Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "Lost in the Andes" (The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library) [Hardcover]

Carl Barks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 5, 2011 | Series: The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library

The first in a historic series of books collecting the comic book stories of “The Good Duck Artist.”

Carl Barks’ Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics are considered among the greatest artistic and storytelling achievements in the history of the medium. After serving a stint at the Walt Disney studios as an in-betweener and a gag-man, Barks began drawing the comic book adventures of Donald Duck in 1942. He quickly mastered every aspect of cartooning and over the next nearly 30 years created some of the most memorable comics ever drawn — as well as some of the most memorable characters: Barks introduced Uncle Scrooge, the charmed and insufferable Gladstone Gander, the daffy inventor Gyro Gearloose, the bumbling and heedless Beagle Boys, the Junior Woodchucks, and many others.

Barks alternated between longish, sprawling 20- or 30-page adventure yarns filled with the romance of danger, courage, and derring-do, whose exotic locales spanned the globe, and shorter stories that usually revolved around crazily ingenious domestic squabbles between Donald and various members of the Duckburg cast. Barks’s duck stories, famously enjoyed equally by both children and adults, are both evanescent celebrations of courage and perseverance and depictions of less commendable traits — greed, resentment, and one-upmanship.

Our initial volume begins when Barks had reached his peak — 1948-1950. Highlights include:

     • The title story, “Lost in the Andes” (Barks’s own favorite). Donald and the nephews embark on an expedition to Peru to find where square eggs come from only to meet danger in a mysterious valley whose inhabitants all speak with a southern drawl, and where Huey, Dewey, and Louie save Unca’ Donald’s life by learning how to blow square bubbles!
     • Two stories co-starring the unbearably lucky Gladstone, including the epic “Race to the South Seas,” as Donald and Gladstone try to win Uncle Scrooge’s favor by being the first to rescue him from a desert island.
     • Two Christmas stories, including “The Golden Christmas Tree,” one of Barks’s most fantastic stories that pits him and the nephews against a witch who wants to destroy all the Christmas trees in the world.
     • In other stories, Donald plays a TV quiz show contestant and ends up encased in a giant barrel of "Shaky-Jell," a truant officer who matches wits with his nephews, and a ranch hand who outwits cattle rustlers.

These new editions feature meticulously restored and re-colored pages in a beautifully designed, affordable format geared to the mainstream book buyer. Discover the genius of Carl Barks! 240 full-color pages of comics

Editorial Reviews

Review

“...Fantagraphics made my dreams come true with this perfect book. For $25 you get 200 pages of some of the most important comics ever made and about 30 pages of the story of Carl Barks' life along with story notes and annotations. This is a f***ing steal.” (Nick Gazin - VICE )

“Barks’ strips combine high adventure with humor and subtle cultural commentaries, but they remain grounded in character... Lost in the Andes is a gorgeously packaged collection of some of the finest comics ever made.” (Garrett Martin - Paste )

“In short, this is exactly the book that Barks fans and the curious have been waiting for. ...Barks remains an exemplary cartoonist. His work is thrilling, funny and rather knowing about human nature... How good was Carl Barks? Pretty goddamned good.” (Chris Mautner - Robot 6 )

“This is as beautiful a book as I’ve purchased this year, and the stories within have much to offer both children and adult fans of visual storytelling and even comedy. Barks knew how to contract a joke, and this is a masterclass.” (Paul Montgomery - iFanboy )

“Carl Barks was a great storyteller… We had a deep appreciation of [his] comics when we were kids. We read his stories over and over again. Nobody knew his name. We just called him ‘The Good Artist’ because he was so much better than all the other Disney artists.” (R. Crumb )

“The initial volume in the Barks series is... all pleasure, a treasury of deceptively simple gag and adventure stories that fashioned with wit, irony, and impeccable craftsmanship…. The longer stories here... are suspenseful, surprising, funny, and fresh... These kids' comics are far from kids' stuff -- this is for everyone.” (Alan Scherstuhl - SF Weekly )

“This volume reprints tales from December 1948 through August 1949, when Barks was in high feather as a creator of breathless adventures and light comedies for his Ducks... Great pop culture, great analysis. Scrooge is always searching for more gold, and there’s plenty here. [Rating] 10/10” (Michael Barrett - PopMatters )

“The Hans Christian Andersen of comic books.” (Will Eisner )

“A priceless part of our literary heritage.” (George Lucas )

“Even now, Barks’ stories are clever and funny, as he leads the ducks into impossible situations and then gives them unexpected ways out. And they’re poignant in their own way, too.... And for those who just want to curl up with more than 200 pages of some of the best-written comics ever published, Lost in the Andes has all the square eggs, rubber bricks, golden Christmas trees, and races around the world that any kid or grown-up could ever want.” (Noel Murray - The A.V. Club )

“Carl Barks used ducks to shine a light on the human condition and make jokes while also making commentary on us all. Despite these stories being published in 1948 and 1949, they truly stand the test of time.... ★★★★★” (Nick Boisson - Comics Bulletin )

“This is really fantastic storytelling.... I picked this up thinking it’d be a good chance to see if I liked Carl Barks and what the fuss was all about. Well, now I get it – and I’m hooked. ...[T]his is well worth the purchase for any fan of classic comics.” (Sean Gaffney - Manga Bookshelf )

“Even the silliest premise, when executed by an artist in perfect control of his gifts, can land with deftness and grace - that's something that strikes you again and again as you read Barks' work. …[T]his collection makes a perfect introduction to one of the greatest all-ages comics artists of all time.” (Glen Weldon - NPR - Monkey See )

“(Starred Review) One of comics' revered masters gets a fresh new reprinting worthy of his work and accessible to kids.... This volume finds [Barks] at a creative peak, combining the bold adventuring of Tintin with the wisely cynical view of human weakness of John Stanley…. A wonderful project that should put Barks’s name in front of new generations of admirers.” (Publishers Weekly )

“I like to think that Carl Barks, an unpretentious storyteller who created for an audience of children whose intelligence, ingenuity and decency he never doubted, would approve and be gladdened by how his work, this time around, is being put back out into the world.” (Tom De Haven - The Comics Journal )

“Happily, the stories look great and the book is a wonder to hold in your hand.... As to the content, itself, it's just as remarkable an achievement in comics as I remembered.... The contents of the book are as good as they're going to get...” (Augie DeBlieck Jr. - Comic Book Resources )

“The stories, of course, are outstanding. Most of the long adventure tales are classics in their own right.... Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes is an excellent start to Fantagraphics’ Carl Barks Library.” (K.C. Carlson - Comics Worth Reading )

“Barks, the artist, is a master cartoonist, drawing lively, expressive characters with a graceful sense of movement. His beautiful, detailed backgrounds plant the ducks in a fully realized world that adds weight to his storytelling.... Fantagraphics Books... does its usual high quality work here... For both newcomers to Barks' work and diehard fans, this is a book that any comic book reader would love...” (Rich Clabaugh - The Christian Science Monitor )

“...I’m impressed with the quality of the publication. In my estimation, the coloring is excellent and the format engaging…. The critical essays composed by a number of Barks scholars are also insightful and well written.... In my opinion, as a Carl Barks fan, this initial volume is well worth acquiring!” (Carl Barks Fan Club Newsletter )

“Mr. Barks taught me that comics could be high art, and I consider his work to be the best storytelling I’ve experienced in any form. …Fantagraphics… is publishing the Barks collection in beautiful hardcover books that do great honor to the cartoonist and his stories, and I can’t wait to buy them for my kids. Proof that great storytelling endures from generation to generation.” (Jeff Kinney (author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series) )

“The new Carl Barks book from Fantagraphics might be the best designed, best realized reprint book any company has done to date.” (Dustin Harbin (Dharbin, Diary Comics) )

About the Author

Carl Barks (1901-2000) spent most of his life in Oregon. In 1987, he was one of the three inaugural inductees in the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame (along with Eisner and Jack Kirby).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics (December 5, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1606994743
• ISBN-13: 978-1606994740
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Publishers > Fantagraphics
  • #3 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Comic Strips
  • #81 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Graphic Novels

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you're a Barks fan, this is it, November 12, 2011

By 

Joseph Goodfriend (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "Lost in the Andes" (The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library) (Hardcover)

Barks fans had to wait decades for someone to finally begin comprehensively reprinting his work in color. Fantagraphics had done a superb job. The colors practically jump off the page. If you're new to Barks, you'll understand why his comics were Jerry Garcia's favorite reading material.

The full-length stories are 'Lost in the Andes!', 'The Golden Christmas Tree', 'Race to the South Seas!' and 'Voodoo Hoodoo'. The shorter stories include 'The Sunken Yacht', which will interest you if you're most familiar with the character Scrooge McDuck from 'DuckTales'. Turns out Uncle Scrooge wasn't always such a nice guy.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book!, November 21, 2011

By 

J. K. Weston "J.K. Weston" (Baltimore, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "Lost in the Andes" (The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library) (Hardcover)

The first volume of Fantagraphics projected reprinting of the complete Disney comics of Carl Barks is out and it is excellent. The volumes are to be in chronological order by volume although the stories are not arranged chronologically within the volume--a very minor problem. "Lost in the Andes" is perhaps Barks' best known story, also one of his best, and far superior to "The Golden Christmas Tree" which is the first long story by chronology. So placing it first makes a lot of sense. Every page, gag, and cover that should be in this volume chronologically is here. The long stories lead off the volume and are followed by the short stories. The short stories are actually reprinted in chronological order of Barks submission dates except for "Toyland", which should follow the radio quiz show story instead of preceding it, again, a very minor criticism.

The printing is excellent. The art size is about 98% of the size the comics were published back in 1949, and a little larger than the size in modern Disney comics. You won't notice the difference unless you lay down an original comic book page next to the reprint. The height is less than an eighth of an inch shorter in the book than in the old comics. Contrast this with Archive Editions, which typically reprint old comics about 83% of original size and it is obvious to the eye that they are much smaller. The coloring is very close to the original comic book coloring, except the yellow is a bit brighter and more gold. But it is clearly an attempt to reproduce with honor the look and coloring with which the comics were originally published. It is arguably better since the registration is generally much better than in the old comics.

With one exception, the stories appear to be printed here exactly as originally published over 60 years ago (although I have not compared all the short stories to the original comic books). The exception is "Race to the South Seas". Apparently the negatives for "Race to the South Seas" and "Darkest Africa" (to be reprinted in a future volume) were lost or are unavailable. When these two stories were reprinted in Europe in the 1980s, they were published from redrawn versions by Daan Jippes, apparently re-inked over blowups of the original comic book printings. "Race to the South Seas" is very good (to be expected from Jippes) but there are subtle differences in details throughout the story as well as less subtle differences in the drawings of the South Seas islanders. When Another Rainbow published the Carl Barks Library 25 years ago, it used the redrawn versions of these two stories. The notes at the end of the book notwithstanding, Fantagraphics used the exact same "Dutch Version" drawings that Another Rainbow did two decades ago. Comparing the Fantagraphics book with the Another Rainbow book clearly shows the drawings are the same. Comparing either with the original March of Comics giveaway clearly shows that it is different from both the reprints. Perhaps their intent was to not use the "Dutch Version" of the story, but that IS what they printed. Perhaps they can use modern scanning techniques to restore the original version of "Darkest Africa" before they reprint it. Otherwise the Barks content of this volume is almost perfect in every way. My commendations to Fantagraphics.

The notes and commentary, especially that of Don Ault, are excellent. Young kids will probably skip over the text, but adults will find reading it rewarding. Even long time Barks fans and scholars--I count myself in that number--are likely to find new and interesting facts and insights.

Small things I would like to see in future volumes: Covers and gag pages reprinted with the stories they were originally published with instead of isolated at the back of the book. A table of contents at the beginning of the book.

You can stop waiting. Buy this book. Buy future volumes. It really is Barks done right. The Another Rainbow books were done by fans for fans. They attempted to get it right and did a phenomenal job under trying conditions set by Disney. They made it possible for this and other later editions to happen at all. The Fantagraphics edition is clearly done with the mass market in mind, and it should succeed there, but it can also be appreciated even more by the connoisseurs.

CORRECTION: "Darkest Africa" was not re-inked by Daan Jippes, but by Dick Vlottes. Apparently the version of "Race to the South Seas" in this book is a composite or Barks and Jippes versions. If the book gets a second printing, they intend to use the Barks version, which, unfortunately, was not yet available at press time (and may not be even now).

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barks done right!, November 15, 2011

By 

Geoffrey Hayes "Writer/artist" (Brooklyn, NY, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "Lost in the Andes" (The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library) (Hardcover)

What makes this Fantagraphics volume so impressive?

1. It is comic book size, not an oversized art book. It is easy to read and to hold. Comic book reprints, as opposed to strips, ought to be printed in the same size as the original comics, regardless of how large the artist drew them.

2. No garish colors or airbrush effects, so that Bark's line can be appreciated for what it is. I was a little bothered by the consistent gold color that stands in for yellow in this book, but I'll get used to it. All the art has been newly colored and the designers have taken great pains to insure that these stories are as close to the originals as possible, so I'll forgive them this one change. On the plus side, all the colors are in register, something that was spotty in the Dell originals.

3. Non-coated paper.

4. Not in chronological order. There's no need for this. Although Barks' style varied with the years, due not only to his own development, but to changing formats from the publisher, all his stories stand alone. It's not necessary to read "Christmas on Bear Mountain" (Uncle Scrooge's first appearance) before reading a later Scrooge story. This edition offers a wide range of his best stuff.

There are some comics where I admire the art more than the text, but Carl Barks was such a great storyteller, it's impossible to look at the art without reading the words. That's why Barks is Barks.