Books with title Walt Disney's The Life of Donald Duck

When Uncle Scrooge loses some vital papers in a plane crash in the jungles of Hondorica, he sends Donald and his nephews to rescue them. But wily cousin Gladstone Gander gets wind of the expedition and decides to get there first ― to claim the reward for himself! Then Donald becomes a sales agent for the Break & Bruise Insurance Co. and sells a policy to Uncle Scrooge. But Scrooge is determined to collect, so Donald has to become his bodyguard to protect him from harm. And when the Junior Woodchuck boys are challenged by the Chickadee Patrol girls to build a wilderness bridge, Donald’s efforts to help put him in danger ― and the boys have to choose between rescuing him and winning the contest.

In our title story, Uncle Scrooge, Donald, and the nephews are hot on the trail of a pair of old saddlebags filled with gold nuggets. Then, Donald dons a suit of armor with a rubber sword for a costume party, but he embarrasses Daisy and becomes the object of scorn and ridicule ― until a pair of lions break free! And when Gyro Gearloose invents a virtual reality headset, Donald and the boys find themselves menaced by fearsome creatures on other worlds. Carl Barks delivers another superb collection of imaginative exuberance, high-concept hijinks, and all-around cartooning brilliance.

With this volume, The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library loops back to Barks's earlier days, collecting the entirety of Bark's (astounding) 1948 output. The title story, The Old Castle's Secret, is notable not just for being the first full-length 32-page adventure instigated by Scrooge McDuck (in his second-ever appearance), but for featuring some of Bark's spookiest, lushest settings in old Clan McDuck castle of Dismal Downs. The other long story, The Sheriff of Bullet Valley, plunks Donald and the nephews in the Wild West, with Donald as an overconfident deputy having to deal with some high-tech rustlers. The book also includes the less-known In Darkest Africa, originally published in a giveaway and unreleased for decades. This volume also features an even 10 of Bark's dynamic Walt Disney's Comics and Stories 10-pagers, including Wintertime Wager (the first appearance of a not-yet-lucky-but-still-obnoxious Gladstone Gander); Spoil the Rod (in which the exquisitely named educational professor Pulpheart Clabberhead is brought in to help tame the nephews); Rocket Race to the Moon (a rare full-on adventure interplanetary, no less in the short form); Gladstone Returns and Links Highjinks (two more Gladstone yarns); and five more stories... plus a half-dozen hilarious one-page gags. Of course, once again all the stories have been shot from crisp originals, then re-colored (and printed) to match, for the first time since their original release over 60 years ago, the colorful yet soft hues of the originals and of course the book is rounded off with essays about Barks, the Ducks, and these specific stories by Barks experts from all over the world.