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crocheteer34's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
3.0
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Trail of the Unicorn contains 20+ Donald Duck comics from the late 1940s and early 1950s, all written and illustrated by Carl Barks.
This isn't my first trip to the Carl Barks library but it's the first Donald Duck volume I've read. Inside are 20+ stories of Donald Duck and his nephews, frequently pitted against his dastardly cousin Gladstone Gander or nature itself. Uncle Scrooge is here but isn't in fine adventuring form just yet, he sends Donald on quests instead of leading the expeditions himself.
There's a good mix of tales here, adventures, slices of life, and people learning lessons. Barks gets a lot of mileage out of the boys from Duckburg. You don't often see an uncle and a nephew battling with steam shovels on Christmas Eve. He's a masterful cartoonist as well, adept at conveying emotion in just a few pen strokes. He doesn't skimp on the backgrounds, either, though no one in their right mind could blame him if he did, this being kids' comics from seventy years ago.
While it's lacking in Uncle Scrooge, I enjoyed Trail of the Unicorn quite a bit. Four out of five stars.
This isn't my first trip to the Carl Barks library but it's the first Donald Duck volume I've read. Inside are 20+ stories of Donald Duck and his nephews, frequently pitted against his dastardly cousin Gladstone Gander or nature itself. Uncle Scrooge is here but isn't in fine adventuring form just yet, he sends Donald on quests instead of leading the expeditions himself.
There's a good mix of tales here, adventures, slices of life, and people learning lessons. Barks gets a lot of mileage out of the boys from Duckburg. You don't often see an uncle and a nephew battling with steam shovels on Christmas Eve. He's a masterful cartoonist as well, adept at conveying emotion in just a few pen strokes. He doesn't skimp on the backgrounds, either, though no one in their right mind could blame him if he did, this being kids' comics from seventy years ago.
While it's lacking in Uncle Scrooge, I enjoyed Trail of the Unicorn quite a bit. Four out of five stars.
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes contains Donald Duck stories from 1948-1949, written and illustrated by Carl Barks.
In this volume Donald Duck and the nephews visit a lost city in the Andes mountains, go up against Gladstone Gander, save Christmas a couple times, and engage in a lot of other shenanigans. Oh, and the story of raising a sunken ship using ping pong balls that inspired an episode of Mythbusters is in here.
Barks changed comics with his Disney work, whether or not anyone knew it at the time. He's a master storyteller and influenced such diverse artists as Bill Watterson and Moebius. He started as an animator for Disney so his style has a similar feel. He knows what to draw and what not to draw to convey what is happening in a story. The art is minimalist but has a timeless quality.
Like this:
Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes is a great example of the master in action. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
In this volume Donald Duck and the nephews visit a lost city in the Andes mountains, go up against Gladstone Gander, save Christmas a couple times, and engage in a lot of other shenanigans. Oh, and the story of raising a sunken ship using ping pong balls that inspired an episode of Mythbusters is in here.
Barks changed comics with his Disney work, whether or not anyone knew it at the time. He's a master storyteller and influenced such diverse artists as Bill Watterson and Moebius. He started as an animator for Disney so his style has a similar feel. He knows what to draw and what not to draw to convey what is happening in a story. The art is minimalist but has a timeless quality.
Like this:
Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes is a great example of the master in action. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
mschlat's review against another edition
4.0
A couple of nice Uncle Scrooge stories here, including the first appearance of the money bin and a great tale about Donald actually being hired to spend Scrooge's money.
There are also several Gladstone Gander stories --- Barks makes Gander's incredible and predictable luck a source of frustation to Donald on several occasions. I was intrigued to see the plotting similarities with the Scrooge stories (both characters have immense resources which Donald can't access and yet Donald needs to have some success by the end of the tale).
There are also several Gladstone Gander stories --- Barks makes Gander's incredible and predictable luck a source of frustation to Donald on several occasions. I was intrigued to see the plotting similarities with the Scrooge stories (both characters have immense resources which Donald can't access and yet Donald needs to have some success by the end of the tale).
mschlat's review against another edition
4.0
One very good Christmas story and some nice adventure tales.
mschlat's review against another edition
3.0
Not my favorite volume. The focus here is holiday stories, mostly Halloween and a few Christmas, and not the stories of exploration that Barks excelled at. I did like two tales, one on how Donald and his nephews destroyed a town through chicken farming and another on how Donald messes up his job of bringing rain to farmers. (Barks shows Donald moving and sculpting clouds with his plane to the point where he can make sure everything on a farm gets rain except the clothesline --- it's great visual fun.)
mschlat's review against another edition
4.0
One great story about Donald Duck, the nephews, and spies that veers closer to Mad Magazine territory that anything else I've seen from Carl Barks (there are spies and counterspies and counter-counterspies and ...) A couple of good economics stories as well featuring Uncle Scrooge (of course), including one where everyone gets a piece of Scrooge's money and stops working, leading to a collapsed society that Uncle Scrooge (of course) takes advantage of.
mschlat's review against another edition
3.0
A nice volume. Since (almost) all of the stories are ten pagers, there are no long sagas or travel stories, but it was interesting to see the number of gimmicks Barks could bring up in the shorter format. (It's astonishing how many way Donald can lose a job!)
mschlat's review
4.0
For whatever reason, I enjoyed this volume more than I have most of the recent volumes. I think part of the appeal is the (mostly) domestic focus --- there is the occasional adventure story, but most of the tales involve plain ol' conflicts between Donald and his nephews. Two highlights include "Camping Confusion", where Donald tracks Huey, Louie, and Dewey using uranium buttons (!!!) on their caps, and "The Chickadee Challenge", where the nephews and fellow Junior Woodchucks engage in a bridge building contest with the Chickadee Patrol (the Barks version of the Girl Scouts). The latter tale has an actual geometry problem (with correct solution) and one of the best titles for a Junior Woodchuck officer: Great, Inopposable Commandant of the Realm of Inextinguishable Sagacity!