I've got at least 20 to 30 perfect stories by Barks, alone! I can't pick among those. How can I pick just one? And I love several great stories by Gottfredson and some by Jippes and Milton. It's like picking my favourite song. I love about 500+ perfect recordings. The stated #1 would be different every hour I'm asked, due to change of mood.
I guess I could list the following (all by Barks):
"The Land Beneath The Ground", "The Golden Fleecing", "The Second Richest Duck", "Luck of The North", "Voodoo Hoodoo", "The Old Castle's Secret", "Lost In The Andes", "Trick or Treat", "The Story of Omelette", "Super Snooper", "Flipism", "The Hypno Gun", "Trick Or Treat", "A Christmas For Shacktown", "A Letter To Santa", "Back To The Klondike", "Only A Poor Old Man", "The Mummy's Ring"
By Floyd Gottfredson:
"Mickey Outwits The Phantom Blot", "The Seven Ghosts", "The House of Mystery", "Island in the Sky", "The Monarch of Medioka""The Atombrella", "Mickey Joins The Foreign Legion", "The 'Lectro Box", "The Pirate Submarine"
I really LOVE them. They're almost all recent Italian Mouse stories, but this is just because I prefer that kind of stories. And I haven't got most of Egmont ones.
Many,many,stories come to mind. But here are a few of them in no particular ranking:
Mickey Mouse: Monarch of Medioka The Pirate Submarine The 'Lectro Box The Seven Ghosts Outwits The Phantom Blot Plan Dine From Outer Space The Riddle of the Red Hat
Donald Duck: In Ancient Persia The Mummy's Ring The Pixilated Parrot The Perfect Calm Trick or Treat Big Top Bedlam Letter to Santa Best Christmas Somewhere in Nowhere Shellfish Motives (It's hard for a Gottfredson fan not to like a Donald Duck story written like a Floyd Gottfredson serial!)
Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man Back to the Klondike Last Sled to Dawson The Duckburg 100 Scrooge's Last Adventure
Mickey Mouse: • Monarch of Medioka • Mickey Mouse Joins the Foreign Legion • Lost in the Microcosmos • The Delta Dimension • Fantasy Island • The River of Time • The Treasure of Sierra Motty • The World to Come
Donald Duck • Special Correspondent • Mystery of the Swamp • The Goldilocks Gambit • Tycoonraker • The Big Sneeze • Sauce for the Duck • That Ol' Soft Soap • Kappa! Kappa! Kappa!
Uncle Scrooge • Only a Poor Old Man • The Golden Fleecing • The Green Attack • His Majesty, McDuck • Return to Xanadu • No Room for Human Error • What Goes Around... • Scrooge's Last Adventure
Others: • Wolf in Wolf's Clothing (BBW) • A Christmas Carol (BBW) • The Atombrella and the Rhyming Man (Eega) • No Good Deed... (Pete) • Grandma's Present (Gyro) • The Great Rock of Power-Plus (Magica) • Medicine Man (Fethry) • The New World (Brer Rabbit)
Note: • I could list about 450 honorable mentions. • Restricted myself to stories published in the USA, but could go a lot more foreign... • Donald's TNT stories are special favorites too, but maybe I'm too closely involved to list them. • List is not indicative of my preferred selections as an editor.
Not that I've read every single Disney comic that's out there but out of what I had read, these are my favorites. (In no particular order)
Only a Poor Old Man The Seven Cities of Cibola/The Seven Cities of Gold Last Sled to Dawson The Money Ocean The first few issues of Double Duck Super Snooper Strikes Again A Little Something Special
If Darkwing Duck comics count, then also add The Duck Knight Returns to the list.
Not that I've read every single Disney comic that's out there but out of what I had read, these are my favorites. (In no particular order)
Only a Poor Old Man The Seven Cities of Cibola/The Seven Cities of Gold Last Sled to Dawson The Money Ocean The first few issues of Double Duck Super Snooper Strikes Again A Little Something Special
If Darkwing Duck comics count, then also add The Duck Knight Returns to the list.
Why wouldn't "Darkwing Duck" comics count? They certainly are "Disney Comics' Even "The Wuzzles" and "Spin and Marty" and Disney's comics based on "True Life Adventures" are fair game. Not so?
OK, since others are doing lists, here are some lists of my current favorites--all Duck stories. To categorize them by "hero" I used the character listed as hero in INDUCKS ("Himalayan Hideout" has two heroes, Daisy and Scrooge). I keep lists all the time, so it didn't take long to make these up! Seven per category.
Uncle Scrooge—published in USA
The Phantom of Notre Duck (Barks) Pipeline to Danger (Barks) The Unsafe Safe (Barks) The Treasury of Croesus (Rosa) Return to Xanadu (Rosa) The New Laird of Castle McDuck (Rosa) No Room for Human Error (Lustig/WVH)
Uncle Scrooge—not yet published in USA
Z.P. e il vascello fantasma (Martina/Cavazzano) The Incredible Shrinking Duck (Halas & Rota/Rota) Z.P. e la meravigliosa vecchia ciabatta (Gentina/Ziche) Like a Bad Penny (Korhonen/Vicar) Double or Nothing (Solstrand/Rota) All in a Daze Work (Jensen/Ferioli) Out of Sight (Renard & Unn Printz-Pahlson/Vicar)
Donald Duck—published in USA
The Screaming Cowboy (Barks) The Mummy’s Ring (Barks) The Duck Who Never Was (Rosa) The Crocodile Collector (Rosa) The Perfect Calm (Cimino/Scarpa) The Last Voyage of Ringtail Van Dukke (Geradts/Verhagen) The Ghost of Kamikaze Ridge (WVH)
Donald Duck—not yet published in USA
The Nightmare Ship (Rota) La leggenda di Paperin Hood (Scarpa) Paperino e il mistero delle 2 civiltà (Cimino/Lavoradori) Pass the Parchment (Laura & Mark Shaw/Andersen) Spook and Quackers (Mark & Laura Shaw/Fecchi) A New Year, a New Donald (Martin/Vicar) Beam Me Up, Mr. Fargone (Korhonen/Vicar)
Others—published in USA
Daisy: Daringly Different (Gregory/Barks) Daisy: Himalayan Hideout (Hansegård/Rodriguez) HDL: Guardians of the Lost Library (Rosa) HDL: W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N. (Rosa) HDL: Sons of the Moon (Korhonen) HDL: The Crying Monster/The Sobbing Serpent (Galton & Angus/Vicar) Gyro: Grandma’s Present (Barks)
Others—not yet published in USA
Grandma Duck: Bananas (Halas & Angus/Branca) Grandma Duck: The Case of the Hungry Thief (Korhonen) Grandma Duck: On the Run (Garner/Vicar) Magica: Amelia e le due numero 1 (Pandini/Martusciello) Gyro’s Helper: Little Helper Lost (McGreals/Rota) Gladstone: Party of None! (M. Gilbert/Vicar) AMJ: The Substitutes (Hedman/Ferioli)
Oh, thanks, how'd I miss that?! Apparently because the copy that's in my "birthday stories" pile is the French version from JdeM, since that issue of WDC is shelved with the Barks/Jippes JW stories. Then I revise the lists: "Party of None!" replaces "The Crying Monster" and I can add one to the last list...maybe "Madam Mim Moves"....
On second thought, for the #7 spot on my last list I'll go with my favorite Tabby/Fethry story, "Out of the Depths, Despair."
Barks (limiting this to 20 for brevity is hard): "Biceps Blues" "The Ghost of the Grotto" "Voodoo Hoodoo" "Letter to Santa" "Luck of the North" "Pool Sharks" "A Christmas for Shacktown" "Only a Poor Old Man" "The Gilded Man" "Gladstone's Terrible Secret" "The Hypno-Gun" "Turkey with all the Schemings" "The Talking Dog" "Back to the Klondike" "The Horseradish Story" "The Mysterious Stone Ray" "New Year's Revolutions" "The Gab-Muffer" "Unsafe Safe" "Delivery Dilemma"
Gottfredson: "Mickey Mouse Sails for Treasure Island" "Blaggard Castle" "Race for Riches" "Mickey Mouse Joins the Foreign Legion" "The Seven Ghosts" "Island in the Sky" "Monarch of Medioka" "Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot" "Love Trouble" "The Atombrella and the Rhyming Man"
Scarpa: "Shellfish Motives" "The Mystery of Tapiocus Vi" "Lost in the Microcosmos" "The Delta Dimension" "The Secret of Success" "Lights Fantastic" "Mummy Fearest"
Other Ducks: "The Health Nut" "Mountain Magic" "Fall Guy" "False Alarm" "The Manly Art Of...?" "Moldfinger" "The Diabolical Duck Avenger" "Tycoonraker" "War and Peace"' "Last Sled to Dawson" "His Majesty McDuck" "That Ol' Soft Soap" "It's All Relative" "Magica's Missin' Magic" "Birds of a Fethry"
Other Mice: "The Blot's Double Mystery" "River of Time" "The World to Come" "Plan Dine from Outer Space"
Big Bad Wolf: "Wolf in Wolf's Clothing" "Judgment Day" "The Baddest Day"
And, in full disclosure, tales that I helped bring to U.S. shores that are among my personal favorites...
"The Siege of Nothing Atoll" "The Great Rock of Power-Plus!" (very happy this is getting a glowing reception) "Christmas Clubbing"
Donald: The Golden Helmet Scrooge: The Seven Cities of Cibola Mickey: Island in the Sky Goofy: Muddled Mutiny Gyro: The Gab-Muffer
My fave Italian story is still the first one I've ever read: Paperino e la farfalla di Colombo. Honorable mention, because it's splendid, but never gets a mention: Astralpippo n. 9999! (Both never published in the USA - what gives?)