Keskustelujen arkisto

Anybody willing to swap this book to Finnish Sammon salaisuus Don Rosa
Kalevala -book (HC 192 pages)?
I guess that is the only extra Disney book I can offer that might interest
someone..
Softcover version of SiN will do find.

Timo Ronkainen

.................................
"Rumble on, buxom bumble bee!
Go sit on cowslip - far from me!"

timoro at hotmail.com
timoro at sunpoint.net
http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/timoro/
http://members.nbci.com/timoro/pamaus

_____________________________________________________________________________________
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FRANCOIS WILLOT, 28-11-2000, Digest Vol 1 #336:

> [Barrier] There are I believe very very few mistakes in this book.
> But I remember that Barrier wrote that "Donald Tames his Temper"
> (the WDC ten-pager story) was the first Barks story to feature Daisy.
> This is in fact "The Mighty Trapper" when Daisy makes a cameo
> appearance. Apart from that I can't name even one other tiny error!

An instance where I doubt Barrier is his listing of the submission date
of Junior Woodchuck story "Hound of the Moaning Hills" (JW 12), which
would have been submitted on March 3, 1970.

Chronologically, this means the following submission order:

JW 07 "Whale of a Good Deed", January 1, 1970
JW 12 "Hound of the Moaning Hills", March 3, 1970
JW 08 "Let Sleeping Bones Lie", March 16, 1970

Reasons for my doubts:

- In JW 8, the editors changed the Offical Hound into Pluto. In JW 12,
the script already contains Pluto.

- On March 8, 1970, Barks wrote a letter to Michael Barrier about the
Junior Woodchuck stories he had scripted up to that point. This would
have been 5 days after finishing "Moaning", but Barks only mentions
having just finished "Let Sleeping Bones Lie" instead. "Sleeping
Bones" wasn't even submitted on that point, while "Moaning Hills"
would have been submitted 5 days before the letter to Barrier.
Why would Barks' letter (or Barrier quoting it) omit mentioning this
story?

The Inducks search site doesn't seem to work at moment, but in a
recent visit I saw that the submission date of "Moaning" was
mentioned as March 3, *1971* (instead of 1970). What's the source
for that information?

If my doubts are valid, then there are at least two known instances of
Barrier being (slightly) wrong: WDC 64 and JW 12.

Barrier's book also contains information on changes, written by
Kim Weston. Even I though I think Kim Weston's studies are
marvellous (an understatement!), the discovery of for example
the "Trick or Treat" art shows that his theories about *what* could
have been cut aren't always (fully) right.

BTW. Kim Weston comments were taken from his article "My Secret
Life By Scrooge McDuck - Or, The Unpublished Carl Barks",
published in Funnyworld no. 16 (1975). It's one of my most
favourite Barks articles. It contains many tricks on finding
traces of possible cuts and changes in Barks' work, while also
giving some information on how Carl Barks made his stories.

Best wishes,

--- Daniel

Nine trillion multipadillion, six hundred and eighty-six squadrificillion,
fifty octodecimadillion, eight hundred and sixty-three centrifipillion --
nine hundred and forty overplusillion, six hundred and five duplicatillion,
thirty-three impossibadillion --
seven hundred and ninety-one compounded ultrafatillion, three hundred and
forty super trillion, fifty-nine duper dillion, twenty-nine billion, seven
hundred and fifty million --
four hundred and six thousand, five hundred and thirty three *drops*!

(Which story? Does this quote contain any typo's?) :-)

>It can be ordered by credit card directly from Disney Italia, I
>think, but I'm not sure if they accept foreign orders. Their
>telephone number is +39 (Italy) 0392020350

The three copies that were auctioned on ebay sold for $221, $192 and
$241 each!

They were actually sold by Pat Block himself and, granted, each book
included an original pencil drawing from the artist, and each was signed
by Mr. Block, but with all due respect to the artist and his outstanding
work, PLEASE! I am obviously envious because I entered the bidding and
was blown away!

Can anyone of you lucky Italian chaps tell us American Yankees the
mailing address of Disney Italia or the e-mail address so that we could
look into ordering a copy that way?

Much appreciated!

Mark Doukakis
California, U.S.A.

ROB KLEIN, 02-12-2000:

> Regarding Daniel van Eijmeren's comment that Barks submitted a 1-page
> gag which was (originally) slated for DD OS 356 in 1951, and it may
> be the Parrot gag penciled and inked by Frank mcSavage:
> Even though a gag or story is slated for a given comic book issue
> before, or at the time of submission, it may be diverted to use in
> an earlier or later issue of that title or even another title; or it
> may even end up unused. This happened several (or even many) times
> at Western during the 1950s and 1960s.

This reminds me that I still have to investigate when and how many
times a certain work was printed out of order. There are certain
periods in which there isn't much relation between submission dates
and publishing dates at all. From memory, 1958 was such a period.
I'm curious what the reason for that could have been.

As far as I know, the case of the parrot gag is a unique one, because
Barks himself identified it as "possibly the one".

According to Barks' administration, OS 348 also would have contained
a Barks gag, but in that case no Barks note is mentioned on which
gag it could be.

So, maybe the OS 356 parrot gag rang a bell when Barks was identifying
his stories for Barrier's book? While the gags in OS 348 didn't?

In a private mail, someone told me that Barks may might be wrong on
this gag because of having made a parrot gag for US 61.

I don't know what to think of this. I guess that, because of helping
Barrier with a list of his work, Barks must have seen both gags
within a short time, which could make such a mistake less likely.
Also, the US 61 parrot gag art is known to have survived. I don't know
if it was in Barks' possesion when he was making his list for Barrier
at the end of the 1960s. But if that was the case, then I think it
could possibly rule out having mistaken the gag for the OS 356 one.
(Of course, this still doesn't mean that the OS 356 parrot really
was by Barks.)

> We really have no way to know if any of the 3 gags that were drawn
> by McSavage in DD 356 were written by Barks given the information
> we have now. Perhaps someone can ask Chase Craig, who (I believe)
> was Barks editor at that time. But, he is 85 years old, and
> probably wouldn't be able to remember a single gag submitted
> 50 years ago, out of many thousands that were printed during his
> editorship.

Is Chase Craig still alive? Then why are there, as far as I know, no
interviews with him about Carl Barks? Maybe he still remembers what
was cut from, for example, Mythtic Mystery"?

Maybe he can at least give some general information on Western
and being Barks' editor in general?

Also, has he ever been asked about having some original/unpublished
Barks art in his possession?

> Regarding Daniel's statement that the Donald would ask the Parrot
> to repeat the same line: I definately agree, but that does not
> mean that all of Donald's balloon's had to be identical (as I've
> demonstrated in my own redrawn version - which I hope will soon
> be available for DCML members to see on a website).

If I understood you right in private mail, you told me to wait for
a colour version. (My emails bounced when replying to you. I'll
try it again after finishing this email.)

> I believe Donald would add comments of disgust and pleading
> along with his repitition of the desired Parrot's line.

I think this already being shown by Donald's poses and the bold
lettering. So, I think adding some pleading into the dialogue
would take the reader's attention away on what's happening in the gag.

What do you think of the US 61 parrot gag? From memory, the same
line is repeated 6 times within 4 panels. It's an art only gag, but
apparently Barks did not object to it when drawing the gag. He is
known to have rewritten art only work when he didn't like the
script. As this rewriting mostly hasn't been identified, it remains
guessing if he always did that, but still the repetition in the
US 61 parrot gag does not look odd to me. (A matter of opinion,
of course.)

> I agree that it is interesting to postulate on this subject,
> but we will never know for sure, until we get more concrete
> information.

Agreed. Still, knowing that some unidentified gags may be by
Barks, makes me feel like Scrooge going on treasure hunt. :-)

Best wishes,

--- Daniel

"Those tracks show that the spies lurked outside your window
sixty-three minutes ago!"

"Luca Boschi" <cnotw at zen.it> writes:

> Your discussion about supposed Barks' Parrot gag, penciled and inked by
> Frank mcSavage is interesting.
>
> Do you know where it was reprinted (if it was) in more recent books?

The DCML Inducks pages have been partly out of order lately. But now,
on <http://stp.ling.uu.se/~starback/dcml/story/W+OS+356-05> you can
see the publications known in the Inducks, which are only three:
the original American in Four Color 356 and Swedish and Danish
publications in 1959.

Thank you, Per!

> The DCML Inducks pages have been partly out of order lately. But now,
> on <http://stp.ling.uu.se/~starback/dcml/story/W+OS+356-05> you can
> see the publications known in the Inducks, which are only three:
> the original American in Four Color 356 and Swedish and Danish
> publications in 1959.

Yes. It's unpublished in Italy. But I think it should be hard to get a good
b&w proof to use it now!
Any opinion?

Bye,

L.

Here is the translation of an article from last month's Komix, which I
think is of interest to the list:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Armed with humor, Barks sets up the story of _Voodoo Hoodoo_
BLACK HUMOR IN THE BLACK CONTINENT

Travels, adventure, and, mainly, crazy humor. The _Voodoo Hoodoo_
story is an excellent sample of Carl Barks' early style.

Black humor is one of the most demanding kinds of humor. It can easily
stop being funny, and it can even more easily end up being a bad taste
parody of itself. In _Voodoo Hoodoo_, Barks manages to avoid these traps
and to produce one of his best stories.

BLACK HUMOR

_Voodoo Hoodoo_, along with *The Mummy's Ring* (_Komix_ #39), were
written at the end of the 1940's, before the Comics Code was imposed,
at a time when creators could allow themselves things that would soon
be forbidden on pain of punishment.

The plot of this story could have been the script for a horror
movie. Indeed, as Barks himself has said, the original inspiration for
this story was given to him by a horror movie starring Bela Lugosi,
one of the leading performers of the genre. "A movie I saw had flocks
of zombies working tirelessly pushing the arms of a giant grinder that
crushed ore or something... I became convinced that zombies do not feel,
and I set out to preach their virtues as ideal stooges for anyone who
needed a dangerous job done cheaply..." Carl Barks is capable not only
of giving a serious aspect to his humor, but to see the humorous side
of even terror itself as well.

THE COMIC ADVENTURE

Of course, Carl Barks does not write horror comics. Moreover, he doesn't
seem to take seriously all the literature on black magic, voodoo, and
other similar hair-raising things. His zombie is too worn out to be scary,
while, as we learn a little before the end of the story, the threat that
sent Donald to the heart of the Black Continent had been non-existent,
as the hex had evaporated. _Voodoo Hoodoo_ is a hilarious comic story,
and for this reason we do not believe that the American publishers had
been right in refusing to reprint it for many years. Any, not politically
correct, cliches in depicting African natives--which, in any case, were
removed from the story's reprint, on which its publication in _Komix_
is also based--or the references to horror movie esthetics, are nothing
more than the base for gags.

The main theme of the story is not how scary or dangerous the zombie
is itself, but the fear that Donald feels. _Voodoo Hoodoo_ is, in the
final analysis, an insane comedy of misunderstandings. If Barks really
did borrow something from horror movies, this was the technique of
suspense. As in the story *Luck of the North* (_Komix_ #136), without
the element of suspense, which turns this crazy adventure into a race
against time, _Voodoo Hoodoo_ would have been an artless concatenation
of enjoyable gags.

HUMOR AND ADVENTURE

_Voodoo Hoodoo_ has all the ingredients of a barksian "comic adventure". A
travel to an exotic country. suspense and enjoyable gags, and, mainly, a
well-designed plot based on the character of the central hero. However,
something is missing. It is that clearly fictional dimension, that
romanticism which, without detracting from the humor, makes the reader
dream. The strongest point of the story--the fact that it is based on
an outrageous, almost illogical, sequence of misunderstandings--seems to
be its "weakest" point, as well. _Voodoo Hoodoo_ is, above all, a comic
story, and, in the final analysis, its 32 pages are not very different
from the ten pages of Donald Duck short stories. But how could things
be different in a story with Donald Duck?

What's missing from this story is the further involvement of uncle Scrooge
with the plot. We are in 1949 and Donald's rich uncle has yet to become
the central character of Carl Barks' multi-page stories. The rich Croesus,
with the adventurer's temperament and the integrity of character will
become later the ideal hero who will allow eh Duck Man to complete his
unique personal recipe for "comic adventure". In _Voodoo Hoodoo_, however,
adventure is the framework for purely comic story. In the recipe of the
classic stories of the 1950s, Carl Barks will find the secret which will
allow him to combine, in his own unique way, humor adventure, laughter
and emotion, fun and daydreaming.

[Caption:] Although the plot of the story could very well have formed
the script of a horror movie, Barks sets up his action, mainly, around
the character of his central character, Donald.

DON ROSA COMMENTS ON VOODOO HOODOO

The _Voodoo Hoodoo_ story represents one of the most important moments
in uncle Scrooge's biography, as it will be reconstituted by Don Rosa,
based on Carl Barks' classic stories, in the _Life and Times_. In the
introductory note for the eleventh chapter of the series, Rosa explains
how he managed to incorporate in his own story the events mentioned in
_Voodoo Hoodoo_:

"In my effort not to omit any of the elements of Scrooge's life,
I also met some relatively insignificant contradictions, which I
had no difficulty in overcoming; what should I do about the _Voodoo
Hoodoo_ story, however? It is one of uncle Scrooge's first stories,
and Barks had not yet rounded up his hero's character; he could not
have imagined that the Croesus from Duckburg would be regarded as his
most important creation. Thus, in the story, Scrooge is responsible for
a deadly danger threatening his nephew, and we see him already earning
his second billion in 1879, in Africa. The worst thing, however, is
that in this story Scrooge is presented as a ruthless big shark who
won't hesitate from hunting an African tribe off its land. At first I
did not intend to make any references to this story. Later, however,
I thought that these two problems--that Scrooge could have behaved like
a villain, and the need to cover more than thirty years--would cancel
each other out! As Scrooge would become more greedy and more cynical,
perhaps there came a time when he crossed the limit and behaved like
Glomgold... Perhaps this could form the core of my story. This isolated
misdeed could haunt him for entire decades. I only had to explain why
Scrooge of that time looked like Donald, but., in the end, I managed to
find a solution for everything...it is only for 1879 that I could not
find some explanation, and so I chose to ignore it. Finally, I had to
render Foola Zoola and Bombie the Zombie in a way that is acceptable to
today's Disney publication standards. However, I am certain that I had
found clever solutions to all these problems... If my story is successful,
it goes without saying that it is for the readers to judge."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kriton (e-mail: kyrimis at cti.gr)
(WWW: http://dias.cti.gr/~kyrimis)
-----
"You wouldn't really want a pet that could shoot you with its ears if you
didn't give it enough lettuce, would you?"
-----

Are the comic stories in these albums in English?
Are they accessable to us in the U.S.?
Thanks for the info!
Michael Feldman