• It might be the last issue of DONALD DUCK for a while. (Perhaps ever!)
• It has the oddity of Donald NOT appearing on the cover (see image above) – and appearing in only one panel over the first 17 pages!
The reason for this is that the issue leads off with the Carl Barks-written “Whale of a Good Deed” from HUEY DEWEY AND LOUIE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS # 7 (Cover Date: October, 1970). …But not the actual reprint from that issue. Instead, it will be a redrawn version by the great Daan Jippes! Western Publishing artist John Carey actually did a fine job illustrating the whale-tale in its original form, but I really can’t wait to see this re-envisioned in Jippes’ recent, more amped-up style!
Donald was not a factor in this story, despite the fact that it opens with Duckburg almost wholly underwater! You’d almost figure that Donald was somehow responsible for the disaster – the culmination of one of his frequent “Mastery” tales, no doubt.
But, no… He delivers his one line, in the opening (literal?) “splash” panel, and retires to the William Van Horn reprint that backs the issue.
This might not have been MY choice for the possible "final issue" of DONALD DUCK ever -- and Heaven knows it certainly wouldn't be Donald's! But, don’t mind my curmudgeonly ramblings… Buy the issue and enjoy it. I know I will… the diminished-Donald factor notwithstanding! 
2 comments:
Joe,
This really IS weird! Contrast with the start of Boom! DONALD, when "Double Duck" Donald was often the ONLY "recognizable" character in action.
Chris
…And the problem there, Chris, is that Donald wasn’t all that recognizable to us “Barks-boosting, long-timers”, while we were on that strict “Double-Duck-Diet”!
BTW: Another bit of sadness connected with this issue is that, reprint collections aside, it MAY be the last time we see him in familiar comics mode for the foreseeable future. To my knowledge, he does not appear in the last issue of WDC&S (Though, oddly, Scrooge does!), but more on that (and MM # 309) as they draw closer.
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