Until this point, the development of both the animated and the comic strip version of Donald was the result of a combined effort by a number of different creators, but the comic book version of Donald was mainly developed by
Carl Barks beginning in 1943. The comic version had already diverged from the animated one in a number of ways. This same division between Mouse strips and Duck strips was generally followed in the comic books.
Pete, however, remained his
villain of choice for the first few years of his comic book work. Barks largely did away with Donald's animated persona as a loafing, lazy hothead whose main quality is his hardly understandable quacking. To make him suitable for a comic-book story, Barks redefined his personality and gave him articulated speech and shaded emotions. To give Donald a world to live in, Barks developed the city of
Duckburg in the American state of
Calisota. He was allowed to focus entirely on his own cast of Duckburg citizens, such as the richest duck in the world, Uncle
Scrooge McDuck, lucky cousin
Gladstone Gander, and peculiar inventor
Gyro Gearloose. In the comics, Donald lives in a Duckburg house with Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck. Much of this scenario would resurface in the 1987 television series,
DuckTales. In that cartoon, however, Donald works and lives as a sailor on an
aircraft carrier, and Huey, Dewey and Louie live for a time with Uncle Scrooge. Barks quit working at the Studio and found employment at
Western Publishing with a starting pay of twelve dollars and fifty cents per page. He created his first Donald Duck ten-pager,
The Victory Garden, which first published in April 1943; the basic script came from the studio, but Barks was asked to rewrite it in addition to drawing it. From then on, Barks both scripted and illustrated his stories, with few exceptions. His production during that year seems to be at the pace he would follow for much of the following decade. Eight 10-pagers to be published in ''
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, published in a monthly basis, and one longer story for the sporadically published Donald Duck. In this case the story was Donald Duck and the Mummy's Ring'', 28-pages long, first published in September, 1943. The shorter stories would usually focus on Donald's everyday life and on comedy, while the longer ones were usually adventure stories set in exotic locales. The latter would often contain more dramatic elements and darker themes, and would place Donald and his nephews into dangerous and often near-fatal situations. To add realism to his illustration of those stories' settings, Barks would still seek reference sources. The magazine
National Geographic would usually provide most of the material he needed. In both cases the stories presented Donald's personality as having multiple aspects that would surface according to circumstance. Or as Barks would say later: "He was sometimes a villain, and he was often a real good guy and at all times he was just a blundering person like the average human being." Adding another note of realism was that Donald could end up being either the victor or the loser in his stories. And often even his victories were hollow. This gave a sense of realism to Donald's character and the characters and situations around him. His nephews accompanied him in those stories and Barks also gave many aspects to their personalities. In some cases they acted as the mischievous brats Taliaferro had introduced, often antagonizing their uncle. In some cases they got in trouble and Donald would have to save them. But in others they proved remarkably resourceful and inventive, often helping their uncle out of a difficult situation. But most of the time, they would appear to have developed a deeper understanding of things and level of maturity than their uncle. The first recurring character that Barks would introduce was Donald's next-door
Neighbor Jones. He was mentioned by name and made a cameo in
Good Deeds, first published in July, 1943. He was mentioned as a neighbor that Donald likes to tease. Then he made his first full appearance in
Good Neighbors, first published in November 1943. There Donald and he appear to have agreed to a truce. But when they misinterpret a number of chance events to be covert attacks by their respective neighbor, they resume their fighting with renewed determination. Jones seems to always be in a bad mood and Donald just serves to make him angry. The two irrational and easily irritated neighbors would serve as the focus of a number of short stories. From 1947, Jones was also used by non-Barks comics writers; from the 1960s onward, he has frequently reappeared in stories by a great number of authors. The next two recurring characters to be introduced by Barks were much more significant. Donald's maternal uncle
Scrooge McDuck made his first appearance in
Christmas on Bear Mountain, first published in December 1947. The first member of
The Clan McDuck to appear, his name was based on
Ebenezer Scrooge, a fictional character from
Charles Dickens's
A Christmas Carol. The story's title was based on
A Night on Bald Mountain by
Modest Mussorgsky, a scene of
Fantasia. Scrooge's first appearance was almost immediately followed by that of Donald's first cousin
Gladstone Gander in
Wintertime Wager, first published in January, 1948. Both characters did not yet have their now-recognizable characteristics. Scrooge was a bearded, bespectacled, reasonably wealthy old duck living in isolation in a huge mansion who is visibly leaning on his cane. Gladstone was presented as a rather arrogant cousin, he does not yet lay claim to the title of
The Luckiest Duck In the World, and Daisy still has no interest in Gladstone. In the following years both characters would become prominent members of Donald's supporting cast. In Gladstone's case, he soon started to rival his cousin in a number of personal wagers and organized contests. His incredible luck was introduced in
Race to the South Seas!, first published in 1949. This story also was the first to present Donald and Gladstone trying to win Scrooge's favor in order for one of them to become his heir. The story also explains their relationship to their rich relative: Donald is the son of Scrooge's sister and Gladstone is the son of Scrooge's sister's sister-in-law. Gladstone would also rival his cousin in a treasure hunt in
Luck of the North, first published in December, 1949. Gladstone soon became Donald's rival for Daisy's affections. The love-triangle of Donald, Daisy and Gladstone would become an ongoing theme for the following decades. While Gladstone's development and establishment seemed to take about a year after his appearance, Barks continued to experiment with Scrooge's appearance and personality for the following four years. Scrooge was soon established as a recurring character and various stories cast him as a featured character alongside Donald. By 1952, Scrooge had gained a magazine of his own. From then on Barks produced most of his longer stories in
Uncle Scrooge with Scrooge as their star and focusing in adventure, while his ten-pagers continued to feature Donald as their star and focused on comedy. Scrooge became the central figure of the stories while Donald and their nephews were cast as Scrooge's helpers, hired helping-hands who followed Scrooge around the world. Other contemporary creators also reflected this change of focus from Donald to Scrooge in stories. Since then the role of the central figure in new stories alternates between Donald and Scrooge. ==Further developments==