Gemstone Publishing
What was the publisher of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories from 2003 to 2008?
Walt Disneys Comics and Stories Walt Disneys Comics and Stories , sometimes abbreviated WDC&S , is an American anthology comic book series featuring characters from The Walt Disney Companys films and shorts , including Donald Duck , Scrooge McDuck , Mickey Mouse , Chip n Dale , Lil Bad Wolf , Scamp , Bucky Bug , Grandma Duck , Brer Rabbit , Winnie the Pooh , and others . With more than 700 issues , Walt Disneys Comics & Stories is the longest-running Disney comic book in the United States , making it the flagship title , and is one of the best-selling comic books of all time . The book was originally published by Dell Comics ( 1940-1962 ) , and there have been many revivals over the years , continuing the same legacy numbering . The revivals have been published by Gold Key Comics ( 1962–1984 ) , Gladstone Publishing ( 1986–1990 ) , Disney Comics ( 1990–1993 ) , back to Gladstone Publishing ( 1993–1999 ) , Gemstone Publishing ( 2003-2008 ) , Boom ! Studios ( 2009-2011 ) and IDW Publishing ( 2015–present ) . Publication history . The precursor to WDC&S was Mickey Mouse Magazine , published in several incarnations from 1933 to 1940 . WDC&S itself was launched by Dell in October 1940 , and initially consisted of reprints taken from the Disney comic strips Donald Duck , Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony reformatted for comic books and colored . The first original story created for WDC&S was The Flying Gauchito illustrated by Walt Kelly in #24 ( Aug . 1942 ) ; the story adapted a cartoon short included in The Three Caballeros , released in 1944 . The comics anthology format usually began with a 10-page story featuring Donald Duck and for most of the run ended with a serial or single story featuring Mickey Mouse . The most popular issues featured the Donald Duck ten-pagers written and drawn by Carl Barks , who began the run with issue # 31 ( April 1943 ) . Barks stopped producing original stories after issue #312 ( September 1966 ) , but his stories have been continually reprinted up to the present . Almost all of these stories co-starred Donalds nephews , Huey , Dewey and Louie , with frequent guest appearances by Barks creation Uncle Scrooge , as well as the Beagle Boys , Gyro Gearloose , and Gladstone Gander . Bucky Bug stories began in issue #20 ( May 1942 ) with a series of newspaper reprints from the Silly Symphony comic strip ; original Bucky stories started later , in issue #39 ( December 1943 ) . Bucky stories were monthly through 1950 ; were not seen for several decades , then returned on an occasional basis from 1988 to the present , with a mixture of old and new material . Lil Bad Wolf stories began in issue #52 ( January 1945 ) and remained a regular feature for more than ten years , continuing to appear in the majority of issues even after the continuous run stopped . Carl Buettner ( 1945–1946 ) , Gil Turner ( 1948–1956 ) , and Dick Matena ( 2005–2008 ) are generally regarded as the most notable Wolf creators featured in the title . More recently ( 2003–present ) , Big Bad Wolf has often supplanted his son as title character of the stories . Many 1940s issues featured Mickey Mouse serials by Floyd Gottfredson which were reprinted from the Mickey Mouse daily newspaper comic strips . Later , Paul Murry took over drawing original Mickey Mouse serials , with stories written by Carl Fallberg and Don Christensen among others . The 1980s saw numerous Murry reprints ; the 1990s and more recent times have seen new Mickey Mouse stories written by Noel Van Horn and drawn by Cesar Ferioli , as well as some Gottfredson serials not previously anthologized in comic book format . By the mid-1950s the title was the best selling comic book in the United States , with a monthly circulation of over three million . Mark Evanier describes the high circulation as the product of an aggressive subscription push . Various premiums were offered for new subscribers , including a mini-poster attributed to Walt Kelly advertised on the back cover of WDC&S #100 from January 1949 . In many 1980s issues , as well as scattered issues from 2006 onward , new Daan Jippes and/or Freddy Milton Donald Duck stories lead off the title . Issues #523 , 524 , 526 , 528 , 531 , and 547 ( all 1987–1990 ) featured lead-off stories drawn ( and usually written ) by Don Rosa , while most issues from 1993–2005 featured lead-offs by William Van Horn . Walt Kelly of Pogo fame did the cover art for many issues between #34 and #118 and provided interior art for issues # 34–41 and 43 . Walt Disneys Comics and Stories has been the longest running Disney-based comic book in history , making it their flagship title . After reaching its 600th issue , it converted to prestige format and remained that way until the end of Gemstone Publishings run at issue #698 . Boom Studios published the title from 2009 until 2011 ( issues #699 to #720 ) . IDW Publishing began publishing the comic in July 2015 , continuing the number sequence from #721 . IDWs last issue of Walt Disneys Comics and Stories was #743 , published in September 2018 . At that point , IDW renamed the title to Disney Comics and Stories , restarting the numbering from #1 , but also keeping the legacy numbering ( #744 ) , which appears in the indicia in the contents page . Some of the titles run has been collected in the Timeless Tales collection . IDW has been publishing the new title on an approximately bimonthly schedule , with #7 coming out in September 2019 . Numbering . While the issues are now referred to with sequential numbers , the format for the first ten years of the comic was to use the volume and number . For example , issue #100 ( Jan 1949 ) was labeled Vol . 9 No . 4 . The title started using whole numbers with issue #124 , in January 1951 . Publishers . The publishers of Walt Disneys Comics and Stories have been : - Dell Comics ( Oct 1940 – Aug 1962 ) #1–263 - Gold Key Comics ( Sept 1962 – 1984 ) #264–510 - Gladstone Publishing ( Oct 1986 – April 1990 ) #511–547 - Disney Comics ( June 1990 – July 1993 ) #548–585 - Gladstone Publishing ( Aug 1993 – Feb 1999 ) #586–633 - Gemstone Publishing ( June 2003 – November 2008 ) #634–698 - Boom Kids ! ( Boom ! Studios ) ( September 2009 – June 2011 ) #699–720 - IDW Publishing ( July 2015 – present ) #721 - present Circulation . The first issue of Walt Disneys Comics and Stories sold 252,000 copies . By issue #23 ( August 1942 ) , the comic was printing 1,000,000 copies per issue . They reached 2 million copies by issue #66 ( March 1946 ) and 3 million by issue #131 ( August 1951 ) . The magazine hit its peak at 3,115,000 copies of issue #144 ( September 1952 ) .