Carl Barks' Greatest Ducktales Stories Vol. 1
Originally Presented at Comixtreme.com
Quick Rating: Great
Collects: Stories from Four Color #456 and Uncle Scrooge #13, 65, 9, 14 & 29
The greatest DuckTales stories ever told - by the original creator!
Writer: Carl Barks
Art: Carl Barks
Colors: Susan Daigle-Leach, Scott Rockwell & Colleen Winkler
Archival Editor: David Gerstein
Cover Art: Carl Barks
Publisher: Gemstone Comics
Review: Any child of the late 80s remembers the DuckTales cartoon - Disney’s innovative adventure/comedy series that broke the trend of “limited” animation that held back television cartoons for decades. The show featured Disney’s Uncle Scrooge character taking in his great-nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, when their uncle Donald Duck joined the Navy. The boys joined Scrooge on his adventures around the world and made cartoon history.
What fans of the TV show may not have realized at the time was that, before the show, Scrooge had made very few appearances in Disney cartoons - he wasn’t the product of Disney’s animation studio, but the Donald Duck comic books. Scrooge was originally a supporting character in a Donald story, but soon grew so popular that he won his own series. And they also may not have realized that the best DuckTales episodes were, in fact, adaptations of Uncle Scrooge stories by the characters’ creator, the legendary Carl Barks.
This volume is the first in a series by Gemstone collecting some of the Barks stories that made their way to the screen, beginning with “Back to the Klondike,” the story of Scrooge’s return to the mining town where he made his first million dollars to collect on an old debt. “Land Beneath the Ground,” which became the episode “Earth Quack,” finds Scrooge and his nephews journeying to an underground kingdom of strange ball-like creatures whose sole pursuit in life is a series of games that cause Earthquakes on the surface. In “Micro-Ducks From Outer Space,” Scrooge encounters a miniature spacecraft full of ducks from another world who came to Earth seeking a solution to their food shortage problems - and lead Scrooge to a potentially lucrative deal. “The Lemming With the Locket” became the episode “Scrooge’s Pet” - about a playful lemming that accidentally gets possession of a locket with the combination to Scrooge’s new high-tech vault. Scrooge and the nephews have to chase him across the globe to get the combination back. “The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan” sends Scrooge and the boys on an adventure in the Hindu Kush mountains to recover a lost treasure - and do battle with an abominable snowman in the process! Finally, there’s “Hound of the Whiskervilles,” the story that gave the foundation for the episode “Curse of Castle McDuck.” Hoping to find the long-lost tartan of the Clan McDuck, Scrooge instead finds himself encountering the horrible Hound of the Whiskervilles, the very creature that drove his clan from its ancestral home centuries ago.
Each of these stories is a great read in its own right - Barks had a talent for entertaining and exciting stories like no other. His characterizations are spot-on, his gags still elicit a laugh today and his artwork is beautiful. “Back From the Klondike” and “The Lemming With the Locket” are among the best stories in the collection, while “Lemming” and “The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan” are probably the stories that made the transition to television most intact. “Whiskervilles,” in fact, only lent a small element to the episode that picked up its plot threads.
In addition to six fantastic stories, this collection also gives you two quite informative text pieces. The introduction, by Chris Barat and Joe Torcivia, discusses the impact of the cartoon on television animation and then goes on to examine the transition from the original comic books to the episodes in each story. Lots of little tidbits - such as the fact that the TV creation Launchpad often took on the role Donald had in the original comic book - make the introduction just as entertaining as the stories themselves. Gemstone editor David Gerstein also provides a piece entitled “Of Ducks and DuckTales,” which examines the original Bible for the television series and how it described each of the main characters compared to how they were portrayed by Barks. Scrooge, for example, was softened a bit to be more of a grandfatherly figure to the boys, but the basic characterizations were there. Magica DeSpell remained basically intact, the South African Flintheart Glomgold was tweaked to avoid the political issues of his homeland and the Beagle Boys were given a total overhaul to give each Beagle a distinct personality for the first time. Overall, though, it was still quite easy to see the genius and ingenuity of the Barks creations when the show was at its best.
Ever since I learned as teenager that my favorite episodes of the cartoon were based on comic book stories, I’ve been hoping someone would put out a collection like this. Happily, it was worth the wait. You get six great stories and some really interesting information for a low $10.95 price tag. It’s well worth the money, and I for one can’t wait for volume two.
Rating: 9/10