"The Old Castle's Secret"

 Bwee hee hee!  Hello boils and ghouls!  Today we have a scaaaary story that's sure to tingle your spine!  I mean, maybe.  As I've said before: the reason I hadn't written about this is because I don't know how much I have to SAY about it.  It's just a whole bunch of frenetic action, which is fun but maybe doesn't make for the best analysis.  I'm afraid this is going to be shorter than I feel like a story of this significance deserves.  OH WELL.

Oh, but before I begin, I should congratulate my Brazilian readers for rejecting Fascist jr. in your presidential race.  Nothin' spooky about that, and I hope it heralds good things in the US next week.

Well, as you know, here we have Scrooge's second appearance.  He could well have been relegated to the role of one-time oddity, but clearly Barks saw something in him (I mean, Barks is great, but that probably wasn't a hard call--"rich uncle" raises all kinds of story possibilities), so here we are.

However, while Barks may have had ideas for Scrooge, it's also notable that at this point those ideas don't include his main thing, cartoonish hyper-wealth.  In later stories, the idea that "the McDuck fortune" (by which I assume he just means his personal fortune--it's not totally clear) was in trouble would require substantial justification.  And you wouldn't see anything like that childish (in a good way) thing from HDL.  And this is neither here nor there, but doesn't it look like something's been edited out here between the third and fourth panels?

What is notable here is just how much background he gives to Scrooge.  It's like a firehose of lore, and I have to think that when it was first published anyone paying attention would've had to sit up and take notice.  I'm confident in saying there had never been anything like this in Disney comics before.

And yet, in spite of all that, Scrooge isn't all that different from Donald here, which I enjoy.  He may be unique among Disney characters in that he has a concrete historical past, but he's still a Disney character.  Why are Donald's bubbles green?  It makes him look drunk.

Just sticking this here because look how GOOD it looks.  Even Barks himself wouldn't do artwork this layered and detailed very much later in his career.

So this is this.  Just one thing to point out here: that image of Scottie in the bottom right, kind of in the distance: doesn't that look like a Gottfredson character?  I feel like it does.  Even though Barks and Gottfredson were very different artists, they do share a common ancestor.

More lore.  There's actually quite some verisimilitude here: killed by the Saxons?  That seems like a fate to befit a feudal lord.  And dying from overeating--well, let's remember that Henry I famously, allegedly, died from eating "a surfeit of lampreys."  Yum!

And dig that mouse in the armor!

Now this part's kind of odd, because we never get to see the armor and bones that freak Donald out so.  You might imagine that this has something to do with the ghostly skeleton that we'll get to soon, but it clearly doesn't: when HDL first see it in the story, it's clear that it is indeed the first time they have.  So just use your imagination, I guess.  Maybe us not being able to adds a certain something to the proceedings.  Or maybe not.

Speaking of.  Let me never understate how cool and spooky that skeleton is, but let me also note that it's the story's one really big plot hole.  Sir Quackly is a duck.  So why does he have a human skeleton?  Tell me!  Well, if we've read to the end, we know the answer to that question.  But the ducks sure haven't!  So why does it apparently never even occur to them to think that something here might not be quite kosher?  I think it's just narrative fudging on Barks' part: if that had to be taken into account, the whole story would have to be substantially rewritten, so what the hey, let's just go with what we've got.  And to be fair, it certainly doesn't ruin the story or anything.  Still, it does feel like a rare bit of cheating on Carl's part.

(Mind you, a lot of the armor that we see also looks human-proportioned, making things even odder.  In the same way that humans on average were shorter in the past, did ducks tend to be much taller and lankier for some unclear reason?  You tell me.)

I mean, here's Donald--famously, a duck--wearing just the top half of a suit of armor that presumably Scrooge's ancestors wore the entirety of.  The plot thickens.

I dig the vibe of them being trapped on the battlement like that.  That is all.

Ha!  Scrooge thinks Donald can't be trusted, but Don is IN IT TO WIN IT, regardless of the outcome.

Here's another fun, spooky bit.  Even if we know the ultimate reason for all this stuff, there's a spooky, off-kilter vibe that hits the spot.

On seeing these panels, I have one overriding thought: are those pink birds meant to be flamingos?  I mean, what else would you want to know?  Okay, how bout this: is that frog future fan-favorite (I'm the fan) duck family pet Catapult?  Who is in Scotland now, for some reason?

Well, the other thing that comes to mind is: sure, you made it down safely.  Great.  That does not mean that this is a fundamentally safe thing to do, and it REALLY seems like it would be a better idea for just Louie to go get help.  Come on.

...but, in fairness, if they didn't all come down, they couldn't collaborate on this fun detective stuff.

And I'm just presenting this entire page because I think it's worth it to see their thought processes and their investigation as it plays out, which is really incredibly cool.  If you have an example of a NBW story doing anything remotely as sophisticated as this, let me know; I want to write about it.

This part is funny, and also Scrooge encouraging Donald to kick his ass for his foolishness is...well, you'd never have seen that in Rosa, that's for sure.  Or almost anywhere, but the idea of seeing it in a Rosa story seems especially absurd.

More spooky ghost skeleton.  Yeah!

"This beautiful body is taking the count."  I mean, it's kind of memorable, as phrases go, but also fairly bizarre!

Also, yeah, the kids are smart and all, but they're still kids, and they still have their goofy theories about plastic robots and mechanical remote control ghosts.  Is that latter one REALLY any less uncanny than a regular ghost?

Diamond Dick, whom we knew.  I guess I'm vaguely surprised that no one's ever brought him back in any capacity, but what I'm more concerned with is how no one has any reaction at all to the demise of Scottie, "an old and trusted employee."  In his Life and Times, Rosa depicts Scottie as a kid, which would mean he died quite young here.  But as I think about it, I realize there's no actually textual reason to think that would've been the case.  And as I think about it further, I realize that that was a very odd decision on Rosa's part.  Either way, though--bummer.  RIP Scottie McTerrier.  I'm sorry that your employer and alleged friend didn't see fit to eulogize you or acknowledge your death in any way.

Aside from that, this whole thing does feel a bit rushed: Diamond Dick.  Chemical spray I stole from a spy.  Okay then.

Let no one say there are any flies on Donald Duck...is quite a strange phrase.  Well, as I've noted a thousand times, one of Barks' few weaknesses was a difficulty with sticking landings.  Oh well!

What have we learned?  I dunno; probably not much that we didn't know.  Still!  Good times, and this entry turned out to be only a LITTLE on the short side.  But dang, man, after four Barks adventures, and because I'm so goddamn freaked out about the elections, you had better believe that you're getting some low-effort NBW nonsense next week.  Probably the week after that, too.  Look forward to it?