Death was and still is a taboo topic in Disney comics. Carl Barks is known to have tested the limits of Disney guidelines on a number of occasions. He drew beautiful, long legged girls, dangerous weapons and very violent fights. Some of these were initially censored and some were published at a much later date. The publication of a few gothic tales, however, was never touched by the censors. Of course, there is the magic tale In Ancient Persia (W OS #275) in which magic powder can resurrect the dead to life again. Barks skilfully conceived of an authentic Arabian environment in which the past came back to life for a short time. However, life is short for these people and they return to their everlasting peace. The topic was even more pronounced in a tale Barks wrote but never finished, called King Scrooge the First (the cover was drawn by Carl Barks) (US #71, 1967). The final product was finished by Tony Strobl, another Disney comic veteran. Nevertheless, the story still feels very much like a Barks story. While the story begins like many classic Duck adventures, at the end we learn that the goal of the villain was actually to find everlasting peace. While Uncle Scrooge can bathe in money, Khan Khan of the Mongolduks, who had thought he would enjoy eternal life, finally dies because he no longer can stand the loneliness of life without his friends, family and slave girls.

If you want to read this story for yourself, you can buy a recent reprint of it at Amazon.com for only $6.95.