Austin J. Jenkins

 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!