The Golden Fleecing

"The Golden Fleecing" is a Scrooge McDuck comic book story from 1955, written and painted by Carl Barks. It's about Scrooge who wants the Golden Fleece to make a jacket.

toryline

Scrooge wants a coat made of solid gold, but the coat merchant tells him there is no such thing. Despite that, Scrooge still wants one, so he meets a strange man who is known as an Eikral who is from the country of Seikral. Donald Duck, who has never heard of Seikral, is suspicious of the Eikral's intentions, so he asks his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie to look up the name Seikral in the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook. It mentions Jason and the Argonauts. The nephews figure out that "Seikral" is "Larkies" spelled backwards and Larkies are creatures who are half women, half birds.

Donald and the nephews are about to warn Scrooge that he is walking into a trap set by Larkies, but at the last minute Donald gets captured with Scrooge and they are both prisoners on Mt. Colchis. Huey, Dewey and Louie come to the rescue in a helicopter. One of the Larkies agrees to help Scrooge and Donald escape if Scrooge says that her recipe is the best. To Scrooge's chagrin, it happened to be parsnip pudding and Scrooge hates parsnips. Later, the Larkie that cooked the parsnip pudding lets Scrooge and Donald go but regrets it, so she later tricks them into yelling the word "Seikral" to find the way into the cave. The Larkies find out that they escaped.

Eventually, Scrooge and Donald reunite with the nephews and they find the Golden Fleece and defeat the Sleepless Dragon. After that, they go back to Duckburg and Donald and the nephews watch Scrooge take his old coat out of the trash because his new one makes him feel uncomfortable.

Analysis

The moral of the story is to be happy with what you have if it makes you feel comfortable. This story was later made to be adapted into a DuckTales episode. Donald was replaced with Launchpad McQuack and Ludwig von Drake was added. Also, in the DuckTales version, Scrooge doesn't keep the Golden Fleece but leaves it in Colchis.

This story was originally printed in Uncle Scrooge #12 then reprinted in Gladstone Comic Album #19 and Uncle Scrooge Adventures #28 and then Carl Barks' Greatest DuckTales Stories #2.

External links

*Inducks comic|W+US+++12-02
* [http://www.seriesam.com/barks/comicsus012.html#ccus_us0012-02 "The Golden Fleecing"] in Carl Barks guidebook