Voodoo Hoodoo is a Donald Duck comic story written and drawn by Carl Barks. It was first published in Donald Duck Four Color #238 on August, 1949.
It is notoriously controversial for two reasons; First is its unflattering depiction of African people, regrettably commonplace at the time. Later re-prints would attempt to tone down on this aspect. The second reason is due to Scrooge McDuck’s admission of resorting to outright criminal methods for financial gain.
Word is going around Duckberg that a zombie has been spotted in the city, and Donald Duck runs into him, a black-skinned unkempt fellow in rags. The zombie presents Donald with an odd doll, not leaving the Duck alone until he accepts it. Confused, Donald shows off the doll to his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. While squeezing it, Donald pricks his hand on a thorn in the doll, then passes out sick.
Word starts spreading that Donald was poisoned by a voodoo doll, soon reaching Scrooge McDuck, who knows what’s up. Visiting his nephew, Scrooge explains that the doll was supposed to shrink Donald down. It and the zombie (Named Bombie) are the result of something Scrooge did in the past; As a young duck, Scrooge found some land in Africa for a rubber plantation. The local tribe refused to sell, so Scrooge had hired thugs chase them out! The tribe’s witch doctor conjured Bombie the Zombie to deliver a cursed doll as vengeance. The reason Bombie gave the doll to Donald is that at the time, Scrooge looked like Donald. Donald starts to panic, and is given sleeping pills on the hopes he will calm down after a night’s rest.
No such luck. Bombie wanders into the Duck house, giving Donald a fright. The triplets realize that with his task complete, Bombie has become a blank slate with no purpose, following Donald out of habit. The nephews consider that Bombie might be homesick. Meanwhile, Donald continues to down spiral, pestering Scrooge for help. Annoyed at Donald’s insistence of voodoo, Scrooge gives Donald enough money for one ticket to Africa- leaving the triplets and Bombie behind. Huey, Dewey and Louie dress Bombie up in better clothes and try to take him to the immigration office in hopes getting him help. Along the way, Bombie wanders off and into a gameshow. The overeager host mistakes Bombie’s silence for answers, and awards the top prize- a wheel barrel full of money! With a fortune in hand, the young Ducks and Zombie catch up to Donald in Africa.
Stopping at Scrooge’s rubber plantation, and from the manage the party learns that the witch doctor’s name is Foola Zoola, he and his followers have been causing trouble. Unfortunately, they always disappear into the thick jungle, and no one can find them. Setting up a safari, the Ducks head into the jungle and reach the Mumbo Jumbo River. A stray arrow shot with a voodoo doll attached scare off the guide and porters, leaving the Ducks on their own. Bombie is no help, but they get directions from an unexpected source- a tiny man! He was professor who came to study voodoo science and met with Foola Zoola, who one day shrank him with a cursed doll. Giving Donald directions to the tribe’s village, the professor points out that Bombie is not truly undead, but given a special drug that made him zombie-like, and it should wear off in a few centuries.
Reaching the hidden village, the Ducks are forcibly brought before Foola Zoola, who is eager to get revenge on Scrooge. Donald explains the situation, and the nephews offer a small fortune in exchange for a cure. Foola Zoola accepts, and explains that after several decades, the drug in Bombie’s doll expired. Relieved, Donald unthinkingly reveals his relation to Scrooge. This sets Foola Zoola off, and he has Donald captured and prepares to give Donald a fresh cursed doll at the moon’s zenith, to make him pay for Scrooge’s actions.
After bribing a guard to escape, the triplets race back to the rubber planation for help, but find it closed down and deserted, the entire crew having gone to a movie. There are slabs of rubber lying around, which the nephews take for themselves. They use the rubber to bounce into the village and rescue Donald in the nick of time. Foola Zoola and his warriors give chase, and with the rubber too difficult to use in the trees the Ducks are forced to flee on foot. Running up a hill, they bump into Bombie again. Donald straps the rubber to Bombie’s feet and sends the zombie bouncing down, flattening the tribe. Though worried about Bombie, the nephews reason that he’ll be all right, as zombies don’t feel pain or even tire. But Donald decides, “They can have it! I’ll take vanilla!”
Tropes
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Scrooge is stated to have destroyed Zoola's village in 1875, which would clash with both Barks own later stories, and those by later writers, especially Don Rosa, who retconned the date outright when he wrote The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, changing it to the early 1900's instead.
- Every Man Has His Price: The nephews get out of Foola Zoola's village by tossing the guard some money.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: The cursed doll is supposed to do this. On the way to Foola Zoola, the Ducks run into a man who's been shrunken down! He seems to have taken his new size pretty well.
- Hollywood Natives: Due to the story being written in the 1940s, Foola Zoola's tribe is this.
- Identical Grandson: The reason for why Bombie goes after Donald is because he's almost identical to Scrooge in his youth, and the zombie doesn't have the intelligence to understand that his target would age over the decades.
- Sins of the Father: Why Foola Zoola decides to curse Donald for real.
- The Dreaded: Foola Zoola. The manager of the rubber planation warns Donald not seek him.
- Voodoo Zombie: Bombie.
- Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Bombie wins the grand prize on a game show because the question was "What sound do clams make?" and since Bombie can't speak, the host assumes his silence is the answer; Nothing!
