Donald Duck
Comic Book Rarities

This site's purpose is to save rare Disney comic book stories from dropping into limbo.

Someone asks for Donald Duck, and the world will holler Carl Barks unison.
Well, they're right! The name of Donald Duck will always be connected to Carl Barks, as his comic book work on Donald and his nephews, their uncle $crooge, Gyro Gearloose, Gladstone Gander, and many others is a milestone not only in comic book industry, but in art as well. No, I do not mean his retirement paintings on various topics, I honestly proclaim the contents of comic book stories written and drawn by Carl Barks, sold to children for a dime, printed on cheapest paper, and intended by publishers to be a throw-away item, to be art. Yes, in my opinion, comic strip is art, and Carl Barks is one of its true masters.
So, when someone asks for Donald Duck, the only answer will be Carl Barks!
Well, that's wrong! Barks has been - no doubt! - the most important artist ever to work on Donald Duck. It was Barks who formed the characters the way they are known all over the world today. But neither has he been the only artist, nor has he been the first one to draw the Ducks. This site is dedicated to the writers and artists who contributed early work to the fund of Duck comics, and this site's main purpose is to present stories that are scarce to see anywhere.
So, in contrary to my other internet page (which are dedicated solely to Floyd Gottfredson) this site will cover the work of various artists (with focus on Duck stories, but others as well). In future articles will be written to introduce the persons behind these stories, and the history of the body of Donald Duck comics will be described.

This is what has been uploaded so far (last update: July 13th, 2000):


 
 
Kids who read comic books in the late Forties and early Fifties were supposed to be fed in a healthy way, it seems. Cheerios and Wheaties, both trade marks of big cereal producers, made some efforts of advertising their food in these days when advertisements in children's comic books were still absent: They distibuted some Disney comic books on their own - written and drawn by the staff of Western Publishing (who were the only licensed publishers of Disney comic book material in North America then) so the quality of story and drawings equalled those of regular comic books.
But: The comic books distributed by Cheerios and Wheaties trademark holders were different in size: They had an oblong, one-tier pocket book format. Formats of this size were very popular in Europe in the post-WW II-time period (especially in Italy and Germany, I believe) but they never really had a chance on the U.S. market.
With very few exceptions, giveaway comics in general have never seen U.S. reprints. They usually are scarce and very sought after items, very expensive to obtain.
Cheerios Premium Giveaways were published 1947: The were four sets (named W, X, Y, and Z), each set consisting of four oblong-sized comic books. All books had 32 pages, containing a 30-page comic book story. The first book of each set carried a Donald Duck story. One set of comics could be obtained by sending in a Cheerios cereal box top. Here is a listing of all contents.
Wheaties Premium Giveaways were published in 1950 (sets A and B) and 1951 (sets C and D, respectively). Each of the four sets consisted of eight comic books. The books had 32 pages each (with a 30-page comic book story). A complete set of comics was obtained by sending in a Wheaties cereal box top plus 15 cents (so they were not really "giveaways"). A listing of the contents of all thirty-two comic books is here.
Cheerios 3-D Giveaways were distributed in 1954. There were three sets (referred to as 1, 2, and 3), each set consisting of eight comic books. Each booklet had 32 pages, containing a 27-page story (Note: this is proven only for the few copies I have seen. Also there is a 3-page backup story with non-Disney characters, illustrated by different artists). All stories (and the covers also) were in a 3-D format. Each set could be obtained by sending in a Cheerios cereals box top plus 25 cents (so these weren't strictu sensu "giveaways" either). A pair of 3-D glasses (like pictured here) had to be ordered separately to read the book's contents. A preliminary list of all contents is available here.
  
  • Donald Duck and the Pirates - complete 

    • Cheerios Premium Giveaway W1 (1947). Writer Unknown, Drawn by Jack Hannah. (I.N.D.U.C.K.S.)
    Note: Basically, this story is a remake from Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold (written by Bob Karp, drawn by Carl Barks and Jack Hannah) of Donald Duck Four Color  9 (1942).
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  • Donald Duck's Atom Bomb - complete

    • Cheerios Premium Giveaway Y1 (1947). Written and Drawn by Carl Barks. (I.N.D.U.C.K.S.)
    Note: Not scanned by the maintainer of this site, but found somewhere on the internet years ago. This particular Cheerios comic has seen lots of reprints in various countries, unfortunately most - if not all - of them are mutilated; the history of Donald Duck's Atom Bomb can be read in a future article (currently still in state of progress).
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  • Donald Duck Pilots a Jet Plane - complete (restored) 

    • Cheerios Premium Giveaway Z1 (1947). Writer Unknown, Drawn by Jack Hannah. (I.N.D.U.C.K.S.)
    Note: Unfortunately the copy the scans were taken from was lacking the final (30th) page of the story. To present a complete set of scans, I have added an image taken from an Italian reprint, kindly provided by a member of the Disney Comics Mailing List. So, the text of the conclusion will be in Italian.
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  • Donald Duck, Klondike Kid - complete

    • Wheaties Premium Giveaway B-8 (1950). Writer Unknown, Drawn by Riley Thomson, Inker Unknown. (I.N.D.U.C.K.S.)
    Note: Old scans (100 dpi) have been replaced by larger scans (125 dpi).
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  • Donald's Nephews - The Fabulous Inventors - complete 

    • Cheerios 3-D Giveaway, First Set,#3 (1954). Writer Unknown, Drawn by Tony Strobl. (I.N.D.U.C.K.S.)
    Note: Red and green colors have been slightly enhanced after the scanning process. 3-D glasses (like these) are needed to obtain the three-dimension effect. 

 
Taliaferro Back Cover Gallery:
All cereals giveaway had advertisments on their back cover, some of them presenting original art. Carl Buettner did the drawings on the Cheerios Premium as well as on sets A and B of the Wheaties back covers (the latter probably with additional art by Bob Grant), while Al Taliaferro provided drawings for the sets C and D of the Wheaties giveaway back covers. By Taliaferro, one example is shown below, some others are shown on a separate page.


Back cover illustration of the Wheaties Premium
Giveaway D-8, drawn by Al Taliaferro.


 



 
 

 
From 1943 to 1949, Firestone published a series of annual giveaways around Christmas time (seven issues altogether). The 1943 title was Firestone Presents Comics, while subsequent issues were published as Donald and Mickey Merry Christmas from Firestone. All comic books are usually referred to as Firestone Giveaways.
The 1943 and 1944 issues were filled with reprints, featuring Carl Barks' Donald Duck ten-page stories out of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, plus reprints of Mickey Mouse and Little Hiawatha Sunday pages (first published in 1940/1941 newspapers).
The issues from 1945 on offered original stories, written and drawn exclusively for Firestone. So all Christmas giveaways were featuring an eight-page Donald Duck story (always illustrated by Carl Barks), followed by an eight-page Mickey Mouse story (drawn by various artists).
Here is a listing of all contents.
  
  • Donald Duck in Santa's Stormy Visit - complete 

    • Donald And Mickey Merry Christmas from Firestone 1946 (4th Firestone Christmas Giveaway). Written and drawn by Carl Barks. (I.N.D.U.C.K.S.)
    Note: Most (if not all) known reprints are redrawn, but the re-inks are done very close to the original shown here.
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The author of this page (Willibald Wundermild) may be contacted at krustik@privat.oldenburg.de.

Technical notes: Scans were taken at 125 dpi out of the original comic books and converted into JPEG format (preserving 75% quality), except otherwise noted (in most cases images were taken from internet auctions on Ebay).
Note: Duck stories are listed with a white background, while Mouse stories' background is orange; and other Disney characters have a green backgound.
Each story listed here has a link to its I.N.D.U.C.K.S. entry, and there are several reasons for it: The I.N.D.U.C.K.S. is a very reliable source on the vast majority of Disney stories worldwide (including first publications plus reprints in various countries), thus the information on reprints of particular stories is better than anything I can offer. Furthermore, the I.N.D.U.C.K.S. is updated constantly, so information taken from there is always newest.
 

The Copyright of all illustrations is possessed by The Walt Disney Company. The copyright is acknowledged and respected.
 
Last update: July 13th, 2000