My Favorite Carl Barks Stories

Carl Barks' Disney Duck stories are (of course) some of the greatest comic books ever made. His Golden Age, IMO, was roughly 1945-1956. After that, with few exceptions like Magica DeSpell, his heart clearly wasn't in it.

My favorite Barks stories are a string of very powerful "Ten-Pagers" in the late 40s and early 50s issues of the greatest comic book series ever published, WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES. This Donald Duck is more alive than he ever was in most of the animated cartoons. This was when Barks was expanding the Duck Cast to include other loveable assholes like Scrooge McDuck and Gladstone Gander. This 'universe' is followed religiously by a lot of Barks zealots these days.

This first one is a little earlier, from WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES #77 (February 1947).












Scrooge was a regular by the time of this story from WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES #134 (November 1951). This is the first appearance of the Beagle Boys.












Gladstone was originally just a smarmy foil for Donald until Barks added his mystical luck in the Four Color "Luck of the North" (1949). This story, from WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES #140 (May 1952), was the very beginning of Barks' universe taking shape. It's also Gyro Gearloose's first appearance.












Can you believe Barks fit these kinds of stories into TEN pages?! Any writer today would have done meaningless exposition, but Barks is always brisk yet satisfying. Duck Man forever!