Vicar : Tally-Ho Tones p. 3

Years before Disney art from Guthenberghus/Egmont, including Vicar's pages, became common on the market, I managed to obtain this complete Donald Duck story. Being surrounded by friends who collect Disney comics, I split the story and managed to make several friends happy - or at least that was my intention. This is the only page I have kept and today it's not a very scarce item, but when I first bought it I was very excited having found such a rare treat. Last time I checked a few of the other pages were featured here at CAF too. Several years ago when Vicar visited Sweden I also got him to sign it for me, though when I brought it out he quickly hushed me and advised me to put it away, not to show it to the Disney publisher representative at the same table (though he then gladly signed it for me anyway).

The reason I have kept this specific page is of course that it features the main characters - Daisy, Donald and Gyro - but I have also realized a much more subtle reason to keep it. Looking back at the history of comics, and Disney comics, there is one short sequence that stands out as perhaps the alltime achievement in comic books. In Carl Barks' fabulous story "Luck of the North" (Donald Duck Four Color #256, 1949), Donald can't sleep at night, having a bad conscience for deceiving Gladstone Gander into travelling to the Arctic in pursuit of false treasure. Sitting by the fridge in his night shirt, eating a night snack to ease his troubled mind, Donald suddenly envisions Gladstone eaten by a polar bear, while the pure burden of the thought practically suffocates him against the bottom of the panel. That single page is simply the masterpiece of composition and emotional storytelling... "I wonder if polar bears eat people?", Donald thinks, and once the thought has entered his mind there's no escape!

Anyway, there you have it - the reason I'd really hesitate to let this page go: It too depicts a troubled Donald in front of a fridge... Once this thought had entered my mind, there was no escape! Who'd ever have guessed that the greatest scene in comics would take place in the middle of the night in Donald Duck's kitchen?