More Arabian Nights

More Arabian Nights
First page of the story.
INDUCKS	KJAL 01b (part 1) KJAL 02b (part 2)
GCD	527259/#2
Other Titles	The Return of Disney's Aladdin Jafar's Revenge Malice in the Palace (Chapter 1 Part 1 title) Heel of Fortune (Chapter 1 Part 2 title) Jafar Strikes! (Chapter 2 title)
Writer(s)	John Blair Moore John Drake
Artist(s)	The Jaime Diaz Studio
Dates	1993 (release date)

More Arabian Nights, also known as The Return of Disney's Aladdin or Jafar's Revenge, is a comic story written by John Blair Moore and John Drake, and drawn by the Jaime Diaz Studio. The story features Jafar, Iago, the Peddler, Aladdin, Abu, Princess Jasmine, the Sultan of Agrabah, the Genie (who, at different point, impersonates Christopher Columbus, Sherlock Holmes, Benny the Cab and Popeye), Razoul, and in their debuts, the Elderly Merchant, his Wife, their daughter, the Uncanny Isabella, Iarr Ess, Katrina and Gale. Elvis Presley and Houdini are mentioned and the Cave of Wonders' actions shape the plot, for all that the Cave does not physically appear.

Plot

Kicked out of the Cave of Wonders but still bound by the Laws of the Genies, Jafar and Iago scheme to insinuate themselves back into the Palace to get their revenge, eventually partnering with shady prestidigitator Isabella. As it happens, Aladdin and Princess Jasmine are bored of life in the palace, and would welcome a magic show, especially as they miss the real thing…

References

• The Genie states that "of the Seven Wonders of the World, he's seen all 42".
• During his time-traveling world-tour, he also "got confused for Elvis" and discovered that in the year 2099, a giant asteroid hits the Earth and rips it apart. He also traveled to Fiji, Iceland, China, Tierra Del Fuego, and the Edge of the World.
• Noticing that Isabella resembles Jafar but not managing to place where he's seen that face before, the Genie asks him if they didn't once "play the same tent circuit around Palestine".
• Iago ironically calls Isabella "Houdini".
• Iarr Ess is Agrabah's resident skinflint tax collector.
• The Genie explains that a Genie, albeit a free one, can never be the Master of another Genie's lamp.
• The Cave of Wonders is said to keep Genies' Lamps imprisoned until it deems them ready for a life of "public service", that is to say, until it deems that they can be trusted to grant wishes honorably and without cheating. Once it is satisfied with a Genie's progress, it is capable of spitting out the Lamp for mortals to find.

Continuity

• The story is a direct sequel to Aladdin (1992), both within Aladdin's life and in the timeline of the framing device of the Peddler telling the camera crew about Aladdin's adventures; the Peddler's dialogue makes it clear that he has yet to tell any other story than the original story of how Aladdin found the lamp.
• Katrina claims that her grandfather Gale was injured fighting "the evil Jafar" when Jafar tried to seize the throne. This presumably took place during the portion of Jafar's Hour in Aladdin (1992) where Aladdin is exiled to a freezing wasteland while Jafar enjoys his newfound power in Agrabah.
• As such, it takes place some time before The Return of Jafar (1994), with Jafar trapped in his Lamp at the beginning of the story and ending right back there at the end. How this relates to the events of Inside the Genie's Lamp (2004) and The Genie World Tour (2004) is unclear.
• Jafar's Lamp is shown to end up in the possession of the Peddler, despite its apparent destruction in The Return of Jafar (1994); unless the Peddler is the Genie telling the story of More Arabian Nights in-between the immediate end of the More Arabian Nights narrative and returning Jafar to the Cave of Wonders, one presumes that this Lamp is in fact the same copycat-Lamp seen in Wish At Your Own Risk (2004).
• The Genie mentions seeing the Pyramids in Egypt as part of his world tour, a fact also acknowledged in The Return of Jafar (1994).

Behind the scenes

This story was printed in English in 1993 as a special two-issue miniseries entitled The Return of Disney's Aladdin, a title sometimes applied to the story itself. The tagline Jafar's Revenge on the first issue has likewise been misinterpreted as the title of the story.

The story predates the official direct-to-video film sequel, The Return of Jafar, and shares many broad plot elements with it, though it is not impossible for one to take place after the other as two separate events, provided the Genie leaves again on a repeat world trip soon after the close of More Arabian Nights.