The Funny Paperback has been delighting readers for over 50 years. 13 new editions are published every year, as well as special editions and specials, such as the Phantomias special volumes, anniversary editions or stories for special times of the year and festivities. In this review we review volume 5 of the Royal special edition, which features a selection of tales related to royalty, nobility and knights.

The cover and the presentation

In keeping with the royal theme, the cover and the binding have a shiny golden color in some places, making them look classy. The back shows a table of contents, laid out like an announcement from the king as "Good News from the Royal House". In it, the content of some stories is teased.

The borders and lettering are shiny. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck
The table of contents on the back looks sublime due to the decoration and an emblem with a crown. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck

The Funny paperback royal special volume is organized internally in much the same way as other Funny Paperbacks. There is a table of contents, advertisements with a view to other editions of the Funny Paperback, and each chapter closes with the word 'End'. The imprint can already be found at the beginning of the issue and also contains information on how to obtain further episodes.

Imprint with information about the current issue and information on how to obtain additional issues. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck

At the beginning of each story, the names of the authors and illustrators involved are printed on the first page at the bottom. The reader also learns when the story was written. It struck me that some of the stories in this book are very young and from the last few years.

The first story in the issue was not written until 2018. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck

Table of contents and foreword

The table of contents is visually appealing and designed to match the topic in terms of colors and graphics. The page numbers are highlighted with crown graphics and each chapter is clearly listed. In addition, for each title it was noted in which edition of the funny paperback it appeared for the first time. It stands out positively and surprises me that most of the stories have their premiere here.

The table of contents is clearly laid out. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck
The foreword contains a brief table of contents. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck

The stories at a glance

We'll briefly explain what the stories are about and let the pictures take effect.

Royale first words

Everyone is eagerly awaiting the Baby Prince's first words. Which will it be? Photo: Melanie Dürbeck

Small, capitalized names

Grandma Duck and her four granddaughters have little time to pay off debts. They figure out how to do it. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck
Nevertheless, they also try to have fun and meet nice gentlemen. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck

At the fair

There are three 1-page short stories with King Mickey. He visits a fair and is amazed at what you can find there. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck

A fateful sneeze

Donald is a sorcerer's apprentice at the court of King Dagobert and has to fight the tank crackers and an evil spell. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck

The strength lies in the flavor

Donald and Dussel try their hand at buying and selling spices as businessmen. However, transport by ship harbors some dangers. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck

Dragon Knight Donald

Donald serves his country and king as a dragon knight. He is currently keeping an eye on the fields, as an important harvest is coming up soon. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck
Meanwhile, King Dagobert does business with the neighboring country. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck

Royal rap with pep

"The Royal Couple Seeks the Minstrel": At a time when rap has become popular, Mickey and Goofy want to take part in a music competition. The biggest competitor is the cat Sir Carlos, who doesn't necessarily want to win legally. Photo: Melanie Durbeck

His Majesty's Tournament

The three mouse keteers help the king organize a tennis tournament and are supposed to ensure that his favorite wins. Photo: Melanie Dürbeck

Presentation of text and images

Typically for a comic, as few texts as possible are used. The pictures and drawings speak for this. The texts themselves are displayed differently depending on the application. The speech bubbles and boxes also differ. For example, bold letters represent exclamations and noises, and dashed lines of a speech bubble represent a whisper. For example, descriptions of the situation, place and time are highlighted in yellow. In some of the stories in the special Royal Volume, these are depicted as scrolls to match the theme, but not in a uniform and continuous manner. The visual delimitations help to clearly distinguish the texts and applications from one another. Because the paperbacks should be easy to read for children.

  • Photos: Melanie Dürbeck

This time I didn't see as many imaginative and clever names as I'm used to from other funny paperbacks. But maybe they wouldn't have worked well here. I only remembered the "mouse ketiere" as original.

Drawing style newer

In the story "Little Big D(r)amen" there is a new style of drawing that I immediately noticed visually. It is true that it often happens and is common that images and strokes look different due to different artists, but this style caught my eye immediately. It impresses me because it looks more modern, but not too modern either (For example, in the new and modern Ducktales series, the characters' heads seem too square to me).

  • Photos: Melanie Dürbeck

Colorful selection to browse through

I have no negative criticisms here. I could mention the unoriginal names this time and the non-uniformity of colors and appearance of the text bubbles, but that would be whining at the highest level. The choice of stories in this volume is excellent. They are varied and in my opinion also contain a lot of heart through some love stories. My favorite is Little Big D(r)amen, which offers the longest story with multiple sections. The special volume entertained me very much and I wish to read more volumes in the Royal series.

The funny paperback

The adventures of Donald Duck and Co. appear every four weeks in a funny paperback by Egmont Ehapa Media (copyright: © 2019 Disney / Egmont Ehapa Media).

Pictures of Funny Paperback Happy Easter Special Volume

  • Photos: Melanie Dürbeck

Infobox

Paperback: 252 pages
Published by Egmont Ehapa Media
Language: German
ISBN: 978-3-8413-2611-9
Authors: Diverse
Year of publication: 2019
Cost: 7,99 Euro

Summary

The fifth special volume "Royal" contains an appealing and colorful collection of stories about nobility and the Middle Ages. The selection goes well with the topic and this time it really hit my taste buds. It is positive that the volume contains mostly German first publications. So you have the feeling of holding something “unused” and new in your hands.