Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "The Ghost Sheriff of Last Gasp" (Carl Barks Library)

A MUST

Great!

I love Barks - every story bringes fond memories and a good laugh. Fantagraphics edition is a handy format at a reasonable price.

This is a copy of the review I left on another volume. But the review is for the series as a whole, and this is the kind of series where people might pick up a volume or two non-sequentially, so I'm leaving this review in a few places. I've been reading Carl Barks since I was a kid. My dad grew up with the old comics and passed them along to me. I still fondly remember the smell of the pages and have a soft spot for that type of thing. If I see one at a garage sale, I'll often pick it up, even if it's pretty battered. I've purchased newer versions of Barks' works over the years. I have the complete set of the Carl Barks Library that was published in the 90s by Gladstone. That is a beautiful set. Slightly larger than originally published with updated coloring techniques - mainly you'll see color gradients and wider palette compared to the original - or this edition here which stays true to the original coloring. However, I have a new generation to give my old Gladstone copies to. At first I planned on giving these to the niece and nephews, but when I got the first one I liked it so much I decided to give them the Gladstone ones instead and keep these for myself. ;) My niece and nephews are pretty young still, all under six, so the Gladstone books are easier for them to handle. These books are better for readers closer to 8-10 due to the size. They are hefty and well built, a little like a grade-school textbook in bulk. They look wonderful on the shelf all lined up. And what's extra nice for me, they have a lot more of the comics in each volume, so I can keep one by the bed and read a few each night for a while before swapping to the next. For people who've never read Carl Barks and are looking for something for yourself or for your kids, these are just the ticket. If you liked the DuckTales, you might be surprised to learn that some of the best DuckTales episodes were taken straight from Barks' Duck stories. Barks is a big part of what made DuckTales so great, since they had a wealth of adventures to pull from. Barks writes well. He doesn't write down to kids. Instead, he writes a great adventure tale and peppers it with names and places and characters that keep the kids interested. These are the best types of kids stories, because much like Pixar's work, it makes it so much more fun to take part in your kids interests if the stories aren't dumbed down. Creators have proven you don't need to do that to keep a child's interest and Barks illustrates that viewpoint perfectly. The art in the comics is also fun and expressive, with clean lines and not a lot of clutter, Barks gets a lot of emotion into a simple panel. Even the kids who aren't as good at reading yet can follow along. Barks also uses real places - he loved reading National Geographic and including those locales in his work. For a kid's comic, it's fairly sophisticated, but accessible. As far as value is concerned, this set is incomparable. I mentioned I've been buying Barks' work for years. This is by far the most affordable I've seen yet. While the Gladstone version was beautiful, now you'd be hard-pressed to get a volume for under $10 and most are closer to $20, with more than a few going for far more than that. It was a major investment for me when I got them, both in time and in money - hunting down all the volumes took a while since they're out of print. There were nearly 150 volumes of all his stories, and you only got five or less stories in each one. While I was glad to have them at the time since the only other complete collection was in black and white, if this set had been out at the same time I would have picked it up instead without a second thought. The hardbacks are durable and there are easily twice as many stories in each volume as the Gladstone versions. And while I've seen some comments that these are not identical to the originals in every single way - the covers are in the back, the original publisher information isn't printed on the page - those are gripes primarily for collectors. People new to the series, or introducing them to their kids won't have those issues with the comics. My highest recommendation!

Carl Barks at his finest. I used to read/collect Walt Disney's Wonder World comics back in the 80's as a kid. As a 40 year old i became nostalgic toward comics again and decided to take the plunge into reading comics and fantagraphics with their Carl Barks collection doesn't disappoint.

poiché non sono giovane (ovvero sono vecchio e non mi vergogno a dirlo) un po sordo cieco muto storpio ma con una buona memoria mi ricordo nella mia infanzia di aver letto il topolino storico della mondadori ( posseggo dal numero sette fino al numero 500) i racconti di Calr Barks tradotti in italiano. Grazie a questa collana posso goderli in lingua originale finalmente !!

Carl Barks exercitando seus músculos criativos em histórias para lá de hilárias envolvendo Donald e sua família. Mais uma sacada da Fantagraphics em sua hercúlea tarefa de lançar toda a obra do Homem dos Patos na palheta de cores originais dos gibis americanos dos anos 40, 50 e 60. Um primor para os olhos de todo colecionador exigente e diversão garantida de 8 a 80 anos.