare. Never met a Donald lover here who gives a damn about, say, Scooby-Doo, to give you an idea. People who are into (old or new) Donald Duck comics, if ever they are into anything else, then they are into some other...comics! [Ok, that was my 'amateurish anthropological corner' of the day, let's move on. ]

Hmmm...Lumberjanes and Saga have succeeded without a cartoon. I don't know enough about the USA comics business generally to say how many others there might be. But are those "independent"? I'm not sure what exactly defines that. Lumberjanes is published by BOOM, Saga by Image.

I happen to be an American who cares deeply about the comics Ducks and cares hardly at all about television cartoons. But then, I'm not "relatively young"! I know at least one other Disney comics fan my age (whose name also appeared on the Gladstone/Gemstone letter pages) who cares about Disney animation, but not at all about TV cartoons. We might be rare birds, though. 

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

By independent I mean authors like Daniel Clowes, Mazzuchelli, Thompson, McGuire etc (to mention examples of planetary success). Graphic novels, comics journalism, heavy stuff. Comics not related to Marvels, DC, Image, Dark House. 
Saga is not independent in the sense above, so you have a good point there. But I did not express myself precisely, my bad. I did not wish to make such a general statement: I was just thinking about funny animals comics, or in any case humor comics. Things similar to Disney stuff, in other words. (Not counting strips.) Those one seems to me to share a fair amount of their fan base with cartoons, much more in the US then in Europe. In the old continent humor comics historically had their own life - obviously, since the cartoon industry is underdeveloped in Europe compared to the US - and their own more or less solid industry. In France in particular, and on a smaller degree in Italy too. (It was the case also in the US till the newspaper strips lasted, and maybe it will be again with the webcomics, but now we are going OT.   )

[squeakyboots]

inducks.org/story.php?c=XU+DTK++5A

This was the last made for US story featuring Donald and Scrooge. Enjoy this knowledge.

[molochdhalgren]

Thanks to those of you who have recommended Jonathan Gray. My hardback copy of "Search for the Zodiac Stone" came in the mail today, and I noticed that he was the translator in addition to doing the cover art.

[Fritz]

I haven't been particularly impressed with any of the creators of the DuckTales comics--and I don't know whether any of them are North American.

Joey Cavalieri, who has written some of the Ducktales stories, used to be an editor for DC comics, so he at least used to live in North America.