#yellowbeak

We begin with a shot of the Bucket O Blood Seafood Grotto, donald's latest hustle and I find it fun that even just starting his career, even in a plot he didn't come up with... we still have Donald working a random odd job and still have a lack of money being a major plot point.

In this case Donald is catching his own fresh fish with the boys during a big wet rainstorm when they nearly die and loose their nets.

I love this little gag though it points out something neat about this one: the boys often finish each others sentences. This feels like the biggest giveaway this was supposed to be a short and barks and later writers woudl do away with this gimmick in print.

The boys find another way to be annoying though: pestering donald about loosing their nets... while he's trying to batten down the hatches so they all don't die in this massive storm.

They get a knock at the door.. thankfully i'ts not dave bautista and rupert grint trying to get them to murder themselves to prevent the apocalypse, but Yellow Beak, a character I don't see much in disney comics but had heard of and i'm shocked was in first carl barks story. Yellow beak is a diminutive parrot with a bossy attitude and a craving for Slumgullion. Slumgullion is a type of goulash, an american based one using pasta, red sauce and ground beef that honestly sounds delightful. I only know it exists thanks to this comic and now having some is a personal dream of mine.

For now though i'll just have to watch Yellow Beak have some as he thinks he's safe

I'm going to get SO much use out of this panel. I love a good goofy golden age panel, a love I recently discovered binging 80 pounds of batman.

Anyways BUT OUTSIDE is Pete. Yes that pete. As for why he's the antagonist for this : He was born to cheat and lie, he's a mean rotten guy, if you ask him why he's nasty here's his reason why: at a stork delvery his mommy screamed "Woe is me, such a dork hey mister stork behold my misery! Peteys Ghastly, pete's a blob, pete's a nasty nutty slob" can it sister because he's the mister who will get the job. In this case it's sadly not becoming king of france, but it is trying to become king of the pirates, which is even better and means you get to fight a rubber man who can become a rubberhose cartoon god if your lucky.

For now though Pete is trying to find yellow beak and we get one of my faviorite panels of the comic, only second to one i'll talk about more later.

I really wish Barks got to draw pete more often. His pete is incredibly expressive , meanacing and when neeeded hilarous.

Pete knocks on their door and Yellowbeak hides the map he's after with donald, agreeing to cut him in for the treausre. Donald only agrees after A) Being assured this isn't the police as he'd happily turn him in and B) being reminded about those gosh dang nets they need.

WE get a fun scene of Pete going around the place, even going into the kitchen because he's "very hygenic"

God I love that line.And hannah's art's also great nice and expressive.

Pete leaves but makes sure to listen in real good as Yellow Beak, thinking the coast is clear confides in the ducks

Pete in this story is just such a delight. He had me thinking about something i'd considered before when I thought about a fanfic adapting the quackshot video game but following donald , daisy, and the twins on their world tour. Donald and Pete.. are good mirrors to each other. Both are impulsive, prone to chasing an easy buck, hot tempered, and in some versions family focused. But Donald tends to barely scrape by as the underdog, while Pete tends to find or steal his way into authority. Donald is batted around by the system while pete either makes it work for him selling used cars or what not, or slips into the cracks doing crimes. Donald's tiny yet scrappy, pete's big lumbering and imposing. I honestly wonder WHY the comics dont' have them throw down more often: Yes Pete is one of mickey's arch villians, but I don't see the need to so evenly seperate the Duck and Mouse comics. In the comics Pete was born to steal and lie he's a mean rotten guy, a criminal who engages in various schemes.. so him alternating between mouseton and duckburg when it one gets too hot makes sense and he makes a good foe for Donald and for Scrooge, being the kind of skeezy criminal Scrooge fights regularly.

Yellow Beak reveals the map is actually in the restraunt, retracing steps he hold from an old mate who talked to the ghost of captain morgan who had nothing but wisdom for him

They find the map.. and not knowing their evesdropping Yellowbeak reveals they need to buy a boat. Why not just rent one is beyond me but i'm not up on 1942 economics. So pete goes off to plot

After a breif comedy bit of donald buying a fancy hat and Yellowbeak not letting him be captain, which I thought was harsh at first but honestly fair.. I mean he shoudl've let him keep the fancy captains hat, but I get that since Yellowbeak brought them the mission, he should get to lead.

I also get shades of their future dynamic with scrooge: a curmudgeonly seasoned adventuere, a frequently complaning donald as the lancer and the boys as eager assitants who are oftne key in saving the adults necks with their canny observations. The script wasn't by barks, but I wouldn't be suprised if he remembered how well it worked from before, with Scrooge being easier to squeeze into stories. After all Donald's rich dynamic uncle who always is after another rainbow is a bit easier ot set up adventures for than "a pirate parrot donald knows and dosen't like all that much"

SO pete's scheme is clever. He actually bothers to disguise himself as a greeving widow, shaving up nice and putting on a wig. As per 40's cartoon logic this works perfectly and he cons them into renting the boat instead of buying it by pretnedin gher husband the captain died. I again like seeing pete like this: he can be short sighted but I like him with a good scheme: it's part of what made Goofy Movie and Three Musketeers work so well: he CAN plan or think he's a master of psychology, but he's too arrogant to win.

We get a LOT of good gags in this comic as pete's goons, two mice wheel in tons of heavy ordanance while Donald is understandably worried. He brushes it off as a hobby but their undrestandably not convinced.

We get another fun sequence as Pete tails Yellowbeak after he gets a letter.. only to find it's agrocery list. This leads to my favoirite panel of the whole comic

Everything about that panel to the right is perfect, from the facial expression to the clouds that weren't exactly necfessary but add to the scene. It's just such a perfectly donald expression, so "what the hell did I do" so baffled. While it was only his first comic... Barks already got how to perfectly put donald in panel. It's expressive, funny and great to look at.

The next two pages are some antics as Pete tries to get the map since it's hidden. And their good antics: he goes in at night to try and find it and gently hangs donald on a hook

His minons suggest he just "cut dere throats and take the map" but pete TRIES to play it subtle and just get it when they take it out to plan.. but it's their plans for AFTER they get the map.

Finally Pete decides to take their advice to heart and just cut dere throats. Luckily the boys spot him and dump him aboard. While there's some good dialoge in this one, a lot of the comedy is more slapstick, as this WAS supposed to be a cartoon and it's easier to animate actions rather than talking. It still works in comics just as fine and Hannah and Barks art is super expressive, it's just neat to contrast to Barks more heavy use of dialogue in the rest of his career.

They dunk Pete and call "Woman overboard".. so Donald and Yellow beak see him sans disguise. The gig is up and a fight begins, with some beautiful actions and the boys being thrown in the brig..w hich they easily escape. This comes in handy as whlie putting up an impressive fight, complete with a little sword action as any good pirate adventure needs, Donald and Yellowbeak are cornered and forced to walk the plank.

Thankfully the boys built a raft offscreen so our heroes ar esaved by plot convience and a daring rescue and are already off in the distnace by the time pete realizes> he plans to just let the sharks have them.. only to find out Yellowbeak cut out the center of the map, the part both parties need next.

So out to sea Yellowbeak doles out rations

Now to be fair we don't KNOW that shark had self respect. I mean most people love pringles, but I woudln't cal lme wolfing down a can of all dress pringles in one sitting self respecting. I would call it delicous. Their new to the US and their a delight. Need to get me more. THEY CONSUME ME, THEY CONSUME ME

Anyway our heroes reach the island with yellowbeak having remmebered some steps and not letting the others eat because he's a bit of a dick. They find the cove.. and pete monotring it so they break into his boat at night.. only to find he's already out searching for treasure. If this sounds a bit circular that's because.. it is> This small section feels like not a lot happens.

Thankfully it picks up soon as our heroes head to a pirate cave and find a ghost! Before donald can deal with it in his usual way

The ghost gives them the rest of the mask and they ask no followup questions despite it obviously being pete in a bedsheet, who gave them the map back to lead him to the treasure.

So we're at the climax: our heroes dig it up, the boys make themselves scare and pete understandably waits until the two idiots have done all the work for him to strike. The boys once again prove to be the only compitent ones here, and strike back with some coconuts

Once again Pete is cruelly denied becoming knig of france. They quickly take out the two mooks and since this is their swan song I love the designs of these guys, the buck teth, big ears. Reminds me of mortimer. Maybe he has a twin brother or two, who knows.

We end with our heroes taking the bad guys back to the ship. Donald and Yellow Beak argue about whose the captan now only to get a rude awakening to end the comic

You know I never thought I'd see a story that ended with the boys holding Donald Duck and a modern day pirate who still acts like a goldena ge one at cannon point but i'm glad I lived to see it.

Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold is a fun story, expressive, full of great jokes, and with a nice sense of swashbuckling adventure. I wasn't sure how much of a pirate story this was going to be but I was delighted that it kept the feel. Pete tends to be the real star with tons of great expressions, gags as he tries to outwit the heroes and some genuinely clever planning. While it was barks first story and he didn't get to write it, I was shocked by just HOW good it is. While some comic writers artists do start firing on all cyllenders, most take a bit to really lock down their style. And while barks did have some stuff to figure out, when it came to drawing comics he was fantastic and got the medium from the start. True he'd been an animator for this so he wasn't a complete newbie.. but it's still a hard medium to get just right snf hr killed it on his first try. Jack Hannah's work also can't be understated: a lot of the great pete art is his and he gets the slapstick down to a science.

It also feels like, as I mentioned before, a blueprint to barks other stories: while yellowbeak would be swaped out for scrooge a lot of the comedic beats, the skeezy protaganist of the day, and the comedic ending all fit his scrooge adventures. This comic is utterlyf antastic and since Disney hasn't repinted it recently you can find it here on archive.org