The Great Steamboat Race

The Great Steamboat Race
First page of the story.
INDUCKS	W US 11-01
Writer(s)	Carl Barks
Artist(s)	Carl Barks
Dates	February the 3d, 1955 (date of writing) September of 1955 (release date)

The Great Steamboat Race is a comic story written and drawn by Carl Barks. It features Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck and Horseshoes Hogg. Angus "Pothole" McDuck and Porker Hogg are also mentioned for the first time.

Plot

Renowned sportsman Horseshoes Hogg is pestering Scrooge McDuck to get him to finish a very special boat race that was begun eighty-five years prior by Horseshoes' uncle Porker and Scrooge's uncle Pothole. The outcome of the race will determine the ownership of a large southern mansion called Cornpone Gables. The odd (and costly, hence Scrooge's reluctance) part is that for the race to be valid, it will have to be completed with the same 1870 boats with which it was begun, meaning Scrooge and Horseshoes have to raise their uncles' boats from the muddy waters of the Mississippi before they begin! Of course, Donald and Huey, Dewey and Louie eventually convince Scrooge to give in, and the race begins!

Behind the scenes

This story was written in February of 1955, but was not published until September of the same year, in Uncle Scrooge #11. It was then reprinted in Uncle Scrooge #72, Uncle Scrooge #155, Uncle Scrooge #277, The Adventures of Uncle Scrooge McDuck in Color #11, Uncle Scrooge Adventures #48, Top Comics #19, and, of course, in all versions of the Carl Barks Library.

Combining the events alluded to in this story with those told in two other stories (Hall of the Mermaid Queen and The Fantastic River Race), Don Rosa created the framework for his own 1992 story The Master of the Mississippi, chapter 2 of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.