Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 24, 2024 | 4 comments

Not everythings’s ducky in SEARCH FOR THE CUSPIDORIA…

By JIM BEARD

Walt Disney didn’t create the story I’m about to talk about here, but it’s a fact that it wouldn’t exist without him.

What Walt did create is a company, a creative environment that led to so many avenues of expansion for his universe. One of those avenues made it possible for me to be here today to talk about something that’s near and dear to my heart: a comic book Christmas story.

I don’t know if Walt could have imagined precisely what his dreams would lead to after his birth in Chicago on Dec. 5, 1901, and subsequent childhood in Missouri, but knowing him, I wouldn’t put it past him. The comic book cottage industry alone that sprang from the Walt Disney empire is staggering in its length and breadth, and continues to this day. And thankfully, back in 1954, it was fertile enough to birth this special holiday tale for me.

Walt was the co-creator of one of the story’s stars, Donald Duck, but its other leads, Uncle Scrooge and Huey, Dewey, and Louie, were thunk up by none other than “The Good Duck Artist,” Carl Barks. All together, they carry the little 10-page tale that I reread every Christmas. When I do, it reminds me of a much, much simpler time.

It has no actual title, as many of the Carl Barks comic book stories didn’t, but some have given it an unofficial title of “Search for the Cuspidoria.” It originally appeared 70 years ago, in Dell’s Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #172 in late 1954, but I first saw it as a kid in Gold Key’s Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #364 in late 1970 at the tender age of 5 and a half.

In a nutshell, Scrooge waylays his nephew and grand-nephews into accompanying him on a submarine journey to find the wreck of the Cuspidoria and its treasure… but the catch is that they’ll be gone through Christmas, and Huey, Dewey, and Louie are in a panic when they realize Santa Claus won’t be able to find them and deliver their presents.

Not much hilarity ensues. It’s actually a somewhat depressing story of the kids’ increasing acceptance of their fate, Donald’s nervousness and eventual anger over their plight, and Duckburg’s top duck in full Scrooge mode. In fact, Uncle Scrooge has perhaps never before or after so closely resembled his Dickens namesake as he criticizes Donald for being two minutes late to the docks, and in a fit of fury declares, “I hate Christmas! Every year people go looney over toys and presents! Bah!”

What proceeds from there is a kind of The Enemy Below, silent-running narrative with Scrooge under the waves while above him rival salvage ships are also searching for the sunken treasure. There are virtually no gags, no guffaws in the script and art, only a procession of events that make it very clear that the nephews will be stuck on Christmas Eve with no Christmas.

Barks’ art sets a moody tone with the darkened sub interiors and the equally shadowy scenes of the sea at night when the sub periodically surfaces. I love every panel of it, despite it not being a typical Barksian duck tale.

Rereading it again to write this for Christmas Eve, I was struck by a funny thought: Why do I love this story?

Back in the day, the non-superhero holiday comic stories I favored were comparatively mundane things, usually populated by Dennis the Menace and his cast. The duck story was full of, well, talking ducks and submarines and salvage rights and anger, bitterness, anguish, and depression. Over in his books, Dennis was heightening the hilarity by ordering expensive presents from the Neiman Marcus catalog; Huey, Dewey, and Louie were peeling potatoes and wondering why their great-uncle was being such a Scrooge and robbing them of Christmas.

I think it’s because of the art and the adventure and the humanity (funny to say about ducks) and the setting. I’m sure it was one of the earliest reasons why I love submarines and under-the-sea stories. It might also be because it wasn’t what I was used to in a comic book Christmas tale.

Suffice to say, have no fear—everything came out all right in the end and the kids got their holiday and I got a story that’s imprinted on my gray matter forever.

Ten little pages, but a lifetime of memories.

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MORE

— ’TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS — Golden Age Comics Style. Click here.

— NEAL ADAMS’ Complete SILENT NIGHT OF THE BATMAN — in All Its ORIGINAL ART Glory. Click here.

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JIM BEARD has pounded out adventure fiction since he sold a story to DC Comics in 2002. He’s gone on to write official Star Wars and Ghostbusters comics stories and contributed articles and essays to several volumes of comic book history. His prose work includes his own creations, but also licensed properties such as Planet of the Apes, X-Files, Spider-Man, Kolchak the Night Stalker and Captain Action. In addition, Jim provided regular content for Marvel.com, the official Marvel Comics website, for 17 years.

Check out his latest releases: Rising Sun Reruns, about classic Japanese shows on American TV; a Green Hornet novella How Sweet the Sting; his first epic fantasy novel The Nine Nations Book One: The Sliding World; and the most recent Batman ’66 books of essays he’s edited: Zlonk! Zok! Zowie! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season One, Biff! Bam! Ee-Yow! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season Two and Oooff! Boff! Splatt! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Guide to Batman ’66 – Season Three.

He’s also published novels about a character very much like GI Joe: DC Jones – Adventure Command International.