stories featuring Gyro's Helper

[Matilda]

Once again, I amuse myself by planning a Disney comics collection: this time, one with my favorite Helper stories.

Start with several by Barks:

Duckburg's Day of Peril

Snow Duster

Grandma's Present (best for Helper in visual byplay)

perhaps also Fishy Warden --I love the panel where Helper is constructing his submarine (with which he will save the day) while Gyro builds his fishy submarine

Rosa's Gyro's First Invention

McGreals/Rota's Little Helper Lost

Janet Gilbert's The Christmas That Almost Wasn't --the one where Gyro says what Helper means to him, and even Scrooge gets a tear in his eye!

and Scary Small --Helper defends the workshop from the Beagles

Jim Kenner's The Missing Screw --which I want with better coloring than the way-oversaturated coloring in the Norwegian DD 1979-16, the version in which I have the story! Helper vs. a thieving magpie who has stolen a special screw.

ONE-PAGERS:

Seppälä's A Helper for Helper --I realize this idea has been done before, by Saidenberg and by Stefano Enna! But I like Seppälä's best.

Transgaard & Paco Rodriguez' alternative story of the creation of Helper, set in Gyro's childhood, in this and this and this

Carlo Gentina's Little Helper Makes a Purchase

Barks' Odd Order and Bird Camera

COVERS:

three for Gyro's First Invention: Rosa's, Rota's, and the Norwegian Christmas special cover with Shacktown and First Invention

Maarten Janssens' trees with different fruit --I love Gyro's "tutti frutti" tree, but it's Helper's lightbulb tree that really makes this cover for me

Midthun & Paco Rodriguez' HDL reading in bed by the light of Helper --one of my favorite covers ever!

Plus Carmen Pérez' 2-pg centerfold of Helper's birthday party --yes, I'm dubious about those other Helpers, but this is *such* a delightful picture nonetheless!

What are your nominations for stories or covers starring Helper?

[caballero]

The Littlest Player - the only Disney comic in which Gyro's Helper is the main hero and Gyro Gearloose does not appear in.

[rombax]

Some other Barks stories that I think should be included:

Getting Thor
War Paint
Madcap Inventors

All of these stories are mostly focused on Gyro, but the Helper does play a very important role in their endings 

A Helper's Helping Hand
Man Versus Machine

In those stories he has a major role in my opinion

There's also Fishing Mystery and The Sure-Fire Gold Fire where the Helper has a second plot going on in the backround of Gyro's plot, which I always found pretty funny. 

[Matilda]

Good suggestions on which Barks stories particularly feature Helper, either centrally or in his own parallel side-plot. I just figured I should keep the Barks stories to a handful because they’ve all been published here in the Gladstone collection.

I agree, I love it when Helper has a parallel side-plot. My childhood favorite in that line was Grandma’s Present. By the way, is there a term in the field of comics for this—another little story depicted in the art along with the main story?

[Daniel Maline]

Aug 22, 2022 3:51:06 GMT Matilda said:

Once again, I amuse myself by planning a Disney comics collection: this time, one with my favorite Helper stories.

Start with several by Barks:

Duckburg's Day of Peril

Snow Duster

Grandma's Present (best for Helper in visual byplay)

perhaps also Fishy Warden --I love the panel where Helper is constructing his submarine (with which he will save the day) while Gyro builds his fishy submarine

Rosa's Gyro's First Invention

McGreals/Rota's Little Helper Lost

Janet Gilbert's The Christmas That Almost Wasn't --the one where Gyro says what Helper means to him, and even Scrooge gets a tear in his eye!

and Scary Small --Helper defends the workshop from the Beagles

Jim Kenner's The Missing Screw --which I want with better coloring than the way-oversaturated coloring in the Norwegian DD 1979-16, the version in which I have the story! Helper vs. a thieving magpie who has stolen a special screw.

ONE-PAGERS:

Seppälä's A Helper for Helper --I realize this idea has been done before, by Saidenberg and by Stefano Enna! But I like Seppälä's best.

Transgaard & Paco Rodriguez' alternative story of the creation of Helper, set in Gyro's childhood, in this and this and this

Carlo Gentina's Little Helper Makes a Purchase

Barks' Odd Order and Bird Camera

COVERS:

three for Gyro's First Invention: Rosa's, Rota's, and the Norwegian Christmas special cover with Shacktown and First Invention

Maarten Janssens' trees with different fruit --I love Gyro's "tutti frutti" tree, but it's Helper's lightbulb tree that really makes this cover for me

Midthun & Paco Rodriguez' HDL reading in bed by the light of Helper --one of my favorite covers ever!

Plus Carmen Pérez' 2-pg centerfold of Helper's birthday party --yes, I'm dubious about those other Helpers, but this is *such* a delightful picture nonetheless!

What are your nominations for stories or covers starring Helper?

Rota's Little Helper Lost is one of my absolute favorites when it comes to Gyro's Little Helper stories, which I recommend if anyone want to get to know about the Gyro's Little Helper. The story is about Little Helper, who ends up missing from Gyro's workshop and, through various coincidences, finds a way back to the workshop. Another good story is Don Rosa's Gyro's First Invention, but Little Helper doesn't play such a central role in this story even though it's the story of its origin. And of course I shouldn't forget to mention Carl Barks' stories A Helper's Helping Hand and Snow Duster as well. So here's the main four of my favorite Little Helper stories although they're all already listed here.

[Orora]

Here's a cute little one... that serves as both romance for Helper and between Donald and Daisy.

Andreina Repetto/Anna Marabelli's The Strange Condition of Little Helper

[Matilda]

Aug 26, 2022 2:18:36 GMT Orora said:

Here's a cute little one... that serves as both romance for Helper and between Donald and Daisy.

Andreina Repetto/Anna Marabelli's The Strange Condition of Little Helper

Hey, I actually have this one! In Minnie Mag 9, which also has the best story starring Clarabelle ever written (Le soda se boit sec), not to mention Amelia fatina per un giorno, which makes no sense in French because Magica is mistaken by the kids not as Befana (rides a broom, dresses in black) but as “la femme du Pere Noel”! Famous Failures in Cultural Translation.

But it’s been years since I read this, and I’d forgotten the Helper story. It has one of those stretches where Helper is on his own in the world, always fun. I like that he has his own independent desire & motivation which drives the plot. Cute final panel!

[Orora]

Aug 26, 2022 3:34:57 GMT Matilda said:

Aug 26, 2022 2:18:36 GMT Orora said:

Here's a cute little one... that serves as both romance for Helper and between Donald and Daisy.

Andreina Repetto/Anna Marabelli's The Strange Condition of Little Helper

Hey, I actually have this one! In Minnie Mag 9, which also has the best story starring Clarabelle ever written (Le soda se boit sec), not to mention Amelia fatina per un giorno, which makes no sense in French because Magica is mistaken by the kids not as Befana (rides a broom, dresses in black) but as “la femme du Pere Noel”! Famous Failures in Cultural Translation.

But it’s been years since I read this, and I’d forgotten the Helper story. It has one of those stretches where Helper is on his own in the world, always fun. I like that he has his own independent desire & motivation which drives the plot. Cute final panel!

Ah yeah, the Befana is virtually unknown in France, so it was kinda forced.
And I remember those "Roaring 20s Clarabelle" stories, they were made in France but never got mych of my attention.
The Helper story was cute, not just for Helper, but also for actually showing some romantic development between Donald and Daisy, instead of the usual toxic "hate-you/leave-you/make-you-jealous" dynamic.