It can be fun to read comics that were written and drawn before you were even born. Take Dell Comics for instance. Began as a packager of old comic strips in 1929, these four-color magazines bore the square DELL label until 1962 when they became Gold Key Comics.
During those three-plus decades before I was around, the writers and artists did not neglect Science Fiction in the fifty-nine issues of Donald Duck. All the big themes are here: robots, mad scientists, space travel, time travel and dinosaurs. The only thing that might have spiced things up a little is a good old-fashioned man-eating plant.
Things kicked off with “Robert the Robot” in Donald Duck #28 (March-April 1953). Written and drawn by Dick Moores, it has a mechanical butler owned by Donald’s cousin Marmaduke. The nephews dress Robert up as a ghost to scare their uncle. The last panel has Robert fishing with Donald on a pier. Robert says: “No competent mechanic would give me more than six weeks to live in the salt air…but I wouldn’t go back THERE for ANYTHING!” That’s about as close as we get to Philip K. Dick here.
Donald Duck #29 (May 1953) features “Desert Health” and the mad scientist Professor Egghead E. Egghead, the inventor of a spray that shrinks things. When a desert coyote chases Donald and the nephews, the good doctor sprays it and it becomes small. A real humanitarian. He sprays Donald next and then takes his steel zeppelin out to spray the world. Huey, Dewey and Louie stop him when the doctor gets a shot of his own medicine. One of the boys is threatening to spray him twice when the doctor says: “Stop! Please! I don’t want to disappear altogether.” Shades of Richard Matheson’s The incredible Shrinking Man which would appear in novel form three years later. The writer is not known but the art was supplied by Jack Bradbury.
“Money on Moon” appeared in Donald Duck #32 (November-December 1953) After a dull opening about window-washing, Donald and the boys get tricked by Uncle Scrooge into entering a spaceship. They fly to the Moon and claim it as property of Scrooge McDuck. The local Moon Men capture them then chase them back to their ship. the whole thing turns out to be McDuck’s dream. Again the writer is not known but art by Jack Bradbury.
Donald Duck #38 (November-December 1954) featured “The Mechnical Brain” with art by Phil De Lara. Professor Gyro Gearloose invents a robot who goes to live with Donald and the nephews. The machine has an amazing mechanical mind. Donald needs money so he gets the robot to guess the number of bolts in a barrel for a contest. Unfortunately the prize is the bucket of bolts. The robot gets him in trouble with a traffic cop because it can’t lie but it redeems itself when it helps capture a bank robber. Is the shade of Adam Link to be seen here?
“Tomorrow Land” in the one-shot Donald Duck in Disneyland (September 1955) was a promotional aid to sell kids on going to Disneyland. The story has Donald, Mickey, Gyro Gearloose visiting Tomorrowland and capturing Pete and another thug. No real SF here. Written by Carl Fallberg and drawn by Tony Strobl and John Liggera.
“Tornado Untwister” Donald Duck #44 (November-December 1955) has Gyro invent a machine that uses a cyclone to pick up leaves. He later uses it to stop a tornado that threatens the town. Art by Dick Moores.
Finally some Carl Barks in “Forbidden Valley”, an epic inspired by A. Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, no doubt. This appeared in Donald Duck #54 (July-August 1957) The first half is a pretty typical jungle adventure (which the Dell comics did many times over) but in the second half we get dinosaurs. The bad guy gets trampled (but not killed) in a dino-stampede at the end.
Carl Barks returns in “The Titantic Ants” in Donald Duck #60 (July-August 1958). A Doctor Thinknoble creates gigantic creatures, mostly ants though there is a mole too. At a picnic, giant ants show up and steal the food. The boys follow the ants to an old house where they meet the doctor. When his controlling machine gets broken the ants go on a rampage. He created a new machine and saves the day. A. Hyatt Verrill and Francis Flagg, not to mention H. G. Wells, did this decades before.
“The Grounded Flying Saucer” appeared in Donald Duck #63 (January 1959) The writer is not known but art chores were shared by Tony Strobl and John Liggera. The nephews create a fake UFO but a real one shows up confusing Donald.
Time travel is used briefly in “Flag Bragger” from Donald Duck #81 (January-February 1962). Donald is always bragging about his adventures so Gyro Gearloose sends him back in time where he encounters a dragon. When he returns Donald is even worse, bragging about that adventure, showing off his coat that has a dragon paw mark on it. script by Vick Lockman and art by Tony Strobl and John Liggera.
Well, no great leaps for Science Fiction but it is entertaining to see how these tried-and-true elements showed up in family comics. Horror and Fantasy themes happened too but not as often. Gyro Gearloose was a handy pawn for any new invention story the writers might want to use. Like the early SF Pulps, funny inventions were used both to poke fun and to follow an idea to an absurd degree. The worst of these by Clement Fezandie but the best being Henry Kuttner’s Hogben stories.
