Come on! The comic Howard the Duck was great (specially in the early days, as you say), and the movie was great too, although it could have been better in some respects, I suppose. It certainly was not exactly like the comic, but stood well on its own.

Ron, the appeal of the duck comics (Disney) was this: The stories were absolutely chock full of social satire and great art and very clever sight gags. Carl Barks was a genius at lampooning the hypocrisies and foibles of our patently idiotic, money-obsessed society. He really went after lawyers, judges, politicians, scientists, social climbers, and all the pompous and petty fools one is confronted by in life. His stories were multi-leveled too...you had the main storyline (which always worked in a moral of some kind in an amusing fashion)...and then you had the little stories within stories (like a squirrel trying to steal a bag of nuts or something...hilarious stuff) which were going on in the background, so to speak.

Of course, you've got to really be into the details and the dialogue, or else you won't care...

Now, as for the cartoons, forget it. They can't compare to the comics. They are mostly sound and fury, signifying not very much. That's Hollywood for you.

The comics by Carl Barks were in the period of the late 40's to the late 60's. A twenty-year golden age for Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge.

- LH