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.

The Mines of King Solomon

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 20: The Mines of King Solomon was released by Fantagraphics in May 2019.

Both illustrations that make up the cover of this book are from the story The Mines of King Solomon.

This edition of the Carl Barks library is 202 pages, and it includes 30 stories that were published in 1957-1958. 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. 20 is available in hardcover and Kindle\Comixology versions. A link to buy this book can be found at the end of this review.

The next new release in this series, Carl Barks Library Vol. 21, Christmas in Duckburg, will be released in September 2019.

Included Stories

There are 30 Disney Duck stories included in The Mines of King Solomon:

• The Mines of King Solomon

• History Tossed

• A Real Bargain at Last

• The Big Bobber

• September Scrimmage

• City of Golden Roofs

• Windfall of the Mind

• Forgotten Precaution

• The Money Well

• Dogged Determination

• Rescue Enhancement

• Uncle Scrooge and the Golden River

• That Sinking Feeling

• The Balmy Swami

• High Rider

• Going to Pieces

• The Windy Story

• Trapped Lightning

• Inventor of Anything

• The Cat Box

• Grandma’s Present

• Forecasting Follies

• Fishing Mystery

• Picnic

• The Sure-Fire Gold Finder

• Gyro Builds a Better House

• August Accident

• Roscoe the Robot

• Getting Thor

• The Know-It-All-Machine

Scrooge McDuck purchases tickets for himself, Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie to tour and inspect many of his properties of investments in The Mines of King Solomon. The boys are along on the trip to carry all of the tickets for their travel. They are trying to get their Junior Woodchuck badge for bird and animal calls. They are a little too talented with their whistle as every destination that they visit with Scrooge, the boys get into trouble calling wild animals. The Duck Family’s travels eventually brings them to the Sinai Desert which is where the treasure of the Mines of King Solomon is buried.

In History Tossed, Scrooge attempts to throw a dollar across the Potomac River just like George Washington did. He also speeds across the Potomac River in a boat to catch the dollar that he threw.

Donald has trouble passing by bargain stores without buying something that he doesn’t need in A Real Bargain at Last.

Scrooge doesn’t understand why kids would want to bob for apples until he finds out that the price of apples is going up by 10 cents in The Big Bobber.

The Duckburg Quackers are playing football against the Dogdale Barkers in September Scrimmage. An oversized player on the Dogdale Barkers has the Duckburg Quackers singlehandedly outmatched until Scrooge joins the Duckburg Quackers and shows them some trick plays.

Donald bets Scrooge that on an even playing field, he can earn more than his Uncle in sales in the story City of Golden Roofs. Both salesman are assigned Indo-China as their sales territory. Donald is assigned to sell Hi-Fi tape recorders, and Scrooge is assigned to sell a giant stove. May the best salesperson win.

In Windfall of the Mind, Scrooge falls asleep during a lecture on easy ways to get rich. He daydreams about finding coins on the street.

Scrooge can’t remember something in Forgotten Precaution that causes him to be locked in his own money bin.

The Beagle Boys have an elaborate plan to use an oil drill to drill out all of Scrooge’s money from his bin in The Money Well. Scrooge moves the money from the bin to a hiding spot before the Beagle Boys could get to it. His plan would have worked too if he would have bought new glasses.

Scrooge is blocked by a dog from collecting debts that he is owed in Dogged Determination. He solves that problem by buying a bigger dog.

Scrooge is trapped on a deserted island in Rescue Enhancement. That is until he puts money on a clothesline.

In Uncle Scrooge and the Golden River, Scrooge gets depressed and a little bit stingier every Spring when the dry weather causes the dollar bills in his money bin to shrink. After trying some unsuccessful remedies to unshrink the dollars, a doctor orders him to a cabin in the woods to unsettle his nerves. Dewey tells Scrooge a fable about a magical person that has the power to turn the river gold to reward people who show that they care about others. Scrooge believes the fable to be true when he sees the river turn to gold.

Scrooge is the captain of a sinking ship in That Sinking Feeling. Even though there is room for him in the lifeboat, the crew convinced him to go down with the ship.

Scrooge goes to a fortune teller in The Balmy Swami. The fortune teller speaks of great fortune for Scrooge, but then later asks him what he thinks the weather will be like later.

Scrooge rents a borse for $3 an hour in High Rider. He only uses the horse for a third of an hour so he pays the horse handler only $1.

Everyone in Duckburg seems to be looking for parts to fix up their older model cars in Going to Pieces. Scrooge’s car is really old.

The boys ask Scrooge to tell them a windy story in The Windy Story. Scrooge takes them literally and tells them a story about how the wind helped him trick some outlaws that were out to steal his gold.

We get a Gyro Gearloose centric story in Trapped Lightning. Gyro has a dream to have his own power plant which he accomplishes by catching a bolt of lightning in a lead box. The lightning bolt proves to be too powerful, and Gyro is forced to release the lightning bolt.

Gyro doesn’t have any time to concentrate and think with his neighbor and their kids causing a commotion in Inventor of Anything. His solution is a new invention of his that makes a wall out of whipped cream, but that invention causes even more trouble.

A cat is singing outside Gyro’s window which is causing him not to be able to think about his inventions in The Cat Box. Gyro uses a translation box that he made to translate what the cat is saying. He then uses the box to translate some singing of his own into cat language to scare the cat away.

Gyro decides to take a much needed rest and relaxation vacation to Grandma Duck’s farm and away from inventing in Grandma’s Present. Gyro can’t help himself from inventing something to make farm life work easier.

Gyro invents a machine that can accurately predict the future in Forecasting Follies. The problem is that the machine only tells Gyro part of what is going to happen.

Gyro goes fishing in Fishing Mystery. He lands some big fish immediately. Which makes all of the other fishermen think that he has invented a new way to fish.

Gyro wants to come up with inventions to make the perfect picnic in Picnic. He finds out how hard going on a picnic can really be.

Gyro invents a simple tool to find gold in The Sure-Fire Gold Finder. The tool detects gold and tells him how far to dig for the gold…even if that gold is on the other side of the world in China.

Gyro is hired to invent a house as soft as a pillow in Gyro Builds a Better House.

Gyro wants to have an invention that brings game and fortune in August Accident. He decides to build a steam rocket ship. He becomes famous, but for the wrong reason.

Gyro invents a robot that can act by picking up his thoughts in Roscoe the Robot.

Gyro has a challenge with a gang of crows are not afraid of his scarecrow in Getting Thor. He tries to invent a better scarecrow, but Lil Bulb takes matters into his own hands by going all out Thor on the crows.

Gyro invented a machine to help him with his everyday questions in The Know-It-All-Machine. Except Gyro acts like the know-it-all and doesn’t listen to the machine.

Final Thoughts

This volume of the Complete Carl Barks Disney Library is jam packed with 35 different Carl Barks stories. 13 of those stories center on Gyro Gearloose and his inventions. It was great to have those Gyro stories collected in this volume as almost a tribute to that wacky invented. We also get great Scrooge McDuck gems like The Mines of King Solomon, The Money Well, and Uncle Scrooge and the Golden River. I laughed hard at A Real Bargain At Last, because that story was relatable and reminded me of my mom when she is shopping.

We get treated in the back of the book to a few of the comic covers that Carl Barks illustrated.

The Uncle Scrooge and the Golden River story in this library was remastered with an additional page as Carl Barks originally intended. He had to cut a page out to make the comic story 26 pages when it was originally published. We are treated to a behind the scenes story of the remastering of this story.

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. 20: The Mines of King Solomon

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