Best Barks' stories 0

[143ksk]

20 hours ago, AJD said:

That one almost made my top 5 ten pagers list. It's in WDC&S 144.

While looking that up, I came across a few other excellent ten page stories - flippism, Gyro's trained worms, think boxes for animals, Maharajah of Howdoyoustan... the list goes on.

Statuesque Spendthrifts is my all time favorite Scrooge short. Scrooge competes with the Maharajah to build the biggest, bestest statue of Cornelius Coot.

[BB-Gun]

I like many of the stories by Barks but choosing a couple of issues is pretty tough.  My fondness for Magic Hourglass FC 291 and Uncle Scrooge 5 probably tops the bunch.  Reading them are some of my earliest memories and they are great stories too.  I think Forbidden Valley DD 54 would be a close 3rd.  I read all of those when I was young and just starting to read.  I purchased the rest of the FC comics and purchased reprints that probably should get a mention.  The Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck giants published by Gold Key had FC 29 and FC 189 which were a thrill to read and worth my quarter.

So stick with FC 291 and US 5 but happy to have all of them in my collection.

 

Edited July 18, 2018 by BB-Gun

[Robot Man]

OK, you got me inspired. It's a while since I read some Barks goodness. Luckily for me, I have these bound volumes. All the Barks DDone shots in two volumes and Scrooge #1-40 in two volumes. Bought these from an antique collector friend many years ago. I have read them many times. Fun to read as many as you want all at one time. I will take the sugesstions here and read some of the ones you all mentioned.

[thehumantorch]

6 hours ago, 143ksk said:

Statuesque Spendthrifts is my all time favorite Scrooge short. Scrooge competes with the Maharajah to build the biggest, bestest statue of Cornelius Coot.

Is this the story where they had exactly the same net worth and had to unroll their balls of string to see who had the longest string?  *Spoiler alert, they had equal string but Scrooge added the string holding his #1 dime in his pocket for the win.  God, forgot about that great story that made me laugh out loud.

[sfcityduck]

51 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

Is this the story where they had exactly the same net worth and had to unroll their balls of string to see who had the longest string?  *Spoiler alert, they had equal string but Scrooge added the string holding his #1 dime in his pocket for the win.  God, forgot about that great story that made me laugh out loud.

That is a different story with Flintheart Glomgold (sp?)

[BitterOldMan]

 

7 hours ago, 143ksk said:

Statuesque Spendthrifts is my all time favorite Scrooge short. Scrooge competes with the Maharajah to build the biggest, bestest statue of Cornelius Coot.

 

54 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

Is this the story where they had exactly the same net worth and had to unroll their balls of string to see who had the longest string?  *Spoiler alert, they had equal string but Scrooge added the string holding his #1 dime in his pocket for the win.  God, forgot about that great story that made me laugh out loud.

You are referring to US 15 the Second Richest Duck with Flintheart Glomgold.

143ksk’s story comes from WDC&S 138.   Duckburg politicians ask Scrooge for money to build a statue of Duckburg founder, Cornelius Coot.  Scrooge chases the beggars away.  The Maharajah is visiting Duckburg and provides funds to build the statue.  When Scrooge reads in the newspaper that claims the Maharajah is the world’s richest man, Scrooge is offended.  Scrooge and the Maharajah build successively larger statues of Cornelius Coot.  Of course, you know who wins.  The ending is a hoot.  Barks was a story telling genius.

Edited July 18, 2018 by BitterOldMan

[thehumantorch]

3 minutes ago, BitterOldMan said:

 

 

You are referring to US 15 the Second Richest Duck with Flintheart Glomgold.

143ksk’s story comes from WDC&S 138.   Duckburg politicians ask Scrooge for money to build a statue of Duckburg founder, Cornelius Coot.  Scrooge chases the beggars away.  The Maharajah is visiting Duckburg and provides funds to build the statue.  When Scrooge reads in the newspaper that claims the Maharajah is the world’s richest man, Scrooge is offended.  Scrooge and the Maharajah build successively larger statues of Cornelius Coot.  Of course, you know who wins.  The ending is a hoot.  Barks was a story telling genius.

Thanks guys, US 15 would have to go on my list then.  Such a fun story.

[HighVoltage]

 

 

 

US #28

The Paul Bunyan Machines!!!!!!!

 

 

Edited July 18, 2018 by HighVoltage
messed up a pic!

[HighVoltage]

Loved US 28 with the Paul Bunyan machines. Scrooge hid money in a forest & the Beagle Boys found out.

They created this gigantic harvesting machine to swath down the forest & get the $$. Scrooge ends up creating his own machine & they end up battling it out.

[OtherEric]

1 hour ago, thehumantorch said:

Thanks guys, US 15 would have to go on my list then.  Such a fun story.

The Second Richest Duck would get my vote for favorite story, personally.  But it's NOT an easy choice.  I pick the US 15 partly for sentimental reasons- it's one of the first Dell US issues I ever owned; partly just to be slightly eccentric- I think it's not one that people would argue about on a top 5 list, but it's certainly not on all of them; and finally because I just consider the ending brilliant.

[AJD]

1 hour ago, HighVoltage said:

Loved US 28 with the Paul Bunyan machines. Scrooge hid money in a forest & the Beagle Boys found out.

They created this gigantic harvesting machine to swath down the forest & get the $$. Scrooge ends up creating his own machine & they end up battling it out.

I bought an Australian reprint of that story when visiting Melbourne with my mum in 1969 (aged 6). I was completely taken by the story and must have read it 50 times. I still recall laughing at the little diamond chipped bluejays!

[AJD]

4 minutes ago, OtherEric said:

The Second Richest Duck would get my vote for favorite story, personally.  But it's NOT an easy choice.  I pick the US 15 partly for sentimental reasons- it's one of the first Dell US issues I ever owned; partly just to be slightly eccentric- I think it's not one that people would argue about on a top 5 list, but it's certainly not on all of them; and finally because I just consider the ending brilliant.

Yes, the unrolling of the balls of string was genius, and allows Barks to show off his knowledge of Africa from the National Geographic!

[Point Five]

8 hours ago, Robot Man said:

OK, you got me inspired. It's a while since I read some Barks goodness. Luckily for me, I have these bound volumes. All the Barks DDone shots in two volumes and Scrooge #1-40 in two volumes. Bought these from an antique collector friend many years ago. I have read them many times. Fun to read as many as you want all at one time. I will take the sugesstions here and read some of the ones you all mentioned.

Those are the coolest bound volumes ever. Well done.  

[rjpb]

I'm not generally a fan of bound volumes, but those would be fantastic, as they would be a great way to read the stories, and Duck books are generally not something I would feel the need to see all the covers laid out to admire. 

[Robot Man]

My friend is not and never was a comic collector. He bought most of these used at Cherokee Books and Collector's Bookstore in Hollywood in the late 1960's. Most of the Scrooges he bought off the newstand himself. Once he got them all, he had them professionally bound. I knew about them and one day out of the blue he asked me if I wanted to buy them. I jumped at the chance even though I already had many of them individualy. A real nice way to read a few at once.

I actually love bound volumes although I would never do it to any of my books. I actually have quite a few from professionally done to ones done by fans and kids them selves. Other than the obvious fun of having them all together, Most (other than the binding and trimming in most cases), are in very nice shape with nice paper quality. Most have spent most or all of their lives with hard covers. 

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

The first two Christmas Parade Giants have memorable stories as well as the ultimate summer vacation classic in Vacation Parade #1. And while not on anyone's top ten list the "Many Faces of Magica DeSpell" that appeared in Uncle Scrooge in the early sixties had me laughing out loud when I first read it.

[Sqeggs]

5 minutes ago, 40YrsCollctngCmcs said:

The first two Christmas Parade Giants have memorable stories as well as the ultimate summer vacation classic in Vacation Parade #1. And while not on anyone's top ten list the "Many Faces of Magica DeSpell" that appeared in Uncle Scrooge in the early sixties had me laughing out loud when I first read it.

That one is his longest story, iirc.  One of his best, too. 

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

Just now, Sqeggs said:

That one is his longest story, iirc.  One of his best, too. 

I think it is his longest and the theme is very serious with Donald actually acting quite adult for once!

[Sqeggs]

24 minutes ago, 40YrsCollctngCmcs said:

I think it is his longest and the theme is very serious with Donald actually acting quite adult for once!

Has some very nice art showing the forest, as well, I think.  

[AJD]

On 7/17/2018 at 11:33 AM, sfcityduck said:

Carl Barks was asked a number of times over the years what his favorite story was.  Interestingly, his answers to the "favorite story" question varied over the years.  

BUT, he ALWAYS said his "second favorite story" was "Land of the Totem Poles."  That's my favorite.  Personally, I think FC 263 is the best Barks' comic to own because it features two of his very best stories (also "Trail of the Unicorn").

Do you recall what his answers to the first were? I don't remember reading that, though I do know he was on the record saying that the 'divorce period' stories were especially inspired. That would be around 1950-51, so would include Old California, Shacktown, Golden Helmet and most of the classic ten pagers we've mentioned.