SYNOPSIS

WDCS178 'Noisy Neighbors' - 1955

Donald Duck would give anything to have one good night's sleep, so he and the nephews move to a very quiet and fashionable neighbourhood, where they become tenants of an apartment in the Old Lace Manor. But despite all good intentions of being a nice neighbour it does not take long before Donald, who misjudges his next-door neighbour's peaceful  intentions, thinks that he is trying to harass him by being noisy. So the paranoid and bellicose Donald starts a lengthy noise war thus depriving the nephews of their sleep and bringing himself - and the house - down...

On the surface the story is pure cartoonish slapstick, when Donald immediately starts a noise war with his neighbour, but the bout is a result of simple misunderstandings which are depicted in a clearly outlined graphic way. Surely children are able to grasp how you should conduct yourself in order to avoid such catastrophic escalations. And all problems could have been solved quite easily, if Donald had just rung the neighbour's doorbell and had a talk with him instead!

COMMENTS

The Duck family move to a new neighbourhood. Although they have changed dwelling on more occasions this is Barks' only story based entirely on the subject of the family's moving.

Donald has wrecked his surroundings without malicious intent on numerous occasions. Examples: In WDCS137 'Songwriter's Troubles' he repeatedly played the same song on a hotel's jukebox causing avalanches, in WDCS182 'The Raging Bull' he lost control over Grandma's normally benign bull causing it to leave a trail of destruction, and in WDCS264 Master Wrecker he ended up flattening valuable property.

From time to time other artists have copied a number of Barks' stories. For instance, the neighbour story was followed rather closely by Tony Strobl in DD76 The Quest for Quiet (see more HERE).

Through time the ducks have had numerous different neighbours - the most vividly remembered being J. Jones - but Donald has also been burdened with relatives; in WDCS159 'The Willy Wispy Story' Scrooge moved in next door, and in WDCS205 'The Prize Apples' it was Gladstone's turn.

In this story and in WDCS281 Feud and Far Between Donald was simply dying to know the identity of his new neighbours!

The story was never officially titled by Barks, so it has received several titles in later publications. Duelling Neighbors, The Noise Duel, and Neighbor Trouble are examples. Barks' employer Western Publishing used the incomprehensible title Quiet Night(?!) in their files, while Barks himself called the product Noisy Neighbors in his files. This is the title used on this page.

Barks' own comments:
I guess among the very best ones is a 10-page story of Donald, where he got to complaining about everything being too noisy and he moves to a very quiet place, and he was not satisfied until everything was absolutely silent around him. He went around everywhere seeing if there was any noise he could pick up.
Donald is naturally the loudest one of all. That's really good, and even the secondary figures are well done, for example the cheese taster who blows his alpenhorn.

CAST

Uncharacteristically the entire story only features a total of 7 talking characters; the Duck family consisting of 4 persons, an author (and his wife who is only seen in one panel), and an alpenhorn blower.

The author writes all his books using a quill pen in order not to disturb his surroundings, but he is soon driven out of his tranquil world to retaliate Donald's dastardly ideas. Examples: Hopping on two noisy automobil horns, firing a pistol into a vase, and playing a special record: My hi-fi record player set at top volume should just about jolt his feathers off! And for a serenade, I'll play him the fortissimo crescendo from Bombpopoff's 'Eruption of Vesuvius'!
The alpenhorn player is an elderly gentleman (possibly of Swiss descent) who blows his grandfather's Swiss alpenhorn (This old tooter can be heard thirty miles upwind on a cloudy day) in order to silence Donald. At first he wakes up bewildered by the terrible noise:  I'm sure the papers said nothing about an invasion! ... I'm sure the papers didn't mention the end of the world! In the end he takes action: No ear on Earth can withstand the alpenhorn! And I must blow it! I, whose loudest sound to date was made once when my teeth crunched a caraway seed in a bit of spiced gruyère!
The pair even form a special group as this is the only time we are presented with two neighbours in one story.

The nephews have nothing much to do in the story; they just follow Donald's escapades and that is about it. In fact, they could easily have been omitted.

BRAWL INGREDIENTS

Above is a graphic listing of some of Donald's brawl panels. Below is a written listing of some of the sabotage items.

Uses a crowbar to identify the source of an alleged noise - Plays infernally on a saw using a screwdriver - Bangs on the wall using a mallet - Smashes a tub of light globes into the floor - Pulls a set of tire chains through an air vent - Drags a roller-skate over a washboard - Beats a big drum using a large piece of wood - Activates a war surplus air raid siren.

GALLERY

BACKGROUND