THEDESERTSTORIES

From 1942 to 1969 Carl Barks lived in the San Jacinto area 120 kilometres east of Los Angeles in California. The area sits on the brink of a vast desert, and Barks always had an ambivalent relationship to the place. One of the reasons that he moved there in the first place was a desire to breathe the very dry desert air, which did his swollen sinuses good; this had been a huge problem to Barks and was a contributing reason for his decision to leave Disney's. The downside was that he found the very hot temperatures hard to deal with; they slowed down his work capacity. Still, he stayed put and later in interviews he would 'growl' about his fantastic view over the far-away desert mountains, that cost him so many working hours...
The selected stories are placed in chronological order.

WDCS035 'Rookie Pathfinder' - 1943

Synopsis:
Despite of several warnings, Donald takes the nephews out into the desert where he promptly gets lost!

Comments:
Barks' first desert story takes us into the USA's mesa area, where the easily recognizable table mountains stand up like monuments. The Ducks are really sightseeing; they trot the burro trails, visit a gold miner, and encounter a suspicious well before returning to the dude ranch.

WDCS143 'Deserted Land' - 1952

Synopsis:
Donald decides to put a stop to Gladstone's luck. He sells him a worthless piece of land...

Comments:
Barks was quite familiar with the backgrounds for this story; he simply did all of his location research in the very desert he lived next to! This was also the case in WDCS160 'The Christmas Camel' which was made two years later.

WDCS197 'Desert Patrol' - 1957

Synopsis:
Donald takes on a new job as border patrolman but the smugglers are outwitting him. Luckily, the nephews are more cunning!

Comments:
This time Barks takes us to what must be the Mexican border (the narrative discloses that the Ducks goes south). During his patrols Donald gets so confused by the smugglers' clever tricks that he does not really know on which side of the border he really is.

DD52 The Lost Peg Leg Mine - 1957

Synopsis:
Under hypnosis Scrooge remembers that he once knew an old gold mine in the desert. He goes there and finds the gold but it is not that simple keeping it!

Comments:
For some unknown reason Barks only made two stories, in which Scrooge owns a gold mine. And they are both placed in deserts! The other one is U$26 'The Ghosts of Pizen Bluff'.

WDCS207 'Desert Contests' - 1957

Synopsis:
Scrooge, Gladstone, and Donald are competing to win a uranium mine in several desert contests.

Comments:
They fight with the weapons at hand; Scrooge uses his vast experience, Gladstone his immense luck, and Donald his, uh, distinct knack for doing the wrong things at the wrong times! Still, he manages to tie with Scrooge using dumb luck. Gladstone? He left the competition earlier when he found 10 uranium mines by sheer chance...

U$28 The Witching Stick - 1959

Synopsis:
Scrooge tries to find gold in the desert using an Indian witching stick but Donald switches his stick with one made of ordinary wood.

Comments:
Apparently, no prospect of earning money is too farfetched for Scrooge. In this story he is confident that his Hopi Indian stick can find gold - and in the end it does! And it is a very special kind of gold that moves around...

WDCS241 Rocks to Riches - 1960

Synopsis:
Donald uses his rock tumbler to polish gemstones found in the desert. Scrooge asks Donald to polish his mouldering diamonds...

Comments:
...and then he forces Donald to accompany him out in the desert so he can find more diamonds to polish! Instead Donald finds a tortoise 'tattooed' with a treasure map on its shield - and the treasure is real...

WDCS262 Way Out Yonder - 1962

Synopsis:
Donald and the nephews spend their holidays in the desert where they hope to find some valuable old fossils. A midget motor-bike catches Donald's eye...

Comments:
It is not that easy to make a simple track in the desert sands look as if it comes from a motor-bike's tyres, but Barks manages to give the Ducks that exact illusion. His solution is Hoop Snakes! Although those creatures are legendary American ones, some African deserts are inhabited by small lizards that can roll down from sand dunes in the same way in order to escape ordinary, slithering snakes...

U$47 Man Versus Machine - 1964

Synopsis:
Gyro has grown tired of modern machines and he decides to live a simple life in the desert...

Comments:
Gyro - and Little Helper - are rare guests in deserts. They first had a go at such a location in U$18 'The Goldfinder' in which Gyro are trying out his new goldfinder invention, while Little Helper manages to tie up a bunch of snakes!

U$55 McDuck of Arabia - 1965

Synopsis:
Sheik Arrabi talks Scrooge into financing an expedition to find the Queen of Sheba's lost mine in the Arabian desert. But the villain Hassan ben Jaild is at their heels!

Comments:
Have you noticed that all of the stories above take place in American deserts? Still, when you hear the word Desert, you are more likely to think about the endless Arabian deserts, eh? But Barks did not make that many desert stories from this location compared to the locations in his native country. This is one of the relatively few...