WALT DISNEY'S DONALD DUCK: LOST IN THE ANDES (WALT DISNEY DONALD DUCK HC) Hardcover – 13 Aug. 2013

I've been an ardent fan of Carl Barks' Donald Duck comics for over forty years. When I first encountered these stories I realized I was being entertained by a master storyteller. His rich and incisive characterizations of Donald and his nephews as well as his creation of a host of richly delineated supporting characters had me hooked from the off. In fact it is Barks's support cast, not least of which is Donald's miserly, money grubbing Uncle Scrooge, that informs and shapes so much of the stories that are presented in this introductory volume.The first volume of what will be a thirty volume collection, is not chronologically the first of Barks Duck stories. Fantagraphics have wisely chosen to kick off their series with the stories from December 1948 through to August 1949. The stories are broken down into three sections, commencing with the epic adventures at the start, including the title story "Lost in the Andes", which many connoisseurs of Barks regard as his masterpiece and also including "The Golden Christmas Tree", "Race to the South Seas", a story dominated by Donald's insufferably lucky Gladstone Gander and lastly a truly weird story entitled "Voodoo Hoodoo".These are followed by a run of the short ten page stories that Bark's created for the monthly Walt Disney's Comics and Stories as well as an eight page Christmas story from the rare Firestone Giveaway Comic. The stories are all mini masterpieces and add even more depth to Uncle Scrooge and the aforementioned Gladstone Gander. All the single page strips as well as all the relevant Barks covers are included. Readers coming to these stories for the first time (how I envy them) will by this stage be totally seduced and desperate for more of Barks.Which is really the only area I have a slight scintilla of criticism regarding Fantagraphics admirable reprinting of these stories. Two books a year is simply too long to wait!However that minor gripe aside and with the hope that the publishers continue to focus on the "Golden Years" of Barks output, this collection represents the best incarnation of these stories ever to appear, and this is from a reader that has owned many previous editions of these stories, including the 1980's Another Rainbow slipcased editions, the 1990's Gladstone color albums as well as the original comics themselves.I should at this juncture make mention of the design of these books which adds so much to the sheer pleasure of leafing through these timeless tales. The choice of display type and the layout is entirely sympathetic with Barks artwork and add to this the superb coloring that Rich Tommaso has applied to these stories and you are looking at the optimum best that any lover of Barks artistry could ever hope for. It's worth mentioning that Tommaso has sensibly avoided falling into the trap of applying computer coloring effects and stuck closely (but not slavishly) to the color schemes employed by the original colorists working on these stories. The result is beautiful flat laid back colors that allow Bark's drawings to work their magic without the distractions of ersatz gradients and the other equally unpleasant devices that have so compromised a lot of previous reprints of these stories.All in all one of the most exciting comic reprint projects Fantagraphics has undertaken (and they have some astonishingly good projects already underway).I can only wish them every success and hope that in the process they will recruit new legions of Barks devotees.

There have been many attempts to reprint Carl Barks cartoons over the years.. But all collections fail because of poor choice in colour, paper, censorship etc...But this new series is amazing. Magic even!. The format is same size as the original mags from the 40-60s.. the colouring is spectacular, the paper and book it self is totally well selected..Finally - the book cover, layout and extra material.. again, so well done.A super modern book paying a lot of respect to both hard core Barks fans as wells a newcomers.And it's at a very good price.Can't wait to get them all..

An awesome collection of long, medium and short stories. They have truly stood the test of time.First time reading old Disney comics and as an adult I found them to be appreciable as a fine work of popular art.So I would recommend to newcomers to the genre, young & old alike.IMO, much more fun than watching the TV cartoons!

Amazing stories, lots of laughs

Its nostalgia time, thanks Carl Barks for those wonderful memoriesI recommend especially to folks that grew up reading and traveling in our imagination and living those adventures but also to the young’s to see how supreme they are.

Nice satire on capitalism to read to your left-leaning grandchildren.

I love Everything Carl Barks produced. There is action in every Picture. And like Hergé he never travelled to all those places that the ducks go.

A great first book in the series

These duck stories are great, for young or old. The duck family portrayed by Carl Barks, beginning in the 1940s, reflects the values of the time. They are fun tales of treasure hunts, bizarre quests (such as a search for square chickens that lay square eggs), happy Christmases, monsters, ghosts, witches, and wild undersea adventures -- all dominated by Donald Duck's happy-go-lucky temperament, and sometimes by his pique with cousin Gladstone Gander's infallible and very annoying good luck.

Um Ihr Schulenglisch zu verbessern und wegen des Spaßes hat meine Nichte dieses Comic in englisch gekriegt. Sie war super begeistert gewesen

Magnificos dibujos, historias llenas de imaginación dan forma a un verdadero clásico de la historieta. Barks en su mejor época. Muy recomendable.

Una delle più belle storie Disney in un’edizione ben curata

If you are reading this I assume you already know who Carl Barks was, and why he deserves his place in the pantheon of the comics gods. (If not, get this book!) So, I'll keep this review focussed on what you find inside this marvelous book.There are three sections:The Adventures (long stories of at least 20 pages, some over 30)'Lost in the Andes!''The Golden Christmas Tree''Race to the South Seas' (supposedly using rediscovered artwork thought lost for 60 years, but this has been challenged)'Voodoo Hoodoo'The Short Stories (each about 10 pages)'Toyland''The Crazy Quiz Show''Truant Officer Donald''Donald Duck's Worst Nightmare''Pizen Spring Dude Ranch''Rival Beachcombers''The Sunken Yacht''Managing the Eco System' (should be 'Echo' rather than 'Eco')'Plenty of Pets'The Gags (One-pagers)'Jumping to Conclusions''The True Test''Ornaments on the Way''Too Fit to Fit''Sleepy Sitters''Slippery Shine''Tunnel Vision'To quote from the 'Editor's Note' on the last page, "The stories will be published in chronological order by *volume*, but not within each volume." All the tales in this book were published between December 1948 and August 1949. Future volumes will publish the entirety of Carl Barks's work on the Disney Ducks, although it is up to Fantagraphics to decide which years will be first to be published.[This lack of chronology does not bother me one bit; I mention it only to save some 'purists' from grumbling.]You also get a brief introduction by Donald Ault, which introduces us to Carl Barks the man. (He seems to have had a terrible time from 1993 to 1998, thanks to his "managers" who thought nothing of pushing a man in his nineties -- with failing eyesight -- to the very brink.)And there are 'Story Notes' at the end of the book, comments on specific stories by Ault again, as well as by Stefano Priarone, Alberto Becattini, Francesco Stajano, Leonardo Gori, Jared Gardner, Craig Fischer, Rich Kreiner, and R. Fiore.This last section also reprints the covers to the original comics in which 'Lost in the Andes', 'The Golden Christmas Tree', 'Voodoo Hoodoo', and 'Truant Officer Donald' first appeared. (The covers to the other comics were, mostly, the work of Walt Kelly, and have been dropped from what is after all a Carl Barks Library.)The book is printed very slightly smaller than the Golden Age originals. On the other hand, we also get much better coloring without the awful bleeding that was the norm sixty years ago, on pages that are creamy rather than the dazzling white of some archival editions. And the binding is sewn rather than glued, so the pages lie flat with no gutter loss.Above all the extras, the true reason to pick up this fine book is the work of Carl Barks, one of the most prolific and most gifted writers and artists from any era, from a time when he was at the top of his game.Frankly this would be well worth it even paying full price, and with Amazon's discount it is a steal!