Commentary by former publisher, Bruce Hamilton.

Two Carl Barks full-length Donald Duck adventures are reprinted from over a half century ago: "The Magic Hourglass" (from Four Color #291, September 1950) and "Big-Top Bedlam," (FC #300, November 1950). In the first story, Uncle Scrooge never believed in luck until he discards an antique timepiece and his business deals start going sour. He has to track his nephews to the Sahara in hopes of recovering the hourglass. "Big- Top Bedlam" gives a similar plotline a different setting, as Donald chases a quick-change artist back and forth across a three-ring circus to recover Daisy's antique brooch. Carl Barks' admitted mentor for humor was Elzie Crisler Segar, creator of Popeye, and it may be only a coincidence, or a subconscious one, that in one of Segar's 1930's Thimble Theatre stories a similar quick-change artist appears, which Barks certainly read in his hometown daily newspaper. But make no mistake, just as Segar's character was his own, so was Carl Barks'. —BH
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