Duck Album #1

That's what I'm calling it, but be advised that there was no actual Duck Album line; they were all just released as Four Color Comics.

FIVE STORIES IN ONE!  God I spoil you people.  Does that equal five times the fun?  Well...let's hold off on that.  But what happened was, I was rummaging around for something to cover this week, and I stumbled upon THIS.  I've always been a fan of these Duck Albums, or at least the general concept, so I was pretty psyched to realize that A) this is the first of them; and B) I had somehow never read it before.  Is it GOOD?  Well, it's pretty standard Western.  Far from their worst, though probably closer to that than their best if I'm being honest.  They're not overly substantial, and none of them would be worth covering individually, but there are enough cumulative weirdnesses in here to be worth highlighting, hopefully.

Nice cover, too!  Inducks wants to credit all of these images except HDL, who get a big ?, to Barks.  Is that right?  Donald, Daisy, and Scrooge look Barksian; I'm not sure about Grandma and Gladstone.  Well, regardless, here we are.  And, as I've noted many times in that past, what I like about these albums is the general frame narrative: the idea that the Duck family is looking at these pictures and reminiscing.  So I was a bit taken aback by this existential crisis:

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"Uncle Scrooge's Generous Deed"

Well, now it's time for another Connell story, from CP 4 in 1952. Please try to restrain your excitement.

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"Presents for All"

MORE CONNELL?!? Jesus, MUST we? Yes, we must. Ours is not to wonder why; ours is but to do and write about stories by awful hacks. Or so it seems. This is from 1951's CP 3, meaning it's the first non-Barks marquee story. The quality drop-off is...noticeable. Although actually, it could be worse; this story would be basically inoffensive except for just one damn thing, that you will see RIGHT NOW:

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"Trail Blazer"

So whaddaya say?  Wanna take a look at the first non-Barks appearance of Scrooge McDuck?  Of course you do.  The only problem is that, as with so many seemingly straightforward questions, "What was Scrooge's first non-Barks appearance?" does not have a single wholly reliable answer.

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"Southern Hospitality"

As you know, the great majority of Barks' long-form Donald adventures were not printed in the regular, bimonthly Donald Duck book, which wasn't established until 1952, at which point he was too busy with Uncle Scrooge to contribute much; instead, they were printed as part of the Four Color Comics/One-Shots series, along with gallons of other Disney and non-Disney material.
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