Keskustelujen arkisto

CORD:

I should say that these 'over-priced' Barks items are not from
the most expensive end at all! At least here in Finland you must
be prepared (yes, I _am_ a boy-scout) to pay at least $ 500 if
you're willing to get a signed Barks piece. But that's ofcourse
mainly for the reason that the shops - well, I'm not sure if
there's more than one - which import these items must have their
cut in order to stay in business. In general, it can even be
better to do your 'rare purchases' in a country with really
limited comics fandom - so the 'hot items' are much more easily
available. I know that the same Finnish comics store that helped
bringing both Barks and Don to Finland has several Barks
lithographs on sale. The owner once told me that he HAD a
collection which included ALL Barks lithographs so far, but he
sold it. Gosh, wish I had heart to make money with my collection
- well I don't have anything as expensive as he had, that's for
sure! But this same guy showed me that in his office he had on
his wall an original Barks drawing and a genuine autoraph of
Walt Disney himself! And yes, he told me he could sell them. But
as he told me their prices, I first thought he was telling his
phone number!

I can reveal that there's an upcoming signed Barks item in
Finland, which is about to cost some $ 190 and is limited some-
where round 100. If someone's interested I can tell some more
later - I was told that they start gathering reservations for
these somewhere in January.

My collection of original Barks items is limited to having a
signed copy 536/595 of his Always Another Rainbow lithograph,
and a signed photograph of him. And oh yes, I sent him a letter
some years ago which was answered with a photocopied letter
(which I quoted some time ago). The Finnish Barks experts have
confirmed to me that the name and address on the envelope of
that letter were written by the Master himself. (the crowd sits
silent with amazement and unthinkable respect ;-)

FINE ART PAINTINGS:
I can't remember if it was Cord or someone else who pointed out
that some Barks's paintings look to him like something overdone
with too much colors. With many cases I can agree. But also
there are some scenes that are VERY good: for example I think
his painting called "Return to Morgan's island" was truly
masterful in its harmonic compositin and use of calm colors.

BTW, does anyone know how much one would have to pay if he/she
would come across the book "The Fine Art of Walt Disney's
DD by Carl Barks"?

ALL:

Gosh! Am I surrounded by a bunch of linguistics here? Whenever
someone asks explanation for some word, it can be immediately
found in the next digest! Wow! Just to tease you I was going
to ask if anyone knows the explanation for the word
"potrzebie" ( a word which Harvey Kurzman preferred using in
his days with the MAD magazine) but then Kathy revealed to be
a MAD fan so I guess she would have known it anyways...

--- Jyrki Vainio ---
"I promise I won't write so long
letters anymore"
- promise for the year 1995

DON:
Why, btw, do you have Scrooge's whiskers growing with age? Is this
simply an artistic license and a Thing that looks nice (tm) or does it imply,
that duck hair really grows that slow? Well, since in real life ducks don't
even have hair, this might be a bit silly question. But it's just a bit
irritating, that even Scrooge, age 10, has a bit of a whiskers coming from
his cheeks, but HDL have none, although they are older. How old are they, btw?

> The next episode of "The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck" will
>probably be chapter 6B, the adventure of $crooge as a gold prospector in
>Pizen Bluff, Arizona.

I'm not all sure, but is this time of his life later mentioned in
the Barks story with the moving village and two mines thought to be one
haunted mine?

The Lo$3 cover in Finland: You're right, it wasn't made by you! I
simply assumed so and since it was the first Lo$ to ever appear in Finland
and since it was your story and since you're the only one to ever draw a
cowboy Scrooge to my memory, so I thought it was your. But now when I look
at it, it's Scrooge. But people couldn't have thought it was Donald, because
the text on the cover says: "Scrooge's youth adventure: THE BUCKAROO OF THE
BAD-LANDS".

--

Mike - The Finnish Trekkie

In a message dated 95-12-18 10:04:52 EST, you write:

> think
>of the conversation it could generate having an Uncle $crooge necktie! Is
>there someone in your life who would buy it for you for Christmas?

Kathy:

Don's earlier point is one I've already considered. Most of the tie is $100
bills, and I shudder at the conversation that would generate behind my back,
or to my face. What I envy is Dan's Barks U$ tie! I have a Gottfredson tie
-- also black market -- which I love. A Barks companion would be just nifty.

-- Wes

HARRY :
The idea (by Barks) of Brigitta seducing $crooge by means of a money perfume
was implemented in 1976 by Scarpa: "Zio Paperone (that's U$) e il casco
d'oro", TL 1061-1062 (reprinted in GC 29, September 1987). However that's
only a side-gag in the story, which hinges mainly on the existence of
Brigitta's double in a tropical island and related (IMHO trivial)
adventures. I should judge it a good idea spoiled.

MELANIE:
Brigitta appears in 1960 (" Zio Paperone e l'ultimo Balabu' ", TL 243) and
is introduced as a long-time acquaintance of $crooge. She has always been in
love with $crooge, but $crooge never accepted her love: he even, back in
1898, presented her with a very precious fur hat with the agreement that she
would leave him alone. We learn that Brigitta did not mantain her promise,
and find her still trying to conquer him with delicious titbits and similar
cares.
That of course doesn't sound very appealing: here it is, one would say,
again a female character whose only place is depicted to be the kitchen and
the house. But in later adventures (which I cannot quote right now, and
anyway would you be able to get them?) Brigitta realizes that the only way
$crooge can become interested in her is by proving that she is a manager as
good as (in fact, better than) him. So many times she becomes a
"woman-in-career" beating $crooge at his own game! (The end is usually
disappointing, like e. g.: Brigitta exchanges her rich results for a
romantic cruise, two weeks alone with $crooge).

Marco

((Email removed))

"Here's the first billion I've ever made - Down at the bottom of the pile,
where it's been for seventy years!" (Walt Disney's Comics and Stories 130,
7/1951)

ARTHUR:
I'd be delighted to tell you about my current work-in-progress at
any time. But you'll need to ASK me about it. You might notice that I never
open discussions or start talking about what I'm doing or where I've been.
It seems incredibly pretensious to me to start telling people something as
if I thought they wanted to know about it. That's why I often have trouble
addressing groups during my tours -- they tell me to go out and say a few
words, but I'll say, oh, I never do that, but I like to answer questions.
And then I'll proceed to give a 45 minute answer to the first question
asked. It's not that I don't love to talk about these Ducks or what I'm
doing, I just first need an indication there is an interest rather than
start force-feeding people data. So... ASK from time to time, and I'll tell
you all.

TORSTEN:
Welcome back.
If you read the text piece in that U$#296, you'll see the Eisner
Award didn't "replace" anything. That was one of the new panels.
Blackheart Beagle was the 8th Beagle. I've always used 7 Beagle Boys
since that was the maximim number Barks ever used in those early stories.
Actually, I used TEN in each panel while doing my first BB story, "Cash
Flow". But then I was checking serial numbers or something, and realized
Barks never used more than 7... so I went back and erased 3 BBs from every
panel, just to make sure it didn't look like I was trying to "top" Barks.
I can't recall so many years later, but I might have been making
HD&L "roly poly" on purpose in the first few panels in that story. That HD&L
should be several years younger than the HD&L I would use in my normal
stories. At first I thought you were referring to the HD&L in that half-page
on page 5, but you actually say you LIKED that shot. I had NEVER drawn those
Ducks so large before and I had GREAT difficulty getting their shapes
correct. I erased HD&L completely at one point. And I corrected DDs bottom
half so many times with white ink and over-inking that I couldn't correct it
anymore and gave up and told Gladstone that if it didn't look right to them
they'd hafta play with the photostats because there was already too much
white ink on the paper.
(But I'd like to redraw LOTS of that story. All of the DD and U$
heads are too small for their beaks. I start with the heads and get carried
away with the beaks, then I too seldom go back and enlarge the beans. I hate
these pinheaded Ducks. And lotsa times their BUTTS are too small -- like
right on the cover. I think DD and HD&L on the cover are all too small for
the BBs, but DD's BUTT is especially too small.
What was DD/HD&L's first adventure with U$? "The Old Castle's
Secret", of course. In fact, U$ still didn't know enough about them to trust
their loyalty, and LIED to them to get their help, by telling him that the
McDuck fortune was in desparate shape. That was obviously a big fib.

>Of course. However, the context of the discussion, which was apparent
>even to those contributors reading and writing English as a second (or
>third) language, was that of strong female _protagonists_. All
>contributed knowledgeably not only on the subjects of immediate debate;
>i.e., Hortense and Matilda, but also on Grandma Duck and Daisy.

What's the difference between a villain and a protagonist? After all,
in real life, no person, whether male or female, is all bad or all good. So I
think there's no real difference. And besides, Magica IS a protagonist in her
own way. And I really like her character. (in fact, every (all three) duck
story I've thought of doing, has Magica in it)

KATHY:
Both "et al" and "et cetera" are two seperate words.

>I can reveal that there's an upcoming signed Barks item in

Please, do tell more about this one.

ARTHUR:
I'll send the story to you.

--

Mike - The Finnish Trekkie

KATHY:
No, you were the first, but not the only one to use "baroque" to
describe my work. At least one fanzine interviewer in Italy used that word
as well, and I was pleased! I LIKE the word. The term means "overly ornate
and often pretentious". That's a perfect way to describe my unprofessional
"fanboy" approach to drawing Duck stories.

MIKE:
I had $crooge's whiskers get longer as he grew older just as an
"artistic license". And it seems a very natural way to treat $crooge's face
in his younger years. I mean, he doesn't now have wrinkles to make him look
older, so the ONLY way I could make him look "younger" (or at least
different) was to give him shorter whiskers... and bushy hair on his head,
that got shorter as he aged. His hair got shorter and his whiskers got
longer. Very natural idea.
But I NEVER showed a 10 year old $crooge with any sort of whiskers!
Go check. My 10 year old $crooge had no whiskers and had HD&L type floating
eyes. It wasn't until "3 years later" that I started giving $crooge
peach-fuzz on his cheeks, and I can name you some 13 year olds I know who
are so. His eyes also changed during those 3 years. Go back and check "Lo$"
chapter I.
How old are HD&L? I don't really worry about it much. I guess I
treat them like they're about 12, I guess. (But with the minds of 37 year olds.)
The "Lo$" episode 6B would be based on that Barks story about "Pizen
Bluff" the wind-blown western town. I'd hafta check, but I'm not sure if
that included the idea of haunted mines. Maybe that was in the "Lost Pegleg
Mine" story? Or both? Or neither?
The Finnish issue with "Lo$" part III had a cover "blurb" that
mentioned the contents? Good. Leave it to the Finns. The other Egmont issues
may have as well, now that I think back. Since I can't READ any of them
words, I'm at a sort of slight disadvantage.

WES:
About $crooge ties... I've seen a number of $crooge and Donald ties
that have nice picture, but really bizarre colors that have NO bearing on
the characters whatsoever. Really ugly! But I saw one nice $crooge tie once
(and I'm sure it was there in Oakland with you!) that had numerous $crooge
figures lifted from Egmont (Vicar?) stories, including one Klondike $crooge!
I would lust after that tie, but the Klondike $crooge showed him carrying a
large GUITAR over his shoulder... and I think I've seen the story they
pulled that from.
The problem with ANY of these products based on the comic book
versions of these characters is that they are not designed by anyone who
knows anything about the characters! They are designed by people who are
just given stacks of images to chose from and apparently aren't even told
the proper colors. It would sure we something if ALL Disney merchandise were
designed by people who knew the characters!

TODD:
I don't believe you letter on full-size photostats of my work. The
full image size of one of my Duck pages is about 18" tall and nearly 12.5"
wide, and actual sheet of paper is naturally bigger than that. I'd be
surprised if the photostats they send out are that big. (How big are they?)

HENRI:
Do you have access to a copy of U$ #296? I write in my text piece in
there that I don't really equate $crooge and Charles Foster Kane. I see Kane
as ultimately unhappy, and $crooge as merely troubled but not confused or lost.