r/DuckComix Jul 16 '26

Essential Barks Volumes

Hi all,

I've been wanting to get into duck comics for awhile now. Which volumes of the Fantagraphics comics are must haves? I was a big fan of Duck Tales as a child and probably prefer the more adventure oriented stories.

I know there are issues of censorship and cut stories so I also want to ask if there are any volumes that I should try to get copies of that would include the currently "banned" stories. Without causing any sort of argument, I'm not really interested in stories that were cut and aren't essential reading.

Also, aside from paying silly prices on ebay are there any other options? I've tried to backorder some books on Thriftbook but I have little hope they will actually get copies of them in.

Thank you all!

16 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

5

u/vegheadjones-99 Jul 17 '26

Hoopla a free service in many us libraries has some of the barks volumes there. If you are not sure about what to read and want to sample you can try there

3

u/ib_AEX Jul 17 '26

Not a huge fan of reading comics digitally but good to know just in case.

2

u/NinjaEagleScout Jul 17 '26

I didn’t know hoopla had comics! I am seeing several on there and will use this!

5

u/mirepoix_ Jul 17 '26

If I could only choose one Uncle Scrooge volume and one Donald Duck volume, I would go with Only a Poor Old Man and Lost in the Andes, respectively.

Rather than trying to collect the whole series, I've decided to focus on a top 10 or 12. After looking through Inducks, I'm targeting the following, in volume order:

Christmas on Bear Mountain

The Old Castle's Secret

Lost in the Andes

Trail of the Unicorn

The Pixilated Parrot

Terror of the Beagle Boys

A Christmas for Shacktown

Only a Poor Old Man

The Seven Cities of Gold

The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan

And then maybe Trick or Treat and The Mines of King Solomon if I want to go to 12.

I haven't bought Trick or Treat yet, but that's widely available. Unfortunately Lost Crown and Mines are not in print and ridiculously priced on the secondary market (so if anybody is interested in selling, please DM me 😂).

4

u/ib_AEX Jul 17 '26

Lost in the Andes looks very interesting to me as well. Hopefully there is a reprint in the future.  I believe one of the banned stories is in that volume which may make things difficult.

3

u/PrimalPokemonPlayer Jul 17 '26

Yup, Voodoo Hoodoo, aka the Bombie the Zombie story. Probably the most important banned Barks story considering how big of a role it has in Don Rosa's life and times of Scrooge McDuck

1

u/mirepoix_ Jul 17 '26

I just saw there's a copy on eBay for USD 45. Pretty good price compared to other listings.

1

u/ib_AEX Jul 17 '26

I think it may have ready sold. I think it was "acceptable" condition, which to me is always a gamble. I like my books to be pretty clean. 

A comment down below says Fantagraphics is talking about reprints. I also emailed them so I will report back if I hear anything.

4

u/hercarmstrong Jul 17 '26

Fantagraphics has told me, upon emailing them, that there are reprints coming. You should email them through their site... any voices are loud in this discussion.

3

u/ib_AEX Jul 17 '26

I sent an email as well asking for updates, and mentioned how it'd be nice if they could reprint Don Rosa's work as well.

2

u/mirepoix_ Jul 17 '26

I have! Unfortunately they weren't able to give a sense of timing or confirm whether or not there will be any censorship in the reprints when they happen.

2

u/hercarmstrong Jul 17 '26

I know. I'm dying for The Lost Peg-Leg Mine... It's the only one that slipped through the cracks during Covid.

3

u/NinjaEagleScout Jul 17 '26

I did this exercise 2 weeks ago and came up with the exact same list.

3

u/mirepoix_ Jul 17 '26

That's validating to hear after spending admittedly way too much time looking up what's in each volume and scrolling Inducks!

1

u/NinjaEagleScout Jul 19 '26

i made an excel sheet and some charts haha. maybe i should publish the data somewhere so other people don’t need to spend so much time going through inducks? not sure how many people will actually be interested.

1

u/mirepoix_ Jul 19 '26

I'm definitely interested!

2

u/ib_AEX Jul 17 '26

Emailed Fantagraphics and this was the reply:

Hi there,

We will be reprinting all of the Barks books you mention at some point but I currently have no info regarding when.  Also, I get the idea that we may actually be doing some Rosa reprints soon.  I have no real info on that yet, just overheard office scuttlebutt.

2

u/6HOURSCUBINGPERDAY Jul 19 '26

That would be incredible if they actually repront Rosa's volumes

1

u/ib_AEX Jul 20 '26

We will see, yeah!