You may already have read
an article in this week’s Scoop examining the 200^th
issues of various famous comic books. Seeing as Gemstone is also the publisher
of today’s Walt Disney titles, it seemed right to devote a special feature to
Uncle Walt’s big 200s. Alas, the long-lived nature of Disney comics brings a
problem to hand: the 200^th issues of Mickey Mouse, Uncle
Scrooge and the like were published before big-numbered issues were a big
deal!

Let’s look at Topolino #200, for example: the first Disney
comic to reach its 200^th issue was this 1936 Italian Mickey Mouse
weekly. To give them credit, the Milan editorial staff did suspect the big
number was important: important enough for a cheap board game to be given away
with the issue. But nothing about the comic itself was any different than
normal. It featured a chapter of Mickey Mouse’s “Robin Hood Adventure” and
another of Mickey “In the Foreign Legion,” both by longtime Mouse Man Floyd
Gottfredson. But a special Mickey adventure targeted specifically at issue 200?
Not here!

Britain’s Mickey Mouse Weekly hit its bicentennial in
1939. On the cover, original gag cartoons by Wilfred Haughton bumped up against
a Pluto Sunday strip by Hubie Karp and Bob Grant. Inside the book were Basil
Reynold’s famous “Skit, Skat, and the Captain”; William Ward’s Donald Duck
serial “No Adventures,” and Otto Messmer’s Bobby Dazzler Sunday top strip. Other
American strip reprints included a chapter of Gottfredson’s “Mickey Mouse
Outwits the Phantom Blot” and a Lone Ranger comic by Fran Striker and Charles
Flanders. But… but no 200^th-issue specials!

Continuing the
trend was the first domestic American Disney comic to reach #200, Walt
Disney’s Comics and Stories. Dating from the classic Dell period, the May
1957 issue highlighted Disney mainstays Carl Barks, Al Taliaferro, and Paul
Murry, but as individual WDC&S issues went, it was nothing out of the
ordinary. Barks contributed a classic frog-jumping cover and the lead story,
“Donald’s Pet Service,” providing the ducks with more animal mishaps. Taliaferro
offered four pages of Donald daily strip reprints, while Murry drew
misadventures for Mickey Mouse (“The Phantom Fires,” chapter one), Pluto, and
Li’l Bad Wolf.

Other American Disney comics took more than a decade to
catch up: Donald Duck #200 arrived in October 1978. Only this book’s
cover was new; the interior consisted of reprints from DD #79, all of
them penciled by Tony Strobl. In “The Money Muddle,” written by Carl Fallberg
and inked by John Liggera, Scrooge attempted to find an heir for his fortune.
“The Mummy Case Caper,” also inked by Liggera, pitted Donald against bandits.
Finally, writer Vic Lockman and inker Steve Steere joined Strobl in “The
Mysterious Pyramid,” a tale of archaeological skullduggery.

The
200^th issue of Mickey Mouse followed Donald by precisely one
year. Not a very special issue, the book was filled from front to back with the
24-page “Inca Idol Mystery,” a 1951 reprint for which — alas — no creators’
credits survive today. The story, with two con men trailing Mickey on a treasure
hunt, was hardly a home run.
Finishing off our American quartet was Uncle
Scrooge #200, which came out in 1983. Under a Carl Barks cover reprint came
three all-new stories… but newness was arguably their most memorable feature.
All drawn by Jack Manning, “Marooned In Space,” “Isle of Ill Will,” and
“Convention Blues” paired Scrooge with the likes of Moby Duck and Dimwitty. Will
it surprise you to hear that nothing about the issue commemorated the number
200?

It took more recent Disney comics to finally start celebrating their
big, round numbers. The process finally got going in the late 1980s. Donald
Duck #250 (1987) offered Barks’ classic “Pirate Gold” in its first-ever
color English reprint. Uncle Scrooge #250 (1991) wrapped Barks’ “Lemming
with the Locket” in a commemorative cover. And Donald Duck #300 (1996)
took celebration to extremes, with a feature-length lead story — Mau Heymans’
“Hero 300” — actually focusing on Donald’s attempts to capitalize on having
appeared in three hundred issues of his own comic! Oh, well… better late than
never. (And it means we’ve got some more commemorating to do when Scoop
reaches issue #250. And issue #300. And… and…)

Gemstone is your
source for new and vintage (and occasionally free) Disney greats! Order our
titles online at http://www.gemstonepub.com/disney
or http://www.walmart.com. Find them at RiteAid
or your local comic shop. And if you can’t find a comic shop, call the Comic
Shop Locator Service toll free at 888-COMIC-BOOK.