Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge: The Twenty-Four Carat Moon

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library #22

by Carl Barks

Carl Barks delivers another superb collection of outrageous hijinks, preposterous situations, and all-around cartooning brilliance. Over 170 pages of stories, each meticulously restored and newly colored. Insightful story notes written by an international panel of Barks experts.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Graphic Novels, Adventure, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

200 pages, Hardcover

First published June 9, 2020

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

[Luke]

I like the Scrooge McDuck’s solution to any problem is either: a) get on a ship, or b) go to the moon.

[Gijs Grob]

'The Twenty-Four Carat Moon' collects Uncle Scrooge stories and one-pagers, as well as five Gyro Gearloose stories from 1958 to 1961. While Barks's inspiration reached its low at contemporary Donald Duck comics (see 'Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Christmas in Duckburg'), he's in a really fine shape here.

The title story is one of his all-time best parables, comparable with 'A Financial Fable' from 1950 (see 'Walt Disney's Donald Duck Vol. 10: Terror of the Beagle Boys') as one that even rings truer today. 'The Strange Shipwrecks' and 'The Flying Dutchman' are a fine adventures. 'The Forbidium Money Bin', 'Pyramid Scheme' and 'The Prize of Pizarro'are considerably sillier. The last one is of considerable interest to film buffs, as it provides the inspiration for the Steven Spielberg film 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' (1984).

Simply hilarious is 'The Money Champ', which sees the return of Flintheart Glomgold from 'The Second-Richest Duck' (see 'Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge: The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan). This is probably the only Barks adventure referring to another one. 'The Magic Ink', meanwhile, is one of Barks's all time best gag comics, delivered in just six pages. The five Gyro Gearloose stories are also fine, if pretty nonsensical. The first, 'Gyro Goes for a Dip' nevertheless has an important end message to its readers.

[Chris Aylott]

Carl Barks' genius and charm shines through in this collection of Uncle Scrooge stories appearing between 1958 and 1962. There aren't a lot of surprises in here, since almost all of the stories are elaborate answers to the question, "Just how greedy and cheap IS Uncle Scrooge, anyway?" but it's all about the visual gags and reactions. Plus you just can't help liking Uncle Scrooge, even when he's doing his worst. Extra points for the duck tails sticking out of the space suits, which outraged my practical-minded daughter and just makes me smile whenever I see them.

[Emily]

Just classic Scrooge everywhere. The Prize of Pizarro is in this! One of my favorites: booby traps, adventure, a llama, a ship, and sensible employees of the Incan government waiting for further instruction. It is a delight to have that in collected form now. I hadn't read Twenty-four Carat Moon before. I was kind of hoping for a different Barks space story that I remember, but this one was nice. Earth vs. gold: that is topical. There is also a follow-up to Second Richest Duck where Glomgold attempts to cheat Scrooge again, and fails. The fight scenes and skullduggery are great, the witch doctor fellow is problematic. Fifty stars. Must read.

[Jeff Lewonczyk]

Another excellent installment of the most indispensable comics reprint series out there, featuring some of my favorite Scrooge epics, including several with a sci-fi flavor.

[Brent]

As usual Carl Barks shows his mastery of the comic book page. But, there are a couple of outstanding stories in this volume.

[Nicholas Driscoll]

Lots of really memorable and fantastic adventures in this volume! I didn’t want it to end. The first story about the gold moon is a rip roaring adventure with great twists and turns! I loved the crazy humor of Scrooge going head to head with a rich cowboy. The Flying Dutchman has s a wonderful story too, and the running gag about fishing is a gas. One of my favorite volumes yet!

[Nathan Dehoff]

The title story here has a rather wacky plot, Astronomers discover another moon behind the regular one that's made entirely out of gold. Scrooge, the Rajah of Eyesore, a cattle king in Texas, and the Beagle Boys all have their own rockets constructed to try to reach it first. Scrooge and his family manage to trick their competitors, but it turns out that the golden moon is already owned by the King of Venus. He's willing to trade it for a bit of dirt, which sounds unfair, but he's able to use the elements in it to create a tiny planet. There's another space story that teams up Scrooge with Gyro Gearloose, who builds him a money bin that can't be penetrated by any substance on Earth. But Scrooge locks himself out, so he and Gyro have to go to the Moon to find a harder mineral. Gyro's insect-shaped rocket is an interesting creation. Flintheart Glomgold, in his second-ever appearance, challenges Scrooge to another wealth contest in "The Money Champ," this time converting as many of their assets as possible into silver dollars in order to compare them. There was an arc on the original DuckTales with a similar premise (I probably should watch the new version of that, but I already have a few shows on my plate, so to speak), but there it made even less sense. There's some poetic justice for Glomgold when his pile of coins turns out to be smaller by just the amount he paid to cheat. "Uncle Scrooge and His Handy Andy" has the tycoon enter a yacht race just to sell things to the other participants. And in another hunt for a legendary treasure, Scrooge and company find the Flying Dutchman and discover why it appears to be sailing against the wind.

[Norman Cook]

These stories are from 1958 and 1959, with a handful of one-page gag strips from 1960-62. Barks is probably past his peak here, but can still deliver some wild, funny adventures. The collection features a couple of science fiction tales of aliens and rockets, apropos of the nascent space age of the time. Barks is also fascinated by history, especially involving lost treasure, with some of the stories based on real events (or real legends). Throughout it all Scrooge demonstrates that he is willing to put in the hard work necessary to succeed, but is completely paranoid about crooks trying to steal his fortune and too egotistical to let another billionaire (Flintheart Glomgold) claim the title of richest duck in the world, even if it means doing something incredibly stupid like liquidating all his assets just to be able to build a mountain of coins. The volume ends with five four-page Gyro Gearloose tales, none of which are terribly interesting--even when I read these as a youngster I could tell they were illogically lame.

[Michael Emond]

Another great collection of Uncle Scrooge by Carl Barks. The stand outs are the eponymous story (I just wanted to use the word "eponymous") and the Flying Dutchman which is a story that epitomizes the best of Uncle Scrooge stories. An interesting adventure that starts with a search for lost treasure, some comic thing that goes wrong (in this case the running gag of Donald wanting to fish throws them off course), the ingenuity of the three nephews helping to save the day and a clever twist with a happy ending (or sometimes a comic ending).
A solid book from start to finish. We Carl Barks lovers are very lucky to have this fantastic collection by Fantigraphics.

[Shadowdenizen]

After way too long a gap, I was thrilled to finally get and read the latest volume of the Carl Barks library.

And even more thrilled that it was an Uncle Scrooge volume. (Love Donald, but Scrooge is king for me!) And that it contained arguably of the finest Scrooge stories in the Flying Dutchman!

There's a reason that Barks' work has endured for so long and there's been so many imitators: there's so much love for these characters that it practically oozes from the pages. And no matter how far-fetched the scenario, the characters are always respected and relatable.

Looking forward to the next volume.

[Adam Graham]

This book collects a large helping of Uncle Scrooge stories by Carl Barks. While not as good as some of his earlier works in terms of the writing, they still are quite enjoyable with a mix of full length stories, six-page shorts, and half-to-one page jokes, bolstered by superb art. This book features Scrooge's rematch with Flintheart Glomgold and the Twenty-Four Carat moon story is great. My favorite is, "The Magic Ink" which is just a delicious bit of comedy.

Included in the collection are some Gyro Gearloose-led stories which are decent, though not as good as the Uncle Scrooge tales. The book also features some well-done and insightful commentary on each story in the collection.

A very solid and engaing read.

[Jack Reickel]

3.5 rounded up to 4, because my biggest struggle with it was the repetitions of dramatic irony, and I understand that I am not the intended audience, particularly for those devices. My favorite aspects of these whacky tales are Barks's exploration of science as the solutions to the mysteries the characters face. These are nice printings of an expert cartoonist's work, with very readable pages that are almost always four tiers of two panels appiece.

[🦊]

This volume deserves five stars for “The Flying Dutchman” alone which best showcases Barks’s brilliance not only as an artist but — above all — as an engaging and inventive storyteller. The other stories in this volume, both the onepagers and the longer narratives, only help solidify this perception. The essays complimenting this book are, as usual, pretty useless.

[I.D.]

More classic Uncle Scrooge stories that were the inspiration for Ducktales. Going to the moon, the Incan mines, the arctic, chasing ghosts, battling Flintheart Glomgold, all very fun stuff that is expertly drawn and laid out.

[Jameson]

Yet another good volume that should appeal to fans of the original Ducktales cartoon. Someday I hope Fantagraphics collects all of Barks’ Scrooge stories about adventuring. I like the non-adventure stories and the gags, too, but Scrooge is at his best when he’s globetrotting.

[Mark Schlatter]

A very nice volume... Highlights were two long Scrooge stories ("Uncle Scrooge and the Flying Dutchman" and "Uncle Scrooge and the Prize of Pizarro") and five very inventive Gyro Gearloose shorts.

[Kevin]

More gag stuff than adventure stuff but still great. Barks rarely misses. And his misses barely miss