Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge "The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan": The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 16 (The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library, 16)
There are underground civilizations, exotic locales, and a race for pirate gold in the latest collection of world-famous Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics.
Worried about an earthquake that might swallow his money bin, Uncle Scrooge digs deep to secure his fortune ― and discovers an underground civilization! Introducing the Terries and Fermies ― the subterranean critters who can make earthquakes! Of special note, our presentation of this story restores two pages that were cut from its original publication. Then, Scrooge shanghais Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie to the Himalayas to help him recover “The Lost Crown of Genghis Kahn.” And when Scrooge is hypnotized to go back in time and learn the location of a pirate’s buried treasure, he thinks he’s got a clear shot ― until he learns that Donald is also on the trail. And the race is on! Full-color illustrations throughout.Reviews (34)
Perhaps the Best Collection of Barks' Work Yet
This might very well be the best collection of Carl Barks work that we've seen so far. At this point I don't think it's really necessary to go into things like the binding, artwork, and the cover. It's all of the same high quality as the previous volumes. What separates this volume from the rest is the stories that are contained within. Simply put, I don't think any of the other volumes give you as many of Barks classic longer stories as this one does. Along with those longer stories comes what I believe to be more smaller, one page stories than any of the previous volumes, but the longer stories more than make up for it. Ignoring the one pagers, altogether you have: The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan- the titular story that features Scrooge and his family searching for an ancient crown Land Beneath the Ground- Scrooge and his family take a journey deep into the Earth The Second Richest Duck- the first appearance of Flintheart Glomgold Back to Long Ago!- Scrooge and Donald discover an ancient treasure they buried in a past life Cold Bargain- Scrooge purchased a rare element and fights to keep it out of thieving hands Land of the Pygmy Indians- Scrooge travels into the wild to get away from pollution, finding himself meeting a tribe of small Native Americans Fantastic River Race- Scrooge recalls his days as the Master of the Mississippi That's a total of 7 longer stories that you can really sink your teeth into, whereas previous volumes might only give you 3-4 of such stories, while also balancing it out with plenty of shorter 10 page stories as well. Personally, while I enjoy almost all of Barks work, his longer stories are my favorites, since they give me more time to really fall into the tale that's being told. So, this volume was a nice surprise for me and almost all of the longer works is a classic in my opinion.
SEVEN classic full-length "Uncle Scrooge" adventures by Carl Barks! Fabulous!
This collection is a MUST-HAVE for collectors and readers of Carl Barks' great "Uncle Scrooge" stories and one-pagers. It contains the title story, about a fabulously valuable jewelled crown, and a one-dollar watch, complicated by a mysterious and potentially menacing abominable snow man (NOT, as Donald Duck says, "an abdominal snowman"). This is swiftly followed by another classic story, "The Land Beneath the Ground" that smacks of the legend of the Hollow Earth, or Jules Verne's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", but revealing, within vast subterranean caverns that span the whole of the Earth, the Terries, who wear bow ties, and the Fermies who wear four-in-hand neck-scarves. They are the REAL explanation of earthquakes, and an appalling menace to Scrooge's money bin, with its "five billion quintuplatillion umptaplatillion multuplatillion impossibidillion fantasticatrillion dollars". It also includes one of Bark's greatest epics, "The Second-Richest Duck', in which Scrooge, and his "three cubic acres of money, uncountable oil wells, gold mines, railroads, factories, and fish houses (!)", confront his greatest, and most unscrupulous rival, Flintheart Glomgold. Simple book-work quickly establishes that each incredible miser owns exactly the same amount of cash and property. So the ultimate question -- WHO is the first-richest duck? -- will be decided by testing who owns the largest ball of randomly accumulated string. Naturally, the only effective way of deciding whose ball of string is biggest is by unrolling the two balls of string across the centre of savage Africa! It is hilarious! In fact, each of these great stories is very funny, almost frame by frame, and also very wry in the final moments! (Scrooge is a miser, but he is not a totally heartless person. Similarly, Donald Duck, his nephew, is often hopelessly inefficient and scatterbrained, on his own, but as a travel companion for Scrooge, along with his own plucky and almost infinitely resourceful juvenile nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louey, Donald is a very worthy foil for Scrooge at his worst.) And there is more. In "Back to Long Ago", Scrooge, under hypnosis (WHY he agrees to being hypnotised is a funny short story in itself) recalls a fabulous lost treasure, and, yet again, the game is afoot! In "A Cold Bargain', Scrooge finds himself in a Cold War arms-contest with the evil forces of Brutopia, each trying to control the world's scarce resources of a mysterious substance called Bombastium. The second last story is yet another of Barks' absolute best, "Land of the Pygmy Indians". The story begins with Scrooge wanting to flee to a pristine wilderness to escape the smog and noxious fumes of his own Duckburg industries. Naturally he buys a remote North American region with no roads, cities, factories or people, the "Thousand Lakes". This quickly turns into a hilarious encounter with a mysterious local tribe who speak in the verse style of Longfellow's "Hiawatha". Along the way, Scrooge discovers unbelievable mineral wealth in the lands around the Thousand Lakes. Just when Scrooge thinks he has beaten and outwitted the natives, they turn the tables on him, using a pinch of oxide of strombolium. The final full-length story "Fantastic River Race" is a framed story that tells an earlier adventure of Scrooge, in younger days, with his Mississippi sternwheeler paddleboat, first racing against, and then trying to outwit, another stern-wheeler crewed by ancestors of Scrooge's nemesis-villains, the dreaded Beagle Boys, while Scrooge has eccentric assistance from his engineer, Ratchet Gearloose, the grandfather of the famous inventor, Gyro Gearloose, a contemporary of Donald Duck. SEVEN full-length CLASSIC adventures! A Carl Barks "Uncle Scrooge" collection doesn't come much better than this! Very highly recommended! John Gough -- Deakin University (retired) -- jagough49@gmail.com
Surpassed all expectations.
I've been wanting to read the Carl Barks Donald Duck/ Uncle Scooge comics for quite a while but never got around to it, after learning about Fantagraphics re-issue compilations and hearing from reliable sources that they were the ones to get, so to speak, I decided to pick this one up to start with. I was not disappointed. Let's get this straight first off: these things are big. I was expecting something about the size of a trade paperback or an average comic compilation, and was very pleasantly surprised to find a 10.5 x 8 inch hardcover book printed on high quality paper. The comics themselves are printed in excellent quality, look clean and crisp in full colour (as I understand was Barks' original vision), and there's a sizable endnotes section full of interesting information as well as full page printings of each volume's original covers, and details on which volume and what year each story was originally printed in, something I personally was hoping for but not expecting. There's also a lot here, in addition to the ten full length stories, ranging between 10 and 20 pages each, there are nice little one pagers sprinkled in to break up the longer stories, which are a great inclusion. In regards to the stories themselves, I went into this book as a curious onlooker of Barks' work and finished it a fan. It's not hard to see why he's heralded as one of the greats, the attention to detail and movement in his illustrations are fantastic, and the writing is great, a perfect example of multi-layered story telling that has confidence in the intelligence of it's young audience, resulting in stories that are enjoyable by children and adults alike. Overall, I was very impressed by this volume, and I do plan to continue collecting the rest of the Fantagraphics Carl Barks library, it's a shame I'm so late to party, as some of the more popular volumes have already, to my dismay, gone up in price; here's hoping they reprint those sooner, rather then later.
Absolutely perfect!
Absolutely perfect! Some claim Barks' peak period is 1948-1952. I disagree. The great master maintained high-level output throughout the entire 1950's, imo. I believe this wonderful book is ample proof of that. And the next Uncle Scrooge tome will feature "Golden River", "The Money Well" and other gems from this period. Don't miss it!
Start with Donald Duck
Although Scrooge is probably my favorite of the Ducks, these stories aren't of quite the same quality as the first volume of the Barks Donald Duck series. I also prefer the version of Scrooge that loves his money but works hard and doesn't cheat - this Scrooge is just an eyelash dodgier than I remember. Still, it's Barks and Ducks, and that's pretty good.
Beautiful book and great additoin to the series
It's Unca Scrooge, what's not to like. BUT most importantly these books are a great way to re-live lost youth and enjoy the art work and story telling of Carl Barks
I am a big fan of Carl Barks, Walt ...
I am a big fan of Carl Barks, Walt Disney, and Uncle Scrooge. Carl Barks was one of the main illustrators while Walt Disney was still alive. These stories were originally in Comic Book form. Each book contains different stories. I am collecting all of them. To have them in hardback is a treasure.
Thank you Fantagraphics
As soon as I see a new Barks release it goes in my shopping cart!
it's excellent.
As all Carl Barks' books, it's excellent. My favourite adventure, is the one with the pygmies.
Five Stars
The best comic book guy ever!
Comments
Post a Comment