The most famous Disney comic book artist Carl Barks has drawn and written a few western stories such as Donald Duck in Sheriff of Bullet Valley (1948) and Donald Duck in Old California (1951). The first one is a bit more like comic SWs and the second one more like sentimental/moody SWs. I wrote a short peace about this some years ago:
Has Carl Barks something in common with Sergio Leone ?
It occured to me while reading Donald Duck in Old California for the umpteenth time today that maybe you can draw a certain parallel between that story and the earlier Donald Duck in Sheriff of Bullet Valley and on the other hand some spaghetti western movies directed by the well known Italian Sergio Leone. Leone’s “Dollar Trilogy” movies from the mid 1960’s much like Bullet Valley were rather straight forward with a lot of humour and artistic perfection but not with so much depth maybe except for a few final moments.
But with Leone’s 4th and last own IMO true spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West he goes deeper in the art of the western movie and with a lot of sentiments. My feeling now is that Barks in Old California deals with the dying west in a similar deeper way and with a griping nostalgic touch.
I think Once Upon a Time in the West and Old California could be interpreted as both creators respectively sentimental goodbye to the old west, even if both of them later on would deal with the dear subject in some newer productions.
But as usual Carl Barks was first, maybe even inspiring other Italians than those who also made creative Disney comics ? 
