THECARTOONYSTORIES

When Carl Barks left his job at the Walt Disney Company's cartoon shorts department to work for Western Publishing as a creator of comic book stories, it was to be expected - as well as fairly logical - that he carried over much of his knowledge of cartoon work into his story panels. But the two media are basically quite different (cartoons work with sound, speech, and the impression of real movement, while stories work with dialogue, complex plotlines, and stimulating knowledge based information), and it took Barks a while to come to grips with the new type of artwork. This new way of constructing stories was partly preceded by many stories, in which much action and little dialogue were triggering elements, just as if the characters were still in their diffuse cartoon environments.
But Barks would slowly 'convert' to more complex and eventful stories, partly due to a conversation he had with the Mickey Mouse artist Floyd Gottfredson: You could draw just so much violent action in a comic book before it began to get tiresome. I think Floyd Gottfredson put his finger on it one time when I was talking to him, sometime in the nineteen-forties. I'd gone to the studio for something. He said, 'In the strip, the reader can hold it up, and he looks at it for a long, long time, but when it's on the screen, he sees it for a twenty-fourth of a second, and it's gone. There's no chance for him to look at it too long.' I remembered what he had told me, and I toned down my action a little bit after having talked with him.

Below you are presented to a small selection of 10-pager stories - in chronological order - from the early years when Barks was still influenced by his cartoon work (you can browse a few specific examples HERE).

WDCS033 'The Lifeguard' - 1943

Synopsis:
Donald Duck is a lifeguard with a special attitude towards sharks - and ladies!

Comments:
This story has certain similarities with the cartoon Sea Scouts from 1939, for which Barks wrote the script containing a few shark gags that he re-used in the story.
Extra: Barks spiced up the goings-on by introducing a highly sexy duck lady, but her busty appearance was censored...

WDCS038 Good Neighbors - 1943

Synopsis:
Donald and J. Jones bury the hatchet but it is of course just a matter of time before things are back to (ab)normal.

Comments:
In the cartoons Donald was often quarrelling and even fighting with diverse persons. Only one of these was recurring, namely Black Pete, whom Barks introduced as a formidable adversary to Donald in several cartoons. In the stories he soon needed a recurring neighbour to joust with, but Pete was not a preferred choice as he was mostly found in the stories from the Mouse universe.
So Barks invented Jones as Donald's unforgiving adversary, and, mostly, he arranged their disputes in such a way, that it was not always clear who was the instigator.

WDCS040 Snowfun - 1944

Synopsis:
Donald wants to show his nephews what a great ski jumper he is, so he prepares for a jump from a mountain top...

Comments:
This story would have been perfect for a cartoon with its two main ingredients; Donald boasts to his nephews of his alleged skills as a skier, and he is then forced to prove himself, a task that, of course, goes terribly wrong.
In a later story, WDCS173 'The New Year's Resolutions' from 1955, Barks further developed Donald's lack of skills by making him look extremely foolish on another ski slope.

WDCS041 The Iron Pants - 1944

Synopsis:
Donald brags that he knows all the old snowball tricks so the nephews cannot resist challenging him...

Comments:
Of course, the nephews have the upper hand throughout the ensuing battle, because of their more intelligent approaches, where Donald just blurts on. The cartoony action story has certain similarities with Barks' cartoon Donald's Snow Fight from 1942, in which he served as story director.

WDCS045 Rival Boatmen - 1944

Synopsis:
Donald and the nephews are running competing boat rentals for fishermen. Donald sabotages their boat in order to get the customer...

Comments:
One of Barks' recurring themes, especially in the early years, was Donald's continuous quarrels with his nephews. Most of them ended with Donald as the loser, and this story is no exception. Apparently, Barks found the specific topic of ice boat rental so interesting that he made a similar story known as WDCS186 'Duelling Ice Taxis' from 1956.
Observe that Barks actually did use Black Pete as Donald's adversary, although he was named J.P. Diamondtubs in the story.

WDCS054 'Skate Race' - 1945

Synopsis:
Donald and the nephews decide to race to Pumpkinburg on skates. But Donald stoops to cheating...

Comments:
This time Donald is clearly in the wrong in his dealings with the nephews, as he first decides to taunt them with their fine ice skating skills, and then decides to cheat in order to beat them in a race. The contained, frantic actions - that also involve a mindless trip on a lit giant firecracker - would have been perfect material for a cartoon.

WDCS057 'The Elusive Woodpecker' - 1945

Synopsis:
Donald can earn a thousand dollars by photographing the elusive Iron-Billed Woodpecker. How hard can that be ...?

Comments:
It may well be that Barks borrowed parts of his plotline from contemporary cartoons such as the Aracuan bird in the Disney feature film The Three Caballeros from 1944 and made them his own - usually with a twist.
But this story is also an example of the turning of tables, because the 1947 Disney cartoon Clown of the Jungle contains several scenes that must have been taken from Barks' fast paced story in which Donald tries to photograph an uninterested yet somewhat vindictive special woodpecker for money.

WDCS059 'Colt Taming' - 1945

Synopsis:
Donald brags to the nephews about his abilities to tame a wild colt. He is soon put to the test...

Comments:
In several of the early stories Donald brags endlessly to his nephews of alleged, former achievements without usually having any conception of what he is getting himself into, when the nephews later dare him.
After having used brute force to subdue the animal, Donald tries to tame the wild horse by using hypnosis, but his willpower is not nearly as strong as that of his adversary.

WDCS066 'The Ice Fishing Expert' - 1946

Synopsis:
Donald claims to be an expert on ice fishing but he immediately gets into trouble with a large fish. Perhaps dynamite is the solution?

Comments:
Again Donald takes on the role of an 'expert'. Despite good intentions and basically fine decisions he manages to blunder himself through a series of mishaps in an attempt to catch an especially sly and elusive fish.

WDCS079 'The Ruined Picnic' - 1947

Synopsis:
Donald and Daisy go out for a picnic and the nephews want to join them instead of going to school. But the answer is 'No!' so they decide to ruin the picnic instead!

Comments:
Although the nephews were usually portrayed as brats in the cartoons, it is quite rare for us to experience them as culprits towards Donald. And in this story they really go overboard in an orgy of destructive methods of ruining Donald's and Daisy's day. But in the end the reckless brats fall into one of their own traps and justice is served...