Gladstone as a jinx to Donald

[sirredknee]

I fought my way through the Daisy and Donald comic book series recently and was struck by the fact that Gladstone often was employed as a jinx to Donald in these stories, meaning he could hex him into having good or more often bad luck. It made me remember the Barks tenpager "The Jinxed Jalopy Race" where he did something similar. Do you remember any earlier instances of this ability of Gladstone's?

[mcquack]

I was meaning to post about that. I recently bound much of that series and I wondered the same ting about his jinx ability. I dig D&D to fill my need for Daisy, she appears so sporadically. For instance she's barely ever involved in any of the longer stories.

In a couple of the stories Gladstone had the ability to transfer or suspend his power for a time.  Usually by the prodding of Daisy.  For Donald's birthday Gladstone gave Donald his luck for a day.  I just read Topsy-Turvy from D&D 48 and that had a similar premise as well. 

The issue after that had 'Beginner's Luck' where Daisy was practicing luck.  Donald says I know his secret just close your eyes and imagine what you want, implying a sort of skill to it over a magical power for that story.

[Palmer]

As I remember Barks' Donald vs. Gladstone stories, if something took more effort than buying lottery ticket, Gladstone's luck would usually jinx Donald.
It took Barks a few stories before he got the luck/jinx thing going. In the fourth of their stories, "Links Hijinks", Donald almost won a golf bet with a hole-in-one but it bounced out of the cup because of another ball left in the hole. (Walt Disney Comics & Stories, September 1948 [W WDC 96-02])

[Hector]

I think the stories that treat Gladstone's luck as a magical power have missed the point
of what Gladstone was meant to be by Barks: an exasperatingly lucky person. If his luck
is a supernatural power that can be transferred or nullified, it is not really luck.

[sirredknee]

I have found another Barks example and give you the respective Gladstone quotes:

The Jinxed Jalopy Race:
"With my good luck I'll beat you yet! And it's just possible some calamity may happen to you! My luck bucks every smartie that tries to beat it!"
And so it happens.

The Not-so-ancient Mariner:
"I won't say a word, Daisy, but my luck will surely hex him!"
Again, calamity ensues for Donald, but here it is simply caused by an unfair physical action of Gladstone's, who might just have been bragging.