The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library

Fantagraphics launched the Complete Carl Barks Disney Library with Lost in the Andes in December 2011. Since then, they have released two volumes each year. The volumes in this library are numbered chronologically, but they are being released in a different order. For example, the first volume released, Lost in the Andes, is volume 7. Carl Barks Disney comics were published between 1942 and 1966. When the Complete Carl Barks Disney Library is completed, it will have around 30 volumes. Carl Barks is in the Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, and he is a Disney Legend which makes this library essential reading for Disney Duck Fans as well as all Disney and comic book fans.

Lost in the Andes

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 7: Lost in the Andes was released by Fantagraphics in December 2011.

The illustrations that make up the cover of this book are both from Lost in the Andes story.

This edition of the Carl Barks library is 250 pages, and it includes 20 stories that were published between 1948-1949. There are also some supplement sections with a short biography on Carl Bark’s life as well as behind the scenes pictures and stories about each and every story that is included in this edition. It is full of great and interesting information. I am glad that it is included in this volume and every volume of the Carl Barks Library.

Carl Barks Library Vol. 7 is available in hardcover and Kindle\Comixology versions. A link to buy this book can be found at the end of this review.

This volume is also available in a set coupled with Carl Barks Library Vol. 8: Trail of the Unicorn.

The next new release in this series Carl Barks Library Vol. 20, The Mines of King Solomon, will be released in May 2019.

Included Stories

There are 20 Disney Duck stories included in Lost in the Andes:

• Lost in the Andes
• The Golden Christmas Tree
• Race to the South Seas
• Voodoo Hoodoo
• Toyland
• The Crazy Quiz Show
• Truant Officer Donald
• Donald Duck’s Worst Nightmare
• Pizen Spring Dude Ranch
• Rival Beachcombers
• The Sunken Yacht
• Managing the Eco System
• Plenty of Pets
• Jumping to Conclusions
• The True Test
• Ornaments on the Way
• Too Fit to Fit
• Sleepy Sitters
• Slippery Shine
• Tunnel Vision

Lost in the Andes is a classic Barks story where Donald and the boys are on an adventure looking for square eggs. They happen upon Plain Awful where everything is in the shape of a square…including eggs. Don Rosa made a sequel to this story in which Scrooge McDuck and Flintheart Glomgold hunt for square eggs called Return to Plain Awful. Return to Plain Awful can be found in the Don Rosa Library Vol. 2.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie really want a colored tree for Christmas in The Golden Christmas Tree. By the title of the story, I bet you can guess which color tree they decide on. Donald and the boys pick up a standard green tree from the tree lot because all of the other color options cost too much. Meanwhile, there have been sightings of a witch in town that is attacking Christmas trees. The witch in disguise tricks Huey, Dewey, and Louie into climbing the mountain to look for a golden tree. The witch wants to use the boy’s’ tears in her spell to try to destroy all Christmas trees. Uncle Donald to the rescue. I really enjoyed this story, and I thought it was an interesting mesh between a Halloween and Christmas story. Don’t worry, it has a happy ending…for the boys, not the witch.

Donald and Gladstone have an argument over which one of them is Scrooge McDuck’s favorite relative and will eventually inherit his fortune. Scrooge gifts them each sailboats in Race to the South Seas. After they hear that Scrooge’s plane crashed, Donald and Gladstone have a race to go save him to try to earn the title of favorite relative. Does Scrooge really want to be saved though?

Having read through Don Rosa’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, the Voodoo Hoodoo story tells the story of Bombie Zmobie finding Donald in Duckburg and mistaking him for Scrooge McDuck. Bombie has been looking for Scrooge McDuck for seventy years. He has been trying to give Scrooge a Voodoo doll with a curse that will shrink him in size. When Donald is given the Voodoo doll by mistake, he heads to Africa to track down Foola Zoola to erase the curse. Don Rosa did a great job of incorporating these Voodoo characters into the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck so well that this story feels like a perfect supplemental addition to Rosa’s story even though this one was written several decades before Rosa’s story.

In Toyland, Santa Claus invites Donald and his nephews to the North Pole to help him test toys and decide what is the go to gift to give this year.

Donald and the boys go on a game show in The Crazy Quiz Show. Contestants that correctly answer a quiz question can choose between a bike or money.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie try to play hooky from school, and they may have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for Truant Officer Donald.

Donald has a nightmare problem in Donald Duck’s Worst Nightmare. The only way to scare him out of the nightmares and a good night sleep is to show him that reality can be scarier than his nightmares. Daisy and his crochet club can help with that.

Donald is determined to stop a thief from stealing horses at Pizen Spring Dude Ranch where they are paying guest. He gets extra chances to stop the thief as the thief in disguise keeps selling the same three stolen horses back to Donald.

Donald and Gladstone are in competition to find treasures in the sand at the beach in Rival Beachcombers.

Donald and the boys are trying to find something worth salvaging from the water in The Sunken Yacht. They find a sunken yacht owned by Scrooge McDuck. Scrooge wants Donald to salvage the yacht at a discount. When Donald rightly refuses the money, Scrooge tricks him into doing it for free.

Donald is an echo expert in Managing the Eco System. Huey, Dewey, and Louie desperately want their uncle to give them 60 cents so that they can attend a baseball game. (Timeout) How great it would be if baseball game tickets cost 20 cents each in current times. (Time-in). Donald refuses so the boys try to trick him into paying 10 cents for each echo when he goes on a relaxing echo stroll. Donald catches on immediately and tries to create sounds that the boys won’t be able to echo, but boy are those boys crafty.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie come home from camp, and they are not alone in Plenty of Pets. They have brought home several wild animals that they hope their uncle will let live with them. Meanwhile, a police office visits Donald and lets him know that a burglar is terrorizing homes in his neighborhood. He would have gotten away with it too…if it wasn’t for all of the boys new pets.

The next seven stories are classic Carl Barks one page gags.

In Jumping to Conclusions, Donald returns the Christmas presents that he bought for his nephews because they did not do their chore of shoveling the show out of the walkway. He later finds out that they were using the shovel to clear all of their neighbors walkways to boy him Christmas presents…oops!

The True Test finds Donald shopping for Christmas presents for his nephews at a toy shop. He tests each toy which either causes damage or injures the salesperson.

Donald snags the last Christmas tree from the store while doing last minute shopping in Ornaments on the Way. The store is out of ornaments; however, as Donald carries the tree through the busy crowded streets, the tree becomes accessorized with various hats, glasses, purses, canes, and gloves.

Donald is worrying about fitting in his tux for a dinner party in Too Fit to Fit. The tux is a little tight around the waist so Donald exercises for three days straight. The workouts bulks Donald up where the tux might not fit in other places.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie tried to earn some money babysitting in Sleepy Sitters. They ask for Donald’s helping putting the baby asleep, but in the end Donald and the baby are the only ones left awake.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie are waxing the floor in Slippery Shine, but they may have used too much wax if Donald has to get around the house on snow skis.

The boys are fighting over the chair to sit in to watch tv in Tunnel Vision. So Donald drills holes in the wall and makes them watch the tv from the other room.

Final Thoughts

As stated above, Lost in the Andes was the first volume of the Carl Barks Disney Library that was published by Fantagraphics. The Lost in the Andes story shows us what happened with Donald and the boys the first time that they stumbled upon Plain Awful to search for square eggs. The Golden Tree is a fun story that blends Halloween with Christmas when a witch terrorizes Duckburg at Christmas time. The Voodoo Hoodoo will make you love Don Rosa’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck when you see where he got his inspiration from for the 11th chapter of Scrooge’s life. Overall this was a strong volume of Carl Barks classic stories.

In this volume, we are treated to an 8 page Introduction short biography on Carl Barks by Donald Ault who worked with Carl Barks.

The behind the scenes content on each story really completes this volume for a comprehensive experience. I can’t wait to read through the rest of the volumes in the Carl Barks Library.

As a reminder: 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.

Thank you to Fantagraphics for allowing us to go through this Disney Duck journey. I feel smarter for increasing my Disney Duck knowledge base by reading this volume.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

You can order the book at the following links:

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 7: Lost in the Andes

Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: “Lost in the Andes” & “Trail of the Unicorn” Gift Box Set (The Complete Carl Barks Library)

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