"Mike-" Barks wrote in a December 30, 1966 letter: "In one of your past
letters you sent some ideas for criticism. One idea you mentioned was about
using a Loup Garou as a menace or gimmick for plot interest.
I'm thinking of doing a 21-page script for Donald Duck, and the Loup Garou
came to mind as offering an interesting gimmick for some of the gags. In the
past I rarely bought any ideas, and my price was usually $10 for an idea as
short as Loup Garou (two words). If you would care to let me use a Loup Garou
in the Donald script, I'll gladly send you a check for $10. Can you let me
know soon?"
Barrier at the time was a struggling cub reporter, and ten dollars was a sizeable sum. He accepted. Barks completed the script in March , Western assigned Tony Strobl to draw it, and the story was published in January 1968.
The plot is top-heavy with explanation, and the giant wolf does not amount to much of a menace. When Michael Barrier asked if the script had been edited so that the wolf in the story was not a real werewolf, Barks replied in a January 23, 1968 letter:
"The thing you noticed about my 'Loup Garou' story is the sort of business I like to forget. Always there were decisions to make. Could a loup garou be a real werewolf? Could a witch be a real witch? How far can I stretch the ridiculous without getting in trouble with the office? How far can I push pure fantasy before some sophisticated 5-year-old kid complains that Donald Duck is only a fairy tale character like Hans C. Anderson's people? I leaned toward logical explanations of phenomenons in everyday terms and mechanics - just to be safe. I hate to go back into those old stories and relive the struggles I had trying to make the explanations interesting and funny and not a dull let-down. Man! How I feel about a kid who yearns to make a career of writing and drawing comics - better, I say, he should take up something exalting and invigorating like sewer engineering."
The pencil script was returned to Barks and given, appropriately, to Barrier.
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