DuckTales #0

When Disney Adventures was conceived in 1989 under the direction of Executive Editor Michael Lynton, a format for the book had not been decided upon. All we knew is that we'd like to get it in front of the potential buyer's eye without it getting lost on a newsstand. I suggested that since Reader's Digest and TV Guide were strategically positioned at the checkout stands of most supermarkets at that time, and that one of the top selling publications in Italy, Topolino, was about the same shape and size as Reader's Digest and TV Guide, publishing a book in that format and utilizing existing display racks at the supermarket checkout stands might be a way to go. I guess everyone agreed because that's the format we went with. The digest-sized magazine ran for 17 years, ending publication in October 2007. Issue #1 was cover dated October 16, 1990, but there was an issue before that, one that we referred to as #0. It was dated FALL 1990. The purpose of this issue was that of an ashcan issue - to establish copyright. Marv Wolfman had been chosen to be the Comics Editor for Disney Adventures and he took it upon himself to write a DuckTales story for that issue. I was elected to do page layouts for the story before it was sent to Italy to be illustrated. Below you'll see the first five pages of that story, with my rough layouts on the left and the final, printed page on the right. It's interesting how the artist, Guiseppe Della Santa, took appropriate liberties to usually improve my ideas and layouts. I was very pleased with the job he did. Pages 6 - 10 will be in the next post.






Although this is shared for the enlightenment of comics students and fans, all material is Copyright 1990 The Walt Disney Company.