Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
. . . or: "STILL MORE Evidence That Carl Barks Was the Greatest Comics Writer of All Time. . . Bar None. (No Foolin')"
Letters; I get letters. 
The overwhelming majority of queries e-mailed this way, anent the initial two-page Barks entry, concerned that redoubtable trio: Huey, Dewey and Louie. Probably the most oft-repeated one -- boiled down to its essence -- was: "Were those three kids really such pluperfect little goody two-shoes'; or did they ever display... y'know... a dark side to their characters?"
While stoutly refraining from the nigh-overwhelming urge to cluck disapprovingly at the lot of you -- c'mon, people; this ain't the X-Men we're talkin' 'bout, here. Would you really be that much happier if the trio were all little Gambits, or Wolverines in miniature? -- I suppose that total honesty demands I make a clean breast of things, and confess that, yes, yes: the (usually) saintly nephews did, on occasion, come up a wee bit "short" in the Total Avatars of Goodness department.
For instance: "personal hygiene (and the time-consuming ablutions attendant to same) was by no means a form of "foolishness" the kids were willing to suffer -- gladly or otherwise. [See picture, beelow]
So far as the three ducklings were concerned, "[dirt] feeds the brain by sifting down through the hair roots!"
(It remains a matter of grave personal conjecture, obviously, whether or not
this... ummmm... peculiar bit of anti-cleanliness advocacy was, in fact,
formally promulgated by that most remarkable and all-encompassing of tomes: The Junior Woodchuck Handbook.)
I've also been requested (by a reader whose faith in my virtual omniscience, comics-wise, has not -- apparently -- remained Steadfast and True) to actually show the scene, referenced in the initial Barks installment on this site, detailing the moment at which Scrooge McDuck is shown deliberating over which member(s) of his immediate family (Huey, Dewey and Louie; Donald Duck; and Gladstone Gander) are to profit, ultimately, from the due and rightful inheritance of his gargantuan personal fortune; and explicating the hows and whys of said decision.
Nothing easier. The story in question -- see the reproduction of its first page, below -- concerned Scrooge's attempts to determine which of his relatives (if any) would prove demonstrably least likely to frivolously squander said samolians.
To this end: the canny gazillionaire arranged for each of the ducks, in turn, to "find" a strategically-placed pot of gold, at the "end" of assorted (naturally-occurring) rainbows, and kept covert "tabs" as to how each of them handled the unexpected largess.
Given that their "competition," in this regard, was the easily-befuddled Donald
(not to mention the rapacious and indolent Gladstone)... is it any wonder, really,
that the three ultra-responsible boys ended up walking away with the
fiscal "blue ribbon" for this contest...?
... and: speaking of the preternaturally "good luck" gander -- several of you wrote in to pose the query: "what was the single most outrageous example of Gladstone's 'good luck aura' in action...?"
Short Answer: migawd... you mean I have to pick just one...?
Slightly Longer Answer: said instances of Gladstone's truly jaw- dropping instances of Lady Luck giving him a complimentary lap dance were all (for the most part) beyond all possible rationale. I mean... that was the very nature of the "running gag," re: this character.
(One of my very favorite "bits" involved a startled Gladstone being roughly collared by an overlarge bill collecter, on a sidewalk, in broad daylight. The bill collector savagely shakes the duck, demanding the five dollars that Gladstone owes his employer... muy pronto! A sudden gust of wind neatly deposits a ten dollar bill into Gladstone's outstretched palm; whereupon, the indignant drake thrusts the greenback into his assailant's face and angrily demands five bucks change!
Now that, friends and neighbors, is chutzpah!)
In any event, however: the page reproduction, directly above -- wherein
Gladstone Gander is in competition in a wilderness craft contest versus both
Donald and Uncle Scrooge -- is as outrageous an example as any to be
found within the canon, I suppose.
Finally -- and most outright peculiarly ((if you'll kindly forgive the startled sentiment) -- was the query from a budding "role-playing game designer," who asks (in all apparent seriousness) if I could kindly detail -- for purposes of working up feasible offensive game-play statistics for the character -- "just how powerful a sorceress was Magica DeSpell...?"
You lot never fail in your near-infinite capacity to leave me open-mouthed
and bug-eyed. I'll tell you that for nothing.
Still: a reasonable enough request, as I reckon it. Let's see, now...
The slinky sorceress known as "Magica DeSpell" -- obsessed with obtaining
the quasi-mystical first dime ever earned by a young Scrooge McDuck, no matter
who she had to stuff into a form-fitting body bag to do so -- displayed
all of the following talents, in various and sundry offerings: transforming
her own appearance into the perfect likenesses of others; transforming other
people into animals, and whatnot; paralyzing opponents with her alchemical admixtures;
the ability to travel through time; authority and/or dominion over various other
supernatural beings (ghosts, haunts, etc.)... not a half-bad resume,
really, for a duck in high heels. I'm just sayin', is all.
However: I suppose the most nakedly gape-inducing display of offensive prowess ever demonstrated by the... ummm... "lady" would have to have been the time she staged an open, all-out, full-bore assault on Scrooge McDuck's three cubic acre money bin. (Madame DeSpell's virtues, it should be noted --such as they were -- manifestly did not include those of either Patience or Subtlety.)
After failing to crack that particular "nut" by means of sorcerously- inspired lightning bolts and a typhoon (!!)... an intensely frustrated Magica tried this shoe on, for size [see pictures, below]:
Not too shabby by half... eh?
Carl Barks' DONALD DUCK and UNCLE SCROOGE: Page One
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