# 370: BOOK OF THE WEEK — “DuckTales: Das Schlaue Buch in Gefahr”
Story behind the Passage
On some days, there just is not enough time to read. Still, I am happy I am keeping my promise to read something every week — at least kind of… Today I had no other choice. I will have to give you the shortest of the shortest posts about the Disney comic. But the story behind these “books” is very long. I think, these comics made me read in the first place when I was a child/teenager. And maybe they are the reason why I studied literary studies. Yes, there were definitely other reasons but retrospectively, I do think that my fascination with stories must have come from stories like these.
I remember I got several of these comic books before we went on vacation every summer. And this is also why I bought this edition here three years ago at the airport. I was waiting for a flight to Israel and since the departure time was insanely early, I had to go to the airport by bus even earlier, and then I was trying to kill time. I did not start reading the book right there and I did not even read it during the trip. What I did was: Bring the book back home to read it now! This is really stupid and really myself. I carry books around the globe to read them many years later. I am quite happy I do silly things like this. Stories are my life in many ways…
1. Tick, Trick, Track
I just googled that the English names of the three nephews are: Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Whatever their names, I still remember how much I liked their team spirit. This is what the “passage” here depicts. They take action, they are entrepreneurial, they try to set up deals with their grandfather. In many ways, they always appeared quite grown-up to me, even though they are still kids. But when it comes to their business acumen, they are real role models. I hope that kids today learn as much from them as I learned from them. And I learned more than activism — I learned climbing trees and being adventurous. I learned being smart and sticking together. Somehow I did admire their gang spirit. Maybe I even missed this in my own life.
2. Donald
Donald is the tragic hero. I never really cared about him that much but I did pity him quite often. I am just noticing now how much one can learn from the DuckTales. It is life as it is — pure, tragic, funny. The most incredible and admirable thing about Donald is that he always gets up on his feet again, no matter how badly he fails. This is what makes a true hero. You get up again, no matter how mad, sad, or hurt you are. Maybe I see more in Donald than I ever saw when I read these tales in my youth. Maybe I should read them more regularly again. I think, I would learn a lot.
3. Gyro Gearloose
Gearloose is the most innovative in the stories and I do think, I know quite a few people in my life nowadays who embody this type. I really liked all the experiments he came up with — a bit like James Bond in duck-format. I guess, the kids nowadays learn about IT and artificial intelligence from him. If that is the case, the DuckTales will most likely never go out of “print” — at least not as the content is concerned. Maybe we will stop using paper-based books and comics completely at some point. But these stories will survive in some format, just like Gearloose survives every crash in his self-made planes and cyber vehicles. I am just slowly realizing how much we probably all share with these characters. At the end of this day, I am quite glad I did not have the time to read some other book!
Reflection questions
1) Did you read the DuckTales in your childhood? If yes, what did you like best about them?
2) Which of the characters described above do you identify most with? Why?
3) What do you think about the future of comics?