The Chickadee Challenge, also printed as Challenge of the Chickadees, is a comic story written and drawn by Carl Barks. It features Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, other Junior Woodchucks, Captain Ramrod and various members of the Chickadees Patrol.
Plot[]
The Duckburg Patrol of the Junior Woodchucks is challenged in a contest of woodcraft — the challenge being to build a bride as fast as possible — by the South Duckburg Chickadees Patrol. Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, who are not quite above sexist assumptions, find the very idea simultaneously outrageous and laughable. However, thanks to the über-competent Chickadee leader Captain Ramrod, the contest is far from an easy win…
Behind the scenes[]
The Chickadee Challenge was first printed in October of 1955 in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #181. It was then reprinted in Huey, Dewey and Louie Junior Woodchucks #4, Gladstone Comic Album #18, Walt Disney's Comics in Color #1, Donald Duck #287, and, of course, in the various versions of the Carl Barks Library. It was also printed in English in the Australian Walt Disney's Comics #116 and Jumbo #43, and in the British Donald and Mickey where it was serialized between #76 and #77.
The story is the first appearance of the Chickadees Patrol and its stern leader Captain Ramrod, who would go on to become recurring characters.