You can buy individual comics at $3.99 per an individual comic from BOOM kids! here. Or, if you are feeling thrifty and patient, you can pre-order the entire first series of comics in graphic novel form here for under $15.

Now for madammina’s review:

Sitting at my computer, I can see on my right a stuffed Darkwing Duck I got when I was little. To say I am a Darkwing Duck fan is an understatement. Which was why, when I heard about the comics, I was ecstatic.

And this comic completely lives up to my expectations.

As you can see from the title page, this comic is a love letter to the fans. The pages look like they were scanned from the cartoon, and I mean that as a complete compliment. The “Awkward Goodbye” forgives the sudden cancellation, and they more then make up by having everyone’s vocal pattern down pat. Drake sounds like himself, and his internal Darkwing Narration is spot on. Gosalyn’s “Spirit” seeps off the page (even with her wearing a skirt!) and when one villain appears, he is still acting like himself quirks and all. It didn’t take much imagination to imagine Jim, Terrence, Christine, and others back in their roles.

Onto the actual review. This story takes place at some undisclosed time after the series ended. (it’s fuzzy on exactly when. While the characters all look the same, Honker is clearly shown using an up to date Apple computer) A year after a Megavolt caper, everyone in St. Canard is now working for a “Quackwerks Corporation”. And with Quackwerks Crime robots having taken over the need for a police force, Darkwing can’t even fight against “big crime, little crime, white crime” This leaves Drake who- after retiring due to a lack of Supervillians- very frustrated and bored with his new job.

I won’t talk about much else, out of fear of spoilers, so onto some good news.

Due to a very high demand, before comic #1 came out, Darkwing Duck was extended from a limited edition series to an unknown ending series. So, keep on buying these comics, and they will keep on being made. Besides allowing us with a new Darkwing fix, this also allows for dangling plot threads and ideas from the series to return. (This last bit is just speculation though, the only remarks made for the series future concern the current arc)

I did have one minor complaint, but that is more an issue with the medium then anything else (minor spoilers)
When liquidator appears, he doesn’t move, at all. Normally you would say “no, duh” but with Liquidator, who is in constant motion, it was weird. His bubbles don’t move, he’s not splashing, and nothing is dripping off of him. As I said, though, this is a medium transferal issue and I did get more used to it after I kept on rereading the comic.
(end of spoilers)

Yes, this first comic may be a lot of set up and recap, but it is done so well you just don’t care. Welcome back,our favorite Terror.

The official teasers say “Darkwing’s worst villain is behind this, and he has teemed up with a villain in the Disney Duckverse.” That being said, I had no idea who the second villain is. I’m pretty sure Negaduck or Taurus Bulba is the first though. Even if Negaduck isn’t in the comics now, he’s our Joker and should show up soon.

A huge thanks to madammina for taking the time to write up this review.

If you’ve gotten a chance to read this first issue, let us know what you thought of it below.

You can read all the reviews as they come in over at Rotten Tomatoes.

But I want to know what YOU think! Did you see the movie? Did you like it? Let us know and share your thoughts below!

When Jim Cummings is sick, Winnie-the-Pooh disappears.

Cummings’ vocal cords give life to Disney’s animated Winnie-the-Pooh, the Bear of Very Little Brain created by A.A. Milne.

“Pooh is not quite a falsetto; he’s kind of like a high tenor, or a low tenor with a lot of rasp in there, just like a wind blowing through the cattails sort of sound,” the voice actor crooned in perfect Pooh timbre. “If I get an allergy or a cold, Pooh goes away, so I have to eat my vitamin C.

Pooh might suggest a remedy that soothes both the throat and tummy: honey.

Agoura Hills resident Cummings, 56, is a cartoon chameleon. He has been the voice of Pooh for Disney since 1988, then took over as Tigger.

Pooh and Tigger, however, are just two of the characters listed on Cummings’ 10-page “voiceography.”

You might have heard him as Kaa the snake in “The Jungle Book 2,” Ed the hyena in “The

Lion King” and assorted characters in “Aladdin,” “Antz,” Babe: Pig in the City,” “Bee Movie,” The Little Mermaid,” Pocahontas,” “Shrek” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

For Warner Bros., he’s Taz the Tasmanian devil (“the anti-Pooh,” he says). Other credits include “Animaniacs,” “Pinky and the Brain,” ”Curious George,” “King of the Hill,” “The Simpsons” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

And wildfire-prone California is proud to call him one of the voices of Smokey Bear.

“I do all the better bears,” said Cummings during an interview at his home.

Next up is his role as Ray, a laid-back, lovesick Cajun firefly in “The Princess and the Frog,” a new, traditionally 2-D animated Disney film set in New Orleans. The film, a musical, will have a score by Randy Newman and, in a first for Disney, a black princess. The movie, also featuring the voice of Oprah Winfrey (as the princess’ mom), is still in postproduction and scheduled for a December release.

This week, however, Cummings’ attention is on a certain boisterous tiger.

As the free-spirited Tigger on Disney Channel’s “My Friends Tigger and Pooh,” which airs each morning, Cummings has received a 2009 Daytime Emmy Award nomination for outstanding performer in an animated program. The winner will be announced Saturday during the Creative Arts portion of the awards at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles; the more mainstream awards (such as honors for soap opera stars and talk show hosts, etc.) will be handed out Aug. 30 at L.A.’s Orpheum Theatre and televised on The CW.

Notice the Emmy category is titled “outstanding performer in an animated program,” not “outstanding voice.”

Cummings and his brethren truly are actors, not just script readers.

Brian Hohlfeld, executive director of “My Friends Tigger and Pooh,” said that, to be a good voice actor, “you have to be an actor. People forget that. It’s not just the voice. There’s such a small group of people who do this because it’s really hard.”

With Cummings, he said, “you can see the physical changes in his face and body as he’s doing the voices.”

Cummings calls his work “acting for the ears.” Cartoons, he said, “are not called ‘animated’ for nothing.

“A lot of people think they draw the movie or cartoon first, but the fact is they record the voices first, then they animate to that,” he explained. “You can’t really draw comic timing out of thin air; you’ve got to hear it and go, ‘Oh, that I can draw.’”

Finding his voices

Cummings started out at the top of the cartoon chain, landing at animation exemplar Disney in the 1980s. Born and raised in Ohio, Cummings said he listened to Paul Winchell (the original voice of Tigger) and Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and many others) as a kid and thought, “Man, they’re having a great time.”

He didn’t have any formal stage or voice training, aside from a book about ventriloquism, but did act in plays as a child.

Onstage, he said, “I would rather be the wizard than the prince because the wizard was a little more interesting and had more cool stuff to do. I was doing accidental research for my career later in life.”

At age 19, after attending Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Cummings moved to the Big Easy. He worked as a deckhand on riverboats, and fulfilled his artsy side by designing and painting Mardi Gras floats, and performing as a drummer and singer in bands.

In 1979 Cummings, his first wife and their two daughters moved to California, where from 1979-84 he ran a video store in Anaheim Hills. While there, he made a demo voice tape, and was fortunate to get it into the right hands: a customer who was a movie producer.

“I got an audition out of that without an agent,” Cummings said.

He first real role was a plum Disney one, playing Lionel the Lion in “Dumbo’s Circus,” a TV show featuring live-action puppets.

Halfway through his 120-episode stint on “Dumbo’s Circus,” Cummings hired an agent and started working in radio and TV. (He also does voice-overs, movie trailers previews and commercials, everything from J.C. Penney to AutoZone.)

He moved from Anaheim to Westlake Village and the Santa Rosa Valley, then to Agoura Hills about three years ago. He and his wife Stephanie, who’ve been married for eight years, have two daughters, Gracie, 4, and Lulu, 2; Cummings’ older daughters are in their 20s.

Ducks and dust bunnies

Cummings is proud of some of his lesser-known roles, such as the title character in “Darkwing Duck,” an Emmy-nominated animated Disney program that aired in the early 1990s. Darkwing, “the terror that flaps in the night,” was a bumbling superhero in the town of St. Canard.

He’s also fond of a monster named Mr. Bumpy from “Bump in the Night.”

“He was this funky little guy who lived under the bed and thought eating dust bunnies was a delicacy,” Cummings said. “He was as cool as he could be, and ate dirty socks.”

In 1995, Cummings received an Annie Award nomination for voice acting as Mr. Bumpy but was beaten by Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson.

The competition is stiff for this week’s Emmy Award, too, with celebs better known for their live-action work nominated in the animation category. Cummings is vying for the award with Amy Poehler (as Bessie Higgenbottom in “The Mighty B!” on Nickelodeon), Joan Rivers (Bubbe in “Arthur” on PBS), Vanessa Williams (Mama in “Mama Mirabelle’s Home Movies” on PBS) and Jim Ward (Eyemore in “Biker Mice from Mars” on Fox).

“This year I’m going with either Vanessa or Amy,” Cummings said, summing up his competition. “I think folks go down the line and go: ‘Jim Cummings? I don’t really know who that is. Oh, Joan Rivers, Vanessa Williams, I love her; let’s vote for her.’ You can’t fight that. I understand why they do it.”

What does he think about the trend of celebrities taking on the lead voice roles in animated movies?

“I have some calls out to Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Eddie Murphy,” Cummings said, laughing. “I said, ‘I won’t star in any blockbuster films if you stay out of animated films.’ They just won’t call me back.”

Cummings does get feedback, however, from another telephone venture, this one for charity.

Hundreds of sick children each year receive a phone call from one of the Hundred Acre Woods’ (and Agoura Hills’) famous denizens, Winnie-the-Pooh or Tigger, aka Cummings. He works with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses, and Famous Fone Friends, which connects sick kids to entertainers and athletes via phone.

Cummings recalled one such phone session with a little girl with cancer, not quite 3, who had been on chemotherapy for six months. “I had to gear up for that one,” he said. “‘I love you, Winnie-the-Pooh,’ she said. Stuff like that is so rewarding; it’s the greatest thing in the world.”

Keeping it fresh

Cummings models his Pooh and Tigger voices after the men who first voiced the characters: Sterling Holloway and Paul Winchell, respectively.

(Holloway died in 1992. Winchell, a Moorpark resident when he died in 2005, lived in Ventura County for more than 15 years.)

“That’s one thing I think Disney is right on the money with — they keep their characters sounding the same,” Cummings said. “They could run a Winnie-the-Pooh from the ’60s and one from 2008 and have the consistency there.”

Still, he said, “you don’t want to stagnate. You ad lib and do different things to keep it fresh.”

“My Friends Tigger and Pooh” director Hohlfeld said Cummings is “true to Sterling vocally, but he’s made it his own as well. Pooh is still the befuddled bear. Jim just brings more heart to it; his Pooh has a little more warmth.”

One thing you might not want to hear, however, is Pooh as pugilist.

Cummings “does a fantastic Mike Tyson imitation,” Hohlfeld said. “Sometimes he’ll do Pooh’s lines using Mike Tyson’s voice.”

He doesn’t even need to alter Pooh’s “I am a Bear of Very Little Brain” line.

Jim Cummings holds daughters Grace, 4, and Lulu, 2, near a garden statue of Taz the Tazmanian devil — he calls him “the anti-Pooh” — for which he also provides the voice.

In his 25 years being often heard and seldom seen, Jim Cummings has voiced a host of characters and won many honors. He’s up for a possible Daytime Emmy this year as outstanding performer for his work as Tigger’s voice.

Jim Cummings, a voice actor who´s done numerous animated characters since 1984, carries his daughter Lulu 2, out of their Curious George playhouse July 23, 2009.

Voice actor Jim Cummings rehearses a current project in his home studio in Agoura Hills. He’s been the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh for Disney since 1988 and does Tigger, too.

He talks about doing dolphin sounds in the back of his catholic school classroom, his Emmy nomination, having to say about 25,000 names for My Interactive Pooh and his only regret, missing the auditions for The Simpsons because he was sick.

You can find the article in it’s entirety in our archives.

Catholic voice actor Jim Cummings is pictured in an undated publicity photo. Cummings is up for a Daytime Emmy for outstanding performer in an animated program for his work on the series “My Friends Tigger & Pooh.” (CNS photo/handout)

WASHINGTON – Jim Cummings didn’t exactly study his chosen career field during his 12 years of Catholic schooling, but he certainly honed his craft.

The thrice-Emmy-nominated voice actor was a relentless mimic when going to Immaculate Conception and St. Columba grade schools and Ursuline High School, all in Youngstown, Ohio.

“I’d be doing dolphin sounds in the background,” Cummings recalled during a July 22 telephone interview from Los Angeles with Catholic News Service. Cummings then proceeded to do some dolphin clicks and chatter straight out of the old “Flipper” TV series.

“Sister Mary Agnes would say, ‘We don’t allow dolphin sounds in the classroom, Mr. Cummings,’“ he said.

Cummings, a member of St. Jude Parish in Los Angeles, got reprimanded over the course of his scholastic career for his mimicry. But he doesn’t hold it against his teachers or principals. The feeling is apparently mutual.

“I have a scholarship at my old school in my dad’s name, so they don’t seem to mind me anymore,” Cummings said.

It wasn’t all trips to the principal’s office for Cummings. He also parlayed his talents into championships for Ursuline during state and regional speech and oratory contests.

Cummings has been plying his trade for 20 years in Hollywood. He’s been involved in more than 300 different animation projects, performing multiple voices on many of the shows, according to the Internet Movie Database.

He’s up for a Daytime Emmy for outstanding performer in an animated program for his work on the series “My Friends Tigger & Pooh” – although he’s up against bigger names such as Joan Rivers, Amy Poehler and Vanessa Williams.

You probably wouldn’t know him if you saw him. Because he has been a voice actor, his face has rarely been on screen. “I’m a stealth celebrity,” he joked.

Cummings created the voice of title character Darkwing Duck, a popular Disney cartoon series of the 1990s. He also has moved into more hallowed territory, taking on the voice of Taz, the Tasmanian Devil originally voiced by cartoondom’s original man of a thousand voices, Mel Blanc, but also the voices of Tigger and Winnie the Pooh, the latter’s voice originally done by actor Sterling Holloway.

It’s a challenge to stay true to the voice created by another actor a generation or two earlier, Cummings admitted.

One of his biggest challenges was to record practically every conceivable child’s name for a talking Winnie the Pooh toy. “Esquire magazine gave it a prize for ‘most interesting name’: My Interactive Pooh,” Cummings told CNS.

At the end of a long day, when Cummings said he must have done “25,000 names where Winnie the Pooh would mention your name,” he came home, answered the phone when it rang, and slipped into his Pooh voice. It’s been the only time he’s slipped into character when he wasn’t supposed to play one, he said.

One of Cumming’s upcoming projects will hit the silver screen later this year. It’s a new Disney movie called “The Princess and the Frog,” in which Cummings plays a frog with a Cajun accent named Ray. The project – which also features the voice talents of Oprah Winfrey, John Goodman and Terrence Howard – will be Disney’s first cartoon movie to feature African-American lead characters.

“It’s a steady gig,” Cummings noted, and if he has any regret, it’s for being too sick to audition 20 years ago when a new cartoon series called “The Simpsons” was auditioning actors who could do multiple voices. “Other than that one, I’m a happy camper. I don’t look back in frustration and anger,” he said. “I hope for the best, expect the worst, and take what comes.”

Cummings’ TV debut came much earlier than his online resume would suggest.

“I was in sixth grade and I remember that Mother Rosemary – who was going to be my speech teacher (in high school) and sort of one of the great shining lights of our scholastic career – she had written and directed a play that they had put on television,” he said. “It was called ‘The Catholic School Story.’ It was in black and white and I didn’t know what to do with myself, I was so happy.”

Another Ursuline grad also performed in the TV special and went on to bigger and better things: Ed O’Neill, who, even after it’s been off the air for a dozen years, is probably still best known for playing put-upon dad Al Bundy in the TV sitcom “Married With Children.”

“I keep meaning whenever I run into him to say I suspect we made our TV debut together. He was a senior in high school,” Cummings said. “Ed played Father O’Neill and I played the cute little kid.”