This is one of my favorite Donald Duck covers. It's by Carl Barks. I think it captures the very essence of Donald and his relationship with the boys. I love Donald's face, it's so alive, he's so happy. So happy, even though he might be in danger, he's so excited he doesn't even notice. Bark's was a gag writer for the Disney animation studio before he started drawing comics and he brings that gag man attitude to the stories. He builds his stories around gag ideas. The Walt Disney's Comics and Stories 10 pages were elaborate set-ups and pay-offs, often involving huge collateral damage, insanity, huge fights or contests of will between Donald and Huey, Dewey and Louie. They were loud and fast and funny. Donald often rushed into things and there were hilarious results. Other times he is the fantastic worker who fails miserably on the last job, often with huge amounts of chaos and jokes. I like Donald's elasticity here. He is so flexible. I also like the frozen moment. The action captured. But that's what good comics are about.
In one of my favorite stories Donald, Daisy and the boys are riding in Donald's Car. I really like Donald's car. He is still driving it today, over 50 years later. Must be a good car. They pass a sign for the town of Omelet. Donald hands out disguises for him and the boys. Donald explains to Daisy that he and the boys are not welcome in the town, but they need to go that way to get where they are headed. Donald proceeds to tell the curious Daisy the story of his attempt to run a chicken farm. It was located on top of one of those rolling hills, overlooking the town, which was named Pleasant Valley in those days. Things were going along pretty good, Donald had 10,000 chickens. Thinking he would speed things up growth wise Donald whips up a mess of vitamins and feeds that to the chickens. The chickens respond by dropping all their feathers. Thinking the loose feathers can be sold Don and the boys rake them into piles on the hill above the town. The town thinks it's snow already and begin tarring their roofs for the winter. While that is going on a big wind blows the feathers off the hill into the town. Donald is not welcome there anymore but he keeps on struggling. The chickens aren't laying eggs. The boys suggest selling the chickens for eating. Donald drives the ten thousand chickens right into the town thinking he can just load them up like cattle at the rail yard. He gets sued. Now he's so broke he needs the price of eggs to jump 60 cents, to a buck a dozen, to break even. He starts stockpiling eggs. Soon there are a million eggs and their weight is too great for the flimsy stockade. It bursts. The eggs rush down the hill flooding the town to the roof tops. The people burn down the town to make it easier to remove the eggs. Donald quips on the way out "But you would think those soreheads could have spelled it 'Omelette' or something fancy. After all, those were mighty expensive eggs." The end, no lesson learned, back to the action next story. It's a funny story and the art makes it all the more special.
I went to look at my copy of Walt Disney's Comics (and Stories) 146 which has the above story. It turned out to be defective. I opened it to find not the Omelet story. On further inspection it turns out that the contents are from WDC&S 96. Rats! Luckily, the Nostalgia Zone has a fair one for 6 fifty. Still, now I got to go over there and it's such a crappy area to park in. I started to sort the unboxed comics to be mixed in with the older part of the collection. I need an assistant, I never get enough done. If I could get someone to sleep for me I could really get a lot of tv watched.
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