Guardians of the Lost Library

"Guardians of the Lost Library"
Original cover of Guardians of the Lost Library. Art by Don Rosa.
Story	Don Rosa
Ink	Don Rosa
Hero	The Junior Woodchucks
Pages	28
Layout	4 rows per page
Appearances	The Junior Woodchucks Scrooge McDuck General Snozzie Donald Duck Grand Mogul
First publication	Uncle Scrooge Adventures #27 July, 1994

Guardians of the Lost Library is a comic book story made by Don Rosa for The Walt Disney Company, mentioned by Comics Buyer's Guide as "possibly the greatest comic book story of all time". Although afraid at the time of its creation of cramming too many historical details into the story, Rosa himself mentions in Uncle Scrooge #383 (November, 2008) that in fan mail he receives to this day, Guardians of the Lost Library to his own surprise is often referred to as "'the best Rosa story' or 'the best Duck story' or even 'the best comic book story' (?!!) that fans say they've ever read."

Guardians of the Lost Library was featured in Uncle Scrooge Adventures #27, published in July, 1994. In this story Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey and Louie, and General Snozzie search for the Lost Library of Alexandria. This story was Don Rosa's first use of General Snozzie, the Junior Woodchucks bloodhound.

Rosa created Guardians of the Lost Library at the request of Scandinavia-based, European Disney publisher Egmont in reference to the fact that Norway had officially declared 1993 to be "The Year of The Book" in order to promote reading (as the story was published in Norway and Denmark in 1993, one year prior to its first edition in the original English). Rosa figured that he would honor the written word best by sending the Ducks on an epic quest for the Library of Alexandria, where he

Donald Duck and his nephews go to The Duckburg Museum to see the exhibit on artifacts from the first Junior Woodchucks. Scrooge McDuck is also there to get facts from The Junior Woodchucks Guidebook but the scoutmaster refuses, on the regulation that McDuck is too old to join the organization, and only members are allowed to read its guidebook. Also the scoutmaster suspects, correctly, that Scrooge would use the information mainly to enrich himself, as he has recently done by acquiring the entire log books of the 16th century Spanish fleet to find lost treasures. Scrooge tells the nephews that he would like to find the Library of Alexandria for the same purpose. The head of The Junior Woodchucks organization agrees to sponsor Scrooge's trip in the name of science as well as lend out General Snozzie, the Woodchucks bloodhound. Scrooge and the nephews set out to find the lost library, leaving behind Donald totally oblivious to the events as he sits constantly glued to the TV, currently holding the occupation of Scrooge's Money Bin guard.