Book Review: Donald Duck: The Black Pearls of Tabu Yama

Carl Banks (author and artist), Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "The Black Pearls of Tabu Yama." Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics, 2018.  ISBN: 9781683961239.

Genre: comics and graphic novels

Subgenre: retro, vintage, Disney comics

Format: hardcover

Source: Berea branch, Madison County (KY) Public Library

 

This volume is part of The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library from Fantagraphics; this series collects his Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics from the 1940s and 1950s. Though the stories are being published in order, the compilation volumes are not. This one is volume 19 of the series. The stories stand alone, so you can read them in any order. This volume features the title story, "The Black Pearls of Tabu Yama" and thirteen other stories. The volume also includes: 

• Story notes by various contributors that provide some additional commentary on the stories.
• Carl Barks: Life Among the Ducks. A biographical note on the author. 
• List of contributors.
• Where did these stories first appear? A note when the stories were first published. 

 

The stories in this volume are fun and silly at times. They are entertaining and take us back to simple times. For some readers, there may be an image or stereotype that does not hold well today, but remember these are tales of their time. Donald Duck and his nephews are hard workers, but things don't always work out as planned. However, we usually get a happy ending and there is a good amount of good humor. 

The comics are a light and easy read. The comics are published in color. Some of the stories are better than others, but they overall make a good package. I really liked this volume. 

I do recommend this volume for all libraries that collect comics and graphic novels. This edition is a nice hardback with some good extras that are informative about the time when the comics came out. Fantagraphics is doing a good labor of love publishing these. In a time when so many comics feel a need to be dark, moody, edgy, and/or depressing, it is nice to read some comics with simple humor and written just to make readers happy and smile for a while. 

4 out of 5 stars.