"The Hard Loser"

Beware of this story!  Do not be tricked by its wiles!  You will THINK this is a normal ol' Barks ten-pager, but it has a Dark Secret: it was ACTUALLY published in that same dang "Mummy's Ring" one-shot, NOT in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories!  I cannot tolerate such deceitful behavior!

...or can I?  Well, let's find out.  I really like both the idea and the visual of Donald playing a carnival game, as if that's just a normal thing that people do on a regular basis.  Look his into it he is!

This might be pushing a point, but you could probably argue that this is Barks's most social story yet, bringing in a whole community, as represented by the race, to this as-yet-unnamed city.

Grandpa's!  GRANDPA'S!  Here's a kettle o 'worms for you.  Are we to assume (okay, obviously we're not "to assume" anything, but we are anyway, out of sheer obstinacy) that this is Grandma's husband, allegedly known as "Humperdink Duck?"  How long ago (in relation to Barks' timeless present) did he die, anyway?  Well...okay, if you just assume it's that guy, this is much less interesting.  I could ask questions about why he's never mentioned again, never seen, etc., but that would just be playing dumb.  Would it really be that interesting?  If you enjoy questions like that, it shouldn't be too hard to formulate them in your head, I'd think.  Anyway, it's too bad we don't get to see "Grandpa."  That'd REALLY mess things up for anyone interested in continuity!

This might likewise be pushing a point, but Donald waking up all freaked out like that could perhaps be a precursor to the famous sequence in "Luck of the North" where he starts to feel more and more guilty about tricking Gladstone.

Don't you love that portrayal of the nephews?  Just preemptively admitting, yeah, we don't trust you.  The early relationship between Donald and HDL is certainly more rough-and-tumble than it would become.  They read as older in later stories, don't they?  Not that that's bad necessarily, but why?  It sort of makes me think--although they're nothing alike, really--of how Segar's hackish successors changed Swee'Pea into a big talker with little to distinguish him from the adults.  BLAH!

Ha ha!  That's a memorable kind of horse, I would say.

"To beat the other fellow."  I do enjoy Donald perking up: "Oh boy!  Dirty tricks!"

Why did I cut this image?  Tell me.  Probably just for an example of the hoary ol' "rotate the signpost" cliche.  Probably a cliche even then, but I don't know.  How do we find out where it originated?

This one I'm sure I only included for the funny horse pictures.  Very Gottfredson-esque in the top left there.

HOLY CRUD.  "We won't ever mention you in our prayers again."  Now, you can definitely find Western pictures of HDL kneeling to pray beside their bed, in that cartoon shorthand for affected piousness.  Possibly even Barks himself drew some.  And yet, that is a far cry from specifically mentioning "prayers."  Prayers!  This really does make you realize how relentlessly secular Disney comics are, because the idea of the ducks with religions, I don't know (which is good--a lot of your globe-trotting stories in particular would get reeeeeaally uncomfortable if you thought they might be accompanied by any degree of religious motivation).  

So what do you think the ducks are, religion-wise?  I mean, if you take this story at face value?  You'd probably assume some flavor of Christian, just because that's how most American identify.  And certainly, the preponderance of Christmas stories (even if it's a deracinated sort of Christmas) would suggest as much.  But I don't know!  Let's have some fun!  The only reason Christmas stories were considered acceptable is that they were very intensely non-religious!  Sure, at the time these stories were written, no doubt everyone was just thinking about a Christian default, but YOU don't know!  It looks like <i>everyone</i> is celebrating Christmas, and do you think Duckburg is one hundred percent Christian?  Seems improbable!  What if the Duck family were all Muslims, but you never knew because any evidence of such is all just off-stage?  Wouldn't that be a thing?

Also, note Donald's response there, which would seem to be pretty blasphemous if we're taking any of this at all seriously: you don't need God's grace because it's only useful in practical terms and since you've got this thing in the bag, it's all good?  I would avoid thunderclouds for the foreseeable future, were I he!

Mmm-hmm!  Say, I don't mean to be a downer or anything, but aren't there other competitors in this race?  Using cranes to hoist horses onto haystacks may be fun for kids of all ages, but aren't you missing the larger context here?

...oh.  They've been "eliminated."  Somehow.  Very convenient.  Well, never mind then; carry on.

Ha-ha-ha.  I have certain doubts about this, however.  How is this supposed to work?  If you really to make sure that the racers have no idea what's going on, you could only tell the audience at the last minute, to avoid leaks.  But that's clearly not the case here, as you have this dude who clearly knows what's going on dropping hints:

So...what?  WHAT?  Also, the race can only happen once, since otherwise the jig would be completely up.  I mean, it's a fun idea, but it needs more thought put into it.  Maybe there could be a different win condition in every race.  That could be interesting.

This ending works pretty well; it's funny that we don't see the havoc Donald wreaks.  It does seem unfair that HDL have to sell their trophy, though.  And why are they so cheerful about it?  Hmph.

Anyway, comix!  We all love 'em.  Please enjoy responsibly.