Pretty gritty stuff poured from the Old Duck Man's imagination onto his inked Donald Duck comic pages in the late 1940's, giving his stories an unsettling edge with fear lurking behind the comedy. "The Terror of the River," for example, has a villain Carl Barks attempted to portray as "totally nutty." He explained years later that he hadn't wanted to "cause children any nightmares afterward."

Of the 500-plus stories Carl Barks wrote, Disney "permanently" put the kibosh on twelve for any republication in the 1970's, putting them on an Official Banned List. It has absolutely amazed me, however, about a few that were overlooked, "The Firebug" for example. Following terror heaped upon terror in "Terror of the River," post-war kids were then dosed with goosebump thrill upon thrill in "The Firebug" (Donald Duck Four Color #108, 1946).The ending immediately was censored by Western Publishing, the final two panels redrawn by a staff artist. In retrospect, maybe -- but I doubt -- that is why Disney paid no further attention to it. The story-behind-the-story is written up in a compilation of interviews with Carl Barks, in which he explains how he conceived and drew the original ending to "The Firebug" (which, not surprisingly, was funny). FC #108 ends on a softer note and a funny finale in "Seals are So Smart!"
$15.00