Disney Adventures was a magazine published by Disney Publishing Worldwide from 1990 to 2007, ending suddenly on issue 17-09. It was a children's entertainment and educational magazine containing articles, news, interviews, and comics based on the various Disney Afternoon cartoon shows, among which Darkwing Duck and DuckTales, and Disney movies. The idea for the magazine came from Michael Lynton, then director of business development for Disney's consumer products division, and was inspired by Topolino, Mickey Mouse, a children's magazine under license from Disney in Italy. Topolino, running from 1932 to present day, was going strong and Lynton considered trying for a similar market in the USA, if only to promote The Disney Afternoon. The concept was adapted lightly, containing plenty of comics like Topolino, but also encompassed the aforementioned informative material.
Content[]
The first Darkwing Duck comic story was published in issue 2-03 of January 1992. The last one, the 35th one, was published in issue 6-13 of October 1996. As with the tie-in comics of other franchises, there was no consistency in length, plot complexity, and subject, each comic story simply doing its own thing. While the regulars from the cartoon were included in the comic stories plenty of times and, in particular, the villains were teamed up in ways the cartoon never did, Disney Adventures took the liberty to introduce its own gallery of villains for Darkwing Duck to deal with too. The first of these was Fluffy, who debuted in "The Kitty Kat Kaper" in issue 2-09 of July 1992. Fluffy would also go on to be the only Disney Adventures-original character to appear in more than one comic.
Due to the comics' natures as tie-ins to the cartoon, unlike the cartoon, the comics have no internal continuity. Each comic story is to be viewed as an insert-episode and just what the best insertion point is is independent of the comics' order. For instance, "Hero for a Day" was published after "Liquid Diet". There are two contradictory clues as to where "Hero for a Day" fits, but prior to "A Duck by Any Other Name" works best. "Liquid Diet" takes place after "Dry Hard", which comes after "A Duck by Any Other Name". The only comics published with orderly intent are the three stories featuring the aforementioned Fluffy. Those three together are unofficially referred to as the Fluffy Trilogy.
Despite the multimedia content of the magazine, the comic stories were kept strictly to their own franchise. For Darkwing Duck, the one exception is the five-parter "The Legend of the Chaos God", starring Solego as the antagonist. The five-parter incorporated TaleSpin, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Goof Troop, DuckTales, and Darkwing Duck. It isn't a true crossover so much as each story playing its part and allowing the next to pick up the plot with minimal interaction. Only DuckTales and Darkwing Duck have some back and forth in the story.
Darkwing Duck covers[]
| Character(s) | Issue | Date |
| Darkwing Duck, MC Hammer | 2-03 | January 1992 |
| Star Trek: Darkwing Duck, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Magica De Spell, Jessica Rabbit, Pinocchio, Beast | 3-06 | April 1993 |
| Darkwing Duck, The Mask (Jim Carrey) | 4-11 | August 1994 |
Darkwing Duck comics[]
| Number | Title | Issue | Date | Story code |
| 01 | "Let's Get Fiscal!" | 2-01 | November 1991 | KJZ 035 |
| 02 | "Liquid Diet" | 2-03 | January 1992 | KJZ 036 |
| 03 | "Turnabout Is F.O.W.L. Play" | 2-04 | February 1992 | KJZ 045 |
| 04 | "The Found World" | 2-05 | March 1992 | KJZ 078 |
| 05 | "Salad Daze!" | 2-06 | April 1992 | KJZ 047b |
| 06 | "Sara's Invention" | 2-07 | May 1992 | KJZ 065 |
| 07 | "The Kitty Kat Kaper" | 2-09 | July 1992 | KJZ 054 |
| 08 | "Slip, Slidin', Away" | 2-10 | August 1992 | KJZ 064 |
| 09 | "Hero for a Day" | 2-12 | October 1992 | KJZ 085 |
| 10 | "Son of the Return of the Revenge of the 3-D Man" | 3-01 | November 1992 | KJZ 100 |
| 11 | "Feeling Flushed" | 3-03 | January 1993 | KJZ 063 |
| 12 | "Video Pirates" | 3-04 | February 1993 | KJZ 079 |
| 13 | "Show and Tell" | 3-05 | March 1993 | KJZ 067 |
| 14 | "Super Union Blues" Part 1 | 3-06 | April 1993 | KJZ 101 |
| 14 | "Super Union Blues" Part 2 | 3-07 | May 1993 | KJZ 101 |
| 15 | "Watts the Problem!" Part 1 - "All Plugged in and Nowhere to Flow!" | 3-08 | June 1993 | KJZ 081 |
| 15 | "Watts the Problem!" Part 2 - "Ohm Sweet Ohm" | 3-09 | July 1993 | KJZ 090 |
| 16 | "Vogue's Gallery" | 3-10 | August 1993 | KJZ 125 |
| 17 | "Cat in a Hot Tin Suit" | 3-12 | October 1993 | KJZ 069 |
| 18 | "Transportation Troubles" | 4-02 | December 1993 | KJZ 117 |
| 19 | "Inversionary Tactics" | 4-03 | January 1994 | KJZ 120 |
| 20 | "Fluffy's Reign of Terror!" | 4-04 | February 1994 | KJZ 095 |
| 20 | "Fluffy's Reign of Terror!" Chapter Two - "Home Is Where the Hate Is" | 4-05 | March 1994 | KJZ 095 |
| 21 | "Highspeed Hijinks" | 4-06 | April 1994 | KJZ 142 |
| 22 | "Put Up Job" | 4-07 | May 1994 | KJZ 118 |
| 23 | "Double Scoop, Double Take" | 4-10 | July 30, 1994 | KJZ 156 |
| 24 | "What Goes Around!" | 4-11 | August 1994 | KJZ 155 |
| 25 | "The Legend of the Chaos God" | 5-02 | December 1994 | KJZ 148 |
| 26 | "Terror of Tiny Thieves" | 5-03 | January 1995 | ??? |
| 27 | "Driver's Dilemma" | 5-03 | January 1995 | KJZ 166 |
| 28 | "Evil Eye-Yi-Yi!" | 5-05 | March 1995 | KJZ 154 |
| 29 | "Cogito Ergo... Something" | 5-06 | April 1995 | KJZ 170 |
| 30 | "Busman's Holiday" | 5-08 | June 1995 | KJZ 143 |
| 31 | "Mondo: The Mad Mask Misappropriator" | 5-09 | July 1995 | KJZ 066 |
| 32 | "Cereal Crimes" Part I: "The Phantom Donut Shop" | 5-12 | September 1, 1995 | KJZ 133 |
| 32 | "Cereal Crimes" Part II: "Strange Attractors" & Part III: "Cleaning Up the Crumbs" | 5-13 | September 30, 1995 | KJZ 133 |
| 33 | "The Family Way" | 6-02 | December 1995 | ??? |
| 34 | "Gosalyn Alone" | 6-03 | January 1996 | KJZ 160 |
| 35 | "The Toaster" | 6-13 | October 1996 | ??? |
Darkwing Duck republications[]
Within the USA, the Disney Adventures comics were occasionally republished during the 1990s in issues of Colossal Comics Collection. "Inversionary Tactics" was the only Darkwing Duck comic story to be included a second time in a Disney Adventures publication, though only the first half was published in issue 17-08, with the second half not appearing in 17-09, the penultimate issue of the magazine. For unclear reasons, the story was also renamed "Power Play!"
In the 2010s, Boom! Studios held the Darkwing Duck license. In addition to their own comics, they released a collected trade paperback titled Darkwing Duck Classics, Volume One, which contained Disney Comics' "Brawl in the Family" four-parter (the comic adaptation of "Darkly Dawns the Duck") and the first four Darkwing Duck stories that were published in Disney Adventures. This occurred in February 2011. More volumes weren't published, because Boom! Studios lost the license and ended its Darkwing Duck run in October 2011.
Fantagraphics Books is slated to begin publishing a series of hardback collections of Disney Afternoon comics, which will include stories originally from Disney Adventures. The first volume, to be published on July 27, will reprint the entirety of "The Legend of the Chaos God", along with the comic book adaptation of "Just Us Justice Ducks". Future volumes have yet to be announced, however.