One of the great traditions in Disney Duck comics is the treasure-hunting story: Scrooge and/or Donald, usually accompanied by the nephews but not always, go off in search of a wildly improbable regional treasure, encounter wild (sometimes problematically represented) locals, and a series of mishaps befalls them. Usually, the nephews crack some code or riddle, the treasure is found, and some sort of wealth or glory befalls our hapless heroes.
“The Golden Pineapple”, the first and primary story in Donald Duck #1 (legacy #389) is a modern version of these sorts of adventure tales. Localized to English here for the first time, “Pineapple” was originally published in the Dutch Duck publication Donald Duck Pocket back in 2013, which makes this a remarkably modern take. Here, Daisy Duck fills the role usually occupied by Huey, Dewey, and Louie: she’s the one slyly in the know who ends up uncovering the mystery while Donald and Scrooge run around, ineffectively chasing down leads.
Fantagraphics
Because it’s Daisy we’re dealing with, the standard reward of wealth and glory isn’t the end product of the story: Daisy doesn’t care if Scrooge gets richer, and she’s largely unconcerned with Donald’s aspirations (which here appear to be wealth, also). It’s her vacation that brought the ducks to the Latin-coded Costa Piña, and she’s much more interested in immersing herself in the local culture than the ducks usually manage. She wants to relax, to take in the local legends, and to – and this is the large shocker here – treat the locals with a degree of respect.
“Pineapple” waves away the sort of latent, Imperialistic vibes of the post-war Carl Barks stories, which took an attitude of their time that tended to infantilize foreign cultures. Those were stories told in a time when artifacts belonged in Western museums and not with their peoples.
Neither Donald nor Scrooge ends up with the Pineapple in this story because Daisy is around to act as their concience; it’s a nice twist to this classic style of Duck story.
Written by Gorm Transgaard and illustrated by Giorgio Cavazzano, “The Golden Pineapple” is a stunner of a story. Cavazzano captures the ducks in constant motion, making broad gestures or slumping exasperatedly over tomes. It’s a beautiful strip, and the voices of each duck feels true to their decades-long histories (though, of course, Daisy feels incredibly more assured).
Fantagraphics
Backing up “The Golden Pineapple” is the first US publication of the 2020 Icelandic “Be Happy!” by Peter Snejbjerg and Marco Rota, which eschews the high adventure antics of a Scrooge-style story to the endless hijinks of a Gladstone Gander story (with some cousin Fethry thrown in for good measure). Donald and his cousins, ever swept up in happenstance, become the targets of Gladstone’s boundless good luck, only to find that luck to be somewhat fickle. It’s a great spotlight on Donald’s cousins, neither of whom feel as well-known in the American zeitgeist. Rota’s pencils feel more indebted to Barks and Don Rosa than Cavazzano’s, which happens to make “Happy” feel much more timeless.
Donald Duck #1 wonderfully encapsulates the sorts of dynamic stories that can be told with the denizens of Duckburg; both stories feel pitch-perfect, engaging, and rife with detail. It’s a delight to behold and a damn fine first issue.
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