Raise your webbed foot if you remember DuckTales… Disney’s famous
1980s TV cartoon series that’s now making a big splash on DVD! Generation X kids
grew up on these animated adventures of Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Louie, and Dewey,
and now it’s their own children’s turn.
Wouldn’t it be a kick, though, if
they could also enjoy the classic comics that inspired the
cartoons? Thanks to Gemstone Publishing, that opportunity is now here! More than
ten individual DuckTales episodes were based on classic Disney comic book
stories by Carl Barks, the creator of Scrooge McDuck. And now they’re available
in two slick $10.95, 144-page trade paperbacks — the first published in May,
and the second arriving in just a couple of weeks. Just look at what you
get…

Carl Barks’ Greatest DuckTales Stories Vol. 1 leads with
“Back to the Klondike,” Scrooge’s infamous northern soiree with saloon
owner Glittering Goldie! More of a ripping yarn than its mushy TV adaptation,
the 32-page story gives Scrooge and Goldie the greedy character traits that were
displaced, for the tube, onto guest villain Dangerous Dan.
“Land Beneath the
Ground!” became the DuckTales episode “Earthquack.” Scrooge is worried
that a quake might rock his money bin, so journeys underground to meet the
source of earthquakes — rolling runt-like beings called Terries and
Fermies!
“Micro-Ducks From Outer Space” visit Scrooge to do business —
wheeling and dealing for comparatively giant-size Earth foods. But when Barks’
pig-faced villain interferes, Scrooge himself finds a need to become as small as
the aliens!
“The Lemming With the Locket” was adapted to DuckTales as
“Scrooge’s Pet.” The combination to Scrooge’s new safe is in a locket around the
neck of a lemming… a lemming who escapes to Norway as part of a great
migration.
“The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan” takes Scrooge to the rice
paddies of east Asia, where our heroes are captured by Gu, the Abominable
Snowman. DuckTales viewers will notice that for the small screen, the
yeti changed gender!
Wrapping up Volume One is “Hound of the Whiskervilles,”
the thrilling tale of the McDuck and Whiskerville family feud. In the animated
version, “Curse of Castle McDuck,” the Whiskervilles were transformed into
druids!
Cataloging all of these transformations and revisions are longtime
DuckTales researchers Chris Barat and Joe Torcivia, who have written a
magnificent opening piece for each of these collections. Come, read, and be
informed about the nitty-gritty; you’ll learn something new and fascinating in
almost every sentence!

So what’s in Volume Two? Shipping Wednesday, July
12, it’s “The Giant Robot Robbers” — running amuck in Duckburg with one
particular money bin in their sights. DuckTales’ version of this epic
added Scrooge’s rival, Flintheart Glomgold, to the cast!
“The Golden
Fleecing” is up next… and you’ll notice the differences here, too.
DuckTales’ version included Ludwig Von Drake — but also reduced the
“Sleepless Dragon” to a generic fairy-tale menace, rather than the outrageous,
froglike beastie you’re about to meet!
“The Horseradish Story” became
DuckTales’ “Down and Out in Duckburg,” with Barks’ chiseling Chisel McSue
turning into Fritter O’Way. Still, TV fans will find much to recognize in this
tale of Scrooge being victimized by a long-ago wager.
“The Status Seeker” is
up next. In some respects a lot like its DuckTales adaptation, the Barks
story features a different status-heavy treasure for Scrooge to seek: the
Candy-Striped Ruby! Barat and Torcivia will tell you more about how a story
about status changed its meaning somewhat during its trip to the
airwaves!
“The Unsafe Safe” became the second-season episode “The Unbreakable
Bin.” When Scrooge builds a bin of impervious super-glass, the Beagle Boys and
Magica De Spell line up to crack it open! But only one being is equal to the
task: a rare bird called a Tanganyika Yeeker — or, as renamed for
DuckTales, the Quackanyeeka (!) Yeeker!
Winding up the book is that
classic of classics, “Tralla La!” Adapted as DuckTales “Land of
Tra-La-La,” the Barks version doesn’t include the superheroic Gizmoduck… but
you’ll quickly recognize the grand old tale of a “paradise” corrupted by dire
duckly deeds!

Gemstone is your source for new and vintage Disney greats.
Order our titles online at http://www.gemstonepub.com/disney
or http://www.walmart.com. Find
them at your local comics shop. And if you can’t find a comic shop, call Diamond
Comics’ Comic Shop Locator Service at 1-888-COMIC-BOOK.

All together now
— Not pony tales or cotton tails, no… DuckTales!
Ooh-oooh!