The lack of a definitive collection of Barks' duck stories has long been one of the great injustices of the comics world, especially in this golden age of archival reprints. Rather than starting in 1942, when Barks first began drawing Donald Duck for Disney, this massive effort to publish the entirety of his works (expected to run to 30 volumes) gets the ball rolling with stories from 1948, when Barks' mastery of the craft was in full swing chronicling the adventures of Donald and nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie. The centerpiece story trip to a lost city in the Andes in search of square eggs considered by many to be Barks at his best. His finest creation, Scrooge McDuck, makes a few early appearances in these stories as well, though it would be several years before his personality crystallized to become a starring character. These perfect little gems of globe-trotting adventure, gleeful humor, and clean, charming cartooning have aged particularly well, so while there's plenty of nostalgic value, this book deserves a prime spot on kids' shelves on its merits.