Review by Frank Plowright
It’s a niche area, but there have been comparative studies of Carl Barks’ duck stories, moreso in Europe where collections of his work remain on sale in station bookshops. The consensus is that by 1961 Barks had passed his golden period, but this volume contains two stories if not among his absolute best, then certainly proving Barks retained his creativity, even if more sporadically.
‘The Midas Touch’ introduces glamorous witch Magica De Spell, one of his most famous creations, devised because Barks considered he couldn’t use the Beagle Boys for every story about Scrooge in danger of being robbed. Her motives differ from the Beagle Boys, wanting to steal Scrooge’s Number One Dime, considering it to have potent magic because he’s fondled it so often. Magica comes almost fully formed, already using close contact stun bombs, switching identities and having her hideout on the edge of Mount Vesuvius, although the limitation of her having to prepare her spells was a later consideration. The resulting story is a glorious race against time with Magica seemingly always having the upper hand, while the ingenuity of Huey, Dewey and Louie saves the day.
In Barks stories it’s usually Donald Duck who’s frustrated by his cousin Gladstone’s supernatural good luck, but ‘The Golden Nugget Boat’ raises the stakes. It pits Gladstone’s luck against Scrooge’s belief that wealth has to be earned during a return for Scrooge to Alaska, and a contest to locate the largest gold nugget. Scrooge adheres to the values of persistence and overcoming adversity while being enraged at how everything falls into place for Gladstone. It’s clever, very funny, and supplies a good final twist on the title.
The first of two shorter back-ups maintains the high standards, as Scrooge hires a lion to guard his money bin when the lock fails. Will he realise it’s a disguised Beagle Boy? The other short is more contrived, featuring a goat trained to eat money, and a lost sack of greenbacks. Barks avoids the obvious joke, but his replacement twist isn’t classic either.
One aspect of Barks’ talents that never disappoints is the first rate art. The ducks are lively and expressive, there are some great character cameos (with a group of grumpy miners a highlight), and some panels are peppered with visual jokes. The best of these is a humanised pig running a lock company surrounded by pig merchandise.
Magica will return frequently in future volumes, occasionally in even better outings than her introduction, but while some of the next twenty collections feature excellent stories, none will again reach the creative peak displayed here.
This volume was published on Scrooge’s 50th anniversary, and so there’s the bonus of Geoffrey Blum’s timeline from 1947-1997 picking out highlights. All these stories are now more easily found in the Fantagraphics hardcover Uncle Scrooge by Carl Barks: The Golden Nugget Boat.
