I kind of think these mid-fifties-early-sixties Strobl joints in Donald Duck may, pound for pound, be the best NBW stories out there. Whaddaya think? “Safari from Komba Tomba,” “The Mysterious Crewless Ship,” “The Charge at Dawn,” “Rattled Railroader,” “Adventure at Bomb Bird Island”–what is not to like? Well, obviously, there are SOME things not to like. But I think both Gregory and Fallberg put in good work, and in general, with Barks and these guys, it was probably about as good as Western was going to get. So now, “The Secret Safari,” from 1959. Is it likewise a minor classic? Let’s find out, shall we?
The one thing I really appreciate is that the inducks image has the same stamp as this does, meaning the scans I have are the same as theirs. Hey, is there a super-secret inducks login that only movers and shakers have access to where you can see all the images in full size? If so, how ’bout you guys let me in on that? Given my ceaseless toils in the Disney mines, it seems only fair. I promise to never use my powers for evil.
Anyway, lookit status-conscious Scrooge here. An unusual look, but not an unheard of one, as we know from the likes of “The Status Seekers.” I’m not sure there’s precedent for him not wanting to be seen with riff-raff like Donald, though. Well, that’s the premise, so let’s go with it.
Obviously, I’m never going to be opposed to a story in which a plutocrat finds himself, shock horror, unable to ger something he WANTS. Would be nice if there were more of that in real life. I mean, I understand that they can never achieve fulfillment or happiness, but it would be nice if we could see their suffering more often. In a way that doesn’t break the country, preferably, but hey. LOOK, I’m a little punchy today. It happens.
That “there’s always an angle” is kind of chilling, I think. But I DO enjoy Donald’s butterfly collection. How was he able to get all these specimens? Unclear, but seeing him have a hobby that he’s good at is edifying.
Gotta say–obviously, a story like this isn’t canon for anyone, but it it were, “Scrooge can never go to Africa” would be quite a big roadblock (although given certain, hmm, issues with a lot of stories set there, maybe a welcome one). And as for the thing itself, okay, maybe it would be a bad idea for him to get malaria again, but the idea that this would prevent him from visiting the entire continent–well, it’s certainly not atypical for westerners to just perceive Africa as one big, undifferentiated blob, but still. Man.
BUT! This whole “Mysterious rain forest thing” atop the Kiku mountains” thing is pretty okay–though it would be okay-er if Gregory had done the minimal research name a real mountain range. What he wanted was the Rwenzori Mountains, sometimes identified with the “Mountains of the Moon” referenced in “The Congo” and elsewhere. Did I just now look that up? Yes, obviously. Was it WAY easier for me to do in 2026 than it was for Gregory in 1958? Yes again. But STILL! Just get yerself an atlas, man!
“What’s an inaccessible plateau?” indeed. It’s a conundrum: the Guidebook may have all the answers, but what does that avail you if you can’t understand the words? I can’t off-hand recall another comic where that was an issue.
I also find Donald’s blithe confidence that the “manual” is just…wrong, in this one particular case, to be, well, absurd. Sure, why not, that would be convenient. Maybe it meant “an easily-accessible plateau with convenient parking and a nearby gift shop.”
A “white hunter.” Yes. Ha ha ha. Hoo boy. Well…that’s what that is. I know, I know, the unconscious racist tropes in a story like this are so endemic that, while you can and should point them out, it really doesn’t accomplish much. Nevertheless, here we are. The “elephant tusk fence” isn’t particularly winsome either.
It’s kind of too bad, though, because he’s actually kind of a fun character, if maybe he’d leave the “white hunter” stuff be. One way you can tell this is Gregory is because, even in a completely different context, he feels VERY similar to Paisley Mantee in “Paper Route Panic.”
Anyway, the other “white hunters” will mercilessly rib him in the caffeteria if he goes around chasing butterflies. In related news, their masculinity is EXTREMELY fragile. File under World’s Least Surprising Facts.
There are, in fact, a lot of fun adventure-y aspects to this story. I like the terrifying path that’s a closely-guarded secret. Why is ol’ Congo Bongo the only one who knows about it? Unclear, but hey. Also, I like the sun rising over the veldt like that (though it may possibly be the case that Gregory doesn’t realize that different places in Africa are…different), and I love the notion that “we ducks have always faced danger with a cool smile and an icy calm.” It is kind of an unusual caracterization of Donald, who would typically be extremely non-cool-and-icy in a situation like this.
See? Adventure! It isn’t quite Barks, as how could it be, but everyone’s making a good effort, and it is not. Too. Bad.
I’m keenly aware that all I’m really doing here is vaguely pointing in the direction of this stuff and going “see? Adventure!” It may not be overly helpful. But I hope you can see how kids would nonetheless find this stuff really, really cool. Although honesty does require me to admit that I did read this particular story when I was small, and it wasn’t among my NBW favorites. Weirdly enough, I actually think I might appreciate it more now. And the degree to which I appreciate it now is “somewhat!” But how can I not like it when “strange things” happen in an isolated mountaintop rainforest? I can’t, but I do wish that more of this stuff was actually, you know illustrated. Show don’t tell? No, some degree of telling is okay. But just a BIT more showing than we get here would probably also be good.
Also, “two days?” That is terrible timing. Also, it doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the story, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You like suspension bridges? I actually do have the personal experience of crossing one of those, high above a Rwandan rainforest. True fact. It’s not that amazing, as a feat of daring; it was actually completely safe–very strong bridge with copious netting on both sides; it would have been difficult or impossible to fall off even had you wanted to. Don’t get me wrong, though; it was still fucking terrifying! We were told stories that sometimes tourists would indeed freeze up and the guides would have to carry them back. So I find Donald’s reaction here quite believable.
So why are they disappearing like that? Is that interesting? I think it’s kind of interesting.
And the explanation is even interestinger; problem is, that’s all there is to it. It’s super cool that they’re actually supposed to be in a forest canopy, but do you want to see what it looks like underneath? Tough; we never do. Nothing more to say about that.
And then we are treated to this big ol’ anticlimax, as it turns out, oh, the solution is that the butterflies like marmalade? They JUST DO, okay? And yeah, Donald’s been frozen with terror this whole time. Admittedly, characterizing that terror as “icy calm” is kinda funny. Well! Anyway, time to go home.
MOTHERFUCKER. It feels like we came SO close to avoiding this. It is what it is. I don’t know what to say. It’s worth noting that unlike most of the DD marquee stories of this time, this was never reprinted in the US. I think it may have been a bit de trop even by the standards of the time.
Well, but you might not think so from this one image. Visually, the natives are a bit, hmm, but they’re not doing anything here that one would take offense to.
Well, okay. But still, um, well…
Goddamnit. What are we doing here? Look, I’m not dwelling on this because it’s just how stuff was, especially for your less reflective writers. I don’t like it, I agree with the decision not to reprint it, but…still. Blah.
But oh no, how will Scrooge react to this nonsense?!? I do enjoy the way Donald doesn’t even consider the possibility that Scrooge would end up taking HIS butterfly. It’s Scrooge’s that was eaten. Them’s the breaks.
But actually, Scrooge’s attitude is weirdly low-key, under the circumstances. He doesn’t contest the idea, even though you’d think he could reasonably argue that the fact that he financed the expedition means he should get the butterfly. Instead, he just thinks his nephews are behaving weirdly, which, you know, fair cop.
And seriously. You’d think a story like this would end with him chasing Donald with his cane, but instead it just peters out like this (him thinking his nephews may have lost their minds also reminds me of “Paper Route Panic”). Honestly, as I was rereading the story to write this, that was the thing that I found most interesting about it, which certainly says something about me. I suppose it trails off in the same manner as this blog entry, really. Hard to come up with any grand conclusions about a story like this, especially when you’ve already written about a ton of them in similar veins. Welp, see ya.
…okay, so I found this photo:
So there ya go!
