"Sheriff of Bullet Valley" is a 32-page

Disney comics Disney comics are comic books and comic strips featuring characters created by the Walt Disney Company, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck. The first Disney comics were newspaper strips appearing from 1930 on, starting with t ...

Western adventure/mystery story written, drawn and lettered by

Carl Barks Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comics, Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of ...

. It was first published by

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

in ''

Four Color ''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', is an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic ...

'' #199 (October 1948) with three one-page gag stories: " Sorry to be Safe", " Best Laid Plans", and " The Genuine Article". "Sheriff of Bullet Valley" and the gag stories have been reprinted many times.

Plot

Donald applies for a job as the

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

of Bullet Valley and his nephews plan on helping him, despite how dangerous he tells them it is. They investigate the mysterious cattle theft from the Diamond Brand Ranch and find out that the thief is none other than Blacksnake McSquirt. It's a fight to the finish when Donald finally defeats Blacksnake.

Analysis

Thomas Andrae writes in ''Carl Barks and the Disney Comic Book'' that ''Sheriff'' took its inspiration from the B western films of the period especially Barks's favorite ''

Hopalong Cassidy Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote a series of short stories and novels based on the character. Mulford portrayed the character as rude, dangerous, and rough-talking. He wa ...

'' (1935). Barks used details from the film in his comic book parody. In ''1,000 Comic Books You Must Read'' Tony Isabella describes the tale as " masterful mix of action and comedy." The wanted poster on the last page of the story is Barks' self-caricature. In a 1971 interview with Michael Barrier, he said, "That caricature originated in the old Disney studio days in the gag sheets that us guys used to draw of each other and circulate around. Some of the guys took to drawing me with this tremendous big schnoz, so I just copied that old caricature."

References

External links

*
''Sheriff of Bullet Valley''
in Carl Barks guidebook Disney comics stories Donald Duck comics by Carl Barks 1948 in comics {{Disney-comics-stub

Plot

Analysis

See also

References

External links