Walt Disney’s Donald Duck “Terror of the Beagle Boys” is Volume 10 in Fantagraphics’s The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library. The book collects comic book stories from 1951 starring Donald; his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie; and Grandma Duck. It concludes with “Story Notes,” annotations by a team of writers; “Carl Barks: Life Among the Ducks,” a biography by Donald Ault; and a Covers Gallery.
Buy Walt Disney’s Donald Duck “Terror of the Beagle Boys”: The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 10The book opens with a story that presents the debut of the Beagle Boys, who would become frequent nemeses of Uncle Scrooge. However, in this story they don’t show up until the last panel as Scrooge’s worrying, which is so intense he pays Donald 30 cents an hour to worry for him, is what causes his problems.
Scrooge, whose obsession with money makes him a terrible individual, appears in four other stories in this book. In “Billions to Sneeze At,” Scrooge is angry that Donald is a penny short in paying back $4 and turns him into his personal repo man. Scrooge develops an allergy to money, so he goes to live like a hermit in a cave, allowing Donald to handle his finances, but Donald proves a soft touch to Scrooge’s frustration. In “The Trouble with Dimes,” Donald owes Scrooge 10 cents and starts selling rare dimes to make money. Donald outsmarts his uncle, who unknowingly has a lot of rare coins in the vaults, but he doesn’t think things through and outsmarts himself. In “No Such Varmint,” jobless Donald becomes a snake charmer but his nephews think that’s a useless skill and he should become a detective. They end up working a case involving the disappearance of one of Scrooge’s gold-transporting ships disappears, and what seems like a pointless skill ends up cracking the case.
Barks tells “A Financial Fable” in the most puzzling story of the collection. On Scrooge’s farm, the elder duck oddly has three cubic acres of bills and coins in an immense crib. Donald quits working the farm and plays hooky with his cousin Gladstone. After a cyclone empties the crib, not only do the two cousins each get a million dumped into their laps, many people also receive a wind-blown windfall. They end up quitting their jobs, leaving no one working anywhere, not the gas station, the cafe, nor the bus depot. Somehow not only are all the clothes gone, but the entire industry, down to sheep farmers who sell wool, has immediately collapsed. Apparently no one leaves for other parts of the world where there money would work. Instead, they all come crawling back to Scrooge who sells items like a ham for $1 billion, allowing for Scrooge to earn back all his money. It’s really a nonsensical way for the status quo to return, but the writing is the weakest of the bunch.
The truce never lasts long and Gladstone and Donald find themselves in competition. In “Knightly Rivals,” they vie for the lead role in a play put on by Daisy’s drama club. She wants to see who will be the most chivalrous, but these competitive cousins can only be polite for so long. The reveal of who performs the role is a funny twist, although not to Daisy. “Gladstone’s Luck” finally turns bad when he plays a round of golf against Donald, who has a run of good luck. At least, that’s how it appears initially.
Donald and the boys take a couple trips. They head to the Riviera in “Dangerous Disguise,” an espionage story filled with many plot twists, and get caught up with spies, counter-spies, and Donaldo El Quacko, a matador who could be Donald’s twin. The story is a rarity as the ducks interact with humans. “In Old California,” Donald and the boys get into a car accident and are knocked out off the freeway outside of Los Angeles. Indians rescue them and a brew by the medicine man puts them to sleep. They wake up in 1848 and have adventure during the Gold Rush days or do they?
Woodchucks Huey, Dewey, and Louie attempt to earn merit badges in a two stories in spite of their uncle’s meddling. In “Operation St. Bernard,” they attempt to train the titular dog, which proves difficult when they discover Bornworthy is afraid of snow. Donald gets caught rigging the contest, but the boys and Bornworthy get another chance. They later attempt to become “Ten-Star Generals” but Donald showing off his skills from his days in the Little Booneheads nearly sinks them.
When they become the main characters of a story, the trio find themselves suffering the same Duck luck as their relatives. In “The April Foolers,” their attempts to play April Fool’s Day gags keep backfiring, as does their attempts to skip school in “The Truant Nephews.”
The writer is for “Attic Antics” is unknown, but it’s a fun crossover that Disney fans will enjoy. Grandma Duck is expecting a visit from Daisy. Not only does Mickey nemesis Black Pete appear to attempt a home robbery, but mice Jaq and Gus-Gus from Walt Disney’s Cinderella save the day.
Nine years into his tenure, Barks’s artwork continues to be of high quality. The panels are filled with rich details in the backgrounds that always make the setting clear, no matter the location even though this collection story finds the Ducks often staying close to home. The use of color and shading stands out in this printing from Fantagraphics as the images pop off the page. The body language and facial expressions of the characters convey their inner, and often times external, feelings.
The quality of most the stories and all the artwork make this as good a place as any to enter the world of Carl Barks Duck comics.
