More Tales Of Daring-Do, Bad And Good Luck Tales

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "Christmas On Bear Mountain" by Carl Barks hardcover
Fantagraphics Books
Carl Barks, writer and artist

If money holds out, I guess I will keep buying these Disney Duck collections; I'm five-for-five so far on the collections featuring Donald as the headliner, and they've all been great reads, featuring a combination of one-page gags and longer stories about Donald and his nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie. This particular volume has a much heavier concentration of the longer narratives, including only a small handful of one-pagers. Still very good, though.

The first duck tale in this latest volume, the title story, has the distinction of being the very first appearance of Uncle Scrooge McDuck. The character in this 1947 story bears little resemblance to the globe-trotting miser from future stories, however. The physical appearance of Scrooge in this tale is close, but the crotchety uncle of Donald Duck is pretty mean-spirited and has difficulty moving around unassisted. His dim view of others prompts him to tempt Donald and the nephews with the promise of a resplendent holiday full of food and gifts if they will only spend the night in his hunting cabin on Bear Mountain. Then he plots to scare them away as unworthy cowards. But Scrooge's plot is foiled by the unwitting intervention of some real bears.

Other yarns in this collection have Donald and the boys planting flower gardens competitively; learning about dancing, music and magic; tracking down the whereabouts of a "lost" mine; and traveling to such far-off locales as Australia, the West Indies, and the fictional Volcano Valley.

In another Christmas-themed story, Huey, Dewey and Louie decide that they have been pretty bad all year and need to work hard in the last days before Christmas to earn the possibility of presents. Unfortunately, most of their genuinely good deeds and favors for Donald end up having disastrous results for their poor uncle. But more often than not, it is Donald's attempts to teach the boys a lesson that end up backfiring, resulting in Donald himself getting into trouble.

The Worst Of Messes Often DO Become Successes

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "A Christmas For Shacktown" by Carl Barks hardcover
Fantagraphics Books

This is the second collection of Carl Barks' Disney Ducks tales featuring Donald. In many of the animated shorts starring Donald Duck, the character is known for his quick temper and his often self-defeating mannerisms. The same can be said for many of the one-page gag strips included in this collection. But Donald's personality is more malleable in the longer "book-length" adventures, depending on other characters and the needs of the story. Yet Barks is still able to make this Donald seem just as genuine as the often agitated video version.

The title story in this volume, as many of the stories included herein, centers around the season of Christmas. Huey, Dewey and Louie take a shortcut home from school through the poor neighborhoods of Duckburg and begin to feel sorry for the young inhabitants of Shacktown who have never known the joys of Christmas. The three younger ducks enlist the aid of their Junior Woodchucks friends, as well as Daisy, Donald and even miserly Uncle Scrooge, to help bring presents to the children of Shacktown. Other stories in this volume include the first-ever appearance of Scrooge McDuck's famous Money Bin; several tales centering on the unerring good fortunes of Donald's lucky cousin, Gladstone Gander; Donald trying to teach his young nephews a lesson, often ending up more the pupil than Huey, Dewey and Louie are; and a race to find a golden viking helmet which will leave the bearer wealthy and powerful. All of this and much more can be found in this second Donald Duck treasury.

Find a copy and enjoy it!

" ... And If You're Not Careful, You Might Learn Something Before It's Done"

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "Lost in the Andes" (The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library) hardcover
Fantagraphic Books
Carl Barks, writer/artist

This is a nice book featuring a number of Donald Duck stories of varying lengths and boundless imagination. The title story, "Lost in the Andes," takes Donald and his three nephews -- Huey, Duey and Louie -- to South America in search of the source of square eggs. Subsequent stories pit the Disney Ducks against a Christmas-hating wicked witch, running from a genuine Voodoo zombie named Bombie, and racing against Donald's cousin, the ever-lucky Gladstone Gander, to be the first to find a ship-wrecked Uncle Scrooge McDuck. And those are just the novel-length stories included.

More than just a collection of funny stories appropriate for all ages, however, this tome includes a brief history of Carl Barks' career, before, during and after his time with Walt Disney Studios. It also lists the original publication information for each of the stories included, as well as background information on the times and trends in which the stories were written. That can be useful knowledge considering most of these stories were written in the early 1950s and much has changed in America since that time.

I don't know if I will spend the money on each of these volumes as I would likely never have a full set anyway. The reasons behind that are twofold: First, I would be much more likely to buy the Donald Duck collections than the Uncle Scrooge collections. Nothing against Scrooge McDuck. I have some collections already of stories featuring him, most of them by Barks. I just prefer Donald. And second, Barks has such an enormous amount of Duck stories to his credit, that I doubt I could ever afford to own all of them anyway. He crafted so many tales -- some single-page gags, some 10-page stories and many more book-length adventures -- that his career with the Disney Ducks spans almost a quarter-century and countless narratives.