Carl Barks’s Donald Duck, Vol. 1 (1942-1950)

Donald and the Duck Man

Disney’s feathered favorite stars in Golden Age print adventures.

Suave yet short-tempered, Donald Duck was Walt Disney’s cartoon bad boy, a more complex foil to the ever-optimistic Mickey Mouse and a box-office draw from his earliest silver screen appearances. It was in comics that Donald continued to soar creatively, thanks to Carl Barks, the self-taught cartoonist whose masterful and imaginative work turned the quarrelsome quacker into a cultural icon.

Spanning 1942 to 1950, this deluxe volume collects some of Barks’s earliest and most iconic tales from the Four Color anthology series, including Lost in the Andes, Luck of the North, Donald Duck and the Mummy’s Ring, and Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold. Throughout these top-selling adventures—Donald Duck comic strips helped keep the Disney studio afloat during the lean years of World War II—Barks masterfully blended humor, action, and sharp characterization, crafting stories that remain as wise as they are hilarious.

Barks’s synthesis of exaggerated cartoon characters with lush, realistic backgrounds, some researched from the pages of National Geographic magazine, created an entirely new art form, immersing readers in Donald’s triumphs and troubles. Introducing beloved supporting characters like identical nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Scrooge McDuck, and lucky cousin Gladstone Gander, these escapades enthralled younger audiences but were far from childish. They were sophisticated, complex, and often dark tales of behavioral insight and graphic brilliance.

With hundreds of beautifully restored reproductions and an extended essay by Disney historian Jim Fanning, this collection is a fitting tribute to the sailor-suited hero and the revered "Duck Man"—an official Disney Legend and comic book king.