1941 SCULPTOR DONALD

Synopsis: Donald, as a sculptor, makes a wax sculpture of a general but it is sabotaged by the nephews with a hot stove.

Comments: This is the only project for which Barks made all the rough storyboard sketches, 72 in all. It is also remarkable insofar that they were all just hurriedly and quite sketchy jotted down, which was the working method Barks preferred in order to convey his initial ideas without reflecting too much about them. It is unclear why the project was shelved, but Barks must have liked the basic plotline, as he reused it in WDCS196 'The Snow Princess' from 1957.

1942 THE RUBBER HUNTER

Synopsis: Donald gets so frustrated with one of his extremely bad car tyres, that he travels to South America to get some good rubber and make a new tyre.

Comments: Barks reacted to World War 2's regular rationing of many commodities in the USA, and did gags and storyboard with Jack Hannah. The reason why the project was never finished was probably that the studio was already working on Donald's Tire Trouble from 1943 with a similar main plotline. Later, Barks reused one of his gags showing lively rubber horse rides in FC0238 Voodoo Hoodoo from 1949, and a rubber sack ride in FC0394 (front cover) from 1952.

1942 MADAME XX

Synopsis: Donald acts as courier for the war office, but he is seduced and robbed of some top secret plans by a beautiful female spy. After some perilous incidents chasing after her, Donald succeeds in getting back the plans, before she can pass them on.

Comments: Barks singlehandedly did most of the 250 sketches with some help from Jack Hannah, who contributed with a few scenes. As usual, Barks quickly jotted down his ideas without details, except when making his version of the female spy; here his penchant for beautiful women took over (he had a lot of practice from his days at The Calgary EyeOpener!). He settled for a slightly parody rendering of the famous actress Veronica Lake, who had just been discovered and was a rising star.
Later on, the spy's 'name', Madame XX, sparked similar cover names in WDCS094 'Coast Patrolman' from 1948, and FC0308 Dangerous Disguise from 1951. Furthermore, Barks used the spy's alluring appearance as a base when inventing the witch Magica de Spell.

1942 DONALD'S TANK

Synopsis: Donald accidentally drives a tank into German lines in order to get away from sergeant Black Pete.

Comments: Barks' last shelved project before he went on to comic books, was another war-inspired short, in which private Duck inadvertently drives an experimental tank (it has a special monitor that sometimes catches irrelevant TV signals and makes him go astray) through the Belgian Maginot line and into Germany where he spoils a massive panzer attack headed by the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The short never came past the initial planning stage, but it will be remembered for Barks' memorable parody of a babbling Hitler.