Okay, readers, followers, and friends, I've stalled around long enough by running some older (...though rather entertaining in their own right) filler posts, but it's time to (as the title says) "bite the Barks bullet"!
So, without further ado...
That greatest of works from the greatest Master of Duck that ever lived...
Is...
You know it....
You love it...
You wanna give it a big bear hug - except it would downgrade the condition...
The one...
The only...
The incredible...
LOST IN THE ANDES!!!
From DONALD DUCK FOUR COLOR #223 (Dell Comics, 1949)...
GCD LINK: https://www.comics.org/issue/7367/
...And THE BEST OF DONALD DUCK #1 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date; November 1965) where I first read it in sheer awe...
GCD LINK: https://www.comics.org/issue/19707/
...And DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES #3 (Gladstone Series I, Cover Date: February, 1988)...
GCD LINK: https://www.comics.org/issue/44021/
..And DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #325 (Gladstone Series II, Cover Date: March, 2005)...
GCD LINK: https://www.comics.org/issue/293795/
I like the Daniel Branca cover, as I like everything Branca does, BUT, WHY-OH-WHY DID THEY NOT USE THE CLASSIC COVER FOR THIS REPRINT??!!
...And the various Carl Barks Library Collections by Gladstone and Fantagraphics...
...Like this one!
Not only is it my FAVORITE CARL BARKS STORY, I'd go as far as to name it my FAVORITE COMIC BOOK STORY OF ALL TIME - PERIOD!
No exaggeration, I made up a TOP TEN LIST a number of years ago, and this one topped it!
As you might expect, there's Barks, Gottfredson, Murry, Mickey, Donald, Scrooge, Superman, Batman, and even one Judge Dredd!
This one, to be exact!
As to the merest hint of why LOST IN THE ANDES is my "FAVORITE COMIC BOOK STORY OF ALL TIME - PERIOD", you may wish to check out <a href= ><b>MY THIRD EVER POST</b></a> to this humble Blog!
...Go on, delve into a piece of TIAH history... No charge! ...Step back, Scrooge... my readers go first!
Congratulations to everyone who chose this great story as your guess, and we'll finally get to Favorite Gottfredson as soon as we can!
15 comments:
I didn’t know you were accepting guesses as to your favourite Barks story!
Not that I would have had any trouble guessing, as over the 10+ (Wak!) years I’ve been reading this blog, your predilection for “Lost in the Andes” has hardly been a secret. :)
My personal favourite Barks story is the very first Barks story I ever read: “Some Heir Over the Rainbow”, which first appeared in 1953’s “Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories” #155.
This story triggers loads of laughs every time I read it. Donald’s skepticism of the legend that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, followed by his astonishment when his nephews and Gladstone find gold; the dramatic irony of Gladstone and Donald not realizing that Scrooge planted the gold; the last-minute turnaround where Scrooge goes from angrily rejecting Huey, Dewey, and Louie as heirs to selecting them… What’s not to love?
Best of all is the dollar amount of Scrooge’s fortune: Nine fantasticatillion, four billion-jillion, centrifugalillion dollars and sixteen cents! Just try to read that and not smile, at least! I bet you can’t! :)
It also doesn’t hurt that the story teaches valuable lessons about faith and making wise investments.
As an aside, I encountered this story in Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge #240, which was published by Gladstone in 1989. The back cover of this issue features an entry from King Features Syndicates’s old “Donald Duck” comic strip. I’d read it numerous times before, but I never “got” it until just recently! Scrooge asks his stockbroker, “How’s my goose-feather stock doing?” The broker replies, “Down is up!” For years, I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but when I reread it the other day, I laughed out loud! Because I finally knew what “down” meant in that context. The reason I finally knew? A story written by Sholly Fisch, in which he used the word “down” to signify “feathers.” How ‘bout that?
Sergio:
You write: “I didn’t know you were accepting guesses as to your favourite Barks story!”
I first put out that “Favorite Barks” thing back in the comments section of THIS POST
, in response to a comment by our great friend Debbie, and another mention in response to a comment by our equally great friend Achille Talon!
In that same post, I also proposed “Favorite Looney Tunes short”!
…And I also promised to wrap all of them up by Tuesday, May 5th, 2026 – while TODAY is Friday, July 10th, 2026! …Best laid plans, you know!
But sticking to my resolve to not “go dark” for long, we had all of those (all together now) “rather entertaining in their own right filler posts”, instead of “radio silence”!
Today, we’ve done Barks. On May 4th, we did Looney Tunes. And sometime soon (hopefully), we’ll get that ol’ Gottfredson guessing game going!
Yes, I suppose “Lost in the Andes” was a poorly kept secret. Maybe I purposely delayed it for so long because it was such an anti-climax? NAAAHH! Just too many other things happening lately!
“Some Heir Over the Rainbow” is also a great choice for all the reasons you mention… especially the “sixteen cents”! I’m not sure if that was the first ever mention of that particularly “sweet (spot) sixteen”, and I’m not about to look it up now, but it’s sort of become a standard cents-census for Scrooge’s fortune, no matter the dollar amount that precedes it! …I’ve used it whenever a story calls for a quantification of the McDuck moolah, as have many others including Barks himself.
…And no, I’m not about to look up MY USES of it either! But, they’re there, and just because Barks said so!
An amazingly enjoyable thing is when you finally “get a joke” that you either didn’t understand, or didn’t even *know* it was a joke – such as “Down is up!” And it almost always happens years (sometimes *many* years) later! Barks was good for that (…as were Looney Tunes, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and yes, even Hanna-Barbera), and it’s another thing I try to emulate in my dialoguing! …And no, I’m not about to look up my instances of THAT either! Find ‘em for yourself, and enjoy ‘em years later!
It’s particularly tickling that Sholly Fisch was the catalyst for your discovery since, as you know, he’s one of my very favorite active writers in current comics! Maybe top-two with Casty!
Finally, on this “joke or no joke (ing)” matter, there was a gag in THE FLINTSTONES that I didn’t get until about 2001-2002! Yes, really… especially considering I saw the whole first season “live” (…or as “live” as The Flintstones could get) – and remained pretty much forever since! That was a LOOONG period of discovery!
If any of you ask really nicely, I might overcome my embarrassment and tell you was it was! …MIGHT, that is! No promises… I learned my lesson after “promising” Barks and Gotfredson!
"Lost in the Andes" is the classic of classics, and it's in my top ten of Barks' long stories for sure. If I had read it when young, it might be my Number One...but I didn't read it until adulthood, so it doesn't have the "value added" nostalgia aspect for me. Not that I truly can rank my top ten in order to name my Number One! (This is my personal top ten, my favorites, a different list than my list of "the top ten best Barks long stories," though Lost in the Andes would naturally be on both lists.) My top ten does include several stories where (non-humanified) animals play a key role, both plot-wise and as a focus of my affection: A Cold Bargain, North of the Yukon, The Unsafe Safe, and All at Sea--the latter two of those having the "value added" of nostalgia! And if you count the square chickens, then Lost in the Andes would make it five out of my top ten.
Elaine:
Not that I could ever *truly* arrive at such a conclusion, but I have a strong feeling that “Lost in the Andes” would retain its Number One position had I come upon it in adulthood – despite the absence of the “Nostalgia Factor” - based upon its intricacy, artistry, layout (with mini-climaxes at the end of many pages), plot construction, and overall comics genius!
The others in my Top Ten List (which I must find while unpacking one day and share with you all) each found their way there due to varying degrees of these and other unique factors.
I daresay that the JUDGE DREDD story was perhaps the greatest and most memorable comics-reading experiences of my ADULT life, but one I would not have considered at an earlier time. The earlier “Cursed Earth” JUDGE DREDD story was right up there with “The Judge Child Quest” (actually introducing some of the elements later manifesting in “ Judge Child”) but “ Judge Child” still beat it out – and, as much as I still love Judge Dredd, I couldn’t give him TWO positions on my Top Ten List!
I think that the contrast between my views on “Lost in the Andes” and “The Judge Child Quest” pretty much sum up my feelings on the “Nostalgia and Childhood vs. Adulthood Factors”.
I like all the other stories you mention – and, personally, all have the “Childhood/Nostalgia Factor” going for them – but none of them could approach “Lost in the Andes” for the reasons I mention.
I've told this story before, most likely on this Blog in years past, but here goes: When I was a small child on the cusp of learning to read, there was a stack of comic books in our basement that I and my brother had "inherited" from our older cousin. This was before I had ever started collecting comics on my own, didn't even have money of my own at this phase. One summer afternoon, I was looking through the stack of comics, none of which I had ever read---remember, I had just lately learned to read on my own--and came across "The Best of Donald Duck" issue referenced above. There was something about the detailed artwork and the story's length that seemed intimidating to me at first. So I read the gag pages on the inside front and inside back covers as a sort of warm-up. The latter gag page led me to discover that on the final page of the main story the police seemed to be after Donald in the last panel. Wondering how this could come to be, and unable to make much sense of the preceding panels, I went back to the beginning of this long, long, long story and began reading it. I don't think I got through it in one sitting. I think it took me a few days. I was intrigued by the concept of the square eggs, and that kept me going. The part where the story really grabbed me--and I don't mean that it hadn't already grabbed me before--was when the ducks came out of the fog and discovered that amazing square city. I was totally hooked by then! I wouldn't have gotten the gag of the name of the "Professah from Bumminham" being "Rhutt Betlah" because at that time I knew nothing about Gone with the Wind, nor did the Southern dialect jokes make much sense, but the people of Plain Awful still captured my heart. It was a slow read, as I have implied, being a new skill to me, but panel by panel I made it through the story. By the time I reached the ending, it no longer seemed to matter much whether Donald was going to go to jail or not. However the adventure ended, it couldn't eradicate the power of the world beneath the mist of the Andes. Other comics I read around this same time were Christmas Parade #4 featuring "The Golden Christmas Tree" and "Special Delivery" as well as the paper-covered "Best of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge" featuring "Only a Poor Old Man". Apart from a cameo in Super Goof #4, this was my first "encounter" with the character of Uncle Scrooge McDuck. Along with "The Mummy's Ring" this provided my first intro to the world of comics and also to the special qualities of "the good duck artist."
It might be worth noting that the Abbeville Press reprint lopped off the last two pages of the story to give it more of a "happy ending." As for what that final panel of the "Andes" story means to me now--I picture Donald in jail gazing out from behind bars and contemplating his destruction of the diner and the wild experiences in Plain Awful that provoked it, maybe with his classic trademark expression of "Oh, phooey!"
Mine…
For the ten-pagers: “Terror of the Beagle Boys”. This one is just the funniest.
For the Donald Four Colors: “Ghost of the Grotto”. The breakthrough story for Barks mastering the long format. Still packs the same punch it did when I read it as a kid.
For Scrooge: “Only a Poor Old Man”. It’s obvious, but I really think it didn’t get better for the title than the first one-shot. I do have an awful fondness for “Mysterious Stone Ray”.
I’d have to think long and hard for what best represents my favorites for the individual characters, although I think Donald, the boys, Scrooge, and Beagle Boys are all covered well above (I like my casts tight).
Scarecrow:
No, I don’t quite recall your telling of this story on this humble Blog in the past or, if you did, certainly not in such depth and great (and welcome) personal detail.
It’s funny that its “detailed artwork and the story's length that seemed intimidating” to you, as those were exactly the reasons, I devoured it with such relish! And that a mere 32-page story would seem so daunting in the face of the fifty-something-plus-page Italian epics we are routinely served today! In fact, when finding myself in tight deadline translation and dialoging situations, I often wish some of them WERE that mere 32-pages in length!
And, yes, it was a crime against man-and-duck-kind for the Abbeville version of “Lost in the Andes” to have “lopped off the last two pages of the story to give it more of a happy ending.” Especially so as, in those late seventies “duck desert days”, this might have been the first exposure to the story for many American readers! In fact (…and I can’t look it up because my Abbevilles are not yet unpacked), I believe the Abbeville hardcover Donald Duck book was MY first exposure to every story therein except “Lost in the Andes”!
But I wonder if that was the way the particular Italian printing that Abbeville used might have ended! Just another thing that we’ll never know!
It's also amazing that, even today, those Abbeville books remain such a significant shared experience for so many American Duck and Mouse fans who were into it at the time! Witness that we’re STILL discussing them today! The Mickey book, for me, was nothing short of a gob-smacking revelation!!! …Eega Beeva? …The Phantom Blot in 1939?!!! …Red shorts? …Wow!
My experience with THE BEST OF DONALD DUCK #1 (1965) was quite different and, since you were kind enough to offer yours, I’ll return the (definite) favor and offer mine in return. HEY, WHO WAS THAT WHO GROANED?!!!
It was a Friday evening in August 1965 not long after 7:30. I’d just finished watching that week’s MAGILLA GORILLA SHOW (7:00-7:30, locally on WPIX 11) and my Aunt Rosey (who lived with us off and on in those days) was walking up to a local store that was 5-6 blocks away, and I went with her. In that newsstand/candy store, where I’d gotten many of my originally purchased Silver Age comics, was THE BEST OF DONALD DUCK #1!!! I *had* to have it, and Aunt Rosey willingly obliged.
Walking home was the longest 5-6 blocks I can remember – and once I got it home and immediately spread it out on the kitchen table (where I read many of my originally purchased Silver Age comics) I (as stated above) “devoured it wish such relish”! Since it *was* in the kitchen, ketchup and mustard were there too – but the story was so great, I ignored them! Nope, no condiment stains on THAT copy of the book, which remains in my 1965-1966 long boxes to this day! I read it once again before bedtime, and probably twice each on Saturday and Sunday! Yes, it was THAT GREAT!
To that point, the most amazing Donald Duck story I’d ever read was “Secret of Hondorica” when it was reprinted in DONALD DUCK # 98 (1964) – the first comic I ever received by mail subscription, by the way, along with BUGS BUNNY #97 (1964) – both of which were the first issues of either title to feature great stories that were “Reprinted by popular demand”. …Remember that? Said “popular demand” likely coming from Western Publishing’s shareholders, rather than any readers!
“Secret of Hondorica” was lush and magnificently drawn – recall the “alligators/stilt table” sequence that I studied over and over again! But “Lost in the Andes” blew even that away – becoming my favorite comic book story of all time to this very day!
Hope everyone found these personal looks into what “Lost in the Andes” means to two ardent fans, and all are welcome to share their own experiences, if so inclined. They are always welcome!
Thad:
I only limited it to a single Barks story, but what the heck, why not follow your lead!
FAVORITE DONALD FOUR COLOR: Well, you know that one.
FAVORITE SCROOGE: “Back to the Klondike”, a story so rich in the character’s history and personality, it’s spawned an almost infinite number of sequels and spinoffs (…some of which we’ve both worked on), with more and more doubtless still to come. It was my favorite the moment I first read it in THE BEST OF UNCLE SCROOGE AND DONALD DUCK #1 (1966) – exactly one year after“Lost in the Andes” appeared in THE BEST OF DONALD DUCK #1 (1965). Those were great years! I’ve always said that 1964-1966 were the best years overall for Gold Key Comics! Just about every one published during that period was a winner!
A funny thing is that your favorite Donald Four Color, “Ghost of the Grotto”, perhaps my *second* favorite, also appeared in THE BEST OF UNCLE SCROOGE AND DONALD DUCK #1. Barks’ style had evolved so much between 1947 and 1953 that I had no idea that it was the SAME ARTIST who’d drawn them both! Nor did I believe that it was the same artist that was drawing the then-contemporary (1964-1967) UNCLE SCROOGE issues!
FAVORITE TEN-PAGER: This would be the most difficult choice of all! In the end, I’ll go with the “Bees” story from WDC&S #158 (1953), which I first read in WDC&S #361 (1970). Despite whatever made-up titles have attached themselves to this story over the years, when I first read in in 1970 I mentally-titled it “The Bee Stings in Life are Free”!
Anyone else wanna follow Thad’s lead?
OK, you'll always hook me by asking me to list favorites in various categories!
Donald Duck Four-color: Yes, for that category, Lost in the Andes, as personal fave as well as objective best.
Scrooge long story: Back to the Klondike probably tops my “objective best” list, but personal fave is much harder to decide, and might vary day to day. Today I will go for my childhood fave, The Phantom of Notre Duck. While North of the Yukon would work 90% as well as a short story with no visuals, Notre Duck stands out due to the visuals of the cathedral setting and of the mini-cathedral revealed in the catacombs. What I love about it is its playfulness and its validation of playfulness. The chase around the cathedral is playful: the tooting pipes, the chutes, the head popping out in the ceiling painting, the whirligig on the parapets. It’s a bunch of amusement park rides. And the hidden project of the mini-cathedral is an adult’s “child’s play”—which Scrooge who plays in/with his money recognizes and appreciates. As an adult Disney comics fan, I can relate to the combination of playful art and obsessive hobby which the mini-cathedral represents. The face-reveal at the end is a lovely reversal, where the ultimately “Othered” one whom we expect to be ugly, deformed or scarred (the horror trope where deformed = evil or inhuman) is revealed to be just like us, our own face in a mirror. In psychological terms, we’re withdrawing a projection, here. I was prepared to see as Other the disowned qualities of my self, and instead I see, Oh, it’s just me! Like the genius ending to the greatest of Muppet children’s books, The Monster at the End of This Book. Here, it functions a the most grown-up conclusion possible to a story that validates play.
To be continued....
Ten-pager: For objective best, I might go for The Screaming Cowboy, because it has so many different kinds of humor seamlessly woven into a single short story. One of my favorite lines ever, the hotel owner’s comment when Donald claims authorship of the song: “You don’t say! You look healthy enough, otherwise!”
The one Barks most often mentioned himself when asked this question in interviews, Omelet, is the most epic of the ten-pagers, a perfectly paced build-up to a very epic climax.
For personal fave, I think I have to go for The Persistant Postman. Mr. Birdmind in his upside-down house is my favorite one-shot character from the ten-pagers (followed by the guy with the alpenhorn from Donald’s Raucous Role, the snow hermit in The Screaming Cowboy, and Miss Penny Wise in Flour Follies). The final lines of PP were what taught small-child-me the form of humor called "irony" (though I didn't know what it was called at the time) and how very, very funny it can be. Also, check out the rhythm of those lines! “Gosh! Think of it! Mail for me! And it comes with no trouble at all!” DA!—DA-da-da!—DA-da-da-DA! Daddle-DA-da-da-DA-da-da-DA!
"Only a Poor Old Man" is mine.
I might review it on my blog. The story is nearly flawless and it might be perfect.
Elaine:
You write: “OK, you'll always hook me by asking me to list favorites in various categories!”
…And you *know* how much I enjoy your lists!
“Lost in the Andes” - Check!
“Back to the Klondike” - Check! And that was long before the “lost pages” were ever published!
The “personal fave vs. objective best” thing is pretty interesting in itself. I take it that you mean that you like “The Phantom of Notre Duck” MORE than “Back to the Klondike”, despite the storytelling genius and overall characterization significance of the latter?
If so, that *might* make “The Twenty-Four Carat Moon” my “personal fave” but, in some undefinable way, I don’t really feel I like it *better* or *more* than “Back to the Klondike”. The Nostalgia factor doesn’t apply because I read both stories in their first American reprints during my so-called formative years – “Klondike” in 1966 and “Moon” in 1968! So, I’m not sure what to think…
One interesting fact about 1958’s “The Twenty-Four Carat Moon”, which concerned a moon of gold in a fixed position behind the as-of-then-unseen “Dark Side of the Moon” was that I read the reprint of that story (in WALT DISNEY COMICS DIGEST #6, 1968) about a MONTH BEFORE the first manned spacecraft orbited the Moon – the last time the core concept of that story was theoretically possible!
…And, yes… I was ever so slightly disappointed – but, in a knowing way – that our astronauts did not discover moon of gold hiding behind the mysterious dark side!
We miss on “Objective Best” ten-pager, but there were SO MANY great ones that it would be the most unlikely category for folks to agree on.
Mouse Maestro:
A Duck story on a Mouse Blog? What is our world coming to?
I owe Donald a favor.
I'm afraid to ask what for! :-)
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