"I'm kind of mulling the idea of having him take a contract to move the ancient Egyptian palaces and statues that are threatened with flooding by the Aswan Dam. Naturally, he finds a hidden shaft leading down into the bowels of history, and therein finds uncountable tons of sparklers. The rains come early to the Ethiopian high-lands, the Nile toward the newly completed dam. The shaft and all the toiling ducks in the awesome treasure pits will be submerged as the roiling torrent slams against the unyielding barrier of the towering new dam. Does Uncle Scrooge get the rocks out of the cellar in time? Ha! When he's already in the 110% income tax bracket?"Barks decided it would come too soon after "Pipeline to Danger" (US 30), another story with a Middle Eastern desert setting.
[November 17, 1960 letter to Malcolm Willits]
"In its place I wrote a 16-pager of Uncle Scrooge and the ducks getting blown into Valhalla (a wandering small planet that strays into the earth's shadow). This Valhalla is peopled by dog-faces named Thor, Odin, and other names common to the Norse Gods. Also Vulcan, Jupiter, Venus, and the Latin Gods names. You'll have to read Uncle Scrooge #34 to see how I explain away such mythical anomalies with scientifically provable hogwash. As Louie expresses it: "Another of childhood's cherished illusions reduced to so many nuts and bolts."At the time of writing the material for "Uncle Scrooge" No. 35, Barks discontinued working on the story.
[December 30, 1960 letter to Malcom Willits]
"Scrooge #35 will have no unplanned cuts. I found out about the ad stunt in time to write the book's material to fit. The main Scrooge story will be about Alaska and the finding of nuggets. No world-beater of a story, but I needed a substitute fast for the Egyptian Aswan Dam tale which I've decided to junk. Have you noticed that the way the ancient statues and temples will be raised above the future level of the water is by a method as fully as wacky as the one I'd vaguely planned for Uncle Scrooge? The nerve of mere humans to steal Uncle Scrooge's stuff!"
[March 24, 1961 letter to Malcolm Willits]
"I never finished the script for Uncle Scrooges involvement in the Aswan Dam. The project and Egypt had become so messy with politics I was afraid to risk it"
[1985 notes for The Carl Barks Library]
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