our introduction to Disney comics

[rodney-selfhelpbikeco@juno.com]

I like the idea of the thread that's gotten started about our introduction to Disney comics.  My story isn't so unusual, but I may as well tell it here anyway.  

I was always a slightly eccentric kid.  My parents were very good about teaching me that just because something isn't brand new or current, that it doesn't mean that it's not worthwhile.  Black and white movies and TV shows weren't considered unusual in our house, and that's exactly the sort of thing that I ate up (As a 5 year old, I named two goldfish after Fred and Ethyl Mertz on I Love Lucy).  I was also very drawn to all things Disney, especially the older material.  

When I was 7, almost 8, my parents had another child.  While in the hospital, I was taken to the gift shop, where I was allowed pick out a comic book.  I loved the newspaper comics, and I was always on the lookout for comics, but even in 1986 comics were getting tough to find in the US....especially ones that weren't super-hero books (which I had no interest in).  Anyhow, the book I chose was Gladstone's Walt Disney Comics Digest #1.  I have to admit, I didn't like it very much.  I remember it had Walt Kelly's adaption of The Three Cabellero's, and I remember a Barks 10-pager, but I can't think of the story title.  I'm not sure why I didn't like it.  It just didn't work with me at the time.  

Fast forward a year or two, when my parents decided to buy a few gifts for us kids (we didn't celebrate Christmas, but we still would periodically have "gift days").  In addition to a microscope, I got a few Disney comics (these I still have....WDCS528, DD262, MM236).  This time, I loved them!  I remember being delighted with Don Rosa's 'Oolated Luck' 10-pager, especially.  I read in the letters and adverts about this wonderful artist named Carl Barks, and I became very curious.  Whenever I got the chance, I'd buy Disney comics (usually every 3 or 4 months at this stage, as money was tight and no places seemed to consistantly carry the books), and eventually I discovered why people said Barks was so great.  I'd also eat up everything I could get by Rosa and Gottfredson.  As I got older, I additionally learned to have great respect for Murray and Van Horn.  (Murray's work was hard for me, because I hardly ever got 3 consecutive issues of WDCS).

I lost interest for several years, when one rainy afternoon, I pulled out a set of the CBL, and started reading again.  I realized how special these books were and are, and I realized that unless I held onto the books that I had, and kept collecting them, that my children (when we have them) may never get to experience the world of humor and adventure that I always had with me.  

There have been a couple of setbacks, but I've got 5 sets of the hardbound CBL, and about 450 comics.  All Disney.  I've had to slow down a bit with my collecting, but my kids will always have a wealth of Duck and Mouse comic fun whenever they're ready for it.

rodney.