Walt Disney Uncle Scrooge #48
Uncle Scrooge #48 is the home of Carl Barks's eighth Magica De Spell story, 'The Many Faces of Magica De Spell,' and represents a pivotal creative shift in how Barks handled the character: rather than repeating the Number One Dime heist formula, he built the plot around a face-altering potion rooted in classical mythology (Circe's cave), demonstrating his growing ambition to expand Magica's magical toolkit. The story became so emblematic of the Barks Magica canon that Gladstone later named its entire Magica De Spell Giant Comic Album after it, cementing the issue's place as a touchstone of the character's history. Alongside the Scrooge lead, the issue bundles a Gyro Gearloose comedy and a Mickey Mouse short featuring Morty and Ferdie, making it a genuine anthology showcase of Western Publishing's Disney stable at full stride.
In "The Many Faces of Magica de Spell," Carl Barks crafts a delightfully twisted tale where Magica’s latest invention turns a glance into a transformation: the face you last looked at becomes your own. When Scrooge flees Duckburg with his Old Number One Dime, seeking refuge in a hidden jungle valley inhabited by faceless beings, Magica tracks him down—only to spray his face, setting off a chain of eerie, unpredictable changes. With every page drawn by Carl Barks, this 1964 classic blends whimsy and suspense, all wrapped in a cover by Barks himself.
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The lead story's art was submitted to Western Publishing on October 5, 1963, with the issue going on sale in March 1964, per Library of Congress copyright records. Barks worked entirely without a writer's credit under Western's long-standing anonymous work-for-hire policy; fans of the era knew him only as 'The Good Duck Artist.' By this point in the Magica run — story eight of nine — Barks was consciously broadening the sorceress beyond her one-note dime obsession, as the Circe's-cave mythology device shows, a creative evolution noted by Barks scholars.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover-dated March 1964, published by Western Publishing (Gold Key imprint); GCD records art submission date of October 5, 1963 for the lead story.
- Lead story is 'The Many Faces of Magica De Spell' (22 pages), written and drawn by Carl Barks — the eighth of his nine total Magica De Spell stories published between 1961 and 1964.
- The plot turns on a face-swapping potion Magica brews from a recipe found in Circe's cave; she targets Scrooge's face so she can impersonate him and steal the Number One Dime, but the nephews ultimately foil her.
- Ratface, Magica's raven familiar (who first appeared in Uncle Scrooge #45), appears here using a makeshift bird-telegraph system to relay messages for Magica — one of his most active comic roles.
- The issue also contains a Gyro Gearloose backup comedy (featuring Little Helper) in which Gyro's mechanical fish accidentally draws a whale ashore, and a Mickey Mouse short featuring Morty and Ferdie.
- Gladstone Publishing named its Giant Comic Album #6 'The Many Faces of Magica De Spell' after the lead story, reprinting it alongside other Barks Magica tales including her debut; this album is one of the most prominent English-language Magica retrospectives.
- The lead story was reprinted in Gladstone's Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge Adventures in Color #44 (April 1998), the Gyro story in The Carl Barks Library of Gyro Gearloose Comics and Fillers in Color #6 (Gladstone, 1993), and the lead also appeared in Walt Disney Uncle Scrooge #152 (Western, May 1978).
- Barks published this story anonymously under Western's standard work-for-hire policy; he received no byline credit on the original issue.
Cast · 12 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Magica invents a potion that, when sprayed on a person's face, makes that face look like the face at which the person last looked. Learning of the potion, Scrooge flees from Duckburg with his Old Number One Dime and hides in an unknown jungle valley that is populated by a strange race of faceless people. Magica follows him there and sprays his face.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).