I Should Be So Ducky!
Oh lordy! I don't know where to begin!
This morning I received a package. One that I'd been expecting since last weekend. It was full of Count Duckula books, comics and a few other things. It was all there - the books that I'd been meaning to bid for on eBay! I just couldn't contain myself the moment I opened up the box. I ended up running up and down the stairs shouting out my joy, discarding the newspaper and making sure my dog didn't do anything to it.
Here's a list of what was in that box.
Seven 'Bastei' comics
This is the German version of the Duckula comics, containing various stories from all three - Marvel, Celebrity and SOR Fleetway - English comics. I personally speak very little German as I never studied it at school, but I do know how all the letters are pronounced, as well as a few words I learnt in my own time. Perhaps I could learn a bit more German though these comics, since I have a couple of the stories in English as well!
The first seven - at least - issues used covers from the Marvel comics , and from then on, those from the Celebrity comics were used. The Marvel comic stories were all crammed into the first four issues at least. I only had the first Marvel comic, so I'm not sure which story appeared in which, as these German comics were in different issue numbers - 3, 4, 7, 10, 12, 14 and 16.
The stories that were extracted from the Marvels have better colours in them - none of the messy screentones - but it's still not very good colouring, sometimes it can be pale while certain objects like Igor's jacket are printed indark colours. I like how the issues are in A4 this time, as opposed to the smaller size of the American versions. I supposed it gave the colourist more room to colour.
After the Marvel stories were republished into the Basteis, the stories from the British comics were used. Thankfully these were left as is, no bad recolouring and such. However, if there's anything in the entirety of this comic series that isn't so aethetically pleasing, it's the lettering. It's been typed with a non-comic like font, and I personally think that it somewhat spoils the feel of it being a comic. But then, at least it has been translated for German and German-speaking readers.
Below are some samples.
One Marvel comic
Issue seven I believe. Unlike some of the other issues, this one contains a full story of Dangermouse, which was just as well inked, but it kind of freaks me out, as does the Duckula story there. In this, it shows Duckula topless and with...manboobs... and Igor without his trousers on...well, that's just a personal thing... It's still an OK story but it's just the way it was drawn that's all.
Seven birthday cards
These I've never seen before, possible due to me being a baby at the time these were probably out. I'm not sure who made these, but the logo looks like a W-shaped crown with a star on top. Three of them are embossed have a peel-off badge which is probably used to stick on shirts, while the other four just have artwork on.
1990 Annual
Much like the 1991 annual I talked about a while back, this annual was published by World, with the same artist working on the lovely illustrations and comics.
1989 Annual
This one is very different to the World published annuals, for one, it was published by Marvel comics! But not to worry, it's not at all like the American publications, is has the same share of comic strips and prose format stories, it's just with different artists [some from the Celebrity comics].
4 Celebrity comics
As I may have said, I personally like these ones better than the other two versions. The issues I have here are 8, 10, 15 and 26. One of them - Issue 26 - has kiddie fanart in...bless!
SOR ComicNow this one just baffles me. It says Issue 6 on this, but it was published in 1990, while the Fleetway issue I had was Issue 2 and published in 1992. It has the same artists within as well. Sadly this one has only two Duckula stories, for there's also a totally unrelated story in [I hate it when you buy a comic and there's a story inside that has nothing to do with the charaters the whole issue is about]. But then I read the smallprint inside and it said 'London Editions Magazines, an Egmont company', so I guess it's still related to Fleetway. I'm still not sure what SOR stands for.
Count Duckula Storybooks
Published by Carnival, these are basically novelised versions of a number of Duckula scripts, with screenshots from the cartoon. There is a big one with four stories, and I have here three small ones.
Count Duckula Novels
Also published by Carnival, but these are apparently brand new stories. These aren't illustrated within, apart from the Joke Book, but I suppose they serve as good things to read. The stories are as follows
- Joke Book
- Duckula and the Haunted House
- Duckula on Treasure Island
- Duckula's Holiday Camp Adventure
- Duckula and the Ghost Train Mystery
Waddingtons Card game
I'm not sure what this exactly is, but I'm guessing that it's a bit like Snap. These are quite big cards, and the characters appear more than once.
German colouring book
This seems to be published by something called 'Xenos'. Some of the ink in the lineart has faded over time, but it's still drawn pretty good. It seems kind of different compared to most colouring books I've scribbled in in the past - it's like a mix of a story [based on the episodes] and random shots...maybe it's just me...
Two smaller Marvel BooksBy the kind of Marvel that published the 1989 annual, these contain a mix of prose and comic strips in a way that there's a strip on one page, and when you turn it over, it's prose, then a strip etc. It has some nice artwork in it, but there aren't no true names mentioned, just 'Primary Design'. The two titles are 'Duckula on Broadway' and 'Duckula in Trouble'.
Mug
A black mug with Duckula on and text saying 'Drinkyboos for Duckyboos!'. I actually quite like how this one looks, despite the colours being behind a black background.
And here it is [sorry about the mess]!
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