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.

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