We at Gladstone always enjoy someone else’s deliberate misdirection, even if it’s at the expense of our friend, Disney Comics’ editor, Bob Foster. This rascal led everyone slightly astray not once, but twice in the Comments and Queries column on the inside back cover of #563. Gabriel Jodet-Weinshel of Vashon Island, WA wrote in to ask about the Donald Duck daily strips that Gladstone used to print on our back covers. She said, “Whatever happened to that gag?” Foster’s answer sounded logical and I’m sure was believed by everyone, blaming it on the advertisers. But that wasn’t true. The real reason is too complicated to go into here. It’s the irony that is prompting this dialog: the strips that we reprinted were the very best and funniest of dozens of examples we had to choose from … all written by guess who? BobFoster!
Second, Rory Lehrman of Neskowin, Oregon asked if any Donald Duck artists lived in Oregon and Foster said he didn’t know of any. But Bob, what about Carl Barks? I don’t think the Old Duck Man would have objected to that little fact slipping out.
Barks’ opening 10-pager of Donald and the nephews in the woods is a reprint from WDC&S #191, August 1956. Following that, there’s a real oldie, a two-page text feature with great Dick Moores illustrations, a real throwback to the early Dell days.
The Calgary Eye-Opener reprints were submitted by readers from Florida, all from a 1930 issue (there’s a great illo of two skinny pigs with outrageous snouts -- yes, Barks could always draw!). Issue #563 ends with a Li’l Bad Wolf and more daily continuities taken from the 1940’s collaboration team of Bill Walsh and Floyd Gottfredson.
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