"Let Donald Do It"

This might be the first story I've written about with an imperative title.  Well...probably.  You could also read that title in the same sense as "let there be light"--a subjunctive usage.   Donald; the creator of the universe--who can tell the difference?  Regardless, its sole claim to fame, if you can call it that (spoiler: you can't) is that it was a backup story for Barks' "How Green Was My Lettuce."  

The art isn't Strobl's best, but it's not too bad.  I like the opening.  It promises...something.  Also, I want to note that five thousand dollars is LITERALLY NOTHING to Scrooge, and that if he spent all his time chasing after penny-ante shit like this, his empire would swiftly crumble.  I realize that this has already been hashed out to death, but I feel like maybe to me, it's less glaring when Scrooge gets obsessive over, like, a quarter or something, because that's so obviously over-the-top cartoonishness.  Whereas five thousand dollars draws attention to itself by kind of being a large about of money...but definitely not to him.  [NOTE TO SELF: TRY TO THINK OF 'UNCANNY VALLEY' PUN TO INSERT HERE]

He had to do it, you guys!  Why?  Shut up!  He just had to!  Think of the shareholders!  Tsk, too bad, but what are ya gonna do, eh?  Capitalism!

I'd like you to note the apathetic-looking handyman here, the fellow barely able to motivate himself to toss two small rocks in the direction of a non-functional wheelbarrow.  Take a gooooooood look at him.  We'll be seeing more of him.  Not sure how many tourists are going to want to visit this industrial wasteland, though.

Lem.  Lemuel.  Now, because I emphasized it just above, you probably immediately caught on to the fact that Lem is the handyman.  But believe me, if you'd been reading this straight, you would have been momentarily confused.  We're not accustomed to thinking much about these random NPCs, and even to the extent that we do, they're very rarely given names.  Seriously, they mention Lem by name so many damn times in this story.  To me, that's the most interesting thing about it, which shows both how barren of interesting things this story is, and how I'm so jaded that it takes obscure arcana like this to get me going.

It's also a little distracting how often we hear this vehicle referred to as a "little cyclone."  Because okay, fine, that's what that thing's called if you say so, you're the writer, but if that's a real kind of earthmoving tool, I can't seem to find anything about it on the internet; okay, so it's an in-universe brand?  Either way, I trip up over it a little every time.

This story features plenty of your favorite: Scrooge haplessly trying to "help" and horribly fucking everything up.  Nice!  I think if he made a habit of drunkenly stumbling in the direction of active circular saws like that, his reign as the world's richest duck would likely end in tragedy.  Seriously, look at his arms and hands in the "wups! It-it slipped!" panel.  Not sure what Strobl was going for, and not sure if he achieved it.

LOOK HOW EPIC THIS IS!  OMG!  Like those Barks scenes, if Barks was much less talented.  That sounded mean to Strobl.  Come on; I like Strobl.  You know I do.  But he didn't quite have the epic splash panel in him.

Come on, LEM.  Get it together, LEM.  Don't break anything, LEM.  Why in the world are we so heavily-focused on this dime-a-dozen background character?  It looks like Scooge and Donald are maybe trying to indocrinate him into a cult.  Or else they're using him as ordnance in some sort of weird mind game between the two of them that I cannot begin to fathom. 

Why does Scrooge think Donald even HAS five thousand dollars to spend on a defunct company town, anyway? 

We get some slapsticky stuff that I find quite difficult to parse.  This is sometimes an issue for Gregory.  Still, enjoy people being assaulted by cement-related objects!

Still don't think he's gonna have five thousand dollars for you!  But then again, Donald looks pretty nonchalant about the whole thing to, so maybe he entered the upper middle class when we weren't looking.

Lucky break.  I know I know, it's a common sort of denouement.  But really, what's Gladstone even FOR if Donald can have these experiences as well?

In fairness, I find this ending genuinely excellent.  No ifs, ands, or buts.  I just love Scrooge's expression there in the bottom right panel:  it just screams "I know I did an extremely stupid thing, and I'm slightly self-conscious about that, but still kinda defiantly proud, or at least trying to convince myself I am!"  I get all that from that one panel?  Maybe Strobl really is a genius after all!