PROLOGUE

For a number of years American electricity companies - most often under the auspices of the powerful Reddy Kilowatt, Inc. brand* - were eager to have comic books distributed containing well-meant and relevant warnings to youngsters about how to treat electricity in a safe manner and the dangers of flying kites in the vicinity of power lines. They had about three dozen titles made during the years and the stories featured many different characters from several publishers (see more HERE).
The publishers of Disney comic books were also represented via Pinocchio, who was appropriately reprimanded by his 'mentor' Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio Learns about Kites, and Brer Rabbit in the pun-titled A Kite Tail, both from 1953. The following year Barks was hired to do his bit on a Donald Duck instructional 'documentary' for three electricity companies, namely Florida Power and Light Company, Southern California Edison Company, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

* Interestingly, the company carried a special logo in the shape of a stick figure with a bulbhead not unlike Little Helper in Barks' Gyro Gearloose stories.

THE PROJECT

How Barks got involved with the project is not known, and the project as such is also shrouded in the veil of history. But there can be little doubt that it was a merger between promotional wizards from the three ordering electricity companies, who worked together with Barks' publisher Western, to deliver the expertise needed to form a relevant safety instructional comic book.
To this day it has not been revealed who actually scripted the story, but it must have been the aforementioned wizards, as Barks had no more knowledge of the do's and don'ts in kite flying and dangers of electricity than the average American. Still, he was surely in on the characters and the overall, coherent plotline (little as it was) as well as the layouts of the pages.

THE ALTERATIONS

Barks made several alterations in both texts and graphics in order to accommodate the companies' specific and slightly different wishes. In the opening splash panel the individual company names were inserted, and above are presented two of them (the Florida Power and Light Company is not specifically mentioned in this section, because it was identical to the version from the Southern California Edison Company apart from the company IDs in the opening splash panel).

During the story the nephews write down what their uncle tells them about safe kite flying, and in the story's last panel (that fills 3/4 of a page) the notes are scattered on the ground. The panel shown here is from the Southern California Edison Company. In the story made for Pacific Gas and Electric Company there was an extra note between note 7 and Huey reading: 'Never touch fallen electric wires, report them to P.G. and E. or to your parents'.

You can find a detailed account of all the alterations HERE.

Now then, did Barks receive triple pay for his 'three' stories? Not at all! Western paid him standard salary and just booked the work as Kite Instruction Story in their paysheets, while Barks simply referred to his work as Kite Commercial in his ledgers. So neither of the parties perceived the work as anything special. And it was not...

EXTRA

Curiosity: The Barks household was supplied with electric powers from the Pacific Power & Light Company corresponding with the varying addresses in California and Oregon through the years. Above you are presented to an original cheque from Barks to the company covering payment for one month.