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The Don Rosa Library #2

Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: Return to Plain Awful

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Jumpin jacksnipes! Duckburg's richest tycoon is on the hunt for legendary square eggs and he's bringing Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie along! It's our second complete, chronological book of Duck adventures by internationally celebrated fan favorite Don Rosa following in the footsteps of Disney legend Carl Barks with his own distinctive style! Famed for his prizewinning Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Rosa wrote and drew two decades worth of ripping Duck yarns and is among the world's most beloved modern cartoonists.

Star stories in our second Rosa book include Return to Plain Awful, Rosa's sequel to Barks Lost in the Andes. Then, in His Majesty McDuck, Scrooge beats the IRS by seceding from the Union... only to have his new country colonized by the Beagle Boys! Plus more!

Presented with a rich archive of Rosa's cover art and behind-the-scenes factoids, these Duckburg epics are getting a definitive, comprehensive North American edition for the very first time at a bargain price worthy of Scrooge himself!

216 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2014

About the author

Don Rosa

388 books380 followers
Keno Don Hugo Rosa (born June 29, 1951), is an American comic book writer and illustrator known best for his stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck and other Duck Family characters. Many of his stories are built on characters and locations created by Carl Barks.

In 1995 he won the Eisner Award for "Best Serialized Story" for his 12-chapter work The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. He received the award again in 1997 for "Best Artist/Writer - Humor Category".

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5 stars
316 (60%)
4 stars
163 (31%)
3 stars
40 (7%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
Profile Image for ♛ Garima ♛.
968 reviews183 followers
December 21, 2018
These are really massive volumes, I spend almost entire day reading stories...following stories are part of the vol. 2

1. The crocodile Collector
2. His fortune on the rocks
3. Return to Plain Awful
4. The curse of Nostrildamus
5. The starstruck duck
6. His majesty, McDuck
7. Give unto others
8. Forget me not
9. On the silver platter
10. Making the grade
11. Back in time for a dime!
12. The pied piper of Duckburg
13. Leaky luck
14. The money pit

and there are lots of 'Behind the scenes', backstories, ideas and history...overall very enjoyable portrait of childhood memories.
Profile Image for Baal Of.
1,243 reviews66 followers
August 15, 2019
Continuing what is clearly a theme, Rosa denigrates his own artwork, comparing it unfavorably to the artwork done for the DuckTales story in this volume, but for me that is precisely backwards; I rather dislike the "cute" almost rubbery Disney animation style on this short story, with it's skewed and tilted perspectives, and the inclusion of Bubba Duck is horrible, and should be eradicated. In this volume the worst stories are the ones either written by other people, or illustrated by other people, and all the best ones are entirely by Don Rosa, especially when they aren't interfered with by editors or publishers. Of course the centerpiece story "Return To Plain Awful" is one of the best, but that is unsurprising since Rosa is always at his best when doing the longer adventure stories, that have always been my favorite style for Uncle Scrooge. "The Money Pit" is also a lot of fun, and even a bit harrowing with Donald being buried in the collapse. The funniest story is probably "On A Silver Platter" which plays exuberantly with the titular platter acting as a portal that preserves some amount of the physics, kind of like a cartoon version of the the Portal game. This story really allowed Rosa's imagination to run wild.
Profile Image for Rudi.
306 reviews6 followers
February 24, 2019
Don Rosa starts picking up steam in this second volume. There's some great stories in this one, like the classic (sequel) "Return to Plain Awful", the first of the hilarious Magica-trilogy "On a silver platter" and some other good ones. Two of them I had either forgotten, or never read. "His Fortune on the Rocks" is a short but really funny story that probably relies too heavily on word play for it to be translated to Norwegian(?), while "Back in time for a Dime" was a very sweet take on the joy of collecting. There's also some interesting extras in this, like the Ducktales-comic Don Rosa wrote, and an unpublished comic.
Profile Image for Andrew.
743 reviews19 followers
April 8, 2018
An improvement over the first volume of Don Rosa duck comics. "His Majesty, McDuck" is probably the first truly great Rosa comic. It's the first Rosa comic to match the satirical elements of the Barks classics, while the ending displays Rosa's softer touch without getting too saccharine. The rest of the collection is a mixed bag, as Rosa excels at the long adventure stories but struggles somewhat with the short gag comics. The background sight gags are often funnier than the short stories themselves.
Profile Image for Flavio.
119 reviews2 followers
August 12, 2019
Rosa, pelo que vejo na internet, não é dos autores mais populares, e isso me espanta. Ele teria um traço sujo e amador, seus roteiros seriam excessivamente mirabolantes e complexos, e a reverência exagerada à Carl Barks seria uma muleta na qual ele se apoiava.

O criticado “traço sujo e amador” me lembra Robert Crumb, os “roteiros mirabolantes” são resultado de sua criatividade, e mostram uma complexidade que me agradava quando criança, porque não subestimava minha inteligência.

A “reverência exagerada” agrada o adulto que relê essas histórias, e vê o cuidado que o “sucessor espiritual” de Barks têm com seu mestre, dos detalhes na caracterização dos personagens ao respeito à continuidade estabelecida previamente.
Profile Image for Eric.
722 reviews123 followers
May 23, 2017
More great stories from Rosa. The man really knows how to develop an idea into a story. His short comedy pieces are just as good as his celebrated long adventure stories. Now on to volumes 3 and 4, which I bought as a boxed set.
Profile Image for nur'aini  tri wahyuni.
846 reviews29 followers
May 17, 2018
kurang cocok dengan Donal dan Paman Gober versi Don Rosa ini. unsur sejarah yg mengiringi perjalanan sebuah petualangan memang menyenangkan, tapi penggambaran dan deskripsi dalam buku ini terlalu 'berat' buat saya. padahal baca komik bahasa indonesianya.
Profile Image for Elliot A.
646 reviews41 followers
July 29, 2018
A hilarious collection of Uncle Scrooge comics, featuring Donald Duck and the gang. I really enjoyed all of them except for one: “His Majesty, McDuck”. I have no idea why, but this one left a bitter taste in my mouth and I wasn’t really too invested while reading the rest of it.
Other than that, it was great entertainment.

ElliotScribbles
Profile Image for Cassandra Elise.
113 reviews24 followers
June 27, 2019
Definitely better than Don Rosa's first outing story wise, but I'm still not the biggest fan of Donald Duck. He's irritating. And Rosa tries so hard to emulate Barks' style, so Donald never evolves. Oh well. I guess it's silly to expect comics on ducks to feature character growth. :)
Profile Image for Devin.
202 reviews2 followers
June 12, 2024
This was so fun! The title story was probably my favorite along with the stories with Magica. This book felt like it flowed much better than the first one. Rosa is starting to get in his groove it seems.


Definitely recommend this volume


Will be reading volume 3 soon hopefully.
Profile Image for Hanussen.
275 reviews11 followers
April 30, 2021
Až na pár výjimek sbírka výborných komiksů od Rosy, kterého (spolu s Barkesm) považuju za nejlepšího autora kačeřích příběhů. Je tu i pár příběhů téměř epických rozměrů. Každý komiks je navíc doplněný o poznámky autora a část jeho životopisu, takže i provedením je to super kousek.
Profile Image for Addison.
151 reviews7 followers
December 30, 2021
Another flawless volume in Fatagraphics’ Don Rosa Library. Beautifully printed, colored , and bound, with lots of extras packed in back.

Highly recommended for any comics fan.
Profile Image for Rosa.
1,831 reviews14 followers
April 27, 2015
I love all the in depth info they include in this volumes about story ideas, where, how and who they were written for, and hidden mickeys and dedications.
Profile Image for Karen GoatKeeper.
Author 20 books34 followers
November 10, 2017
The Ducks are at it again. These adventures take them many places. These are more modern tales based on the older Barks tales. It shows in friendlier story lines.
As in all the Ducks comics, the drawing is wonderful. The backgrounds by Don Rosa are not as detailed as Barks drew. The colors are vivid.
There is commentary both at the beginning and the end of the book. This gives information about how the different tales came to be written, little hidden images in the different covers and panels, and information about the creator, Don Rosa.
Comic books are considered children's books. The stories transcend that age group, even being more meaningful to older readers.
It may be tempting to flip through the pages quickly as the reading is easy and fun. Slowing down to really look at the panels or, perhaps, reading them a second time at a slow pace to admire the pictures is advisable.
Profile Image for David Corleto-Bales.
1,042 reviews66 followers
Read
July 12, 2020
I had been initially skeptical about anyone following in the footsteps of the legendary Carl Barks, (who stopped drawing Donald Duck cartoons in 1966 after 24 years) but Don Rosa, who picked up the baton in the 1980s, absolutely did the series proud, keeping with the rhythm and traditions that had been set down by his idol.
Profile Image for Kevin.
279 reviews4 followers
June 26, 2023
Love Rosa’s Duck work. Barks brought me in but Rosa (and Van Horn) locked me in as a lifetime fan.
Silver Platter is a blast. As is Money Pit. But Return to Plain Awful is the highlight.
And I loved the storyboard only comic.
Backmatter… all by Rosa himself is such a treat.

This was a reread. I’ll be giving all volumes 5 stars I think.
Profile Image for Niklas Bergljung.
110 reviews3 followers
March 24, 2019
Precis som första volymen så innehåller den här inte Don Rosas bästa arbete (bortsett från Return to Plain Awful som är fantastisk) utan det är extramaterialet i form av kommentarer till alla serier från Rosa själv som gör den här boken till ett måste för alla hans fans.
Profile Image for Jark Lulle.
52 reviews
August 20, 2023
The stories that are great are great but there is too much filler here. I guess it's too early in his career. A lot of breadwinning jobs to get a foot in the industry, Rosa explains at the end of the book.
Profile Image for Jameson.
896 reviews14 followers
April 14, 2024
5 stars (ignoring any redone coloring problems and definitely ignoring the appalling treatment of Rosa by Disney Comics.)

Rosa is even better than Barks, in my view. He has an incredible sense of story and scale and detail. All of it is, of course, built on Barks, but there it is.
Profile Image for Uuttu.
605 reviews6 followers
May 23, 2024
Hyvää Don Rosaa: mukana on myös harvinaisempia tarinoita, joihin Rosa on tehnyt käsikirjoituksen tai piirrustukset. Elämäkerrassa tulee uutta juttua Rosan vaiheista, tarinoiden luomiskertomukset taas toistavat aikalailla samoja juttuja kuin aiemmatkin.
Profile Image for Frank.
149 reviews7 followers
July 30, 2024
Fun volume of stories with some particularly classic Rosa work

This is an interesting volume as it contains some “oddities” - stories written but not drawn by Rosa and a story drawn but not written by him.

Plenty of “first and onlys” in this one.

Profile Image for Pat.
1,252 reviews
December 29, 2017
I've loved Uncle Scrooge since I was a kid. Great to read episodes that were later than the ones I remember, as well as all the behind-the-scenes stuff.
1,359 reviews7 followers
July 8, 2020
Again, many repeats of stories from other volumes but so much fun. Rosa's work is a labor of love and full of plain old fun.
369 reviews2 followers
November 14, 2020
Absolutely Lovely! I laughed out loud so many times, this was great. Don Rosa is a true Duckmaster.
816 reviews2 followers
September 17, 2016
In this volume, the second released by Fantagraphics, one of the comics is a direct sequel to Barks's "Lost in the Andes." This time, Scrooge and Flintheart Glomgold visit the town of Plain Awful along with Donald and his nephews. In other stories, Scrooge sets up his own country through a legal loophole (with the back story involving both Sir Francis Drake and Duckburg's founder Cornelius Coot), he and Donald fight Magica de Spell by way of a magic platter, and Rosa comments on people who only collect things in order to resell them. Rounding out the collection are a few oddities, including an unfinished comic with Donald and the boys visiting the then-new Disney MGM Studios, a DuckTales story written but not illustrated by Rosa, an incomplete Barks story featuring Gyro Gearloose that Rosa completed, and a few short tales that were written by other authors but had Rosa's art. Rosa is known for his strict adherence to Barks's continuity and the many background details he works into his drawings.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews

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