The Don Rosa Library

Fantagraphics debuted the first volume of the Don Rosa Library, The Son of the Sun, in 2014. Since then, they have released two volumes each year. In November 2018, the tenth and final volume, The Old Castle’s Other Secret, was released. The library contains the complete chronological collection of all of his Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck stories. There were a total of 88 stories by Don between 1987 and 2006.

Escape From Forbidden Valley

Don Rosa Library Vol. 8 is 208 pages, and it includes stories published between 1997 and 1999. Vol. 8 was released on January 9th, 2018. The majority of the pages are the stories, but there are behind the scenes pictures and stories about each and every story that is included in this edition. We also get treated to pin-up posters that Don drew. I am glad that these bonuses are included in this volume and every volume of the Don Rosa Library.

Don Rosa Library Vol. 8 is available in hardcover and Kindle versions. It is also included in a two pack that includes both Don Rosa Library Vol. 7 and Vol. 8. A link to buy this book can be found at the end of this review.

Included Stories

There are 7 Disney Duck stories included in the Don Rosa Library Vol. 8:

• W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N.

• The Black Knight
• The Sign of the Triple Distelfink
• The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark
• The Dutchman’s Secret
• Escape from Forbidden Valley
• The Quest for Kalevala

W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N. stands for What Huey And Dewey And Louie Originally Thought To Adopt Junior-Woodchuck Attitudes, Regulations, And Grandiose Organizational Nomenclature. It is the story about how Huey, Dewey, and Louie joined the Junior Woodchucks. Their initiation task is to try and find all of the pieces of wood that originally made up Fort Duckburg on Killmotor Hill.

The Black Night is a sequel to The Universal Solvent story from the Don Rosa Library Vol. 6. A final story from this trilogy can be found in Don Rosa Vol. 10. In this story, a nefarious French Master thief, Arpin Lusene, comes to Duckburg with one goal in mine…the Money Bin. His main takeaways from his first trip to the Money Bin is the jar on Universal Solvent from Scrooge’s safe and a Knight suit of arms from Castle McDuck. He uses the Universal Solvent on the knight armor and sword to make the suit invincible. Buckle up for the Black Knight vs Scrooge McDuck Round 1.

I learned a little known fact in The Sign of the Triple Distelfink that Gladstone Gander is unlucky on his birthday every year. When Donald and Gladstone were kids, he was struck by lighting next to a symbol that stands for bad luck. Will lightning strike twice to return his luck on his birthday?

The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark is another story of the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. We find out how a Scottish cowboy piloted a grounded steamship in to port. The story starts off with a young Scrooge sailing the seas aboard the famous tea trader of the China Seas, the Cutty Sark. Scrooge was taking some Longhorns from Montana to Java in hopes of selling the livestock to a Sultan. The Sultan steals the livestock and Scrooge has to chase them down by ship to get them back. Along the way, Scrooge runs into Ratchet Gearloose and an angry volcano.

The Dutchman’s Secret is a story about how Scrooge, Donald, and the boys found the most famous treasure of North America, the Lost Dutchman’s Mine. The treasure map for this adventure was glued onto one of the pages of Scrooge’s Scrapbook from the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. I really enjoyed this treasure hunting adventure.

Donald and the boys first traveled to the Forbidden Valley in Carl Bark’s story Forbidden Valley (currently available in the Carl Bark’s Library Vol. 19: The Black Pearls of Tabu Yama). In Escape from Forbidden Valley, Scrooge takes the family back to the Amazon in search of special Nutmegs for his favorite drink, nutmeg tea. They mistake one tribe for another and encounter the same Stickaree Indians that attacked Donald and the boys in the story Forbidden Valley. The Stickaree try to get revenge on Donald for letting the dinosaurs out of the Forbidden Valley and destroying their camp. The Stickaree throw Donald into the Forbidden Valley with the prehistoric creatures, and they hope to keep him there thanks to a wall they built at the entrance to the valley. It is up to Scrooge and the boys to save the day, but they have their own prehistoric problems in the Forbidden Valley. I am a sucker for Dinosaur stories so it is no surprise that I loved this one. I also loved how well Don’s story fit with the original Carl Bark’s Forbidden Valley story. Escape From Forbidden Valley was a perfect choice for this volume of the Don Rosa library’s title and cover art.

In The Quest for Kalevala, Scrooge is searching for a mill that creates gold coins called the Sampo. This epic tale is a story from Finnish lore.

Final Thoughts

We get a lot of great story gems in this volume. W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N. was a great 60th anniversary tribute to Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Don gave us another worthy adversary and villain for Scrooge McDuck in The Black Knight. The Sign of the Triple Distelfink gave us an origin story for Gladstone’s luck. The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark gave us another supplement story to the most epic story ever told, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Scrooge finds the greatest treasure ever discovered in North America in The Dutchman’s Secret. The Duck family and Scrooge have fun with dinosaurs in Escape From Forbidden Valley. Don Rosa becomes an even bigger Finland Legend with The Quest for Kalevala.

It would take a lot of time and money to compile a comic collection that included all of these stories. Anything that takes a lot of time and money would not be approved by Scrooge McDuck.

The behind the scenes content on each story really completes this volume for a comprehensive experience. For an extra bonus, we get a series of pin-up posters that Don worked on for his stories and others.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

You can order the book at the following link:

Don Rosa Library Vol. 8: Escape From Forbidden Valley

Don Rosa Library Vol. 7 and 8 Combo Pack

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