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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 4, 2023 15:29:26 GMT -5
Just a quick note that Gladstone Gander makes his second and third appearances in back-to-back issues of Walt Disney's Comics & Stories #95-96. However, he's still just a rival and foil for Donald and hasn't become his super lucky self yet.
Mostly I'm reading the 10-pagers but only commenting or reviewing if they're important. I just thought it was interesting that the evolution of the character took even longer than Scrooge...who we will see again in a much more recognizable (but still not fully evolved form) in the nest review.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 11, 2023 14:01:50 GMT -5
The Old Castle's Secret (Four Color 189, June 1948) Six months after his first appearance Uncle Scrooge appears for the second time and in the very next Four Color long adventure story. While still not quite the fully formed Scrooge this is much closer to his final personality. Donald and the boys are called to Scrooges mansion for a secret meeting. His fortune is in trouble and he needs the boys to help him hunt for a lost treasure that is in the old castle of Clan McDuck in Dismal Downs, Scotland. The treasure disappeared during a siege in 1057 along with Sir Quackly McDuck. But Scrooge has a new X-ray machine he's sure will help him find it. (P.S. X-rays don't work that way). Definitely not the brave Uncle Scrooge we'll come to know. They travel to Scotland and rather easily find the treasure. But it's quickly taken by a mysterious ghost who they can't see, except for shadows and occasionally his skeleton. It also appears that the Scottish caretaker Scottie (because...of course) has been murdered. Scrooge, Donald and the boys then keep battling the ghost resulting in them being locked on the battlement of a tower, a daring escape by Huey, Dewey and Louie, who find themselves locked out of the castle. X-rays don't work that way. Spooky!! Intrepid young lads. The boys find a way in to the castle through the graveyard as their ingenuity reveals a secret passage. Meanwhile Uncle Scrooge remember he has a pistol and shoots the lock off the door to the battlement freeing he and Donald. They all again battle the ghost, discover an invisibility spray and find that the Ghost was really Old Man Jenkins. Oh wait...it was Scottie, who wasn't the real Scottie, but a thief masquerading as Scottie. Of course Donald takes the credit for the boys ingenuity. What would they do without these kids? Yeah...Donald is really awful. This is a really fun adventure. Scrooge still isn't the Scrooge we will come to know and love, but he's closer. We also see just a little bit of a start to fleshing out the extended Duck family tree and some back-story. Beyond that this is one of Barks' best and most atmospheric stories art-wise. The setting is frequently very gloomy and there is palpable atmosphere. There's also a very clear sense of danger in this one. Atmospheric, spooky, dangerous stuff. Definitely an early highlight in the adventure stories and an important turning point historically.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 11, 2023 14:28:28 GMT -5
One of my favorite Barks adventures. I thoroughly agree about the mood. Scrooge was such a perfect convenience for Donald Adventures. Scrooge could always generate a goal, an exotic setting, and limitless resources (so that we wouldn't question it) for an adventure that would otherwise come around once in a lifetime for Donald and the kids.
I wonder if Barks understood this when he first introduced Scrooge. Of course, he seemed like more of an antagonist back then.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 11, 2023 14:33:15 GMT -5
One of my favorite Barks adventures. I thoroughly agree about the mood. Scrooge was such a perfect convenience for Donald Adventures. Scrooge could always generate a goal, an exotic setting, and limitless resources (so that we wouldn't question it) for an adventure that would otherwise come around once in a lifetime for Donald and the kids. I wonder if Barks understood this when he first introduced Scrooge. Of course, he seemed like more of an antagonist back then. I don't think he did. Scrooge just kind of evolved in that direction and was the vehicle for Barks' interest in geography and history. He was asked if there was a great out-pouring of support for more Scrooge stories after Bear Mountain and he replied that there wasn't...he just kind of liked old Scrooge and wanted to see what would happen to him.
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Post by MDG on Jan 11, 2023 16:05:52 GMT -5
I've got to get back into these-I never collected them in any planned way, and most of what I had has probably gone to my son and later my grandkids. But page for page, it's really some of the best comics out there.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 8, 2023 17:52:51 GMT -5
And a quick note that Uncle Scrooge makes his third appearance in Walt Disney's Comics & Stories #98. This is his first appearance in a 10-pager and it's a very small appearance as he is only in 12 panels at the start and the end of the story. But he's starting to show up and branch out just a bit.
Hopefully will find time to do the next adventure story tomorrow.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 14, 2023 11:13:26 GMT -5
Not quite tomorrow. Sheriff of Bullet Valley (Four Color 199, Oct. 1948) Four months after their time in Scotland, Donald and the boys take a trip to the wild western area of Bullet Valley. As they travel through the small town in the valley Donald notice a wanted poster for some cattle rustlers. Sure that he can capture the bandits because he "knows the angles" from watching all the B westerns, Donald convinces the laconic Sheriff to deputize him and let him give it a try. While out looking for the rustlers Donald comes across a calf and a mean-eyed cowboy named Blacksnake McQuirt. Blacksnake accuses Donald of rustling the calf. When Donald assures him that he's a deputy, McQuirt shows Donald that his XX brand is on Donald's horse...and on his saddle, something Donald hadn't noticed before. Donald goes on foot to the Diamond Ranch where he meets rancher Jim Diamond. Blacksnake appears shortly thereafter and accuses Diamond of having his cattle. Blacksnake and his gang, armed with sub-machineguns ride off with Diamond's cattle, all of whom are branded with the XX. Donald then arrests and ties up Diamond for rustling and decides that the Sheriff must be in cahoots with Diamond Jim, so he goes to see what Blacksnake thinks he should do. Oddly enough the horse Donald is riding again has the XX brand appear on it. Meanwhile, the boys have decided they don't want to stay in town and take the car to see what they can see. They come across Diamond Jim and are willing to listen, but not release him. He tells them about his hidden cattle that are branded with is brand and they hide him from Blacksnake as he comes to get the hidden cattle. But the cattle are now branded with the XX. The boys do find tank tracks, however, and they follow and then steal a weird tank/jeep vehicle from Blacksnake and take it to the Sheriff. The machine magically puts the XX brand on whatever it is fired at. The Sheriff goes after Blacksnake with a posse, but Donald is having none of it, still believing that the Sheriff is the rustler...until the boys burn the truth in to him. All of Blacksnake's gang is rounded up, but Blacksnake escapes in to the badlands. The Sheriff leaves to go after him, even though it's very dangerous, but Donald jumps him and goes himself, to redeem himself. Donald and Blacksnake get in to a pages long battle before Donald finally captures him and is ultimately made Sheriff. This is a super popular issue, very highly rated by the Duck community. And I really don't much like it. I'm a big fan of westerns and of western history, but I do not like the B-westerns on which this story was based. Donald is at his stubborn worst most of the story and then just turns it around, surviving a fight he shouldn't. And the explanation of the brands, though couched as a scientific machine is really magic. So I'll be the iconoclast and say that, while I don't dislike this one, I don't like it very much.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 14, 2023 11:15:24 GMT -5
Not quite tomorrow. The Old Castle's Secret (Four Color 199, Oct. 1948) For a moment, I was very confused, and also a little excited! Fortunately, once Scrooge becomes a regular traveling companion, he'll help to mellow this out. It's far easier to sympathize with Donald when he is downtrodden, and Scrooge can do that in a single panel while still somehow remaining likeable himself.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 14, 2023 11:23:50 GMT -5
Not quite tomorrow. The Old Castle's Secret (Four Color 199, Oct. 1948) For a moment, I was very confused, and also a little excited! Fortunately, once Scrooge becomes a regular traveling companion, he'll help to mellow this out. It's far easier to sympathize with Donald when he is downtrodden, and Scrooge can do that in a single panel while still somehow remaining likeable himself. This is what happens when I try to write stuff up between the crap I'm doing at work.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 14, 2023 11:50:10 GMT -5
This is what happens when I try to write stuff up between the crap I'm doing at work. Don't sweat it. I make far worse mistakes far more often!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 16, 2023 17:29:49 GMT -5
Quick note regarding the 8-page story "Toyland" that appeared in Firestone Giveaway #48. A cute little story about Donald and the boys going to the North Pole to try out toys because Santa isn't sure if modern kids still like the toys he makes. So we now know that not only does Santa exist in the Duckverse, but that he and Donald and the boys are pretty tight.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 23, 2023 12:22:08 GMT -5
The Golden Christmas Tree (Four Color 203, Dec. 1948)Just two months later we get another long story (20 pages) that is a little hard to actually categorize beyond being a Christmas story...but we'll get to that at the end. The story starts with the boys fighting over what color Christmas tree they want...purple, red, blue, etc. Meanwhile Donald is pursing the paper, which reports that a witch resembling the one in Snow White has been sited in the area. (I can't find any evidence for vari-colored Christmas trees in the late '40s. This seems to just be something that Barks made up). The boys finally decide that they want a gold tree and they head with Donald to the tree lot. Unfortunately all the colored trees are extremely expensive and Donald ultimately buys a plain ole green tree. (The $40 price tag for a gold tree is the equivalent of $511 today). The boys are sorely disappointed and lag behind. They are approached by an older lady who tells them that there's a tree made of real gold at the top of Mount Demontooth. And the boys decide they have to go get it. The nice old lady is, of course, the Witch. As Donald is trimming the tree he discovers that the boys haven't come home so he goes out to find them. He finds their footprints in the snow along with the footprints of a larger person wearing pointed shoes like a witch would wear. And then suspicious broom marks. Convinced that a witch stole the nephews he starts a city-wide witch hunt. He then decides that if he were a witch he'd live atop Demontooth Mountain so he heads there to rescue the boys. Atop the mountain the boys find a gold tree that mysteriously disappears. They're then captured by the witch who wants to use their tears as the final ingredient in a potion to destroy all the Christmas trees on Earth. Donald battles his way up Mount Demontooth and comes to the witch's house. The witch disguises herself as an attractive female duck to use her feminine wiles to capture Donald. Donald manages to escape out a window and is about to run off, but realizes he has to rescue the nephews. And thus starts an extended battle between Donald and the witch. Donald manages to get ahold of the witches broom, apparently the source of most of her powers, and uses it to defeat her and rescue the boys. He then uses it to make himself tall and handsome (he looks oddly like Gladstone). The boys then grab the broom and use it to bring back a gold Christmas tree. But it's actually "The Spirit of Christmas" and it talks Donald in to giving it the broom...which changes him back in to the normal Donald. And we get a lot of preachy gunk that Barks never meant to be in the story. This is a weird story. It has elements of being an adventure story, though it takes place completely in the vicinity of Duckburg. But it really reads more like an extended 10-pager. Donald is extremely brave and assertive in this one, while the boys are almost completely guileless and much more childlike than usual. Barks was fine with manipulating the personalities of the characters to fit the situation, but it's kind of jarring in this one. There's also the issue of Barks saying that only about four panels of the last two pages are what he originally did with the story. There was significant editorial interference with the ending that makes it weird and preachy and pretty un-Barksian. So it's a strange story that just doesn't really work all that well...though it has a number of really great sight-gags.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 30, 2023 14:30:04 GMT -5
Race to the South Seas! (March of Comics #41, 1949) The cover is unrelated to the story, as was frequently the case with the March of Comics stories. It's also always a little hard to figure out where they really fit chronologically because they are only dated with the year. I suspect the info is easily available, but I'm kind of lazy. The story starts with Donald, Gladstone and the boys fishing off a pier. Donald and Gladstone are arguing about with family is better, the Ducks or the Ganders, and it eventually devolves into who is the favorite of Uncle Scrooge. Serendipitously, one of Scrooge's lawyers (the appropriately named Sylvester Shyster) comes to give both Gladstone and Donald sailboats from Scrooge. It's not really a complement to either. This precipitates a continuation of the argument and the boys go to ask Uncle Scrooge who his favorite nephew is. They ultimately find out that Scrooge was shipwrecked in the South Seas on his way to Australia. Of course Donald and Gladstone decide to search for him in their new boats. Gladstone's unnatural luck seems to make things much easier for him, while Donald faces bad luck at every turn...some of it self-made. Following a bad storm, which essentially wrecks both boats, Gladstone again finds luck on his quest. Both eventually find their way to a lovely island. Unfortunately for Donald and the boys Gladstone gets there first and very much wears out his welcome with the natives. Things are very different when Donald and the boys show up. Through the use of his luck Gladstone is able to negotiate the natives and find Scrooge...but it really doesn't turn out that lucky. This is an interesting story. It's not a great adventure story, despite its setting (which is beautifully depicted by Barks). But it's interesting for some character development. This is the third Gladstone appearance, but the first to show his unnatural luck. Before he was just a rival for Donald, but now he's something a little more. This is also Scrooge's fourth appearance and he is still far from the character he will become. He's a full-on misanthropist, just wanting to be away from everyone...especially his family. The story also continues to demonstrate the pronounced difference in Huey, Dewey and Louie between the adventure stories and the 10-pagers. In the adventure stories they tend to be the more adult and calming influences (very true in this one), while in the 10-pagers they tend to be holy terrors who probably deserve the beatings that Donald wants to give them. Also interesting is how Donald's sailing abilities come and go as stories need them. In this one he is particularly inept and needs a lot of help from the boys...and a book. With regard to the natives, I do think it's interesting that Barks draws them pretty straight without them being caricatures as we have seen before (and will see again). They look a lot like Polynesian natives of the South Seas through a Barksian lens. And you can't blame them for being upset after dealing with Gladstone. That guy is the worst. And I'll just leave you with a look at Scrooge's Island office...which is just great. Every business executive should wear a top hat and spats in a tropical paradise.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 27, 2023 16:55:04 GMT -5
Lost in the Andes! (Four Color 223, Apr. 1949)
Four months after The Golden Christmas Tree and who knows exactly where in relation to Race to the South Seas!, Barks gives us one of his greatest adventure stories (it is the 6th highest ranked story on INDUCKS). Donald is working as a janitor at the Duckburg museum when he discovers, accidentally, that what appear to be square rocks are, in fact very old square eggs. The eggs are studied by scientists and an expedition is mounted to find the source of the square eggs, with the idea that they will save on storage space. Donald and the boys go along on the expedition. Along the way, the boys create an omelet out of some of the very very old eggs. This causes most of the members of the expedition to get sick. As a result only Donald and the boys go on the hunt for the source of the square eggs. They had originally come from somewhere in Peru. So the four go in to the Andes. As they hunt for the source they meet an number of Andean residents, none of whom have heard of square eggs. They either think that the boys are crazy or rubes. Ultimately they find an old Vicuna hunter who tells them that he recalls seeing the eggs before when he was a child. They were carried by a person who spoke English and had come out of "The Regions of the Mist." Donald and the boys travel to that region and get lost in the mists until they come upon a lost city. In the lost city they find an odd group of people who are very square, who speak with a decided Southern U.S. accent and sing Dixie. It turns out that the old guy had been a professor from the American South and the language and customs were patterned after him. The Incans also only eat the square eggs. But they have never heard of chickens. The eggs just seem to appear. The boys go on a hunt for chickens and inadvertently discover chickens that look like square rocks most of the time. The discover is due to the boys constantly blowing bubbles with their bubble gum. Our intrepid travelers are heroes to the Incas until they blaspheme by blowing round bubbles in public. They'll be sentenced to life in the quarries unless they can blow square bubbles within five days. The boys use their ingenuity to ensure their safety. Using a compass left by the professor, the quartet head back to civilization with square eggs and a pair of square chickens. They're forced to eat the eggs to survive. And, unfortunately, the chickens will not revolutionize agriculture. I don't think it's unfair to say that this is the very first of Barks' adventure stories that is a true classic. The acclaim is absolutely deserved. It hits all the right notes with the exotic locale, the humor, an occasional hint of danger. Barks' art is top-flight and the hidden city is truly a foreign wonder. He even does an amazing job with the Land of the Mists. The name of the hidden city, Plain Awful, is just a great play on words. An absolute triumph.
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