Two weeks ago was Super Hero
week on FromScreenToTheme.com in honor of the
release of The Avengers. The film was a huge hit
at the box office, earning more than $200
million on its opening weekend. Of course, this
wasn't the first time this story was told. That
happened nearly 50 years ago in the form of
comic books.

But even before Disney's
purchase of Marvel in 2009 for $4 billion,
Disney was no stranger to the world of comics.
In fact, Disney collaborated with the now
defunct Dell Comics as early as 1930. Disney did
everything from adapt their latest
shorts/animated films in comic form to creating
original stories starring dozens of characters.
Mickey Mouse of course had his share of
adventures in comics. Even relatively obscure
characters such as Jose Carioca and the Uncle
Remus characters had their own weekly comic
strips. But of all the Disney characters, the
one with the biggest success in comics was
easily Donald Duck.
Mickey might be Disney's mascot,
but Donald has always been the more popular
character. And it was in comics that he really
got to shine. In these stories, Donald really
expanded as a character and grew to be more than
just the duck with the temper tantrum. Donald
got to do seemingly everything, from common
everyday activities such as selling stuff door
to door to going on intrepid adventures across
the globe.

These stories were created by
Disney Legend Carl Barks (1901-2000). He was a
Disney animator who worked on many of the early
Donald Duck shorts, but due to constant problems
with allergies at the Disney Studios due to
their air conditioning, he had to find another
job within the company creating comics, the
first being Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold
in 1942. He would go to create them on a weekly
basis until the early 1970s, and would then
crate them sparingly. His last one, Somewhere
in Nowhere, was published in 2000. His work
over the decades earned him the nickname, 'The
Good Duck Artist.'

Barks was called 'The Good Duck
Artist' because these stories didn't just focus
around Donald Duck; he also focused on Huey,
Dewey, and Louie, whom Barks had expanded their
roles since first being introduced in the 1938
short, 'Donald's Nephews.' Instead of just being
mischievous obstacles for Donald most of the
time, they sort of became his sidekicks, being
more clever and helpful than in the shorts.

In fact, Carl Barks actually
created an entire universe of ducks, as can be
demonstrated in this picture of the Duck Family
Tree:

The most famous of all these
ducks created specifically for these comics is
easily Scrooge McDuck (aka Uncle $crooge),
Donald's Uncle. In fact, Scrooge would go on to
become so famous he would receive his own comic
book series.

These stories were huge back in
their day, appealing to many fans ranging from
chemists Joseph B. Lambert, Dr. Peter P. Gaspar,
and G.S. Hammond, to filmmakers George Lucas and
Steven Spielberg, who would admit to having
stolen the entire opening of Raiders of the Lost
Ark, particularly the infamous scene of Indiana
Joes being chased y a giant boulder, from Carl
Barks' work. Among these collectors were my Dad
and Uncle, whom I inherited these comics from.
These stories are not only
fantastic entertainment, but really fascinating
from a historical perspective. There are a ton
of ads that are distinctively 1950s, as well as
bonus comics that center around Mickey Mouse and
other characters.



Many of these stories would go
on to serve as the inspiration from the hit
animated series, DuckTales. While these comics
are still being created today by multiple
writers and drawers (Don Rosa being the most
famous artist to continue these stories after
Barks), they sadly have decreased in popularity
in the United States, the country they
originated from. They still have a huge
following overseas though, particularly in
European countries such as Denmark.
