| INDEX | ART | ANIMATION | [COMICS] | CHARACTERS | QUOTES | DIARY | PHOTOGRAPHS | BIBLIOGRAPHY | LINKS | SOURCES |
| One Shots | [Comics and Stories] | Our Gang | Giveaways | Donald Duck | Uncle Scrooge | Junior Woodchucks | Various | Europe |
| [031 - 051] | 052 - 075 | 076 - 099 | 100 - 117 | 124 - 147 | 148 - 171 | 172 - 195 | 196 - 219 | 220 - 243 | 244 - 267 | 268 - 291 | 292 - 315 | 316 - 633 | -X- |
| COMICS | Comics and Stories 031 - 051 (1943 - 1944) |
There's only one way to put in seeds - and that's any way!
-- Donald Duck
Additional credits: Barks has recalled that the script for that first Donald story - in which Donald defends his Victory Garden from Crows - was sent to him by Western, which was then dealing with its artists under the name of one of its subsidiaries, Whitman, while publishing Walt Disney's Comics through another affiliate, K.K. Publications. Detailed information
Layout: Three tiers per page
Research: Donald says: "We'll make our own Victory Garden, boys!" (1.1). In a Januari 31, 2001 e-mail to the Disney Comics Mailing List, Don Rosa explained the relation between a victory garden and wartime: "a Victory Garden is what we Americans grew in the backyard during WWII to do our part in the Home Front economy."
Aw, phooey! This bridge will hold up an ele-phant!
-- Donald Duck
Layout: Three tiers per page
Landmark: The first Donald Duck story both written and drawn by Barks.
Research:
In Donald's imaginary newspaper "Daily Quack" (7.6) contains headlines like
"Hophead elected police chief", and "No more gas says OPA". The "hophead"
possibly is a 1940s slang term for someone who uses marijuana (an ancestor of
"pothead"). The "OPA" headline is a wartime
(
Congruences:
Questions: Do you know more about the "hophead" slang term?
A centipede shark that calls you uncle!!!
Pah! - What's this coming back here - another skinful of your relatives?
-- lady duck
Layout: Three tiers per page
Changes: Western found that Barks made the lady duck too buxom. "I had to spend more hours in the publisher's office flattening out all those bosoms," he once recalled. In panel 10.6, in which the kissing lady holds Donald against her, the change can obviously be seen because of the gap between Donald and the lady.
Status: Original version is lost.
Research: In panel 1.2, Donald complains "doggone such a life!" "Doggone it" is and has been for many years a common slang expression -- a mild exclamation, equal to "darn it" -- which is a non-profane way to say "Damn it." It is not considered cursing, and saying "doggone it" to native English speakers now would indicate that you are VERY outdated in American slang -- or that you have watched a lot of Westerns. (John Wayne and other cowboy heroes have been known to say "doggone it.")
Sources
| image: © [Walt Disney Productions]
You miserable mallard! You web-footed, shovel-nosed, poisonous reptile!
You pest! You snake! You-You scorpion! Why don't you fade?
-- Mr. Jones
Layout:
Landmark:
First appearance of a
CBL-notes: Reportedly, Johnny Grote's book "Carl Barks Werkverzeichnis der Comics" mentions that drawings of about 1 cm length are pieced on at the right border of all pages.
Are those horses or hat racks?
-- Donald Duck
Layout:
Research:
The wrangler of the ranch comments about his remaining horses:
"They're the best we have, podner, the army drafted all our mounts under 28
years of age!" (1.4). This is a reference to
Donald, being thirsty, longs for "root beer" (6.4) and "Lemonade, limeade, ginger beer, root
ale, malted soda... Coca pop!..." (7.1) Despite the use of the words "beer" and "ale", these
drinks are not alcoholic. In an April 4, 2001 e-mail to the Disney Comics Mailing List,
David Gerstein explained: "Root beer and ginger ale are typical American sodas, and I think
Donald is supposed to be getting the names confused (though it doesn't work very well, as
ginger beer is another word for ginger ale). A malted soda is a malted *ice cream* soda, an
American soda fountain drink. Coca pop is now outdated slang for Coca-Cola type drinks."
On the same day, same list, Vic Pratt replied that ginger beer is "a popular drink here in
England...actually, it is quite different to ginger ale, which is more specifically a mixer
drink...ginger beer is usually imbibed on its own...once upon a time, I believe, it had a
small amount of alcohol in it, when it was home-made..."
Questions: Could this be the first time that the nephews use their knowlegde of natural phenomena, like they would regularly do in later stories? In panel 4.7 they know that they're going further away from the ranch instead of getting closer to it: "When we left the ranch, the sun was on our right shoulder!" / "It is three hours higher now, and hitting the back of our necks!" / "We're goin' AWAY from the ranch!"
Unca Donald is a windbag!
If he trapped for as many winters as he claims,
he'd be sixty-five years old - I kept count!
-- nephews
Layout:
Landmark:
Appearances: "Santa Fe", "The Fur Hunters", "Kit Carson", "The Old West" (booktitles, 1.1); City Dog Pound (5.5), S. McPooch (poundmaster, 5.6); Schnapps (police dog, panel 6.1); Ratty Trap Co. (mousetrap company, 10.6).
Research: In panel 7 of page 5, one of the nephews says that they might catch a wolf as big as a bohimaton. In a December 11, 1991 interview, Barks told Geoffrey Blum about the origin of the word. Detailed information
Interviews:
Nice leaky roof yah got there, Jonesie, ol' snake!
-- Donald Duck
Layout:
Landmark: First appearance of the "classic" neighbor Mr.Jones.
Research: In panel 7.6, Donald orders his nephews: "Get me one of those firecrackers you're savin' for the fourth - the biggest one you have!" The "fourth" is a reference to the American "4th of July", where the tradition is to spend the whole evening setting off firecrackers.
Questions: Could the saving of firecrackers be a reference to World War II?
You'd love to buy a nice egg beater, wouldn't you, fuzzy face?
-- Donald Duck
Layout:
Surviving material: CM 17 bearded hermit [studies]
Appearances: Whizo egg beaters (1.1); an old sourpuss (mistress of the house, 2.1); a queer reclusive (hermit in an old shack outside the city limits, living on roots and herbs, 3.7).
Congruences:
Ah, snow!
To thee an ode we owe!
Thy glisten makes sparkles
where dirt used to show!
-- Donald Duck
Layout:
Landmark: The nephews refer to their scout master (4.3).
Nothing can save you from me! I am invincible! I am doom itself!
-- Donald Duck
Layout:
Appearances: Mexico (5.6); Gem Stove Co. (6.8).
Congruences:
Oh, goodneth! Ith that all the higher you can fly a kite?
Dearie me! You mutht not know much about it!
-- Donald Duck (disguised as a cute litte girl)
Layout: Three tiers per page (as originally drawn).
Changes: This story was written and drawn as a ten-page story with three-tier pages, but published as a seven-pager. It was cut up, panels were trimmed or expanded and the panels were pasted up in eight- or ten-panel (four-tier) pages instead of the original six-panel (three-tier) pages. In some panels, drawings not by Barks were added to fill in the empty space caused by the alterations in his panels. Apparently, no panels were omitted. Detailed information
Status: Original version is lost.
CBL-notes:
The bottom half of page 6 is redrawn.
In "The Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories in Color No. 3" a reconstruction of the
story's original layout is used, unfortunately also with the redrawn art.
Reconstructions: The comic "Mickey and Donald" No. 15 (1989) published an attempt in converting "Kite Weather" into a ten-pager again. Unfortunately, one reconstructed page used redrawn art as a source.
Questions: Could this story also have contained a strip of art on top of pages 2 to 10, before it was changed into a four-tier seven-pager?
Hunk-uh!
-- Herbert
Layout: Opening panel (1.1) is used as preview of the story.
Landmark:
Research:
Donald holds a box of "pre-war Bon-bons" (3.5). This is a reference to
Questions: Could this story be the first one in which Donald and the nephews have an adult-kid rivalry? In this story the nephews intentionally annoy "parent" Donald by not following his order to go bathing. In earlier stories like W OS 29-02 in "The Hard Loser", W WDC 40-01 in Snow Fun, and W WDC 41-01 The Duck in the Iron Pants, there's also rivalry between Donald and the nephews, but in these stories Donald acts more like a "fourth nephew" than an adult. Even more because Donald is the cause of the rivalry in these stories. (The nephews only react to the tricks Donald has played on them.)
Will you children stop talking? I must have quiet if I am to use my vast
mental powers!
-- Donald Duck
Landmark: Barks' first story showing a close-up of the moon. Donald's rocket ship travels around the moon. In panel 9.6, Donald says: "If people could see this view of the moon, they wouldn't sing songs about it!"
In comparison with real life, Donald's mid-1940s view of the moon is far ahead of its time. In 1959, the Soviet Union's Luna 3 spacecraft returned the first images of the far side of the Earth's moon. After six failed attempts, the Americans finally got their first close-up images of the moon five years later with the successful flight of Ranger 7.
Research:
The formulae floating above Donald's head, in
Donald decides: "I'm going to test Duckmite as a substitute for gasoline!" (5.4)
Gasoline was among the materials rationed by OPA.
Before Donald goes to the moon, he says to the nephews: "Save my ration
points so I can have a steak when I come back!" (7.10)
Research:
It seems Donald's reference to CH2, in
Congruences:
CBL-notes: Possibly, the text "This Month's Thriller" has been removed. (See questions.)
Appearances: J.P. Daimondtubs, the millionaire (1.6, identical to Black Pete)
Questions: The Carl Barks Library only shows "Rival Boatmen" in the opening panel. What does the original publication contain?
This picture'll be titled - "How the safety net looks to a person
jumping!
-- Donald Duck
Description: Donald and the nephews compete at taking pictures to sell to the newspaper.
Landmark: Up to "The Good Deeds" (WDC 229), this is Barks' last Walt Disney Comics and Stories ten-pager with a title included.
Appearances: Potts Pottery (2.1); Daily Gripe (2.8); Daredevil Daly, the human depth bomb (4.2); Flimsybilts Apts. (5.5); Prof. Whizo (8.2); Riot Squad (8.7)
Research: In an August 2, 2000 e-mail, Joseph Cowles wrote about Barks' own interest in photography:
"Barks enjoyed photography a great deal, was excellent at it back when it took a great deal more capability to obtain good photographs than it does today. He took copious amounts of 35MM color slides. These he used as reference for many of his drawings, which enabled him to illustrate local haciendas, bridges, mountain ranges, trees, roadways and many other things with accuracy.
Some scenes [my wife] Barb and I have recognized from time to time, on our drives around the southland. I bet you that somewhere Barks has a cache of every photo he ever took - numbered, dated and described. Now that's a whole new area for fans to explore: the relationship to Barks' photos and his cartoon panels. And it would be an historical adventure, too, showing what southern California looked like back in the halcyon days of the 40's and 50's."
In a July 29, 2000 e-mail, Joseph Cowles wrote:
"I do not have photos of me with Carl Barks, although surely there must have been some taken on one of my visits with him and Garé. The one signed photo I have of Barks is accompanied by a letter telling about his new camera and how he took the picture."
Research:
The nephews comment: "The
Cross-references: Almost certainly, «Fued and Far Between» contains a cross-reference to Donald's wheel-chair trick (8.4).
The kids'll make fools of themselves! I want to be there to see it!
-- Donald Duck
Landmark: First appearance of the name "Duckburg", mentioned on a sign in panel 10.8 ("Duckburg 2096 miles").
Yippee! I'm rich! I've got my dime back!
-- Donald Duck
Appearances: O.Shurits Safe Co. (1.1); Herbert (1.6); Dr. Peek (2.8); Triple-decker Cone Chateau (3.3); ornery cranky old coot (3.6); Dante's Inferno (booktitle, 5.2); Mister Picklepuss, which is how Donald calls the ornery cranky old coot (6.3); Ge[m] Taxi Co. (8.4, 8.8); Poochley, full of superstitions (8.8)
Research:
Though it's less conclusive, the mine hooked by Donald could be a reference
to
Sources
| [031 - 051] | 052 - 075 | 076 - 099 | 100 - 117 | 124 - 147 | 148 - 171 | 172 - 195 | 196 - 219 | 220 - 243 | 244 - 267 | 268 - 291 | 292 - 315 | 316 - 633 | -X- |
| One Shots | [Comics and Stories] | Our Gang | Giveaways | Donald Duck | Uncle Scrooge | Junior Woodchucks | Various | Europe |
| INDEX | ART | ANIMATION | [COMICS] | CHARACTERS | QUOTES | DIARY | PHOTOGRAPHS | BIBLIOGRAPHY | LINKS | SOURCES |
|
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