Keskustelujen arkisto

Last chance for all you Carl Barks fans to mail a message for hand
delivery to Carl Barks to brighten his 95th birthday. I've received a
few letters revealing how his stories have affected the readers lives
and given many the incentive to learn how to read what is in the funny
little balloons in the comics. Lets make it a real celebration for him.

--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V96 Issue #62
*****************************************

MICHAEL:
Regarding the fourth nephew:
>I have a question regarding the "fourth" nephew that appears in a Vicar
>story panel.

>My question is: What country; what story; what comic?
>

Country: Denmark
Comic: Anders And & Co. 1995 No. 43 page 11, in the story "Anders And - Plat
og pyramider"

Sincerely
Nisse
"All the world's a stage
and all the men and
women merely players."
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
** (Email removed) **
*** Nisse J. Krenchel ***
*************************

Dear Group,

After reading several issues of the Disney Comics Digest (whose
abbreviation confused me at first: I wondered who at DC Comics was trying to
get in touch with me), it's time I wrote back. I'm especially struck by
Gerhard's comments about Carl Barks 95th birthday, so, since he gave no
regular address for either himself or Barks, I hope he can pass a short note
to him:

Dear Mr. Barks,
I hope you have a very happy 95th birthday! The very first comic book
I ever read started off with a Donald Duck story by you--it was the one where
Donald, as a moving man, had to move a whole shipment of animals across a
rope to a distant mesa, which he did perfectly until he came to an obnoxious
mynah bird. That story not only had plenty of funny details I could
appreciate then, but also some I only could appreciate years later, like
Donald singing "O solo mio!" (which turned out to be the tune I knew as Elvis
Presley's "It's Now or Never"). More than anything else, it may have led me
to my own lifelong love of comics...including the other Disney characters,
none of whom I'd yet had a chance to see in a cartoon.
Of course, in the years following, I came to know and love Mickey
(featured in that same book), Chip 'n' Dale and the rest-- but my favorite
stories were the ones with Uncle Scrooge, because they were so much longer
and more involved than Donald's and the rest. Some years ago I finally got to
meet you at a Boston convention, and I think I sent you a copy of the Duck
family tree you'd then lost track of, and got a very nice letter from you.
Thank you once again for all you and your stories have done for me, and for
the entire field of comic books and (with a whole raft of new cartoon series
inspired by DUCK TALES) animation as well.

A lifelong fan,

Rich Morrissey

I might add that I myself first saw that family tree in the Rockets
Blast/Comicollector...where it had been included in Don Rosa's column! So Don
can be assured that he indirectly helped the greatest of all Duck Men at a
time when he wanted to get his hands on his original, and now (semi-?)
official, family tree. My own favorite version of the Tree was one put
together by Mark Worden for CAPA-alpha around 1980, in which he drew pictures
of all the Ducks. (Although, as in inveterate nitpicker, I noticed that
Rosa's version referred to Gladstone's adoptive father as *Goostave* Gander,
whereas Worden's called him *Goosetale* Gander. Both are superbly funny and
appropriate names, and perhaps it was hard to tell which was right in Barks'
original handwriting. (That's happened more than once in the history of
comics, even when the original creators can't read their own writing. A
classic example was Roy Crane's deciding his strip WASH TUBBS could use a new
supporting character, a two-fisted Southern gentleman called (as he recalled
years later) Captain Early. But when Crane got home with his notes, he
couldn't read the name carefully, so his new hero...who would eventually take
over the title of the strip...was then and forever after Captain Easy.)
As for Don Rosa himself...what can I say? I loved his Information
Center, since he shared (and, judging by his recent interview in The Comics
Journal, still shares) my love for comics from a historical perspective, more
interested in who wrote and drew an issue than whether there's a crease in
the cover. I was a regular contributor to the feature while he ran it, but I
also loved his Pertwillaby Papers stories (Don, we're still waiting to learn
when...or if...Lance and his friends got back from King Arthur's time), and I
knew even before it came out that Gladstone had found the perfect man to
continue the adventures of Uncle Scrooge and his nephews. With all due
respect to Romano Scarpa, William Van Horn, Freddy Milton and the other fine
writers and artists Gladstone and Egmont have found, Rosa's stories are still
my favorite Disney stories that aren't by Barks or Gottfredson.
As Don well knows, I'm also intrigued by the questions about who drew
and wrote which stories: something I've wanted to know all my life. In recent
years, I've been working with Boston fan Martin O'Hearn, who's done detailed
analyses of writing styles in comics (especially, but not limited to, Golden
and early Silver Age DC--especially the Weisinger- and Schiff-edited titles,
since most of the Julie Schwartz titles, like the Silver Age Marvel ones,
listed or at least recorded credits). Martin's also looked at many of the
Disney comics (indeed, when recently pressured by his nephews to cite his
favorite current comic book, he came up with Uncle Scrooge) and has learned
something, though not all the names, of the various writers.
He found, early on, that Carl Barks seems to have rewritten most of
the stories by other people he was given to draw--something already well
documented in stories like "Trick or Treat," based on a Disney cartoon. So
"Invisible Invader," the Scrooge story about the giant bed by Vic Lockman,
reads nothing like Lockman's more recent stories... but it reads very much
like a Barks story, so Barks evidently rewrote as well as drawing it. I
always had a soft spot for that story, even if it wasn't all Barks--I
personally like it a lot better than "Trick or Treat," another case where
Barks did a fine job with a plot he probably would never come up with
himself. (And even Don Rosa has retained the opening segment with Scrooge as
a shoeshine boy, as well as Jack Chalker's logical conclusion that it was
then that he earned his first dime, unlikely as that was in 19th-century
Scotland.)
From a historical perspective, the most maddening research can
sometimes come from those who simply have little or no interest outside a
limited field. Mike Barrier's CARL BARKS AND THE ART OF THE COMIC BOOK is an
excellent overview of Barks' life and career, but his index is marred by his
utter lack of interest in anyone else ever to have worked on Disney comics,
with his index not bothering to even attempt listing the writers (even
documented ones like Lockman and Merrill de Maris) whose stories Barks drew,
or the artists who illustrated the late stories Barks wrote. I'd particularly
like to know who that "real veteran of the comics field" whose story Barks
heavily rewrote for one WDC&S short was.
On a final note, I remember at least two stories indicating that
Gladstone's luck was the result of some good-luck charm or other, and passed
on to Donald and Scrooge, respectively, when they borrowed it. I think those
can safely be discarded as inaccurate, or, at most, that he somehow was able
to transmit his luck (but only temporarily) to other family members by such a
means.
Well, I've a lot more I could say, but I've probably rambled long
enough this time. Good to find out about this digest, and I'm sure I'll like
it!

Richard Morrissey
(no, I'm *not* the policeman recently shot in New York!)

Wes,

For whatever it is worth, IMHO, overall, it seems to me that Huey is Red (I
came up with the same reason as Disney for this color to go with Huey and
blue for Dewey), Blue for Dewey, and then Louie is either Green or Yellow (I
think of green leaves or yellow lemons)

Of course in the Duck Family Portrait sculpture, there is one triplet with
yellow, and one with green, and one blue. Go figure.

Kathy

.>Gaute & RoC
>
>> I decided Huey had green cap, Dewey red and Louie Green
>
>I asked this question about six months ago, and the answer I got was
>basically, it didn't matter, but Disney Studios generally goes by this little
>ditty: Huey is red because that's the brightest hue, Dewey is blue the color
>of dew, and Louie is green because that's all that's left.
>
>But I've seen the colors change on the same duckling from panel to panel in
>one story.
>
>-- Wes
>
>
>
(Email removed) <Kathy Fitzpatrick>

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--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V96 Issue #63
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RICHARD (welcome to the list!):

> I'm also intrigued by the questions about who drew
> and wrote which stories: something I've wanted to know all my life.

Well, then we have something in common. We tried to gather as much
information as possible, from all kinds of sources, in our Disney
comics Database (available through ftp).

> "Invisible In[tru]der," the Scrooge story about the giant bed by Vic
> Lockman

We (at least I) didn't know that yet! Was it published somewhere that
Lockman wrote this (and other) stories? If so, where?

--Harry

Harry Fluks, Leidschendam, The Netherlands
"Wie ben ik? Wat doe ik hier? Waar is mijn Roddelflop?"

ARTHUR:
> You were talking about the "Unlucky"-story in Dutch Donald Duck
> Weekly #13. But ... how do you know it was written by Freddy Milton?
> I mean: it's a new story, and they never print the credits.

I have a paper correspondence with Jan Kruse and Frank Jonker.
Frank Jonker is a writer for Dutch DD and when he is at the
editor's desk, he looks at the list of scheduled stories. Either
this list contains the full credits, or one of the editors told him.
And he wrote about it in a letter.

Frank also wrote that DD weekly #15 will contain a story by a
new Dutch artist, Sander Gulien, who seems to have a very good art
style ("almost like Jippes"). We'll see...

> When will Gladstone's four "Life of Scrooge"-albums be released?
> This month?

I think the first album was scheduled for April.

--Harry.

Harry Fluks, Leidschendam, The Netherlands
"Wie ben ik? Wat doe ik hier? Waar is mijn Roddelflop?"

RICH(ARD):
> I just got a very nice welcoming letter from Harry Fluks

Well, I accidentally sent it to the List *and* to you privately. So you'll see
the same message again when you get the digest, later this day.
This second message will go to the digest only.

> Unfortunately, I don't have FTP, or WWW access.

There is an e-mail service for getting any file from our ftp site.
I think the directives are in the welcoming message you got when
you subscribed. If it's not there, ask Per Starback about it...

Or, if you want a particular file, send a message to me in private mail
((Email removed)).

> I'm involved with a group called the Grand Comics Database

The USA part of the Disney comics Database (DcD; I'm used to calling
our ftp database this way) has been copied and converted to the
Grand Comics Database (GCD). Robert Klein did an excellent job here.
Unfortunately, I accidentally didn't give him all data, so the conversion
has to be done again, partially.

Note that our DcD contains a lot more information than is in the GCD,
e.g. we want to cover every Disney comic in the world.

> That particular bit came from Jack Chalker's
> privately-published THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SCROOGE McDUCK

Well, I have xerox copies of that book and I never had a close look
at the index! The index is by Kim Weston, by the way, a good friend
and cooperator of Michael Barrier, so I figured it wouldn't contain
new information...

--Harry.