Walt Disney’s Donald and Gladstone – Gladstone Comic Album #15


By Carl Barks (Gladstone)
ISBN: 0-944599-12-5

Carl Barks is one of the greatest storytellers America has ever produced, beginning his splendid career as a jobbing cartoonist before joining Disney’s animation studio in 1935. He resigned in 1942 to work exclusively and anonymously in comic books. Until the mid-1960s he worked in productive seclusion writing and drawing a treasure load of comedic adventure yarns, creating a Duck Universe of memorable – and highly bankable – characters such as the nefarious Beagle Boys (1951), Gyro Gearloose (1952), and Magica De Spell (1961) to augment the stable of cartoon actors from the Disney Studio. His greatest creation was undoubtedly the crusty, energetic, paternalistic, money-mad sesquipedillionaire Scrooge McDuck: the star of this show.

So potent were his creations that they fed back into Disney’s animation output itself, even though his brilliant comic work was done for the licensing company Dell/Gold Key, and not directly for the studio.

Throughout this period Barks was blissfully unaware that his work (uncredited by official policy as was all the company’s cartoon and comicbook output), was nevertheless singled out by a rabid and discerning public as being by “the Good Duck Artist.” When some of his most dedicated fans finally tracked him down, his belated celebrity began.

Gladstone Publishing began re-releasing Barks material – and a selection of other Disney comics strips – in the 1980s and this album is another one of the best. Whilst producing all that landmark innovative material Barks was just a working guy, generating covers, illustrating other people’s scripts when required.

Printed in the European oversized format (278mm x 223mm) this glorious treat reprints some of the best tales of another Barks creation, one that became the inspiration for the publisher of these fabulous collections. Gladstone Gander was created in 1948 as a foil for Donald Duck, intended to be even more obnoxious than the irascible, excitable film fowl.

That first untitled tale from Walt Disney Comics and Stories #95 introduces him: as big and blustery a blowhard as Donald, both furiously boasting and feuding, trying to get one over on the other in a series of scams that does neither any good.

That set a pattern but it wasn’t until the second tale that Barks hit on his character masterstroke. Gladstone is slick, lazy and unpleasant – but also the luckiest creature on Earth. Diamonds fall from the skies at his feet, he wins lotteries he never entered… nothing comes hard for him!

In this hilarious yarn (Walt Disney Comics and Stories #143, 1952) Donald is swindled into buying worthless land which he palms off on Gladstone, only for the giddy goose to turn an instant profit. The most intriguing part of these little gems is how Barks managed to craft moralistic endings that taught both these wily birds a salutary lesson.

Walt Disney Comics and Stories #167 (1954) found the pair competing for a sports car in a prize fishing competition but although an incredible fluke naturally nets Gladstone the car, Donald’s display of heroism finally wins him a worthier reward.

The last two stories highlight the other – and highly comedic aspects – of the rivals, namely their extended duel for the favours of Daisy Duck, seen here in the tale of an intimate dinner party that goes nowhere near according to plan, and their superb slapstick one-upmanship that compels them to compete for lead role in a Shakespearian Amateur dramatics production – a hysterical tragedy in the making.

Barks was as adept with quick-fire gag stories as epic adventures; blending humour with drama and charm with action, and even if you can’t find this particular volume, most of his work is readily accessible through a number of publications and outlets. So there’s absolutely no need to deprive yourself of these delightful tales. You lucky devil, you…
© 1989, 1958, 1954, 1952, 1948 The Walt Disney Company. All Rights Reserved.