Cover: Carl Buettner

Four Color #159

Aug 1947 · Dell · 0.10 USD

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About this Issue

Four Color #159 holds a significant place in the history of American comics as the vehicle for Carl Barks's 26-page adventure 'The Ghost of the Grotto,' a story that scholars have identified as a turning point in Barks's creative development. Literary analysts, including Thomas Andrae, have argued that the story marks Barks's pivot toward the themes of Gothic fiction — obsession, the irrational, and the fragmentation of identity — and that it introduces a recurring thematic motif in which 'western civilization's lust for conquest and empire' leads to alienation, a thread that would run through many later Donald and Scrooge McDuck adventures. Issued just months before the landmark Four Color #178 introduced Uncle Scrooge, this issue is retroactively recognized by Dell's own internal numbering as the second issue of the Walt Disney's Donald Duck series, cementing it as part of the foundational canon from which that long-running title grew. As a complete solo Barks production — written, drawn, and lettered by one hand — it also stands as a prime example of the anonymous genius that the collecting world would later come to celebrate as 'the Good Duck Artist.'

In "Donald Duck and the Ghost of the Grotto," Carl Barks crafts a thrilling adventure as the ducks navigate the West Indies on a kelp-gathering run, drawn into a centuries-old mystery surrounding an armored man who appears every half-century to steal a small boy. When Dewey is taken, Donald and his nephews must brave a coral reef grotto beneath a decaying galleon, guarded by a massive octopus, in a desperate bid to rescue him. The story, illustrated by Carl Barks with distinctive inks and colors from the Western Publishing Production Shop, features a cover by Carl Buettner that captures the eerie, tropical dread of the tale.

Contains 2 stories

Donald Duck and the Ghost of the Grotto

26 pp · Adventure, Anthropomorphic-Funny Animals

Donald DuckHueyDeweyLouie

In "Donald Duck and the Ghost of the Grotto," the ducks find themselves in the West Indies, running a kelp-gathering boat when they hear whispers of a mysterious armored man who appears every fifty years to steal a small boy. When Dewey is taken, Donald, Huey, and Louie must brave a treacherous coral reef grotto beneath a decaying galleon, guarded by a colossal octopus, in a desperate bid to rescue him.

Adventure "Down Under"

25 pp · Adventure, Anthropomorphic-Funny Animals

Donald DuckHueyDeweyLouie

In "Adventure 'Down Under'," Donald Duck finds himself under a peculiar spell, convinced he’s a kangaroo and setting off to Australia with the nephews in tow. Once there, the ducks’ antics take a turn when they attempt to capture Mournful Mary, the so-called queen of the kangaroos, leading Donald into a perilous encounter with savage aborigines.

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Good) $67

CGC 9.6 · 1 in census $4,261*

CGC 9.4 · 4 in census $4,261

CGC 9.2 · 4 in census $2,481

CGC 9.0 · 8 in census $1,938

CGC 8.5 · 15 in census $845

CGC 8.0 · 18 in census $662

Show all 18 grades ▾

CGC 7.5 · 21 in census $495

CGC 7.0 · 29 in census $277*

CGC 6.5 · 22 in census $277

CGC 6.0 · 18 in census $190

CGC 5.5 · 12 in census $187

CGC 5.0 · 10 in census $184

CGC 4.5 · 11 in census $184

CGC 4.0 · 6 in census $184*

CGC 3.5 · 6 in census $156

CGC 3.0 · 3 in census $100

CGC 2.5 · 1 in census $100*

CGC 2.0 none in existence

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

The story originated, according to Barks himself in a 1974 interview with comics historian Michael Barrier, as a much shorter concept of roughly ten pages built around gags about kelp harvesting and boat life, intended for Walt Disney's Comics and Stories; as Barks developed the locale and characters, the supernatural menace of the 'Ghost' grew organically until the tale expanded into a full-length 26-page book for the Donald Duck one-shot format. The artwork was submitted to Dell on April 15, 1947, and the issue went on sale July 2, 1947, with a cover date of August 1947; the managing editor was Eleanor Packer, with Alice Nielsen Cobb serving as story editor and Tom McKimson as art director. The cover art was provided by Carl Buettner rather than Barks himself, a common division of labor in Dell's Disney line at the time.

Trivia · 8 facts

Published by Dell Publishing Co., Inc.; on-sale date July 2, 1947; cover-dated August 1947.
The lead story, 'The Ghost of the Grotto,' is a 26-page adventure written, drawn, and lettered entirely by Carl Barks — one of the earliest examples of Barks functioning as sole auteur on a full-length Duck story.
Plot: Donald Duck and nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie run a kelp-harvesting boat in the West Indies; they encounter a legend about an armored man who kidnaps a boy every fifty years — this time seizing Dewey — and must rescue him from a grotto inside a coral reef beneath a rotten galleon guarded by a giant octopus. The armored figure is ultimately revealed as the latest guardian of the treasure of Sir Francis Drake.
Dell internally classified this issue as the second entry in its Walt Disney's Donald Duck series, with the GCD confirming it follows Four Color #147 in that retroactive numbering sequence.
Scholars identify this story as a creative landmark: comics analyst Geoffrey Blum has called it a landmark in Barks's career, and Thomas Andrae wrote that it marks Barks's turn toward Gothic themes of psychic repression, obsession, and empire — motifs that would recur throughout later Donald and Scrooge narratives.
Barks recalled in a 1974 Michael Barrier interview that the story began as a ten-page gag strip and grew organically into its final form as the supernatural element was layered in during development.
The story has been reprinted internationally across multiple decades, including in Walt Disney the Best of Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck #1 (Western, 1966), The Carl Barks Library (Another Rainbow, 1984), Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney's Donald Duck Adventures in Color #7 (Gladstone, 1994), and Fantagraphics's Complete Carl Barks Disney Library as well as a standalone kid-format edition.
The issue's indicia carries the full title 'Walt Disney's Donald Duck in The Ghost of the Grotto, No. 159,' with the story code D.D.O.S. #159-478; the copyright is held by Walt Disney Productions, 1947.