Plot
The story features Donald and his three nephews as members of a museum-sponsored expedition searching for the source of a number of square "artifacts" held in the Duckburg museum, recently revealed to be square eggs when Donald drops one and it cracks open. There is a rising interest, both scientific and financial, to find the source of these eggs and the chicken that laid them. However, the only thing known about them is that they came from Peru and were found somewhere in the Andes.
During their journey to South America, Donald's nephews use some of the old square eggs from the museum to make an omelette. This causes the members of the expedition to come down with food poisoning. By the time their boat reaches Peru, the only ones that have recovered enough to continue the expedition are the youngest in the group and the lowest in hierarchy — Donald and his nephews.
Their search for the square eggs in the Andes seems hopeless, as the local population sees them either as insane or as suckers to be fooled into buying artificial eggs. Finally, they meet a very old man who tells them of how his father once came into possession of square stones similar to their own. The father had found them on the body of an American explorer who had emerged from a neighboring valley, which is covered in perpetual mist. The explorer, who had wandered the valley to the point of exhaustion, died soon afterward. The old man's father later sold some of the "stones" in a local village and these ended up as the square eggs at the museum.
The Ducks follow the dead man's path into the mists and after days of effort they find a populated valley in the mountains, hidden by the mists. The inhabitants are entirely cubical with square heads and noses. They speak with an old American Southern accent taught to them by their previous visitor, the dead man, Professor Rhutt Betlah (a wordplay on Rhett Butler) [1] from Birmingham, Alabama, who had discovered their valley during the late 19th century.
During their stay in the valley, which the professor has named "Plain Awful", Huey, Dewey, and Louie blow some bubble gum bubbles, which is against the law in Plain Awful: It's forbidden to produce any round objects in the valley. The only way to get out of the valley and avoid capital punishment is for Huey, Dewey, and Louie to produce square bubbles. They manage to do that by teaching the square chickens to chew gum and blow bubbles. The nephews hid the chickens under their shirts and pretend they made the bubbles themselves.
The Ducks convince the very hospitable locals to let them go. The latter are sad to see them go, because they were a source of information from the outside world to their small and isolated civilization. They give the Ducks a compass that the professor had left in Plain Awful, having been placed in a museum as a piece of art and, in return, they teach them square dancing. When they leave the valley, in one of Barks' scarce moralizing moments, Donald remarks that the people in Plain Awful "had so little of anything, yet they were the happiest people we've ever known."
Bringing two square chickens and eggs with them, the Ducks again struggle to escape from the mists. Finally, when they do manage it, they are nearly exhausted. The two chickens are still alive, but they had to eat the eggs. It's only when they return to Duckburg, that they realize the entire expedition was a failure: both of the chickens are male and naturally can't reproduce. The story ends with Donald now giving an angry response to whoever mentions eggs and chicken to his face.
Analysis
Barks had heard jokes about square eggs and chickens since his childhood and decided to use them as an idea for a story. The plot combines themes and story elements that Barks often used in his stories. A mythical creature or legendary artifact that leads to an expedition, the long search for information, often seeming futile, an isolated civilization hidden from the outside world thanks to its natural environment, the Ducks bringing new ideas with them but sometimes faced as threats, and the characters ending up defeated or empty-handed are all such themes.
The story has been considered as representative of Barks' work in general and successful in its own right and has often been declared as one of his best. References to this story are often in the works of Barks' "successors" and fans of his work in general. In a 1962 interview, Barks agreed that "my best story, technically, is probably the square egg one." [2]
In Carl Barks and the Disney Comic Book: The Myth of Modernity, Thomas Andrae writes, "Barks' portrait of the Inca culture is ambivalent. Although he finds them superior to capitalist modernity, Barks rejects a romantic primitivism that elevates preindustrial cultures to the status of utopias. Plain Awful, as its name suggests, is radically flawed. It is conformist and shackled by custom... Barks' story implies that primitive societies have a spirit of community and generosity but are so conformist and custom-bound that they lack tolerance and freedom of expression." [1]
Impact
In Norway, the story gained a lot of attention when first published in the Norwegian language in 1963. The translator chose an archaic and slightly garbled version of Nynorsk for the mountain-dwellers, and this was widely seen as an insult. In later editions, the language was altered (the most recent editions however restore the Nynorsk dialogue, as the translation has come to be regarded as a classic in its own right). Thus, through the Norwegian language struggle, this story got quite a lot of attention in Norwegian media. It was later proclaimed as the best Donald Duck comic of all time by the Norwegian readers.
A scene from the Disney animated feature Dumbo , where Dumbo blows square bubbles of alcohol-tinted water, might have inspired the part of the story where Donald's nephews blow square bubbles of chewing gum.
Don Rosa wrote and drew a sequel, Return to Plain Awful , where Donald and his nephews return to the secluded civilization, this time bringing Scrooge McDuck with them. The Plain Awful's square egg is also featured in Don Rosa's The Buckaroo of the Badlands , part three of his famous The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck .
The story's legacy, coupled with Barks' own love for it, made it launch the first The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library volume.
Carl Barks was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck. He worked anonymously until late in his career; fans dubbed him The Duck Man and The Good Duck Artist. In 1987, Barks was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
Keno Don Hugo Rosa, known as Don Rosa, is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his Disney comics stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and other characters which Carl Barks created for Disney-licensed comic books, first published in America by Dell Comics. Many of his stories are built on characters and locations created by Barks; among these was his first Duck story, "The Son of the Sun" (1987), which was nominated for a Harvey Award in the "Best Story of the Year" category.
Huey, Dewey, and Louie are triplet cartoon characters created by storyboard artist (screenwriter) Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company from an idea proposed by cartoonist Al Taliaferro. They are the nephews of Donald Duck and the grand-nephews of Scrooge McDuck. Like their maternal uncles, the brothers are anthropomorphic white ducks with yellow-orange bills and feet. The boys are sometimes distinguished by the color of their shirts and baseball caps. They appeared in many Donald Duck animated shorts, as well as in the television show DuckTales and its reboot, but the comics remain their primary medium.
Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 for The Walt Disney Company by Carl Barks. Appearing in Disney comics, Scrooge is a Scottish-born American anthropomorphic Pekin duck. Like his nephew, Donald Duck, he has a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a red or blue frock coat, top hat, pince-nez glasses, and spats varying in color. He is portrayed in animation as speaking with a Scottish accent. Originally intended to be used only once, Scrooge became one of the most popular characters in the Disney comics world, as well as Barks' signature work. Scrooge is an extremely rich duck who lives in the fictional city of Duckburg in the fictional U.S. state of Calisota, whose claimed location is in real-world California, United States.
Gyro Gearloose is a cartoon character created in 1952 by Carl Barks for Disney comics. An anthropomorphic chicken, he is part of the Donald Duck universe, appearing in comic book stories as a friend of Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, and anyone who is associated with them. He was also featured in the animated series DuckTales. Gyro first appeared in the Carl Barks comic "Gladstone's Terrible Secret", and was the regular lead character in 4-page backup stories in Barks' issues of Uncle Scrooge, starting with issue #13 and continuing through #41.
The Donald Duck universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting of stories involving Disney cartoon character Donald Duck, as well as Daisy Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Scrooge McDuck, and many other characters. Life in the Donald Duck universe centers on the city of Duckburg and is a part of the larger Mickey Mouse universe. In addition to the original comic book stories by Carl Barks, the Duckburg cast was featured in Little Golden Books, television series such as DuckTales (1987–1991), Darkwing Duck (1991–1992), and the DuckTales reboot (2017–2021), and video games such as DuckTales (1989), QuackShot (1991), Goin' Quackers (2000), and DuckTales: Remastered (2013).
The Duck family is a fictional family of cartoon ducks related to Disney character Donald Duck. The family is also related to the Coot, Goose, and Gander families, as well as the Scottish Clan McDuck. Besides Donald, the best-known members of the Duck family are Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Donald's triplet nephews.
The Junior Woodchucks of the World is a fictional scouting organization appearing in Disney comics and the DuckTales animated television franchise, most notably in adventures featuring Disney characters Huey, Dewey, and Louie as members.
"A Christmas for Shacktown" is a 32-page Disney comics story written, drawn, and lettered by Carl Barks. The story was first published in Four Color #367, and tells of Donald Duck's attempts to raise money for a Christmas party for the poor children of Shacktown.
"The Golden Helmet" is a 32-page Disney comics adventure story written, drawn, and lettered by Carl Barks. The story was first published in Four Color #408 with a cover by Barks. In the story, Donald Duck and his nephews hunt for a Viking helmet that gives the possessor legal claim to North America.
"Christmas on Bear Mountain" (1947) is a Donald Duck story by Carl Barks, first published in Dell Comics Four Color Comics #178. It was the first appearance of Scrooge McDuck, a character who became a comic-book icon throughout the world.
"Land Beneath the Ground!" is a Scrooge McDuck comic book story that appeared in 1956 in the comic book Uncle Scrooge, written by Carl Barks.
"Return to Plain Awful" is a Donald Duck story that was originally printed during the Gladstone Publishing run of Donald Duck Adventures, issue #12 in May 1989. It was written by Don Rosa as a sequel to "Lost in the Andes!" by Carl Barks, to commemorate that story's 40th anniversary.
"The Golden River" is a Disney comics story written and drawn by Carl Barks in 1957 and first published in 1958, in Uncle Scrooge #22. It is somewhat based on the fairy tale The King of the Golden River, by John Ruskin.
"The Son of the Sun" is the first Scrooge McDuck comic by Don Rosa, first published in Uncle Scrooge #219 in July 1987. It is a well-known comic book story that features Disney's Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and his three nephews. This story is most notable for establishing Don Rosa as a major talent in the Disney comic book industry, as well as fulfilling Rosa's childhood dream of becoming a writer/illustrator of stories featuring Scrooge McDuck.
The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library is a series of books collecting all of the comic book Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories written and drawn by Carl Barks, originally published between 1942 and Barks' retirement in June 1966. The series was launched in late 2011, and will comprise 6,000 plus pages over roughly 30 200- to 240-page volumes when it is finished.
"Rival Beachcombers" is a 10-page Disney comics story written, drawn, and lettered by Carl Barks. The story was first published in Walt Disney's Comics & Stories #103. It has been reprinted many times since.
"The Secret of Atlantis" is a 32-page Disney comics story written and drawn by Carl Barks, and lettered by his wife, Garé Barks.
"The Gilded Man" is a 32-page Disney comics story written, drawn, and lettered by Carl Barks. The story was first published by Dell in Four Color #422 with a cover by Barks, and three Donald Duck gag stories by Barks: "Stable Prices", "Armored Cat Rescue", and "Crafty Corner". "The Gilded Man", the cover, and the gag stories have been reprinted many times.
