Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Frozen Gold

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library #2

by Carl Barks

Kidnapped, Donald escapes, only to wander hopelessly in the far frozen north! Next, he invents a rocket fuel powerful enough to send him to the moon!

Sick of the snow, Donald trades his house for an airplane so he and the boys can winter in the tropics. But fate intervenes, and they find themselves flying a crucial supply of penicillin to the stricken community of Point Marrow, Alaska. Meanwhile, some shady characters decide to use Donald’s rescue mission as cover to steal an old-timer’s secret gold stash ― kidnapping Donald along the way! Escaping from their clutches, a freezing Donald, lost in the vast empty wastes of the far, far north encounters an angry polar bear who chases him off a cliff ― and then things really start to go wrong! Next, Donald suffers a bonk on the head that turns him into a scientific genius. His first invention: duckmite, an explosive so powerful that he uses it to propel a rocket to the moon. Then, Donald accidentally gives the boys a rare dime worth $500. But how to get it back?
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. Eighteen stories in all in more than 200 pages of story and art, each meticulously restored and newly colored. Plus, insightful story notes by an international panel of Barks experts.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Humor, Childrens, Adventure

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 12, 2024

About the author

Carl 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.

Reviews

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. I love these books to the moon and back and this latest one, a present from my brother, became extra special because I was reading it while traveling around Germany and I was so excited to see Donald books EVERYWHERE, and Carl Barks books too. Donald and co are super popular in Germany and (so I have heard) many other countries in Europe. It's neat to see that. I bought a German edition of some Carl Barks comics and had the guy at the register rave about them to me. I was happy to share his enthusiasm.

Also, while I think Barks' early stories are sometimes a little rough, they are still utterly delightful. I really loved reading these, and the notes in the back seemed more thoughtful and thought-out than many I have read in the past.

[Nolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comics bring me comfort, but I feel like something cosmic is emitting from this book. Holding it, I felt like I was absorbing an energy from a sacred text. These are comics in what feels like their most distilled form. I've never been a Disney guy, but Barks' Donald is an everyman I can't help but relate to; working all kinds of jobs, fumbling into success only to have it knock you even further back, the hubris of ambition. I had no idea about the scope of the influence of these, nor how much I'd enjoy them. I’ve already started reading the next collection. Does this make me a Disney adult?

[David Corleto-Bales]

The legendary Carl Barks shines in these earlier comic works from 1943 to 1945, with full stories. Barks drew and wrote the comic book version of Donald Duck from 1942 to 1966, unattributed, but later known especially to fans. In these early versions, it's always Donald and the three nephews, later characters like Uncle Scrooge and the Beagle Boys to be added later. I want to put in a plug that Barks was born in Oregon in 1901 and died in 2000.

[Jameson · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a consistent verve and sense of fun here that’s missing from the volumes towards the end of the library. I expected to like this the same or a little less than volume 3, but I like it a whole lot better. Donald and the boys are a little closer in temperament to their early screen characterizations and Barks seems to be having an infectiously good time. I’m really curious about the first volume now.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as his later stuff, but it has a lot of promise. The art is as strong as it ever was.