Comic Book Caballeros

There are clearly a lot of fans out there of The Three Caballeros. When news surfaced last year of a rumored makeover for World Showcase’s El Rio del Tiempo involving Donald and his pals, numerous cranky mouseketeers across the Internet decried yet another potential “characterization” of a classic Epcot attraction. In a refreshing twist, many others came quickly to the defense of our trio of amigos, countering a great deal of misinformation and some genuinely mean-spirited negativity. My own article, Caballeros in the Age of Misinformation, has proven to be one of 2719 Hyperion’s most popular posts to date.

But just how many of these south-of-the-border enthusiasts are familiar with the further adventures of Donald Duck, Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoles? In recent years, there have been not one, but two sequels to Disney’s classic 1945 feature. But just not quite in the format you would expect. These incarnations are not in fact animated features, but comic book stories.

Yes, comic book stories. Really, really good comic book stories. But alas, somewhat difficult to find comic book stories.

But first a little background--

Disney-themed comic book publishing has undergone an interesting evolution over the past three decades. In recent years, traditional Disney comic books have faded, and Disney comic stories have migrated into publications like Disney Adventures and its occasional spinoffs.

Things are a bit different overseas, however. Companies in numerous countries, especially throughout Europe, still publish traditional format Disney comic books to very substantial and passionate readerships. It is in those venues that artist/scribe Don Rosa continues to produce original Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories. Rosa has been chronicling the adventures of the Disney ducks for the past twenty years, much to the delight of countless international readers, and an extremely small but equally passionate American audience.

And Rosa just happens to be a huge fan of The Three Caballeros. Hence, in 2000, he produced The Three Caballeros Ride Again, and then followed up with The Magnificent Seven (minus 4) Caballeros a few years later.

Rosa typically works within the largely Carl Barks-created landscape of Duckburg, and the larger, often historically and geographically authentic world it inhabits. In a companion essay to the U.S. reprint of The Three Caballeros Ride Again, he explained why he took a detour out of Barks-inpired settings:

"I have never been especially interested in the animated Disney Donald Duck cartoons... they seemed to be a different character to me altogether. However, the best thing I think that the Disney Company ever did with Donald was his appearance in the 1945 film "The Three Caballeros"! I thought the interaction between Donald and the other two characters, Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoles, was marvelous, and the action and music in the film was wonderful! In fact, their rendition of "We're Three Caballeros" is one of my very favorite musical numbers in any movie! I have always thought it would be a neat idea to do a new Donald Duck adventure with Jose and Panchito, and in 2000 I finally got around to it! And when I did, I knew I'd include a new rendition of the classic musical number from the film, even though that's a wacky idea to attempt in a comic book!"

Both of Rosa’s Caballeros stories are high energy tales that return Donald to the environs of central and South America where he reunites with his good friends Jose and Panchito. Adventure, slapstick humor and even music combine in these delightful and beautifully rendered stories.

The Three Caballeros Ride Again takes us to the Copper Canyon of Panchito’s native Mexico where the trio engages in a Treasure of Sierra Madre-style quest for a hidden silver. Fortunes are won and quickly lost, but friendship and camaraderie ultimately prove to be the greatest treasures of all.

In The Magnificent Seven (minus 4) Caballeros, the setting moves south to Jose’s stomping ground of Rio de Janeiro. The three set off to seek their fortunes as diamond prospectors traveling across Brazil’s vast central plateau. Action and hilarity combine again with highly entertaining results. One particular sight gag (pictured) involving a capybara, the world’s largest rodent, is priceless.

It is a real shame that these and Rosa’s many other wonderful stories are by and large inaccessible here in the United States. Both Caballeros stories are available directly from Gemstone Publishing, but unfortunately, each one is split among three separate issues of Walt Disney’s Comic & Stories, with each issue costing a pricey $6.95.

One wishes that Gemstone would focus less on publishing in the traditional ongoing issue style, and concentrate more on trade paperback collections featuring distinct themes and/or specific creator spotlights. The recent editions of Rosa’s own The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck and the Disney Comics Treasures are certainly steps in the right direction. There are no doubt numerous folks out there who would likely be interested in the Caballeros stories, but will clearly balk at the $42 cost of having to purchase the six individual issues.

The Three Caballeros Ride Again was serialized in Walt Disney Comics & Stories #635-637. The Magnificent Seven (minus 4) Caballeros appeared in Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories #663-665.

In the Land of the Peeweegah

Gemstone Publishing has just released the first volume of a new comic book series that features the work of their two most notable and famous comic creators, the legendary Carl Barks, and contemporary Duck scribe Don Rosa. Rosa has always used Bark’s body of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories as the foundation and inspiration for his own efforts over the past twenty years, often penning direct sequels to many of the Duckman’s epic adventures. Each issue of the ongoing Barks-Rosa Collection will bring an original Barks endeavor and its subsequent Rosa sequel together in one publication.

The just-released first volume pairs Barks’ classic 1957 The Land of Pygmy Indians with Rosa’s 1990 The War of the Wendigo.

While one does not normally associate America’s post-war years with eco-friendly attitudes and conservation-based movements, Carl Barks certainly and not-so-subtlety infused The Land of Pygmy Indians with environmentally-conscious sensibilities. The conflict between industrialization and conservation is encapsulated in Uncle Scrooge, who in the story’s opening panel, rages about Duckburg’s “smog and noise and shoving people,” and expresses his desire to relocate to an unspoiled land free of roads, cities, factories and people. Yet, just a few panels later after Scrooge has purchased a large tract of northern wilderness from Sidewalk Sam the Real Estate Man, Scrooge acknowledges to himself that he is the one responsible for the “chemical gases, smelter smoke and factory fumes” that permeate Duckburg. It touches on the same “we have met the enemy and it is us” supposition that fellow cartoonist and Disney alumnus Walt Kelly brought to his famous Pogo comic strip years later.

This theme continues as Scrooge, accompanied by Donald and the nephews, heads north to survey his newly acquired property. As the group marvels at sapphire blue lakes and beautiful natural vistas, Scrooge finds himself instinctively identifying the region’s untapped resources that are just begging for exploitation.

The Peeweegah Indians emerge from this wilderness and quite rightly question the motivations of the paleduck visitors. Scrooge, despite attempting to repress his crass commercialism, still insists that he is the land’s rightful owner. The Peeweegah chief disputes these claims in an
eloquent oration spoken in rhythms inspired by Longfellow’s classic Little Hiawatha poem:

By whom was this token given?

By whose hand these written scratches?

Did the sun from high above you

Sell you all these lands and waters?

Did the winds that bend the pine trees?

Did the snows that fall in winter?

Did the rain shower or the lightning

Sign away these forests to you?

Me no believe that such a token

Would be honored by the fishes

By the creatures of the forest

By the birds we call our brothers

In the land of the Peeweegahs!

None could sign away these woodlands,

None could have the right or reason,

But the chiefs of all the brothers

In a powwow with the seasons!

Scrooge is forced to prove his not-so-sincere intentions by the standard trial by fire ritual, in this case besting the King Sturgeon, a giant villainous fish that terrorizes both the peaceful Peeweegahs and the local wildlife as well. Naturally it is Donald, the paleducks’ champion, who ultimately must challenge and bring about the sturgeon’s defeat.

It is no small irony that the sturgeon is vanquished using the very resources that Scrooge so desperately covets. The ever resourceful nephews concoct a pill comprised of the “oxide of strombolium” made of materials Scrooge has been lovingly sifting from the area’s soil. When Scrooge is later made ill and driven back to Duckburg by a drag on a peace pipe laced with the very same elements, that same irony is revisited again. In the tale’s final panels, Scrooge revels in Duckburg’s toxic pollution he initially sought so desperately to escape.

Don Rosa returned Scrooge, Donald and the nephews to the northern wilderness of Canada in The War of the Wendigo, and the environmental concerns of the late 20^th century became the focal point of this story still set in Barks’ postwar duck universe. Rosa always made a point of keeping his stories grounded in a 1950s time frame, maintaining consistency with Barks original stories. When the nephews astutely identify “acid rain” at one point in the story, it bears the tone of a newly coined term rather than an established idiom. Let’s face it, when recognizing ecological issues, the Junior Woodchucks were literally decades ahead of their time.

Traveling to Ontario to inspect his paper mills, Scrooge and the boys are drawn into the mystery of the Wendigo, legendary gremlins of the north woods. The Wendigo in fact turn out to be the Peeweegah, who with their animal brethren are sabotaging one of Scrooge’s main mills. The mill is spewing pollutants that are impacting the Peeweegah’s native lands, the same lands Scrooge had vowed to preserve and protect. After the Peeweegah kidnap Scrooge to hold him accountable for his perceived betrayal, the mill’s plant manager, Ravage DeFlora quickly sets in motion a plan to plunder the Great North’s natural resources and spread devastation.

Though the resulting climax involves a large scale revolt on the part of Mother Nature’s normally passive creatures and the destruction of the paper mill, it is once again the Peeweegah chief who provides Scrooge with some much needed wisdom and perspective:

Oh, paleface duck of big wampum,

How you think you got your riches?

Did man put gold in the Yukon

For you to dig out with shovel?

Did man fill you mines with diamonds?

Did man fill your wells with oil?

Did man plant the ancient forests

That turned to coal for your digging?

Scrooge Mac-Duck, you owe your riches

To the Mother Nature spirit!

This day spirit has decided

To take back this tiny portion!

With lessons hopefully learned, Scrooge vows to “install pollution controls in all his factories” and “plant two trees for everyone he cuts.” But it is the words of a Junior Woodchuck in the story’s final panel that reflects a contemporary reality that extends beyond any comic book story:

“Do you think Unca Scrooge will ever learn to appreciate the non-financial profits?”

It is the same question that we in the 21^st century must ask when confronting those inconvenient truths similar to the ones Scrooge McDuck encountered in the land of the Peeweegah.

Uncle Scrooge Adventures: The Barks/Rosa Collection Volume 1 is available to order from the popular online booksellers, as well as directly from Gemstone Publishing.