 U$06 'The Tralla La Story' As for the 'Shangri La' story, which poked fun at the idea of humans living together in unselfish Utopian harmony, it started from my efforts to find a way to use one BILLION of something in a visible way. The bottle cap gag was the result. |
 U$13 'The Lightning Story' The 4-page Gyro stories for Uncle Scrooge #13 and #14 were sent back to me for changes. In the #13 story I'd used the nephews. Because of postal mailing laws, no characters used in other parts of the book could be used in the Gyro story. Hence the change to Mickey's nephews. |
 U$14 'The Speed Gasoline Story' The 4-page Gyro stories for Uncle Scrooge #13 and #14 were sent back to me for changes. Because of postal mailing laws, no characters used in other parts of the book could be used in the Gyro story. The character 'Speedy' in #14 was originally Donald. |
 U$18 Land of the Pygmy Indians The ducks were always peewees in comparison with the villains. In order for them to become a menace, they had to come up against somebody smaller. On comparison with FC0062 Mystery of the Swamp: I realized that only the plotline was similar; all other elements were breaking new ground. Besides, the pygmy Indians were more believable and interesting than the Gneezles, so I went ahead with the story and let the gags fall where they might. |
 U$28 The Paul Bunyan Machine There are some bad spots in some of the Scrooge stories that I wish could have been done over. The climax fight in the Paul Bunyan theme could have been improved with a half-page spread of Scrooge's and the Beagle Boys' giant machines hacking each other to pieces, but I was afraid the editors would delete such a scene as being too violent. |
 U$32 That's No Fable I padded the Poncey de Loon story by having Uncle Scrooge tell it to Grandma. I was trying to get a little variety in the opening. It seemed to me from the business involved that the reader needed to be aware that Scrooge would find the Fountain of Youth. That fountain would have seemed awfully phony if it was dragged into the story along about page 8. Grandma was the gimmick that helped plant the fountain early. |
 U$34 Mythic Mystery I wrote a 16-pager of Uncle Scrooge and the ducks getting blown into Valhalla - a wandering small planet that strays into the earth's shadow. This Valhalla is peopled by dog-faces named Thor, Odin, and other names common to the Norse Gods. Also Vulcan, Jupiter, Venus, and the Latin Gods names. You'll have to read Uncle Scrooge #34 to see how I explain away such mythical anomalies with scientifically provable hogwash. |
 U$39 A Spicy Tale The story takes a poke at the Peace Corps - but gentle. I'm running out of nations which aren't fighting or rioting or committing aggression. So this story's locale was the Jivaro Indian country, which I've used to death, along with their head-shrinking gimmick. |
 U$54 Flowers are Flowers (1-pager) I am not sure, but I think this was drawn for a gag that was sent to me by the office. I never used Ludwig von Drake except when asked to. (Actually, Barks only used him this once - Editor's remark.) |
