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I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive. Just found out that a local comic shop here in Singapore can order the book for me.
About the artist, I've seen work by Cosme Quartieri in the DuckTales series from Disney Comics Publishing. Robert Bat is another one. I really like their work though I cant find much info about them. Also, not much have discuss about duo.

Marv Wolfman's understanding of the dime and Magica doesn't owe a lot to Barks??the dime is a lucky dime to all parties involved, and Magica's goal doesn't seem to be to gain the Midas Touch. It's a bit odd, as in other parts of the story Wolfman is quite obviously paying homage to Barks.
It's not just Rosa who dislikes the "luck" line of reasoning; so did Barks, who caught himself using it for awhile??then watched in dismay as others copied him. You'll still see the "lucky dime" conceit in an occasional new story we like enough to use in spite of it, but speaking as an editor and writer, I don't care to carry it on myself.

I've just finished reading the comic. I really enjoyed it. I love the art work even though it different from what most Duck readers would prefer. I like the difference in style.

I don't like Bat and Quartieri's style for The Ducks, and Marv Wolfman's writing style for The Ducks. But I will take a look at that comic in a shop later today.

Well I've re-read the story. My same criticisms apply.

Unlike Robb I love Cosme Quartieri and Robert Bat's style. This is odd because out of all the Jaime Diaz artists they are the only ones that do duck work whom I DO like. The artwork goes schizo around the time of "Down, But Not Out, in Duckburg" but I think that is largely because this is the one part of the story that Quartieri did not draw until the very end (shame too as this is the portion of the story with the numerous Barks story references).

So yeah, art I had no problem with, the story however was a whole nother can of worms...

Marv Wolfman's sense of characterization on the Disney characters is incredibly frustrating.

I say this largely because even guys like Launchpad felt completely out of character compared to their animated counterparts. I won't flat out say that the story is bad because its not. If it were any other set of characters it would be pretty good, but it feels even less consistent with a lot of conundrums that even Ducktales setup than I can remember. Realize however that in my critique of this, I do not attest its problems solely to it being a "Ducktales" story - this is strictly a Marv Wolfman issue. His mickey Mouse 4 parter ("The Mystery Weaponeer Saga") suffered the exact same problem in that the main characters were instead very pale caricatures of their Barks and Gottfredson versions and tended to veer a bit more towards an extremist view of the characters. I'll hit some key points:

* Scrooge's sappiness towards Webbigail is OMGWTF ANNOYING

To make sure that nostalgia had not gotten the better of me I went back and re-read a few Disney Adventures DT stories and then took a quick glance at Bob Langhans' "Gold Odyssey" and took notice of something. Webby - in other stories - was treated the same as Huey, Dewey, and Louie, I.E. a fourth nephew who just happened to be the girl. It was ONLY in Marv Wolfman's DT stories where Webby becomes a Mary Sue of sorts. This was actually something that was brought up in the lettercols of the book at one point because it seemed that Scrooge cared more about Webby than he did Huey, Dewey, and Louie which made no sense. In fact Webby is more of a distraction and annoyance in Scrooge's quest moreso than any other character which is a shame because when she appears elsewhere, she's not that bad at all. Scrooge's devotion to her - treating her to a day at the park and not the nephews, falling into negro spiritual levels of OH WOE IS ME LAWD WUT IS I GONE DO DESPAIR and other such things is just very unbelieveable and out of character for Scrooge. That is not to say that the plot point of the kidnapping could not have been done, it just wound up coming off as very forced and out of character.

* Lucky Dime VS Number One Dime

Even Barks fell prey to this foible once or twice so it can be excused here. The problem is: OK Magica steals the dime. She wants to use it to help her take over the world.

...so...she just holds onto it and does nothing with it for 6 issues. See the problem here?

Now lets say you're not familiar with the Barks setup (Mt. Vesuvius/Melting the dime into an amulet). That's fine. The Ducktales series was an adaptation of comics into TV. It's frustrating but it was never the same thing to begin with. So let's say that instead we go with the TV premise (Magica wishes to put the dime into a magical amulet where she will not only be the richest woman in the world, but also rule it). That's fine too because if you're not familiar with Barks (which many weren't at the time, that's what you'd come in expecting.

But here - NEITHER premise takes place. Magica kidnaps Webby. Magica takes dime. Magica loses Webby but still has done. Magica does nothing with the dime but hold onto it for weeks. Magica gets frustrated because the dime is bad luck, renounces it and throws it away.....and that's it. We have no motivation for what she wants with it. She gets it and does nothing with it. Then the plot point is just kind of glanced over like OH WELL MOVING ON TO GLOMGOLD HA HA HA!

This was always my problem with Scrooge's Quest. The payoff was terrible. The Gold Odyssey may have tried similar things but at least it knew what it wanted to do and somewhat tried to maintain a straight line. Scrooge's Quest just kind of meandered around a bit and was like "Oh well, story's over see you later." It seemed like the only villian with stable characterization was Glomgold and even his story kind of fell apart (not to the extent of Magica's however) at the very end. =\

* Launchpad

William Van Horn and Bob Langhans (near the end of his run) seemed to be the only Ducktales writers that actually got what Launchpad was supposed to be about. He's not a Donald Duck clone, he's not a blowhard that spouts tall tales in every other sentence. He's a loveable flyboy ace jock, not exactly very bright, slightly dense, extremely skilled with a plane except when it comes to landing, a role model, incredibly clumsy at times - but NEVER an out and out braggart. Marv Wolfman's characterization of Launchpad is more in line with Monterey Jack from Rescue Rangers than it is with Launchpad himself and thats a real shame given the scope of the story he's trying to tell. Bob Langhans fell into this trap at the very start of the Gold Odyssey but very quickly reverted as his tale continued. Here, Launchpad just didnt feel right at all to me.

* Overall

The comment was made that in DuckTales, Scrooge appears to be more soft-hearted and less ruthless. That's not exactly so - there are plenty of Ducktales stories (even within the cartoon itself) where Scrooge is just as mean as he is in the comics. If I had time I could probably go through my collection and hand pick a few out. It is true that DT Scrooge is nowhere near as acerbic as he can be in comics, but he's not exactly a pansy-puss either.

The story was NOT bad. My critique may have made it seem as such but FAR FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR worse things have come out of Disney comics than this. In fact - for what it was (the very first long epic-multipart serialized Disney story stateside that I can think of) it was a good effort. But its characterizations were so totally off the map that its mildly offputting than anything else: especially to those used to the norm. That's what hurts Scrooge's Quest more than anything else. While "The Mystery Weaponeer Saga" - Marv Wolfman's Mickey Mouse serial - suffered very similar problems, I think because it was was forced to work with smaller space it came across as the better of the two all of its problems excluded. I did not read Scrooge's quest chronologically as it came out originally. I think thats probably why I prefer the Gold Odyssey to this. Bob Langhans' followup serial may not have been hyper epic, but I think he had a far better grasp of the characters than Wolfman did. You can really tell that this is a superhero guy working with characters that he's not really used to and that says a lot towards the story's final execution.

Comments?

Quote from user: WB* Overall

The comment was made that in DuckTales, Scrooge appears to be more soft-hearted and less ruthless. That's not exactly so - there are plenty of Ducktales stories (even within the cartoon itself) where Scrooge is just as mean as he is in the comics. If I had time I could probably go through my collection and hand pick a few out. It is true that DT Scrooge is nowhere near as acerbic as he can be in comics, but he's not exactly a pansy-puss either.

The story was NOT bad. My critique may have made it seem as such but FAR FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR worse things have come out of Disney comics than this. In fact - for what it was (the very first long epic-multipart serialized Disney story stateside that I can think of) it was a good effort. But its characterizations were so totally off the map that its mildly offputting than anything else: especially to those used to the norm. That's what hurts Scrooge's Quest more than anything else. While "The Mystery Weaponeer Saga" - Marv Wolfman's Mickey Mouse serial - suffered very similar problems, I think because it was was forced to work with smaller space it came across as the better of the two all of its problems excluded. I did not read Scrooge's quest chronologically as it came out originally. I think thats probably why I prefer the Gold Odyssey to this. Bob Langhans' followup serial may not have been hyper epic, but I think he had a far better grasp of the characters than Wolfman did. You can really tell that this is a superhero guy working with characters that he's not really used to and that says a lot towards the story's final execution.

Comments?
Yes, Scrooge is still a tightwad in DuckTales. But you can see the difference between Scrooge in DT and U$ comics. Perhaps, due to the introduction of Mrs. Beakley, and Webby? In DT, he's mostly potrayed as a Duck that has a family.

In Scrooge Quest, I agree that Scrooge's sappiness toward Webby can be annoying. In the cartoon series, even though Scrooge cares about Webby, the boys are given more attention. This is not the case in the comic.

Not a bad story but I like art more. :)