For the first time in many years, beginning with the
W WDC 173-02 solemn new years resolutions, there are clashes
between Donald and the nephews. In this ice taxis story, the ducks again
compete each other.
Editor Alice Cobb forwarded Barks a letter from an irate mother, with a June 4, 1956 note: "We feel it is a fair criticism. We should all watch for this sort of thing, we think--and avoid it as much as possible". The original letter from the mother is no longer on file. It must have included a barb about the closing panel of the story, where Donald tells his nephews to "Shut up!" The editor's note concluded, "In addition, we usually use 'Quiet!' instead of 'Shut up!'"
Barks responded by explaining that "the objectionable Ice Boat Taxi plot is a switch on a story in the June 1944 Disney Comics called 'Rival Boatmen'". Thinking ahead to another as-yet-unpublished rivalry story, he added, "The Swimming Race theme coming up in next month's (July) Disney Comics [WDC 190] is a switch of the skating race plot from March 1945 [WDC 54]".
Western's mid-1950s code-conscious reaction to a singular complaint was difficult for Barks to accept. His draft response to editor Alice Cobb (on file at the Walt Disney Archives) strongly expresses his growing frustration at having to work within new and what he felt were unreasonable restraints.
In 1965, Western apparently thought nothing of reprinting "Rival Boatmen" in "Donald Duck Beach Party 1".
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