Saturday, December 12, 2009

Pertwillaby Papers













Here's why Don Rosa is awesome: he was drawing Uncle Scrooge stories before he ever drew an Uncle Scrooge story. This is an episode of The Pertwillaby Papers, a comic strip Rosa started as a college student and continued in the fanzine The Rocket's Blast Comicollector. Many of Rosa's Uncle Scrooge stories had their origins in the Pertwillaby Papers, including his first Duck story, "The Son of the Sun."

Fantagraphics collected several Pertwillaby Papers storyarcs into the comic books "Don Rosa's Comics and Stories" #1 and #2 in 1983. I was lucky enough to score a copy of #1 on the Ebay, but have yet to come across #2. Apparently there were plans for a #3, but it never actually went to press.

I love this strip. The art style reminds me of the yellowing cartoons that hung on the wall of my old college hangout, but the plots are like something from an Indiana Jones movie. (Yes, I said "old college hangout." Shut up.) If Fantagraphics or some other smart publisher were ever to put out a nice hardcover collection of this material, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Great stuff from a great cartoonist.

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