Walt Disney's Donald Duck #5, "Christmas on Bear Mountain" #5, "Christmas on Bear Mountain".

From the 1940s through the '60s, Barks wrote and drew hundreds of comics featuring Donald Duck and his relatives, but he toiled in anonymity (the only name the stories bore was that of impresario Walt Disney). In recent decades, however, he has come to be recognized as one of the masters of the comics medium. This volume in the ambitious project collecting Barks' entire Duck Family oeuvre introduces Donald's skinflint uncle, Scrooge McDuck, who would go on to become the most enduring of the original characters Barks created to expand into the world of the animated cartoons. Other stories depict Donald's squabbles with his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie; his doomed get-rich-quick schemes; and his globetrotting adventures in foreign lands. These tales from 1947 exemplify Barks' strengths: vivid yet precise cartooning; brilliant comedic dialogue and timing; and incisive characterizations (of ducks, no less). The pristine, full-color restoration of the vintage pages and the insightful historical notes do justice to these timeless tales, which remain as enthralling and delightful today as when they first appeared, nearly seven decades ago.--Flagg, Gordon Copyright 2010 Booklist