Review by Frank Plowright

This final collection of Gyro Gearloose short stories gathers the back-up strips Carl Barks wrote and drew for his Uncle Scrooge comics between 1961 and 1964. These adhere more closely to the original idea of Gyro conceiving some fabulous invention than the material in his solo comics, a necessity probably dictated by only having four pages to play around with. The formula is therefore the introduction of a miraculous device that then goes on to have unforeseen consequences.

The conceit of the strip is that Gyro is a genius whose inventions always work, and the formula is exemplified in the opening story of Gyro having produced a device enabling anyone to survive on a remote island lacking any food. It works too well, also providing a food source for the surrounding birds.

More so than the duck stories, Barks includes visual jokes in Gyro’s stories. The most obvious are the antics of his lightbulb-headed helper, but also via other elements such as a group of birds forming a whimsical audience as Gyro attempts to fix his toaster. That’s among the more surreal inclusions, as Barks begins with the seemingly irrelevant announcement of Duckburg launching a moon rocket. It may be forced, but everything ties together in four pages. Birds feature in a couple more stories, one nested inconveniently on a bridge, Barks recycling a scenario from one of his old Donald Duck shorts.

As the collection progresses, Gyro’s helper takes a larger role. In earlier stories he’s often actually Gyro’s saviour via applying common sense rather than theory, and here there’s actually a story when it speaks to birds, explained by their being on the same magnetic frequency. Barks works variations on themes throughout this selection, something that wouldn’t have been as obvious with the stories printed over several years. Fish are evident in a couple of strips, as are fellow inventors, and in one of those Barks recycles ideas about modifying trees as seen in Gyro Gearloose 5.

In isolation these are charmingly efficient short comedies, very nicely drawn and with some good jokes, but it’s the weakest selection of the series. This collection isn’t easily located, so it’s just as well the stories have been reprinted in the Fantagraphics Uncle Scrooge hardcover collections of Barks’ work, beginning with The Golden Nugget Boat.