During his employment at Western Publishing, Carl Barks made several Christmas themed Disney comic book stories (see more HERE). Some of them were requested by the editor, while most were dreamed up by Barks on his own accord. One of the most funny, intelligent, and memorable stories was triggered by no less than two sets of main events, namely Donald Duck's endless car trouble and his nephews' all-absorbing Christmas wish. The actions unfolded in one of Western's Christmas Parade series as CP2 You Can't Guess! from 1950. This is the story.

 

 

 

THE STORY
  CP2 You Can't Guess! - 1950

Synopsis:

Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, have no wish for any Christmas presents as they realize that they already have so much. Until they see boxes of building sets in the toyshop! Now they want one set each and they manage to talk Donald into a deal, after which they will get their presents provided that they can guess what he wants for Christmas! Throughout the story Donald has dire problems with the little red family car...
 

Despite the fact that the nephews come up with all sorts of suggestions they have no luck and they turn to some of their family members to help them out. But neither Daisy Duck, Grandma Duck, Scrooge McDuck, or Gladstone Gander can solve the puzzle, and they all wind up so frustrated for the poor nephews that they not only buy them plenty of building sets - but new cars for Donald as well...


A few comments:

Cars are frequent means of transport in Barks' stories, and Donald's trusty red car with the well known licence plate number 313 is the most often used. In this story the distinct car is even crucial to the overall plot, and we follow it while it slowly deteriorates. Amazingly, it was fit for fight again in the following story...

Outside the USA it is common today to refer to the nephews' building sets as Meccano (which they do certainly resemble) but Barks chose the neutral name Jiffy building sets instead, probably not to overstep any commercial boundaries. Still, Meccano was invented in England back in 1898 and is still going strong worldwide, so everybody knew about it at the time of the story.

The story is one of the most published ones by Barks in the world (see more HERE).

Although Scrooge is not a family man he sometimes - as in this story - demonstrates certain feelings for his kin. And then he tends to go overboard in his choice of overwhelming Christmas presents. Examples: In CP1 Letter to Santa the nephews receive two full-size steam shovels, and in CP9 Christmas in Duckburg they get a real Ferris wheel.

In the end the nephews receive so many building sets, that they can construct a moving monster contraption big enough to scare both family and neighbours.

A Barks speciality from the time of the story is frequently forgotten, namely Barks' knack for drawing secondary characters with human features. All of the ladies (a mind reader, a millionairess) and all of the men (a hypnotist, Scrooge's butler, diverse tradesmen, delivery boys) are real humans.

On May 24, 1950, Barks was paid for the story's 25 pages at standard page rate of 6.50 dollars for story and 22.00 dollars for art, all in all 712.50 dollars. The month before he had made FC0300 Big Top Bedlam, and the month after he made FC0308 Dangerous Disguise.

 

THE GALLERY

 

THE CAR

In this story the little ballonwheeled, open car really looks like a write-off - and the plot depends on it. Because Donald's only wish for Christmas is a new car to replace the one that breaks down constantly. In the end he gets his fill of the family car, which, by the way, does not hinder it from resurrecting in the next story...
In real life the car was actually constructed around the 1938 American Bantam from the American Austin Car Company, and first presented by Disney in the short cartoon Don Donald from 1937. The next year it was introduced to the newspaper strips by artist Al Taliaferro.
Barks did not come up with the number 313 for Donald's car. He stated that in his opinion it was not meant to be Donald's birthdate, March 13th, but it had to do with the fact that 13 is supposed to be an unlucky number. Anyone with a number 313 would simply be someone with a triple dose of bad luck!


VP1 Vacation Time

In WDCS044 The Mad Chemist and in WDCS100 'Nightmares' Donald drove the car into deep lakes from which it was unlikely to ever surface again, and in VP1 Vacation Time a crook shoved it over a cliffside to certain obliteration. Still, it pops up in prime condition in all the later stories!


FC0147 Volcano Valley

According to the mechanic the car has a 1920 Mixwell engine! 22 Dudge body! 23 Paclac axles! Wheels off a lawn mower! Barks is playing on words: 'Dudge' refers to Dodge and 'Paclac' is a combination of Packard and Cadillac. In the above story Donald sold the car to the mechanic!


WDCS108 'Frog Hunting'

Barks normally stuck to the car's well known appearance but in this story panel it was equipped with a windshield which is highly unusual. And, in the very next panel, Donald drives away in the car - this time without the windshield! It is unknown why Barks did not erase the mistake...

 

THE SPLASH PAGE

A splash page is a story's first, full page consisting of only one panel and must not be confused with a front cover. Barks only made 3 splash pages in his comic book career and they all occurred in the early Donald Duck adventure stories:


CP02 You Can't Guess! - 1950 


CP01 Letter to Santa - 1949 


VP1 Vacation Parade - 1950

 

THE TITBITS


This is the only story in which the self-absorbed Gladstone is actually prepared to help family members financially and from a pure heart. He buys expensive presents; lots of toys for the nephews and a brand-new car for Donald! The lucky Gladstone got the money for these contributions by looking so downhearted that a passing lady gave him enough money to buy no less than two expensive sports cars!


This is the first time Barks presents us to Scrooge's dry-bathing in money - while sitting in an actual bathtub. Also, his butler is dressed up in a livery and called Jarvis. There is no evidence that Barks was trailblazing later comic book butlers by calling this one Jarvis, but the name was used in several other series after that such as the Marvel series Iron Man, Spider-man, and The Avengers.


Barks liked to have Donald hypnotized to act as diverse animals in the earlier stories. In this one he shifts identity to that of a chicken. Other animal examples are: In WDCS091 'Monkey Party' he becomes a monkey, in WDCS059 'Colt Taming' and in WDCS145 'The Hypnotizer Gun' he is changed into diverse powerful animals, and in FC0159 Adventure Down Under he becomes a convincing kangaroo.

Usually, Grandma is the prototype of a housewife from a bygone age, but in this story she lives in a modern, suburban area instead of on a farm! She also owns a modern telephone instead of her usual wall telephone, and we are introduced to one of her favourite idioms: Land Sakes Alive!

The nephews end up with enough Jiffy sets to build a contraption shaped like a giant running horse. Still, we are never shown how the nephews get the monstrosity to actually move, but logic prescribes the presence of some kind of mechanism, i.e. machinery, to make it move.

Barks was not alltogether observant when drawing some of the exteriors of Donald's home: The neighbouring wall is made of wood and stone, the driveway to the garage next to the house appears and disappears, the garage and a front window and the front stonewall come and go.

 

 

 http://www.cbarks.dk/THECARSTORY.htm

   Date 2017-08-10