Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella

I think nothing is better in life than knowing who you can always trust; who your friends are. If you ever feel upset or distressed about something, you can always count on your closest friends by your side to talk about what’s been bothering you. I can tell you from multiple different experiences of mine that the best kind of friends you can ever have are the ones who like being with you. They don’t have to say hi all day around the clock of course (sometimes, it’s nice to just sit down and relax), but them talking to you and enjoying your company is all you need to know that you got a keep by your side. That’s why I personally love being with people who, not only are some of my partners for the artwork shown here and especially in the future, but whom I also consider my closest friends. We can always trust each other with anything and, well, they’re just very sweet people to be around.

*Also, side note, but drawing raincoat hats is a complete nightmare for me. I can never tell how to start it and how to make it look like what it's supposed to be.*

 Deep In the Snowstorm

Since it’s late-January, that means that Mother Nature's in the mood for some fresh shaved ice for… some reason. I have no idea why she decides to do near the end of Winter and not during the beginning of Winter like how it should be, especially since most of the frozen water pellets decides to pour down areas like the Midwestern region in the ass-crack of November and then decide to take their sweet time to rain hard ice in areas like the northeastern region as early as late-January or as late as mid-February. Like a scared child doing everything he can NOT to study for the PSSAs because even though he KNOWS it’s coming and he’s gonna have to study for it, he just doesn't feel like it and would rather do literally anything else. The end result is the same here; completely confused.

Not helping is that when she does "accidentally” spill out her bowls of vanilla ice cream onto the floor (i.e. the EARTH), it ends up becoming a full-blown snowstorm. Complete with hectic winds, nearly sharp hail and folded layers of clear white snow blankets that reach over 2 ft in length. It becomes nearly impossible not only for us people to move around properly, but also for the many pets of mother nature to navigate for food and shelter. And when they can’t find said food and shelter, they get angry. VERY angry. Although, provoking said VERY angry animals doesn't help much. Hence, picture above.

Frozen Gold

Just because “Treasure Island" invented and started the notion that pirates bury their treasure chests on tropical islands (more specifically, during the warm summer season when Mother Nature turns the dial on her smart thermostat to exactly 74 degrees), that doesn't mean that’s the ONLY way to do it. Some do it during the slightly warm but still nippy spring season, when the most dangerous thing protecting the loot is your pollen allergies unexpectedly kicking (then again, that honestly would be WORSE than being devoured by the kraken for me considering how AWFUL my allergies are). There’s also the complete and utter nutcases who decide it’s a great idea to go out when Jack Frost is at his busiest. The ocean is nearly nothing but a hard sheet of ice, snowflakes falling from the sky quickly become snow-BALLS being chucked down like cannon balls, Hail, which is the equivalent of knives being sling-shot like children messing around with bows and arrows, and the entire island is completely coated from top to bottom with snow. 8 feet of heavy hard snow. But, you know, Lotta and Betty love treasure (more specifically, Betty) and Jade can’t say no to her two only crew members. She’s a good sport despite the consistent annoyed look on her face. So, Land Ho! Impossibly hard to navigate ice island ahoy!

 The Snowball Defect

Point tip for anyone who’s been interested in skiing while visiting a mountain resort; If you ever see two yellow-feathered bird humanoid things (one tall and bright yellow and one short and regular yellow to be exact), Do yourself the biggest favor and get the HELL out of there, refunded or not. Even if you had to pay a good amount for your stay, it’s not worth it. Both in terms of being unable to pay for the hospital bills and just being around Tom and Tom Jr. overall. Wherever they go, complete and utter uncontrollable chaos follows just a few inches behind. Jade, though, just completely accepts that fact, especially since her friend is Tom's girlfriend.

And He's Out!

That Betty Jenkins sure can hit, alright. Got a mighty fine punch to her! She don’t need no Magic Punch, Spike. She, herself, is very powerful! As powerful as a fucking Megaflash!

I don't really have anything specific to say about alot of my older pieces, as for most of these, I just kinda... drew them and... yeah no, That's honestly about it.

December 32nd?!

Happy New Year with a lovely dose of post-Christmas carolers singing “Auld Lang Syne” in front of the One Times Square Building! Everyone! I hope everyone who reads these posts has made their new year's resolutions and hopefully plans to stick to it after February. I hope everyone is with their loved ones, rather it be with family, friends or that weird guy with the very long beard who smokes camels next to the shut-down check cashing service building. But most of all, I VERY hope everyone’s calendars show the correct date of January 1st and not whatever wicked date the nutballs here have.

 Donald Duck and The Tropical New Year (1955)

Synopsis: Donald and the boys are tasked by Scrooge to deliver crates of swimwear over to Buenos Aires as their “Christmas present”, but the Beagle Boys think they’re actually shipping gold instead.

Topolino e il capodanno tropicale (I AO 54053-A) | I.N.D.U.C.K.S.

Happy New Year, folks. I’d Figured you'd like to see one of the earliest foreign Disney comics that's… somewhat about the new year.
"Topolino e il capodanno tropicale" is another kooky, one-of-a-kind, CLEARLY would never be released in the west without heavy amounts of that Disney “Family-Friendly agenda” censorship, Guido Martina specialty. The story has the usual kind of “What the Hell” writing you typically would get from Martina, right down to the title! Yes, in the original printing of this story, they accidentally wrote in Mickey’s name, Topolino, as the titular character instead of Donald, Paperino, and NOBODY double checked before release. Somebody must’ve noticed because the title was correctly fixed… in 1979. When it was censored in its own country. A double edge sword kind-of wish, I suppose.
Being drawn by Italian cartoonist legend Luciano Bottaro, it highlights some of his own special artistic trademarks. A pretty good example during this time period is how the black steam above angry or annoyed characters is alot more thicker, looking more like a deflated speech balloon. The character acting in this isn’t the more crazy expressive but it also isn’t poorly stiff and awkward. It’s a nice middle between some very fine solid layouts with poses that’s just good to easily register how a character is feeling, so the dialogue actually connects with what’s happening below the text.

So, Donald is a complete dickhead in the beginning of this for literally no reason and it's worse because it could be removed and nothing would change. I do understand what they’re going for. The idea of Donald being so completely sick of the cold winter that he snaps and gets angry at the holiday, since he feels like he’s the only one suffering while everyone else is super happy. The problem is that it quite literally goes nowhere after Scrooge calls him over for his “gift”. When Donald and the kids arrive to see Scrooge, he never mentions his disdain for the winter or his frustrations with the holidays again. I guess Guido wanted a reason for you not to feel bad for the duck at the end, but I honestly just felt bad for the nephews. They wanted to have a nice Christmas and now they're stuck on the south pole for new year's. Then again, maybe Donald's an asshole because he inherited it from his dirtbag uncle, who literally tricks him and the kids into trading cargo over to one of his clients. That’s already a dick move, but what makes it worse is that he KNOWS full-on well that criminals are going to think they’re trading cash and not what’s actually in the crates. If Donald and the kids get killed because robbers think they’re trading actual goods, at least it wasn’t the funny rich duck, I guess. (I say this because, both in this story as well as other stories, The Beagle Boys are treated more like an actual threat then the goofy robbers most comics after the 60s usually portrayed them as).

Special thanks to the Guido Martina Facebook group for this clean scan (even if I had to do ALOT of cleanup).

What kind of global warming do they have in Duckburg where none of the seasons are acting like how they should be? I think there's a bigger problem here, just not what Donald thinks it is.

The all-American way of celebrating the holidays... least that's honestly how I wish it should be, especially with the prices these days.

So, Meccano is a real European toy brand that still actually exists. They're pretty much Mechanical toy sets that you can build toy robots and cars out of, so I understand the hype for one. My question is why did they randomly name drop a real brand in this? It's not something they do surprisingly.

How the fuck does Scrooge know these people and why does he keep sending kindergarteners over there to deal with it??

And Goodbye Scroogie because he NEVER shows back up again in this story. He pretty much puts targets behind his nephews' backs and gets zero punishment for it. Hey Marley, I think he needs another good scare or two tonight.

It's canon that Donald has served in the Navy at least a couple of times, especially during WW2. So, him feeling more natural out at sea is more understandable compared to the nephews being here. Guess Donald wants his nephews to be ex-sailors just like him. Not... the best idea considering how he canonly has tons of night-terrors.

I hope Scrooge actually gave stored fresh crackers and beans in the ship at the very least. I do love the detailed close-up of the tin can, which (unless it's a Sunday newspaper strip) wasn't that common for Disney comics this early.

It took these idiots a week to realize that they can fish while they're on a ship? Maybe they're used to going on cruise ships that ACTUALLY enforces their rules lol

Hey look, the robbers are very angry that they wasted their time thinking they were chasing goods that they wanted and are now taking it out on the unknowing crew. It's almost like this was a very stupid STUPID plan, right SCROOGE?!!?

I... feel like there was a page missing. You know, there should've been a scene where the storm is about to strike the ship, so the climax can fully unfold. I'm guessing they realized that they were running out of pages. Good thing the 3-4 pages of Donald having a fit at home was written in, because it CLEARLY was needed to the story.

"Who Remembered the Naphtha?" uh... You should've considering it was YOUR idea, you stupid idiot!