"The Saga of Sourdough Sam"

And now, as promised, or at least hinted at, here we have a Paul Murry effort. This is one that a fair few people may be familiar with, as it's one of the rare non-Barks Western stories to have been reprinted in recent years, in this case by Gladstone II in Donald Duck Adventures.

So was this merely drawn by Murry, or was it written by him as well? Sources differ. The inducks entry judiciously lists a question mark as the writer, but the Gladstone reprinting attributes both story and art to Murry. On what evidence? Difficult to say. To me, it sort of feels like it ought to be written by him, but on reflection, I'm not really sure what that means in concrete terms. Just a general Murryish kind of feel. Who can say.

I must say, roasting hotdogs in front of the ol' fireplace seems like a fairly eccentric thing to do. I don't know; maybe such behavior is widespread in families that are not my own. At any rate, as in "Rattled Railroader," we open the with HDL doing food-related business, which I kind of like. A bit hard to believe Donald would be so complacent about a job like this, but IS IT POSSIBLE THAT TROUBLE MAY BE BREWING?!? THERE'S NO WAY TO KNOW!

Hoe. Lee. Shit.

As far as the art goes in this story...well, it's okay as far as it goes, but even though ducks aren't his normal stomping grounds, they nonetheless have a distinctly Murry-ish appearance about them. Probably the most irksome thing (though this is also reflected in the writing) is Donald's persistent distressed, self-pitying look. Sure, he's often put-upon in stories by any ol' writer, but this particular depiction feels--dare I say it--out of character.

Blah blah, a very typical set-up, but what's odd is that Murry draws such an old-fashioned-looking Scrooge. Those sideburns look much more characteristic of the character before Barks nailed down his final design. What reference was he working from, anyway?

Twenty-Three Skiddoo Street! Don't try to tell me Murry isn't down with the kidz and their crazy lingo!

Anyway, off to the Yukon.

I can't decide: do you think this art is ripping off "Lost in the Andes?"

I mean, there are plenty of differences, but it sure makes me think of the Barks scene whenever I see it.

Anyway, I really do like the "unexpected tropical paradise in the middle of the arctic" business. Anyone else remember the iteration of this in Secret of Mana? Man, what a great game that was. Is. Personally, in this situation, I would completely forget about my original task here and just spend all my time exploring and examining all this nature, 'cause this is biologically fascinating. Even if the climate's right, how the hell did all these tropical plants GET here? Are they indigenous to the area, or what? Think Murry spent much time pondering these questions?

Here's Sam. He's fine. Not anything powerfully special--not, indeed, on the level of Jeb'n'Zeb from last week's entry, but likable enough for the purpose, I suppose. The REAL question is: what exactly is he feeding those dogs? I can only assume that whatever it is, it must be made from the meat of the indigenous fauna, but what IS the indigenous fauna? We never see hide nor hair of it. This story is raising more questions than it's answering, I must say.

The thing I liked when I read this story as a child was this whole gold geyser thing. Maybe it's nothing all that special, but I really dug it.

...and I especially dug this whole business about molding it into bricks. Gold bricks! I suppose it appealed (and still, to an extent, does) for the same reason that a bin full o' money appeals. I could just picture the gold bricks. So smooth and shiny! They'd certainly be less so in reality, but let's face it, the Money Bin would also be pretty gross in reality. It doesn't pay much to think too hard along those lines.

And, OF COURSE, the thing that really sealed the deal on this as a story I liked was the crazy giant money-eating robot bug. Oh, I'm sorry, was calling it a robot a MAJOR SPOILER? Yeah, who could ever have predicted that, eh? And this has nothing to do with anything, but I want to point out that most native English-speakers have no idea that there are actually rules for adjective order, but there totally are. Try putting "crazy," "giant," "money-eating," and "robot" in any other order and it immediately sounds wrong. Go figure. Incidentally, here's what robobug looks like in the original 1958 printing:

...so do publishers have committee meetings to determine what color robot bugs should be? I hope those don't get too acrimonious. And is painting polka dots on the thing supposed to make it look more natural? I suppose it's supposed to be along the lines of a giant lady bug, but to me, it's having the opposite effect.

...what I said earlier about Donald's characterization being a bit off. It's the MOST DEPRESSING PROSPECT IMAGINABLE, but we have to have a dumb ol' adventure. Pity us. Not that he'd probably be excited about it, but also probably not this whiney. Just saying.

HAW! HAW! HAW!

HAW! HAW!

HAW! HAW! HAW!

HAW HAW HAW

...really, whaddaya want I should say? These guys might as well be Pete and Scuttle from any random Murry/Fallberg story, and they're every bit as interesting.

...and then, of course, they're a captured almost instantaneously. Please try to control your excitement.

(Note that Sam's HEH! HEH! clearly differentiates him from those fiendish HAW! HAW!ers)

I find myself wondering: how does ol' Sam avoid becoming desperately bored here, if not literally going insane? What does he DO all day when he's not messing around with gold bricks or feeding the pooches? Maybe he has an extensive library packed away somewhere to wile away the hours, but it's hard to imagine how, and in any case, we certainly never see any such thing.  And if he's somehow able to keep body and soul together now, I still have my doubts that he'll be able to when he's living in a building that's just non-stop, blinding gold.  I'm not convinced that these alleged fairy tale books actually exist.

Welp, say goodbye to Sourdough Sam! We'll not be seeing his like again! Okay, we'll totally be seeing his like again. But not him personally. Keep this in mind.

YOU'VE FAILED ME!

Right, a "collector's item." What a twist. Even though I generally like when Scrooge evinces a bit of niceness, I can't help thinking that this is a bit overdone. A bonus! Yay! Still, it's okay. The whole "here's a pillow to faint" business is pretty lame, but I think it appealed to me as a kid. This story isn't anything all that special, but I think it's adequate. I'd give it a solid C+, which is high praise under the circumstances. There are just so many of these old things that just fill me with soul-crushing ennui that it's nice whenever you come across one that does the job, however imperfectly. Certainly, I'll take it over any of Murry's MM stories seven times out of seven.

UPDATE: I can't believe I forgot to mention this, but I want to note here and now for the record that whenever I see that title I can't help but think WELL YOU SHOULD SEE SOURDOUGH SAM.  SHE'S SO GOOD-LOOKING BUT SHE LOOKS LIKE A MAN.  Right, as you were.