Gladstone's luck

[Frank Bubacz]

Hi,

To sum it up neatly for Maciek, here's the first ten Barks stories featuring 
Gladstone (in chronological order of creation):

W WDC 88   [Wintertime Wager]
W WDC 95   [Gladstone Returns]
W WDC 96   [Links Hijinks]
W WDC 103  [Rival Beachcombers]
W MOC 41    Race to the South Seas
W WDC 110  [The Goldilocks Gambit]
W OS 256     Luck of the North
W WDC 111  [Donald's Love Letters]
W OS 263     Trail of the Unicorn
W WDC 117  [Wild about Flowers]

"Race" is the first story featuring his supernatural luck. The story starts 
with Gladstone being the usual "rival braggart". He is even surprised, when 
Scrooge gives him a yacht as a present (Donald gets one, too). But okay, 
that might as well be, because it's not the most typical thing for Scrooge 
to do...  ;-)   Then, totally unexpected, Donald mentions Gladstone's luck 
on page 6. The very first "lucky thing" happening to him: he doesn't have to 
finance his rescue trip himself, because others are impressed by his heroic 
plan to save Scrooge. Of course, the first four pages of "Luck Of The North" 
serve as a far more satisfying introduction of Gladstone's outstanding 
character trait.

Interestingly, in "Goldilock" and "Love Letters", there's no trace of his 
luck at all. It seems, in the early days Barks used Gladstone mainly as a 
rival, lucky or not. "Knightly Rivals" (WDC 128) is another example of a 
luck-neutral Gladstone, but, come to think of it, there are probably a few 
later stories as well, falling into this category.

Frank (obviously bored)

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