Walt Disney Showcase 6 Review
We get a double dosage of Walt Disney Showcase this month after finishing last week’s Walt Disney Showcase #5. Sadly, this will be the last issue of Showcase but it does feature one of my favourite and most conniving Disney villains, the dastardly Phantom Blot. We have one Blot centric tale and one mini Pete story in this issue. Time to dive in
Chief Casey’s Longest Night
FIRST PUBLISHED : Italy’s Topolino #2147 (1997)
(First USA Publication)
WRITER Tito Faraci ARTIST Giorgio Cavazzano
Our first tale begins with Casey getting a long overdue promotion, the cops of Mouseton celebrate by bringing in many donuts for the detective, he has been promoted to police chief of Pickleburg. But Casey informs them that he needs to transfer and wait for his replacement to arrive in Mouseton. However one individual is not happy about these news, Peg Leg Pete is devastated to hear this since it will mean a more competent detective will take over at Mouseton PD.
The Phantom Blot is over panicking at this news since renowned Texas detective Rick Boulder will be taking over. The two criminals begin wondering if they should leave town or stay. Pete then decides to stage a million dollar heist that night since Casey will be on patrol alone, perfect to make a fool out of him and lose the promotion. The Phantom Blot soon gets the same idea once he learns that a valuable painting on loan from the Louvre will be at a museum in Mouseton.
While Pete plays dress-up with his goons, Phantom Blot paints a replica of the painting with a special set of paint that will vanish after 24 hours. Back at the police station, Casey and the cops decide to test the museum’s security by pretending the thieves and sneaking right up to La Rotunda to show how the museum’s security is extremely flawed.
Unknowst to everyone, Brick Boulder arrives in town, determined to show everyone how it’s done even to Mickey Mouse. He sees Pete driving by and decides to go after him since he was the only criminal to ever escape from him back in Texas. Phantom Blot arrives first, stealing the painting and replacing it with the fake. Pete’s cop goon soon shows up and steals the fake but gets interrupted by Brick Boulder thinking he is an actual cop.
Another Pete goon soon shows up to steal the painting, Brick Boulder goes after another person not knowing it’s an actual cop. Brick manages to capture Pete but gets confused when he is apprehended by Casey. He runs off as Casey soon bumps into the fake Casey along with the fake painting. The cops and Pete’s goons soon meet up amidst all the confusion.
Will either Pete or Phantom Blot ever get the blasted painting ? Will Casey realize his own incompetence will backfire his promotion in some way or another ? Read the full tale to find out
Hi-Tech Lows
FIRST PUBLISHED : Italy’s Topolino #2896 (2011)
(First USA Publication)
WRITER AND ARTIST Ottavio Panaro
In this very short strip, Pete shows off his new motorcycle to a very un-impressed Goofy who prefers his old pedal bike
FINAL THOUGHTS
Walt Disney Showcase manages to contain one of the most exciting and hilarious cop caper stories in recent years. All the back and forth between Pete, Phantom Blot, Casey and Brick Boulder make up for a lot of laughs. While the caper itself had a disappointing ending, the ride there made up for it.
It shows the best of all the characters featured within including new sides to the villains not explored before like the Phantom Blot being an excellent painter. Giorgio’s art is as good as ever featuring very expressional faces for Casey and Brick Boulder in particular.
The second story however is once again just a short one pager, one thing I noticed was that IDW have been placing a lot more ads lately for the Disney magazines. Almost 10 pages of it are ads for other IDW titles. A secondary longer story would have been more appreciated honestly considering the 65+ year history of the Blot.
Walt Disney Showcase continues to showcase brilliant tales featuring secondary characters of the Disney Comics Universe. We have seen epics centred on Indiana Goof, Beagle Boys, the Duck Family and Fethry Duck. It is sad to see it go after only 6 issues but I imagine another Disney comic will happen in the future to focus on the secondary characters once more. I must congratulate IDW and Disney on this run to showcase more diverse and unique stories in Walt Disney Showcase and hope that the title might return as a trade paperback exclusive series like Duck Avenger or as a second volume of 6 issues sometime in the future.
RATING 7 out of 10