"The Christmas that Almost Wasn't"

Okay okay, a day late, but now we're back on track. No need to panic. Before we start, for anyone who hasn't yet had the pleasure, let's just have this great image by Tony Fernández of Greta (Grebe-a?) Thunberg as a duck:

Given that she's Swedish, she probably has at least SOME familiarity with Disney comics, so I hope she sees it and appreciate the honor.

ANYWAY, now we finally reach a story that really goes for broke on being as Christmas-y as possible. I admire that; no distancing or irony of any kind to be seen; just pure sentiment. And it works, more or less! Certainly, this opening is as seasonal as we could ask for.

But OH NO, what has happened?!? I suppose it's fairly easy to predict where this is going, but that's pretty much okay.

The one thing I will say, and I don't know if this is necessarily what you'd call a "problem:" well...was this idea of Gyro's Helper being such an important friend ever more than subtext at most in Barks? Whereas here (and in Rosa, of course, in "Gyro's First Invention") it becomes more just plain text, and somehow, that always feels kinda leaden to me--excessively fanfic-y. I mean, hey, it's not a mortal sin or anything, you know, it's Christmastime, tidings of comfort and joy and all, but still, couldn't this perhaps have been presented in a slightly subtler way? I don't know. Maybe that's just my aesthetic sensibilities. As I said: it's fine!

So yeah, you have this random family, which again will likely recall other stories. Funny thing about this, though: there's no indication that this is actually one of those poor-but-virtuous families you'd see in a Barks Firestone giveaway comic; they may be virtuous, but the only reason they're not going to have a good Christmas seems to be that they put everything off until the absolute last minute.

I mean, they could be poor, but they're not drawn with any signifiers of poverty, and they have a car and a large-ish house with orange curtains covered with triangles, so, you know. This whole thing could be very different with different art.

As I say, it's fine, and Gyro inviting them 'round like this works well, but still, it might have more impact if the family seemed to be in reduced circumstances, rather than just having suffered a mild inconvenience. I probably shouldn't harp so much on this, but I don't actually have that much to say about this whole affair, so YOU WILL TAKE WHAT'S GIVEN YOU.

Yep yep yep. So it goes.

Sure, why not! Although I do wonder if anyone would really be happy to get a Christmas tree angel repurposed as a doll. I mean, those things are just not substantial in the way a good-quality doll would be.  Not something you could really hug in very satisfying way.  Well hell, it works okay in the context of the story; I just tend to think about things too much. Anyway, Helper makes a good tree topper; just the herald that the birth of Christ Our Lord calls for. Good on ya.