"The Mummy's Ring"

Hi, I'm back!  Okay, this entry was pretty predictable.  It's actually kind of weird that I never covered this on a previous Halloween--it seems like a natural.  The truth is, I always sort of discounted it.  I shoudn't have!  It's full of interesting firsts!  But rereading it to write this entry was only the second time I'd ever read it period.  The first time I dismissed it as not that good and thought no more about it.  I'm not going to say that it's an all-time classic qua story, but there are still--I hope--interesting things to say about it, and it is historically important if you're talkin' 'bout Barks.

This title panel is at least a little spooky, with that big, illuminated ring.  We might do a study of title panels in early Barks stories like this--later stories would be less interesting in this regard, but some of these early ones show him really creating a mood.

Does this count as "improvin' one's mind?"  Maybe.  What I really like here is how irritated Donald looks for no evident reason, even when he's agreeing to HDL's suggestion.  It is incongruous.

"I buy my jewelry at the five and ten" is a pretty good line, but better, I think, is this principle that Donald apparently has all of a sudden of not buying jewelry for any amount of money.  You've gotta buy the Hope Diamond for a quarter!  And if I say I love you, do you want to buy a diamond for a dime?  Of course, this "luck" business is a recurring Barks thing, though this particular story doesn't push it too hard.

OMG PETE!  More or less.  This of course was before Barks had developed a stable cast.  Do peanut carts always have, like, lances on them?  Is stabbing people a standard part of the job?  It's a dangerous life, for sure.

Is this any way to behave in a museum?  Yeesh.  Well, at least the mummies themselves weren't stolen.  There was that whole weird business of people thinking mummies were somehow aphrodisiacs.  As I just learned from wikipedia, that resulted from a mistranslation of a totally unrelated word.  Interesting stuff.  People are kind of dopey. 

Okay, I think this is THE single most important thing to note in this story.  Well, depending what your priorities are.  Whatever.  But: in later Barks stories, you could see indications of his growing awareness that this treasure-hunting stuff was less and less tenable.  I...don't actually know (do you?) whether he was at all aware of issues like colonialism and cultural appropriation, but either way, things became a little more vexed.  That wouldn't have been an issue in an early story like this, however.  But the Bey's concerns here are totally legit--these sarcophagi and mummies are a part of Egyptian (El Daggan?) cultural history, so why should they moulder in a Duckburg museum?  That last line ("he buys nothing!") seems to be meant to indicate some kind of, like, high-handed barbarism or something, but why should he bloody well be paying for things that Duckburg stole?  Hey, I've visited the British Museum, and while it is cool, it's also kind of unjustifiable.

Also, unrelated but kind of funny: "under threat of war?"  What, El Dagga's going to attack...the United States?  Or just Duckburg?  I feel like the federal government might get involved in that.  Somehow.

I find that this is a nicely-rendered bit of business.  It's not exactly horrifying, but the action just cutting away from Huey like that creates an effect of understated creepiness that I like.

If you agree that there's something suspicious, why are you opining that "that's a laugh?"  Take this seriously!  Also, the police being unwilling to investigate Middle-Eastern-looking foreigners?  Would that we lived in that world!

Also, that wanted poster.  A weird dude in dark glasses, apparently?  What's going on here?

I'm trying and failing to figure out what the deal is with that name--the "Amnesia Castle?"  What?  There's a self-published book by that title, and an album, but what's the relevance here?  Tell me!  I like how this random working-class taxi driver is apparently an expert on diplomatic relations.

Great costumes--really.  I am trying to remember why Donald's looks so familiar.  I'm SURE there was a later story where he (or possible Scrooge?) were wearing something similarly semi-circular.  At first I thought it was "Letter to Santa," but I'm sure there's something else.  Let me know.

Of course, the difference is, whereas usually super-flimsy disguises fool people perfectly, here pretty good ones don't fool anyone.  Go figure.  Also, just imagine how much padding there must be in Donald's get-up there.  My goodness!

I mainly just wanted to point this out because Donald obliviously making his nephews sick in so contrived a way is funny, and would you look at their faces in the upper right there, but also, dig the shading from the light on Donald in the upper left.  That is solid work!

OOooOOooOO!  Pretty spooky stuff.  But is that how mummies work?  I haven't seen any of those old Universal horror films, so I don't know: do they really just sneak up behind you and whack you?  I was more picturing them inflicting sinister curses on people.  

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't present one of the greatest out-of-context panels in all of Barks.  What a hoot.  I also think it's worth emphasizing: you might think it's just the line of dialogue, but I think you can't understate the extent to which the art makes it--other artists would not have been able to depict "freaking out" that effectively. 

Right, okay.  I guess "El Dagga" is just supposed to be a province in Egypt, not a near-analogue to the country as a whole.  One interesting thing about them is that, as it turns out, they still follow ancient Egyptian religion.  That's not something you might expect.

Also, my goodness, I will never warm to those lumpy jowls on the nephews in early Barks.  Did he change that by editorial fiat, was it a conscious realization that this wasn't really working, or was it just a gradual evolution?  Is there a specific breaking point we can identify?  We should look into that. 

The stakes are raised!  This is all a bit convoluted, but hey--it does the trick!

Nice art here, man.  This story is of course most notable as Barks' first real globetrotting story, and also represents the debut of his habit of ransacking articles from National Geographic for references--in this case, the April 1940 and October 1941 issues.  In Donald Duck Adventures 14, where this is reprinted, he is quoted thusly: "Over half of what's in my stories is visual information, and if I didn't have something like the Geographic for establishing what things looked like in other places and times, I wouldn't have any means of making things realistic."  I...don't think that's a problem that Barks' epigones at Western--even the better ones--would've felt the need to grapple with!  Barks FTW, as per always.

Quite violent!  What is the motivation to try to gun the ducks down?  Yes, they're trying to "escape," is this a proportionate response?  MY GOODNESS.

Really, I mainly just included the image with bullets so that we could then transition into THIS.  If it's not one thing it's another!  Jeez!  And it really looks like Donald's taken a direct hit there.

Seriously, that decision to use references for the art payed off in a big way; even if the story itself may not be that thrilling, uh, story-wise, it looks good.  Seems like such a simple thing, but, well...dig those Anubis heads.  And is that meant to be a real lion?  It looks like it, but that could be down to the coloring.

Is "Yarvard" Harvard but for pirates?  We can only hope.  I know--or at least assume--it's just meant as a joke, but the idea that the bey buys into this stuff but the idea that mummies can eat is a bridge too far is kind of interesting.

The depiction of the bey is not very consistent, as he vacillates between seeming reasonable and sympathetic and willing to inter people alive.  I guess that's just what you have to expect from those dern foreigners!

Why did I include this?  I don't know; I guess it's just sort of funny seeing the mummy jumping out a window.  The way it's drawn it does look VERY reminiscent of later images of the entrance to Scrooge's Bin.  Is that interesting?  Only YOU...can decide.

So are they going to get their real mummies back, or what?  This is my main concern!  Where'd he hide them?  Just in some supply closet?  And where did he get the bandages to wrap up himself and Huey?  Did he remove them from the mummies?  That's a gruesome thought.  Given the general tenor of these Egyptians, I fear his punishment will be unpleasant--but maybe not; "for a low-down ring-snatcher he got himself into a mighty bad jam" seems to reflect a fairly light-hearted attitude about the whole thing.

Treasure, baby!  Later stories would tend to be a little bit less laissez-faire about letting Donald and the kids strike it rich.  I do feel that something was lost in later years when treasure hunting was pretty much totally preempted by Scrooge.  Donald is such a wide-ranging character, he should be able to go on treasure hunts without his damn uncle taking everything.  Hmph!  Point being: I like this.  And Donald bathing in treasure like that VERY clearly points towards the Barksian future.

Kind of a weird ending panel (though dig that badass art).  I guess "the gang's all here" because Huey's been rescued?  Still, though.  I feel like Barks wasn't quite sure what to do, and so: random song lyrics!  Well, he certainly wrote worse conclusions.

Happy Halloween!  Expect more sooner rather than later!  Unless not!  Uncertainty is spooky, too!  OoOoOOooOO!