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The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library #4
Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Maharajah Donald
Donald becomes a maharajah, a giant sea serpent attacks, and Donald invents an atom bomb! Through a series of trade-ups, the nephews turn Donald’s old pencil stub into ― a steamship ticket to India! Off they go, and Donald is soon declared to be “Maharajah Donald” ― but there’s a catch! Then, Donald accidentally buys a houseboat at an auction that leads to an encounter with a giant sea serpent! Next, “Santa’s Stormy Visit,” a Christmas story with none of the trimmings ― no man in a red suit, no snow (but a tropical hurricane!), no presents under the tree (no tree!) But still a charming holiday tale. And don’t miss “Donald Duck’s Atom Bomb!” As we circle back to Carl Barks’s earlier stories, the Good Duck Artist delivers another superb collection of surprise, delight, comedy, adventure, and all-around cartooning brilliance. 193 pages of story and art, each meticulously restored and newly colored. Insightful story notes by an international panel of Barks experts. Full-color illustrations throughout
224 pages, Hardcover
First published October 10, 2023
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About the author
Carl Barks
2,424 books258 followersCarl Barks was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck. He worked anonymously until late in his career; fans dubbed him "The Duck Man" and "The Good Duck Artist". In 1987, Barks was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
Barks worked for the Disney Studio and Western Publishing where he created Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck (1947), Gladstone Gander (1948), the Beagle Boys (1951), The Junior Woodchucks (1951), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Cornelius Coot (1952), Flintheart Glomgold (1956), John D. Rockerduck (1961) and Magica De Spell (1961).
He has been named by animation historian Leonard Maltin as "the most popular and widely read artist-writer in the world". Will Eisner called him "the Hans Christian Andersen of comic books." Beginning especially in the 1980s, Barks' artistic contributions would be a primary source for animated adaptations such as DuckTales and its 2017 remake.
Barks worked for the Disney Studio and Western Publishing where he created Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck (1947), Gladstone Gander (1948), the Beagle Boys (1951), The Junior Woodchucks (1951), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Cornelius Coot (1952), Flintheart Glomgold (1956), John D. Rockerduck (1961) and Magica De Spell (1961).
He has been named by animation historian Leonard Maltin as "the most popular and widely read artist-writer in the world". Will Eisner called him "the Hans Christian Andersen of comic books." Beginning especially in the 1980s, Barks' artistic contributions would be a primary source for animated adaptations such as DuckTales and its 2017 remake.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
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March 6, 2024My first foray into Carl Barks comics, and it was a lot of fun. This collects Donald Duck stories from 1946 and 1947, before Scrooge McDuck was introduced. There are two longer (30-page) stories, but most are 10-pagers. I laughed out loud several times at the exploits of Donald and his nephews.
Barks' art looks terrific. So clean and clear! And the writing is great for the time, far ahead of most other comics from the Golden Age. There's no lengthy exposition and virtually no narration. Just dialogue that moves the stories along at a brisk pace. These could have been written yesterday and they would feel almost modern.
Barks' art looks terrific. So clean and clear! And the writing is great for the time, far ahead of most other comics from the Golden Age. There's no lengthy exposition and virtually no narration. Just dialogue that moves the stories along at a brisk pace. These could have been written yesterday and they would feel almost modern.
February 3, 2024
This book contains two larger adventure stories, clocking in at about 30 pages each, both of which aren’t very good, Barks is too outlandish in his plotting and the stories aren’t interesting but just ridiculous, for adventure duck stories it is really best to stick with Don Rosa.
There is then a 2 page gage, which is okay, the rest of the book is then a collection of 10 page humor stories, which is where Barks shines best, with enough time to build up a solid laugh in each of the around 15 different humor stories.
Like most of these Fantagraphic releases contains an essay on each story at the end, how they recreated one of the stories which was initially published not in a comic but in Cheerios cereal boxes was perhaps the most interesting.
If your looking for good high adventure, skip this book, but for 10 page shorter laugh fests this is your book.
There is then a 2 page gage, which is okay, the rest of the book is then a collection of 10 page humor stories, which is where Barks shines best, with enough time to build up a solid laugh in each of the around 15 different humor stories.
Like most of these Fantagraphic releases contains an essay on each story at the end, how they recreated one of the stories which was initially published not in a comic but in Cheerios cereal boxes was perhaps the most interesting.
If your looking for good high adventure, skip this book, but for 10 page shorter laugh fests this is your book.
January 29, 2024
As far as pre-Uncle Scrooge Carl Barks go this was a lot of fun. Carl's art isn't as sharp as it will get to in later years (is this the earliest collection of Barks printed so far by Fantagraphics?) but his ability to tell a story is in fine form and the gags and clever stories are all in evidence.
The story this book is titled for is the stand out - it starts a little slow and seemingly unconnected to what happens later, but it then circles back to what happened at the beginning of the tale to come to a fine resolution. For me, this is the hallmark of any good cartoon story - be it Donald Duck or otherwise. An entertaining story that has a well thought out plot and a clever resolution that was hinted at earlier in the tale. I also like when the nephews are HELPING their Uncle Donald instead of being at odds with him as many of the shorter 10 page stories do. That's not to say a little back and forth between the nephews and Donald isn't fun, it just isn't my favourite because it often turns Donald into an abusive parent or the nephews into evil minded pranksters or truants.
Besides the main story there are many clever stories throughout. Thinking back the main favs are ones that involve animals in some way. The seal story where Donald thinks he can train seals but actually has a hold of escaped circus seals. The dog story when the nephews want to adopt a mutt but Donald insists his pure breed is smarter (really liked that one). A cat tale where Donald's kindest to a caterwauling cat leads to a sleepless night. The albatross who helped save Christmas at a lighthouse. And the thanksgiving tale where the nephews and Donald each win a turkey and each get cold feet about killing it for their dinner.
My least fav stories ALL involve Daisy Duck for some reason. She just is always being used as a shrew to belittle Donald. Which is a shame.
Oh the sea um..river serpent tale is also a fun longer form story. Like some longer stories it meanders a bit before getting to the main plot with lead up mini-plots. For this one we get "accidentally bids on auction item and ends up paying way too much to claim it" to "keeps making mistakes with his new house boat" to finally "being terrorized by the river Serpent". Nothing wrong with that but it is interesting it is really three stories in one.
Oh - I did want to note the wealth and status of Donald seems to vary on a per page basis. One story he can't afford a turkey for thanksgiving and on the next story he produces a turkey for an ordinary supper, no problem. One story they are working in a lighthouse...no reason given. Nothing wrong with this, per se, but it is inconsistent.
Overall - another FANTASTIC read and I thank Fantagraphics for continuing this historic collection of all of Carl Barks' Duck comics.
The story this book is titled for is the stand out - it starts a little slow and seemingly unconnected to what happens later, but it then circles back to what happened at the beginning of the tale to come to a fine resolution. For me, this is the hallmark of any good cartoon story - be it Donald Duck or otherwise. An entertaining story that has a well thought out plot and a clever resolution that was hinted at earlier in the tale. I also like when the nephews are HELPING their Uncle Donald instead of being at odds with him as many of the shorter 10 page stories do. That's not to say a little back and forth between the nephews and Donald isn't fun, it just isn't my favourite because it often turns Donald into an abusive parent or the nephews into evil minded pranksters or truants.
Besides the main story there are many clever stories throughout. Thinking back the main favs are ones that involve animals in some way. The seal story where Donald thinks he can train seals but actually has a hold of escaped circus seals. The dog story when the nephews want to adopt a mutt but Donald insists his pure breed is smarter (really liked that one). A cat tale where Donald's kindest to a caterwauling cat leads to a sleepless night. The albatross who helped save Christmas at a lighthouse. And the thanksgiving tale where the nephews and Donald each win a turkey and each get cold feet about killing it for their dinner.
My least fav stories ALL involve Daisy Duck for some reason. She just is always being used as a shrew to belittle Donald. Which is a shame.
Oh the sea um..river serpent tale is also a fun longer form story. Like some longer stories it meanders a bit before getting to the main plot with lead up mini-plots. For this one we get "accidentally bids on auction item and ends up paying way too much to claim it" to "keeps making mistakes with his new house boat" to finally "being terrorized by the river Serpent". Nothing wrong with that but it is interesting it is really three stories in one.
Oh - I did want to note the wealth and status of Donald seems to vary on a per page basis. One story he can't afford a turkey for thanksgiving and on the next story he produces a turkey for an ordinary supper, no problem. One story they are working in a lighthouse...no reason given. Nothing wrong with this, per se, but it is inconsistent.
Overall - another FANTASTIC read and I thank Fantagraphics for continuing this historic collection of all of Carl Barks' Duck comics.
June 4, 2024
I actually finished this book about 2 months ago. However the theft of my goat was heavy on my mind and I was too distracted to review it at the time. Only after doing some organizing of my piles of books to review did I realize that I had overlooked this very fun entry in the Complete Carl Barks Library.
The title story sees Donald taking a trip to India. He's supposed to be going alone. Except his nephews Huey Dewey and Louie stowaway. Once in India, Donald is unexpectedly made the ruler of a small kingdom in a caper that combined hijinks, international law and a hint of racist stereotypes.
As I've mentioned before, Barks' works are indeed peppered with cultural stereotypes and prejudices that would make today's youth request the cancellation of the amazing cartoonists career. Thankfully, Disney and Fantagaphics has decided not to cull away these works in hopes of creating dialogue about how much our societal norms have changed as well as point out how much further we've got to go.
There's holiday stories a plenty in this book. The nephews win a turkey for Thanksgiving. Only it's a live bird and the boys are too attached to it to kill it. In a fantastic Christmas set story, Donald is a lighthouse keeper who forgot to buy gifts for the boys. A looming maelstrom prevents Donald from going ashore on Christmas Eve. So any chance of a Christmas to remember rests on an albatross tasked with delivering a letter to Santa.
Now all of these stories come from comics that are quite valuable and really hard to find. But it's the inclusion of the Donald Lighthouse story along with a tale in which involves Donald, an atomic bomb and a sneaky spy are what makes this book really worth it's cover price of $35! Both stories are freebie premiums that mostly found their way into the waste bin. The Christmas story was given away by various toy stores and department stores during the 1946 holiday shopping season. The Atomic Donald adventure was part of a 4-issue set of minis included in a box of Cheerios cereal.
Oh, and how can I forget Donald's houseboat adventure titled 'The Terror of the River'. His experience with a river bound sea monster contains some of the most epic images crafted by Barks! It's breathtaking!
Maharajah Donald contains some of the earliest Donald Duck stories produced not by Disney, but Carl Barks as well. There's only 3 volumes of earlier material out there. There's no sign of a sophomore slump or early development kinks here. Without Uncle Scrooge, who's still a couple of years away from debuting at this point, many of the stories in this volume are about as close to the adventuresome duck epic formula that made me such a fan of the Disney Ducks back in the 1980s!
The title story sees Donald taking a trip to India. He's supposed to be going alone. Except his nephews Huey Dewey and Louie stowaway. Once in India, Donald is unexpectedly made the ruler of a small kingdom in a caper that combined hijinks, international law and a hint of racist stereotypes.
As I've mentioned before, Barks' works are indeed peppered with cultural stereotypes and prejudices that would make today's youth request the cancellation of the amazing cartoonists career. Thankfully, Disney and Fantagaphics has decided not to cull away these works in hopes of creating dialogue about how much our societal norms have changed as well as point out how much further we've got to go.
There's holiday stories a plenty in this book. The nephews win a turkey for Thanksgiving. Only it's a live bird and the boys are too attached to it to kill it. In a fantastic Christmas set story, Donald is a lighthouse keeper who forgot to buy gifts for the boys. A looming maelstrom prevents Donald from going ashore on Christmas Eve. So any chance of a Christmas to remember rests on an albatross tasked with delivering a letter to Santa.
Now all of these stories come from comics that are quite valuable and really hard to find. But it's the inclusion of the Donald Lighthouse story along with a tale in which involves Donald, an atomic bomb and a sneaky spy are what makes this book really worth it's cover price of $35! Both stories are freebie premiums that mostly found their way into the waste bin. The Christmas story was given away by various toy stores and department stores during the 1946 holiday shopping season. The Atomic Donald adventure was part of a 4-issue set of minis included in a box of Cheerios cereal.
Oh, and how can I forget Donald's houseboat adventure titled 'The Terror of the River'. His experience with a river bound sea monster contains some of the most epic images crafted by Barks! It's breathtaking!
Maharajah Donald contains some of the earliest Donald Duck stories produced not by Disney, but Carl Barks as well. There's only 3 volumes of earlier material out there. There's no sign of a sophomore slump or early development kinks here. Without Uncle Scrooge, who's still a couple of years away from debuting at this point, many of the stories in this volume are about as close to the adventuresome duck epic formula that made me such a fan of the Disney Ducks back in the 1980s!
March 2, 2024
This volume collects Donald Duck stories from 1945 to 1947. Carl Barks has not yet entered his classic period yet in these stories, but he is in fine shape nonetheless. The two long adventures are entertaining, and some of the ten-pagers belong to his all-time best: 'The Smugsnorkie Squattie' and 'The Cantankerous Cat' and 'Jam Robbers' all are comic comedy in top form. I also love 'Donald Duck's Atom Bomb', but I do not understand why Fantagraphics has chosen for this poor print instead of Daan Jippes's fine retouching.
Want to read
March 16, 2024This story is about when Donald asks his nephews to clean out his Garage and for a reward they get a stub of pencil. They trade it for a ball of string then trade that ball of string for a Swiss Army knife.next they trade the Swiss Army knife for a pearl and trade the pearl for a ticket to India on the McCoy.The kids don't get to go because Donald takes their ticket.then Huey, Dewey and Louie stow away in bon voyage baskets. Bringing back old Donald duck comics from the 40s50s60s is nice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 24, 2024
Really really enjoyed this one.
Wasn't really enjoying the last few volumes (mostly Bark's 60's work) but now that it's circled back to the earlier issues, really loved it.
Not as good as his post-Scrooge prime but still super fun (And let's be honest - those comics are some of the greatest of all time).
The stories are mostly Donald and the nephews trying to one-up each other.
Wasn't really enjoying the last few volumes (mostly Bark's 60's work) but now that it's circled back to the earlier issues, really loved it.
Not as good as his post-Scrooge prime but still super fun (And let's be honest - those comics are some of the greatest of all time).
The stories are mostly Donald and the nephews trying to one-up each other.
November 29, 2023
Absolutely lovely early Barks book with some iconic and wonderful duck adventures and gag tales. I enjoyed this book immensely and I wish it had gone on longer--I finished it way too fast. I read it some time ago, though, so I already forgot much of what happened.
January 23, 2025
I forgot to rate this a couple months back and looking through it now I realize I don’t remember much about it. The early Barks stuff isn’t as fun, to my taste, though I do like Donald’s long neck and the round heads of his nephews.
June 30, 2024
These kind of stories are really timeless. I know that whenever I need a light and an entertaining read, Carl Barks will always be an option.
November 30, 2024
Definitely not his prime yet, but this book contains some solid stories, including an excellent one from a cereal prize, of all things.
October 27, 2025
Great stories, nostalgic
November 17, 2023
After the last few mediocre volumes (mostly due to how a substantial amount of Barks's 1960's work was repetitive, rushed, or just of borderline-poor quality), we are graced with vol. 4 of this 30-ish volume series, containing some of the early, humor-focused stories of the mid-late 1940's. While lacking the high adventure and refinement of Barks's prime (already encapsulated in vol. 5 - vol. 20 or so), a lot of these stories are very charming and I really enjoyed reading them aloud to my son. Recommended.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews