The cover quaintly shows the Mickey and the gang celebrating the 60^th Anniversary of Disneyland.  Off to the side, Scrooge McDuck bugs out over the cost of the cake.  I feel his pain.  The cover price for the comic comes to $6.99.  Granted, the book’s sixty-seven pages of Disney goodness does mean more for one’s dollar.  I’m just shocked the price of comics now has reached the price that paperbacks were when I was growing up.  The times they are a changing… And although times change, the fun of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy still manage to cause one to break out into a wide grin.  Smile you will because the collected stories reprinted in this volume center around the theme parks.  The editorial staff did an excellent job collecting tales that represent, as indicated in the foreword, the past, present, and future of the parks.

The first adventure takes place via a dream flashback.  Scrooge takes his nephews to Disneyland and has his memory triggered by a building.  Readers see how Scrooge quested for cinnamon in order to take over as proprietor of an emporium.  The pace moves fast and the outlandish things Scrooge will do for his cinnamon challenge will provide the entertainment one needs when not at a Disney Park.  Read carefully to see how the first part of the story cleverly doubles as a great ad for visiting Disneyland.

Tale two features Donald Duck and his nephews climbing the Matterhorn and tussling with the criminal Beagle Boys.  A comedic ram steals the show and warms readers’ hearts.

Giorgio Cavazzano illustrates the last selection in the collection, and this story is one giant metfictional mindtrip.  Mickey gets coldcocked on the train ride back home from visiting his aunt.  He awakens in the Disney Park as it prepares for the 30^th Celebration.  Meanwhile, Pegleg Pete concocts a plan to steal the payroll from the park employees, and Fred, who plays Mickey, is in on the scheme.

This last story is so crazy and out there that I loved every minute of reading it.  The creativity involved coupled with Cavazzano’s illustrations made every bit of this story worth the price of the collection.  Hands down, the strange plot makes it one of the best comic book stories I have read in the last six months.  The story is so wacky, I would use it as an example in a class teaching comic book writing.

Score: 4/5 - f2 (don't delete)

Disney Magic Kingdom Comics #2 Various Writers and Artists Publisher: IDW Publishing Price: $6.99 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital