thevariousmagazinesgiveaways

From 1945 to 1954 Barks wrote and drew a number of the so-called Giveaways produced under licence from the Disney company. The magazines were not part of the usual duck series and the stories were financed by companies other than Disney. As they did not come in any specific order or at any specific time they are all considered quite rare today.

FIRESTONE GIVEAWAYS

FG1945

FG1946

FG1947

FG1948

FG1949

From 1943 the American tyre company Firestone had a 20-page comic book published. The books - that had advertisements for Firestone on all 4 covers - were distributed to Firestone's dealers at Christmas and they in turn gave them away to customers (and their kids!) for free. The first issue was titled Firestone Presents Comics but future issues were all titled Donald and Mickey Merry Christmas from Firestone.

Barks' contributions (all 8-pagers):
FG1945: Donald's Best Christmas - FG1946: Santa's Stormy Visit - FG1947: Three Good Little Ducks - FG1948: Donald in Toyland - FG1949: New Toys.

MOC GIVEAWAYS

MOC04

MOC20

MOC41

The longest-lasting Disney character giveaway series started in 1946 and ran for several decades. It bore the somewhat complicated title Boys' and Girls' March of Comics (MOC) and was published as a promotional for all sorts of retail stores and department stores trying to boost sales on shoes, bicycles, detergents and so on. MOC was published irregularly throughout the years which also accounts for the several hundreds of issues published.

Barks' contributions:
MOC04: Maharajah Donald, Peaceful Hills - MOC20: Darkest Africa - MOC41: Race to the South Seas.

CHEERIOS GIVEAWAYS

CG W1

CG Y1

In the 1940s two American producers of cereals, Cheerios and Wheaties, launched massive campaigns in which they mailed newly-written Disney comic book material to customers who had sent in a cereal box top. In 1947 the Cheerios customers received an oblong, one-tier pocket-size comic book containing stories starring many different Disney characters such as Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Pluto, and Brer Rabbit. For their campaign Cheerios issued 4 sets named W, X, Y, and Z and each set contained 4 issues numbered from 1 to 4 - in all 16 books with 32 pages in each.

Barks' contribution:
CG Y1: Donald Duck's Atom Bomb.

A curiosity: Issue CG W1 was titled Donald Duck and the Pirates and drawn by Jack Hannah, the artist Barks worked with on his first story Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold. The Cheerios story follows the original story quite closely and co-stars by Captain Yellowbeak, Black Pete and his henchmen. Hannah also incorporated Captain Hook in his story.

KITES GIVEAWAYS

KG (Splash panel for the California version)

KG (Splash panel for the Pacific version)

The Kites Giveaway were 8-pagers that can be seen as some sort of mini-series where the first issue came in 1953 and was titled Pinocchio Learns About Kites, but the next year a new issue drawn by Barks was published under the title Donald Duck Tells About Kites. The story was a special order from three power companies (Florida Power and Light Company, Southern California Edison Company, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company). It was an instructional story about how to treat electric power in a safe way.
Barks made slight text alterations in the splash panels allowing for the necessary use of the different company names. Furthermore, in the Pacific version he was asked to provide three completely different panels incorporating a warning about broken power lines.