Uncle Scrooge #132

“The Fabulous Philosopher’s Stone” – September 1976

It can be hard to recognize true genius. When I was a lad, Jack Kirby’s art was completely impenetrable to me, but, now, I value his contributions like the king he is. Much of the recognition comes from time and experience. The more comics you read, the more you see how the work of the older guard influenced the new. You begin to see how Kirby built a foundation on which all super-hero comics are based. With someone like Carl Barks, it’s easier to see. A modern reader has to sift through decades of super-hero books to get to Kirby, but there simply aren’t any other comics like Barks’ duck comics. These stories are globe hopping adventure at its best with Scrooge and the boys hopping from one exotic port to another on the hunt for fabulous treasures and artifacts. The stories are skillful, expressive, and hilarious, and rivaled only by classics like Treasure Island and the adventures of Indiana Jones. What’s more, Barks, not content to simply master a genre, does so even while turning the hero archetype on it’s head, casting Scrooge, a character who, on the surface, has all of the characteristics of a good villain, as a protagonist that we can’t help but root for. It’s easy to love brave, selfless Doctor Jones, but greedy, selfish Scrooge? That, my friends, is genius. As for this story, it’s Scrooge in pursuit of the fabled philosopher’s stone, which turns any substance to gold. What more do you want?

Uncle Scrooge #32

“That’s No Fable!” – December – February 1961

Sometimes the quarter bin giveth, sometimes it taketh away, and sometimes it does both. Take for instance this early ‘60s issue of Uncle Scrooge, featuring a classic Carl Barks duck adventure. This particular story sees Scrooge, Donald, and the boys relating how they once discovered the fountain of youth, telling the story with the sort of blasé attitude that only Scrooge could have toward such an adventure. It’s a pretty entertaining story, featuring centuries-old Spanish soldiers and a fountain-affected Scrooge spouting some great “young people” dialog (“Man! Man! That juice is the real end!”). The story quickly builds to a climax where Scrooge, Donald, and the boys need to figure out how to get off a little island in the middle of a small spring that is the actual “fountain,” having lost their raft. Donald is about to dive in, but finds out that, if he swims across, he’ll be turned into an egg before reaching the other side. The implication is that only Scrooge is old enough to survive the crossing and… that’s it. The center pages are missing, denying me the last two to four pages. Like most Barks stories, it’s a supremely well written and drawn adventure story, the likes of which just aren’t told anymore, and missing out on the end is a real bummer that is only slightly eased by a back up story featuring Scrooge trying to avoid being invited to a fancy party, lest he have to buy a new suit.

Walt Disney’s Donald Duck Adventures #3

“Lost in the Andes!”

Cover Price: $0.95
Bargain Price: $1.00
Cover Date: February 1988

As a recent convert to the brilliance of Disney’s duck comics, particularly those by Carl Barks and Don Rosa, I have been actively seeking out these Gemstone reprint books, only to find that they’re actually pretty scarce in the local quarter bins. This one, picked up at antique fair, reprints the classic “Lost in the Andes!” story by Carl Barks, originally presented in 1949’s Four Color Comics #223. This is, without any doubt, one of the classic duck comics, considered by Barks himself to be his best. It’s a supremely memorable story featuring Donald and his nephews (regrettably sans Uncle Scrooge) on a global hunt for some elusive square eggs and the birds that lay them. Donald and the boys eventually find the eggs in the lost city of Plain Awful, a square city with square building, square people, and, of course, square chickens. Barks adds a particularly delightful, almost Star Trekkian twist by having all of the residents speak in thick southern accents, having been visited by a Southern professor years before. As with all good duck comics, Barks’ story reads like something out of a pre-Crystal Skull Indiana Jones movie, complete with action, adventure, globe trotting, lost cities, strange civilizations, and, of course, more than its fair share of humor all invariably squeezed into a fantastic single issue.