Uncle Scrooge #30 collects two international stories in one book, reprinting one story from 1981 and another from 2011. The book will likely pique interest in those who are jumping on the Duck Tales revival train—myself included—and if you’re just here for classic Duckburg humor then you’re in the right place.

It’s hard for me to recommend purchasing the book, however, as it’s arbitrarily reproduced stories from older books. I can’t help but compare my reading experience to Duck Tales, which may not be fair, but it’s not to be helped, either. The television reboot is original, clever, and seamlessly blends classic Donald Duck comics with the cult-hit 90s cartoon.

In comparison, Uncle Scrooge is the same joke dragged out ad nauseam, which makes the story predictable. Where the new show works hard to give each of the triplets their own personality, and Donald his own meta-twist where his speech is only understandable about 60% of the time, the older stories feel dismissible in comparison. Donald uses complete sentences, Scrooge has no accent, the boys are referred to as clones (with good reason), and Scrooge is so cheap he charges interest on bus fare.

Maybe I’m coming down hard on the book because I hold Duck Tales and Donald Duck so very dear. I don’t like to see them mistreated. But Uncle Scrooge does just that. If the book used the older comics as bookends, like the newer Archie books, I would be much more inclined to return to “Uncle Scrooge” in the future. As it stands now, I think I’ll pass.

Story: Carlo Chendi, Daan Jippes, Jonathan Gray Art: Daan Jippes, Giorgio Cavazzano
Cover Art: Giorgio Cavazzano
Story: 5.0 Art: 8.0 Overall: 6.5 Recommendation: Pass

IDW Publishing provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review