**This blog contains content that can be seen as spoilers for the episode Nothing Can Stop Della Duck. Do not read this blog if you have not watched that episode.**

In DuckTales episode “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!”, we hear Della tell the boys her story about how she defeated the Gilded Man from Eldorado. In her story, she says she climbed into the Gilded Man which in this version is a giant golden robot and defeated it. Later in the episode, we see that the Gilded Man is being stored in Scrooge’s garage and he comes back to life for his revenge. The giant golden robot is eventually defeated by sound waves.

From the Comics

The Gilded Man made his debut in a Carl Barks comic published by Dell in 1952 titled appropriately, Donald Duck and the Gilded Man. The comic story has been republished several times and the title has been shortened in reprintings to The Gilded Man.

There are some obvious differences in the original Carl Barks adaptation of the Gilded Man from the DuckTales (2017) version: He was not a giant robot. His weakness was not loud noises. Della Duck was not there. He was a giant man from Eldorado that covered himself in gold.

In Carl Bark’s The Gilded Man, Donald is a stamp collector. He is in search of an old stamp from British Guiana that is worth $50,000. A story tells that a mail delivery person had the rare stamp on a letter that was in his mail sack. The letter never reached its intended recipient as the mail sack was confiscated by the Gilded Man who was fascinated by the big silver buckles. Donald and the boys track down the mail sack as you can see from the comic pane below, but the Gilded Man catches them and makes the Duck Family his prisoners for trying to take his precious silver.

How will the Duck Family escape and what will be the fate of the valuable rare stamp? You will have to read the story to find out.

The Gilded Man Story can be found fully restored in Fantagraphics’ The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 11: A Christmas For Shacktown.

That volume can be purchased from this link:

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 11: A Christmas For Shacktown

The Gilded Man also makes an appearance in a Don Rosa comic story from 1998 titled The Last Lord of Eldorado.

The Last Lord of Eldorado is a Duck adventure story where Scrooge is going against Flintheart Glomgold to find the Golden City, Eldorado.

As part of a sacred ritual, the chief of the Chibcha Indians, the Gilded Man, would dump all of their golden riches into the lake as an offering.

I won’t reveal which duck comes out on top, but it pays to be smarter than the smarties.

The Last Lord of Eldorado story can be found fully restored in Fantagraphics’ The Don Rosa Library Vol. 7: The Treasure of the Ten Avatars.

That volume can be purchased from this link:

The Don Rosa Library Vol. 7: The Treasure of the Ten Avatars

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