It’s Christmas time once again. It is a time of giving and receiving – of cheer and merriment. So it only feels appropriate to recommend a classic holiday tale. For this, we’re heading to Duckburg for a 1952 Donald Duck story called A Christmas For Shacktown by celebrated Disney comics creator Carl Barks.
Ultimately, A Christmas For Shacktown is a tale of charity. In the lead-up to Christmas, Huey, Dewey, and Louie take a route through the rundown Shacktown on their way home from school. There, they witness the poor children who won’t be celebrating Christmas due to financial hardship. The sight strikes them with empathy and guilt, describing themselves as “fat pigs” in comparison, and inspires them into action. (While Barks depicted Donald’s nephews as bratty in some stories, they often show a lot of emotional maturity for their age.) They convince Donald and Daisy that they should raise money to throw a Christmas party for Shacktown.
With that set-up, the rest of the story focuses on Donald raising the final chunk of cash to make the Christmas party a reality. Barks throws several opportunities at Disney’s favourite duck to obtain that money. Some are successful, while others are not, but all contain elements of what made Barks’ run on the character so endearing. There are run-ins with Uncle Scrooge (more on him later); schemes of ingenuity; and a guest appearance by Gladstone Gander, a cousin with legendary luck. These come thick and fast. They feel brief in retrospect, with each scenario only lasting a few pages but never lacking in the moment due to a dense page layout filled with charismatic characters and plenty of jokes.
The back matter for the Fantagraphics collection indicates that Carl Barks was not a fan of Christmas. He saw it as a “festival of greed, materialism, and false sentiment”. So when it comes to Barks to do a Christmas story, he uses the holiday to highlight what it should be about instead – charity and looking out for those less fortunate. Early on in this tale, Donald Duck is under financial stress, worrying about how he will afford the niceties of Christmas. However, in comparison to the folks of Shacktown, he’s comfortable enough. He has a roof over his head, a comfy chair, and a Christmas tree. Barks gives him enough emotional maturity to see his position, setting him on his mission to raise the dough for Shacktown.
However, Uncle Scrooge, the “world’s richest duck”, is not so charitable. Barks uses the character as a damnable analogue for the greed of the wealthy. He denies Donald’s request while attempting to cram money into an overflowing Money Bin. As a running gag, he’s even seen ready to light a cannon pointed at the front door, prepared to blow anyone away wanting charitable donations. It’s extreme but highlights the lengths that the wealthy will go to not give money to the less fortunate – something that’s as relevant today as it was in 1952. Luckily, Scrooge gets a karmic comeuppance as a final punchline of the story, making for a satisfying ending.
Before signing off, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the cartooning in A Christmas For Shacktown. One of the reasons that readers can invest in this story is due to how expressive the characters are. You feel for the folks in Shacktown because they look down on their luck, shrugging in the cold with a despondent countenance. Readers also see a range of emotions through Donald, from the highs of success to the lows of failure. Barks uses the Disney icon’s eyes and duck bill as proxies to human emotion, combining it with energetic body language that tells just as much of a story as the dialogue.
A Christmas For Shacktown shows that altruism is far more rewarding than the material matters of Christmas. Carl Barks takes that thesis and crafts it with a fun story that hits a lot of elements that made his run on Disney’s ducks much-loved. If Christmas has you down this year, perhaps this is the story you need to read to brighten your holidays.
Fantagraphics has reprinted this story in Donald Duck: A Christmas For Shacktown. However, it has been reprinted countless other times, which I.N.D.U.C.K.S. has all the details on. These can be found at all good comic book shops, online retailers, eBay, and Amazon.
Leave a comment