THETWISTSTORIES

All of Carl Barks' stories contain surprising elements and plots. This is as it should be, because the element of surprise is one of the backbones in any comic book story. Many of Barks' stories also have surprising endings, and a few even end with intelligent punch lines that can really take your breath away!
Below is a small selection - in chronological order - of 10 very diverse stories that end with a surprising twist. Maybe you will recall a few of the twists from other series of comic books, but at the time Barks dreamed up the stories they were novelties!

FC0029 The Hard Loser - 1943

Synopsis:
Donald and the nephews are going to compete in a horse race. Now they have to find some horses...

Twist:
Unknown to the contestants it turns out that the final winner is not the first but the last contestant to cross the finish line!
Barks used the same surprising twist in U$34 Chugwagon Derby in which vintage cars were involved.

WDCS061 'Thug Busters' - 1945

Synopsis:
The nephews are playing detective and Donald decides to tease them. But they solve the case of the missing bank robber anyway.

Twist:
Throughout the story it looks like Donald is fooling the nephews with red herrings, but in the end it is revealed that they never lost track of the real culprit.

FC0223 Lost in the Andes - 1949

Synopsis:
By accident, janitor Donald at The Duckburg Museum discovers that a square rock from Peru in fact is an egg. He is promptly sent out to get more...

Twist:
At last it seems that Donald shall have his day in the sun; he brings home a square hen and a square rooster in order to breed them. Unfortunately, they both turn out to be roosters!

MOC41 Race to the South Seas - 1949

Synopsis:
Donald and Gladstone are each given a yacht from Scrooge who apparently has been marooned on an island. They both try to be the first to rescue him...

Twist:
...and of course the luckster reaches him first - only to discover that the miser did not at all need to be rescued. He just wanted to be left in peace. The apparently unfortunate Donald has a good day after all...

WDCS131 'Golf Luck' - 1951

Synopsis:
Donald has bad luck whenever he comes near Gladstone, and the nephews decide to take him out for a nice day at the golf course. Then Gladstone shows up...

Twist:
The unbelievable happens: Donald is bestowed with great good luck and Gladstone is pestered with ominous bad luck. But a reporter sets things back to normal by rewarding Gladstone for being such an unlucky player!

FC0422 The Gilded Man - 1952

Synopsis:
Donald travels to British Guiana in order to trace down a valuable stamp and he finds it on an undelivered letter. But it has to be delivered first...

Twist:
Donald has to endure a lot of hardship before he finally finds the stamp. Furthermore, it sits on a letter destined for a distant relative of Gladstone's so he reaps all the benefits of Donald's toil. But at the very end Donald is gilded himself; a collector pays him handsomely for retrieving his stamp album...

WDCS144 'The Money Spree' - 1952

Synopsis:
Scrooge has more money than he can store and he hires Donald to spend some of it - with an unexpected result!

Twist:
It becomes clear in the end that all the spent money goes right back to Scrooge, because he owns all the businesses visited! And if this is not enough of a punch line in itself, Barks ends with yet another twist; Scrooge does not own a cane factory, so he chases poor Donald off with his own cane...

U$14 The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan - 1956

Synopsis:
Scrooge lures Donald and the nephews to the Himalayas where a precious gold crown has been stolen from him.

Twist:
The ducks really have to work to find the unique crown which has been stored away in the cave of Gu, the abominable snowman. When returning from their unparalleled, historical feat of retrieving the crown the ducks are just met with reporters' remarks: 'Phooey on the crown' and 'We want to hear about Gu'...

U$15 The Second Richest Duck - 1956

Synopsis:
Scrooge gets into a contest with Flintheart Glomgold to determine who is the world's richest duck. At the end it comes down to two balls of string...

Twist:
...whereupon it is determined that Scrooge is the richer, because he has a little surplus string attached to his lucky dime!
Glomgold was also defeated in their second battle in U$27 The Money Champ when he lost by a few silver coins that he had used to cheat on Scrooge.
Another example of Scrooge's overwhelming wealth came in the final panels of WDCS138 'The Statue Contest' where he revealed hidden money stores to a surprised and defeated Maharajah.

U$60 The Phantom of Notre Duck - 1965

Synopsis:
The Money Bin can only be opened by the notes of a certain melody played on a flute. But the elusive phantom of Duckburg's cathedral gets hold of it...

Twist:
It turns out that the phantom is none other than a dedicated and harmless person who is building a model cathedral out of coins and Scrooge himself sits down to help him!
In DD54 Forbidden Valley Donald has similar grave difficulties with an adversary that gives him great trouble until the very end, when he turns completely around bent on helping Donald...