THEBORROWINGS

Let it be known! Carl Barks was an unusually gifted storyteller with an imagination that defies normal comprehension. Story ideas just poured from his pen - although he always modestly maintained that it was nothing but hard work. Not necessarily so! Barks would get ideas from the most trivial of events (once he happened to drive past a hotel that was said to be haunted and that triggered U$56 Mystery of The Ghost Railroad Town) and at all hours. Many a night his wife, Garé, was awakened by her husband's scribbling down ideas that he had just dreamt up - literally.

Despite Barks' undisputed - and thoroughly enviable - talent for coming up with new stories, he did from time to time allow himself to be inspired by others. Some story ideas were given him by professional Disney-writers and he received a few from his daughter Peggy. Barks also borrowed ideas from other sources as can be seen below, but they were just used as stepping stones; he always developed his own stories from bits and pieces in the books and the films. It is often hard to tell the origin of these borrowings. But let's have a go, anyway...

THE BOOKS
	STORY FC0328 Old California (1951). ORIGIN The American Helen Hunt Jackson's (1830-1885) historical romance novel Ramona (1884). COMMENTS In Jackson's story Ramona, the child of a white father and an Indian mother, falls in love with an Indian sheepherder named Alessandro. Barks' story incorporated many things: love, heroes, villains, history, nature, gold rush, atmosphere and nostalgia. He did not have to consult his beloved National Geographic Magazines for backgrounds in order to draw this epic story. He lived right in the area!
	STORY U$22 The Golden River (1958). ORIGIN The British philosopher and author John Ruskin's (1819-1900) short story The King of The Golden River (1860). COMMENTS Ruskin's story is a fairy tale set in the land of Stiria and tells about the good-hearted Gluck and his mean older brothers, Schwartz and Hans, who seek gold and get their just rewards! Barks enjoyed the concept and transformed it to his duck universe.
	STORY U$25 The Flying Dutchman (1959). ORIGIN An old tale that has enticed many writers. Among the most famous is the British author and naval captain Frederick Marryat (1792-1848) who wrote The Phantom Ship (1837). COMMENTS The original tale tells about a Dutch captain who was renowned for the uncanny speed of his trips between Holland and Java, and was suspected of being in league with the devil because of it. During a storm at Cape of Good Hope the captain made a blasphemous remark that he would not retreat, but would continue his attempt to round the cape even if it took until Judgement Day. For that remark he and his ship were doomed to sail the high seas forever. Another artist, the German composer Richard Wagner, also took up the theme in his opera Der Fliegende Holländer. Barks gladly joined the party. In his version the merchant ship was carrying a load of gold bullion and this new cargo effectively triggered a treasure hunt at sea for Scrooge.
	STORY U$47 The Thrifty Spendthrift (1964). ORIGIN Based on a medieval English catechism song named The Twelve Days of Christmas. COMMENTS The song refers to the period between December 25 and January 5 and NOT the twelve days before Christmas. In old times it was customary to give gifts on January 6, and the song originally led up to this date. The song was meant as an aid to Catholic kids learning the tenets of their faith. Barks faithfully followed the lyrics to the letter and even added a receiver of all the gifts - an ungrateful dog...
	STORY U$49 The Loony Lunar Gold Rush (1964). ORIGIN The American Robert William Service's (1874-1958) poem called The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1924). COMMENTS The brawl scene in the space ship was inspired by the poem. Barks even named the villain Dan McShrew.
	STORY U$65 Mystery of the Ghost Town Railroad (1965). ORIGIN American photographer Ethel Anderson Becker's (1893-?) book Klondike '98: Hegg's Album of the 1898 Alaska Gold Rush (1949). COMMENTS The idea of the special bottle shack in which Scrooge finds his missing stock certificate was taken from a photo in the book, in which Becker had photographed a gold miner's similar shack in Alaska. In FC0456 Back to Klondike Barks got another idea from a photograph in the book; the goose egg nugget.
	STORY WDCS110 'The Goldilocks Story' (1949). ORIGIN Old German folk tale transformed to paper by the German brothers Jakob Grimm (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859). COMMENTS The brothers were librarians by trade and they collected more than 200 folk tales which they wrote down for the first time in order to preserve them for posterity, i.e. they did not invent the stories themselves. Barks used some of the storyline of Goldilocks and The Three Bears, and Disney's has also used several of the tales in their animated features, such as Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
	STORY WDCS112 'The Rip van Winkle Story' (1949). ORIGIN American Washington Irving's (1783-1859) story Rip van Winkle (1819). COMMENTS Before he finally came up with the plot, Barks tried several times to make a story from the theme of Irving's classic story of the Dutch immigrant Rip Van Winkle and his twenty-year nap in New York State's Catskill Mountains during the entire Revolutionary War before waking up to a much-changed world.
	STORY WDCS239 The Village Blacksmith (1960). ORIGIN American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's (1807-1882) poem The Village Blacksmith published in Ballads and Other Poems (1841). COMMENTS Barks did a pastiche of Longfellow's eight-verse poem by the same title. How close he came to the original can be understood by reading the first verse and comparing it to Barks' version: Under a spreading chestnut-tree The village smithy stands; The smith, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands; And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands.
	STORY WDCS288 Hero of the Dike (1964). ORIGIN American author Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge's (1831-1905) story The Hole in the Dike from the book Hans Brinker (1865). COMMENTS Barks was inspired by Dodge's children's story. It describes a Dutch boy who saves a town by sticking his finger in the hole of a flooded dike.
	STORY WDCS312 The Not-So-Ancient Mariner (1966). ORIGIN American author Samuel Taylor Coleridge's (1772-1834) poem The Rime of The Ancient Mariner (1797). COMMENTS Barks refers to Coleridge's seven-part poem in which the first part ends with the following two lines: Why look'st thou so? With my cross-bow I shot the ALBATROSS. In the story Barks lets Donald Duck recite the very same words. It is interesting that the poem as such bears a strong resemblance to the old tale of The Flying Dutchman.

THE FILMS
	STORY FC0062 Frozen Gold (1945). ORIGIN The unreleased cartoon Northwest Mounted (1936). COMMENTS When Barks set the scenery for Alaska he remembered his Mickey Mouse story for which he wrote and drew 400 storyboard sketches at his time at Disney's. Some of the gags and the character Black Pete were reused in the story. Barks also reused a scene in which Mickey and Pete are fighting on a tree trunk bridge for FC0199 The Sheriff of Bullet Valley (1948).
	STORY FC0238 Voodoo Hoodoo (1949). ORIGIN The film White Zombie (1932). COMMENTS Barks was triggered by a Bela Lugosi movie and a thrilling painting by Joe Little showing a human-like zombie with torn clothes. This inspired him to build a story around such a creature. It turned out to be somewhat of a cuddly monster in the comic book, because Barks had no intention of imitating the horrid monsters from the EC comics.
	STORY FC0275 Ancient Persia (1950). ORIGIN Films with Boris Karloff. COMMENTS As in FC0238 Barks was inspired by horror movies, this time the films starring Boris Karloff, who seems to have been portrayed in the role of the mad professor. It is anybody's guess exactly which of Karloff's 173 films triggered Barks, but it might well have been The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942), in which Karloff plays a crazy professor working to create a race of supermen in the basement of his spooky house. (Editor's remark.)
	STORY U$06 'Tralla La' (1954). ORIGIN The film Lost Horizon (1937). COMMENTS Barks had recently seen the Frank Capra movie based on the bestseller by American author James Hilton. In that story, a group of people are marooned when their airplane crashes in the secluded land of Shangri-La, which at first seems to be a paradise. Barks decided to place his ducks in the uninviting mountain range of the Himalayas.
	STORY WDCS033 'Lifeguard' (1943). ORIGIN The cartoon Sea Scouts (1939). COMMENTS Barks wrote the script for the cartoon and he borrowed one of the shark gags for his story.
	STORY WDCS086 'Volunteer Fireman' (1947). ORIGIN The cartoon Fire Chief (1940). COMMENTS Barks wrote the script for the cartoon together with Jack Hannah, Harry Reeves, Homer Brightman and Gilles de Trémaudan, and he later borrowed at few gags for his story.
	STORY WDCS100 'Truant Officer' (1949). ORIGIN The cartoon Truant Officer Donald (1941). COMMENTS Barks wrote the script for the cartoon together with Jack Hannah, and he later borrowed at few gags for his story.
	STORY WDCS240 The Fraidy Falcon (1960). ORIGIN The unreleased cartoon Donald's Stratosphere Flight (1939). COMMENTS Barks might have remembered working on the cartoon when forming the balloon plot. He did little work on the project, which originally was scheduled to be a Mickey Mouse cartoon titled Balloon Race.