One of Carl Barks' greatest comic
book inventions among the primary characters was Gyro Gearloose.
As it happened with several of his characters Barks gave birth to
the brilliant inventor out of a momentary need, and, as it was
the case with, for example, Scrooge McDuck, he was never meant to
reappear as potently and often as it turned out.
From the beginning Gyro was only supposed to be an occasional
visitor to the stories: I needed a guy with
lots of inventions. I just deliberately invented Gyro as a crazy
inventor. I had thought I would have old Gyro in one or two
stories. If I had known he was eventually going to have a book of
his own, I would have made him a character that was easier to
draw. He is quite tall, and it's awkward to use a tall character
along with the ducks, who are only about two feet high. I would
have made him a funnier looking character and put more thought
about the development of his character into the actual drawing of
him. I just made him a big awkward looking chicken. I would have
made him about the same size as Donald or Uncle Scrooge, so that
he could have been handled more easier.
Barks managed to dream up a grand
total of 77 stories* of his own featuring Gyro, and they were,
despite his relatively limited character and rather predictable
pattern of behaviour, impressively diverse and highly
entertaining. Below you are treated to a fraction of the stories
divided into loose main groups enabling you to realize just how
versatile Barks' Gyro stories really are. The most
straightforward invention stories have been omitted, and this is
also true for the many stories, in which Little Helper was in
focus (some of which can be savoured HERE).
HELPING OUT
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CP8 Grandma's Present - 1956
Gyro is visiting
Grandma at her farm in order to relax far
away from his inventions. But it is not
that easy...
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FC1010 Weather Watchers - 1959
Gyro is helping
Grandma by inventing a weather predicting
machine. However, it is no better than
the farm's goat allows!
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FC1073 The Snow Chaser - 1959
Gyro invents a
machine that can melt the snow so Grandma's
animals can get to the grass, but a cow
meddles in!
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Gyro has
been helping most of the other primary characters
out in the stories, and most often it has been on
a non-profit basis as well. Examples: Donald in WDCS247
The Madcap Mariner, Scrooge in FC1047
The Stubborn Stork, the nephews in WDCS233
Knights of the Flying Sleds, and
Gladstone in FC1047 The Lost Rabbit's
Foot. Grandma (as indicated above) is
also one of Gyro's 'victims'. So called because
she was never really interested in Gyro's modern
inventions, which were often thrust upon her, and
in one instant (U$13 'Lightning Power')
she was almost killed after Gyro had 'improved'
on her car...
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PERSONAL
GAIN
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U$21 'Crow Trouble' - 1958
Gyro is tired of
the annoying crows plundering his garden
and he invents a scarecrow to chase them
away. But it does not restrain sly Old
Blackie...
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U$23 'Swimming Trouble' - 1958
Gyro is ashamed
that he has never learned to swim so he
tries to invent himself out of the
problem in order not to be forced to use
his degrading water wings...
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U$37 'Toaster Trouble' - 1962
Gyro is not
satisfied with his toaster which does not
deliver the toasted bread fast enough. He
modifies it - to the utter astonishment
of two astronauts!
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Gyro is a
typical do-gooder who places other people's needs
and wishes before his own, but in a few stories
he is experienced in the seclusion of his own
home doing things to benefit himself. The three
examples above speak for themselves...
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RELAXING
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SF Fun? What's That? - 1959
Scrooge and Gyro
have never gone on a vacation but now the
doctor demands that they do. But it is
not that simple for the two gentlemen to
just relax...
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FC1025 Dream Planet - 1959
Gyro and Gus Goose
travel to a far-away planet where
everybody relaxes. Just the thing for Gus
but Gyro cannot bear the easygoing
lifestyle...
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U$35 Fast Away Castaway - 1961
Gyro
invents a survival kit for castaways. He
maroons himself on a desolate island in
order to try it out on himself and get
some rest as well.
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When you
are stressed out it is a good idea to relax.
Plain and simple! In SF Fun? What's That?
Gyro is told to take time out in order to get
back on his feet, in FC1025 Dream Planet
he and Gus(!!!) are stressed and
leave for a vacation, and in U$35 Fast
Away Castaway Gyro combines a new
invention with pleasure...
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FAILING
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WDCS140 'The Dark Secret' - 1952
Donald and the
nephews are trying to find out why
Gladstone is so lucky all the time. They
are in for a surprise!
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U$34 Wily Rival - 1961
Gyro
is waiting at the patent office to
register an invention. It seems another
inventor is waiting there as well...
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FC1267 Buffaloed by Buffaloes - 1962
Gyro wants to help
the poor farmers of Farbakistan by
supplying them with electric water pumps...
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From time
to time all great inventors experience that some
of their inventions prove to be mediocre or even
useless. This is presumably the 'price' they have
to pay in order to better themselves. In WDCS140
'The Dark Secret' Gyro is seen aimlessly
hopping around on a pogo stick in order to churn
cream into butter, in U$34 Wily Rival
he returns home depressed with his Hydraulic
Ramjet Peanut-butter Spreader, and in FC1267
Buffaloed by Buffaloes he helps a whole
country to its feet by installing much needed
electrical water pumps only to discover that the
country has no electricity...
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TWISTERS
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WDCS153 'Lakeside Fishing' - 1953
Gyro is breeding
worms that drag fish out of the water.
Donald is an avid angler. Now for some
serious fishing...
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U$18 'The Goldfinder' - 1957
Gyro is in the
desert trying out his new gold detector.
And lo and behold - he really finds a
gold object...
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PP Picnic - 1957
Gyro wonders why
many picnickers are unsatisfied with
their visit to nature. He decides to
solve the problem...
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Many of
Barks' Gyro stories ended with a clever twist for
which the reader was totally unprepared. In WDCS153
'Lakeside Fishing' Gyro's overpowering
worms - both in efficiency and numbers -
threatened to empty the lake, but Gyro then told
that they would all self-destruct in a matter of
hours. Then he benevolently announced that he
could easily breed another batch! In U$18
'The Goldfinder' Gyro's goldfinder
detects an enormous gold object deep down under
his feet! In fact, it turns out that it sits in
China - on the other side of the globe! And in PP
Picnic Gyro experiences the drawbacks of
picnicking in nature, and we follow how he builds
more and more protection around him. Barks leads
us without words and step by step to the great
finale in which we suddenly realize that Gyro has
ended up with - a house...
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NO INVENTIONS
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U$17 'Tricky Tackle' - 1957
Gyro is fishing and
he catches more than the other anglers.
They suspect him of using one of his
inventions but he is not...
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WDCS239 The Village Blacksmith - 1960
Donald is a
successful blacksmith until he is hired
by the city council to melt down an old
cannon and pound it into plowshares.
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WDCS277 Duckburg Pet Parade - 1963
The Duckburgians
are busy training their pets for the
great parade. Donald intends to win with
his trained elephant...
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Although
Barks placed Gyro in Duckburg in order to produce
more or less wacky inventions, it is surprising
to learn that in quite a lot of the stories Gyro
never invented anything! In U$17 'Tricky
Tackle' he is simply having a day off,
in WDCS239 The Village Blacksmith he
seems incapable of dealing with typical everyday
problems such as manning a water pump (which he
is not even able to get it to work), and in WDCS277
The Duckburg Pet Parade he is
participating in the parade...
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AWESOME INVENTIONS
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WDCS199 'Bigger and Bigger' - 1957
Gyro
invents an imagining machine by which one
by force of thought can travel wherever
he wants. Donald and the nephews pop up
to Jupiter...
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FC1184 Monsterville - 1961
Gyro has made his
greatest invention. He has changed the
entire city of Duckburg into a place of
total relaxation. But is everybody happy?
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U$38 Madcap Inventors - 1962
Gyro gets a new
neighbour and - lo and behold - he turns
out to be an inventor as well. Soon a
feud has started to see who is the better
inventor!
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Through
time Gyro (not to mention Barks!!!) have dreamed
up endless, highly impressive, and seemingly
unrealistic inventions. But many of them have -
as time went on - proved to be more and more
plausible. Take a look HERE where you
will find a more detailed walk-through of the
inventions from the above stories as well as many
other inventions.
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BAD
INVENTIONS
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WDCS171 'Money Bin Sealing' - 1954
Donald tries to
protect Scrooge's money by confining the
Money Bin in a special, super-strong
sealing wax. Now, how will Scrooge get
access to the money?
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MMA August Accident - 1957
Gyro doesn't feel
that he has invented anything worthwhile,
so he invents a rocket ship. But it is
not easy to blast off from the
neighbourhood!
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U$30 War Paint - 1960
Gyro is hired by a
film company to invent a war paint for
their Native American Indians. It is
supposed to make them wild. And it does!
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Even Gyro's
worst inventions in term of appeal and novelty
are magnificent in a way - and up to a point. As
all great inventors Gyro had good and less good
working days. In WDCS171 'Money Bin
Sealing' Gyro invented Impervi-wax which
is totally impervious towards anyone and anything
(and in DBP 'The Impenetrable Money Bin'
Gyro tried to use the even stronger Forbidium but
that did not do the job properly either). In MMA
August Accident Gyro built an ingenious
one-man touring rocket, but he forgot to think of
the environment; as a result the blast from the
rocket filled the entire Duckburg with nasty
smoke via the sewer system. In U$30 War
Paint Gyro was on a seemingly innocent
and easy mission of making a powerful war paint,
but he exaggerated the invention to a point where
the hired extras turned against everybody else.
Apparently, Gyro's inventions (as well as
intentions) can also be too good/bad...
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* CP 8 / DBP 1 /
DD 26c / FC 1010b - 1025b - 1047a -
1047b - 1047c - 1047d - 1047e - 1047f - 1047g - 1073b - 1095a -
1095b - 1095c - 1095d - 1095e - 1095f - 1095g - 1161a - 1184a -
1184b - 1184c - 1184d - 1184e - 1184f - 1184g - 1267a /
MMA 1a / PP 8 / SF 2a /
U$ 13c - 14c - 15c - 16c - 17c - 18c - 19c - 20b - 21c -
22c - 23c - 24b - 25c - 26b - 27b - 28b - 29b - 30b - 31b - 32b -
33c - 34b - 35b - 36b - 37b - 38a - 39c - 40b - 41a - 46b - 47b -
48b / WDCS 140 - 141 - 153 - 171 - 199 - 201 -
212 - 233 - 239 - 247 - 249 - 254 - 277
| http://www.cbarks.dk/THEGYROSTORIES.htm |
|
Date 2008-12-07 |
