Keskustelujen arkisto

MATEUSZ LIS to MACIEK, 09-05-2004:

> I think Daniel van Eijmeren (or maybe someone else?) can write more
> about Barks' script.

I haven't seen Blum's version of Barks's idea. According to Inducks,
it's titled 'Powerplay On Killmotor Hill', 20 pages.
http://coa.inducks.org/coa/c1/story.php/0/D+D+2001-006

There's no connection with any other stories/ideas mentioned, at this
moment. But I'm sure that will change soon. :-)

According to Inducks, Jippes's story is an untitled (???) ten-pager:
http://coa.inducks.org/coa/c1/story.php/0/D+D+2001-021

As far as I know, both Jippes's and Blum's stories both are based on a
"condensed version" of the "Donald-Scrooge opus". This condensed version
has been transcribed in both Barrier and The Carl Barks Library. Any
other Barks material for the cartoon is lost, unless times have changed.

Here's some more information on Barks's "Donald-Scrooge opus":

Submission: 1955, January 10
(Barks letter with nine page synopsis and condensed version)

Ken Peterson, then head of the story department at the Disney Studio,
decided to make an animated cartoon featuring Scrooge McDuck. Barks
created a nine-page synopsis for the cartoon, but the project was
abandoned.

Description: Donald works at Scrooge's money bin, operating a money-
sorting machine that runs by power. When Donald is away for lunch, the
radio announces a plague of rats is loose in the city. Scrooge closes and
shutters all of his windows and bolts the door. He sits down terrified
to eat his cheese sandwich, but before he can begin he is besieged by a
determined rat who has smelled the cheese from afar. The rat threatens to
destroy a ten-thousand dollar bill, if Scrooge doesn't order the most
expensive cheese in the world.

Surviving material: A condensed, typed two-page version of the nine-page
synopsis has survived. This condensed version was written as part of the
January 10, 1955 letter that accompanied the synopsis. The Carl Barks
Library contains a transcription of the letter. No original paperwork is
shown. (04B-460)
The Disney Archives has preserved a file of correspondence between
Peterson and Barks on this cartoon.

Status: Barks nine-page synopsis is lost.

Backstage: Because of Scrooge's success in the comics, Ken Peterson,
then head of the story department at the Disney Studio, decided to
make a cartoon featuring the character. In an October 24, 1984 letter
to Geoffrey Blum, Ken Peterson told: "When we were doing shorts, there
was always a need for story ideas, and since Scrooge McDuck had really
been developed fully in comics, it was natural that I would contact
Carl Barks for help." Peterson had known Barks since 1936, when they
worked in the same room as in-betweeners on the Disney cartoons.

Following a phone call, Peterson sent a letter to Barks on January 4,
1955, inquiring if the Duck Man was at liberty to do outside work under
the terms of his contract with Whitman and requesting "a story idea for
Scrooge McDuck, which would be suitable for an animated short." (Whitman
was the division of Western Publishing that produced the comic books.)

Six days later, on January 10, 1955, Barks responded with a nine-page
synopsis, for which he provided a condensed version in an accompanying
letter: "I enclose a "synopsis" of the Donald-Scrooge opus we discussed
the other day. It started out to be a short, simple draft of a plot, but
ended looking more like a shooting script, as I kept building the scenes.
I type out a condensed version below, so you can get a quick idea of what
all those nine pages are about. [...] I hope you like the yarn. But if it
isn't what you guys think would be a good animation story, I can always
use it in the comics. So, don't feel that you have to be shy about sending
it back."

The underlying theme of Barks's synopsis is about the modern working man
(Donald) and the easy, unworried life he leads as contrasted to that of his
boss (Scrooge). Donald is surrounded by every modern convenience, while
Scrooge is besieged by a rat, which threatens to destroy a ten-thousand
dollar bill.

Barks's synopsis included a gag about Donald operating a money-sorting
machine that runs by power. In the January 10, 1955 letter, Barks explained:
"The idea for the money-sorting machine is adapted from a cover I drew for
the UNCLE SCROOGE magazine [US 10]. It will appear on the stands in early
summer. The original idea was mine, and it now belongs to Disney, anyway."

Peterson wrote again to Barks on February 14, 1955; Barks had visited the
Studio in the interim and had seen the storyboards for a cartoon with
Scrooge and Donald. It is obvious, from Peterson's letter, that Barks's
synopsis had not been followed: "We are still working on the Scrooge McDuck
and Donald idea we had on the board at the time you were [here.] We hope to
shape this story up for a first effort. We may still be interested in using
your story idea at a later date...." Peterson told Barks that the Studio
wanted to keep the script for a month or so, unless Barks wanted to use it
for a comic book.

Peterson kept the script/synopsis until May 6, 1955. Then he returned it,
with a letter explaining that the Studio was heavily involved in television
production, and that the chance of producing a Scrooge cartoon was remote.
(In The Carl Barks Library, Thomas Andrae and Geoffrey Blum have theories
about some other possible reasons.)

Barks never used his synopsis as basis for a comic book. When Barrier asked
him why, in 1974, he said: "I just didn't have quite enough action. I would
need to have jazzed it up and introduced some clouds of rats, or something.
In other words, it would have been a story that starred Uncle Scrooge, and
the kids and Donald wouldn't have had enough to do with it. I would have had
to have used them in there."

As a matter of fact, Barks had tried out two of the story's devices a year
before writing the script for Peterson. In the impervi-wax money case story
(WDC 171), Donald is hired to work in the money bin, and a mouse gets inside.
After a few pages of gags, however, the rodent business is dropped, and the
story takes off in a new direction, about an invention by Gyro Gearloose.

In 2001 or 2002, Daan Jippes has created a ten-page story, which uses a
segment of Barks' idea, the part about Scrooge battle with the blackmailing
rat. (D/D 2001-021)

Scrooge McDuck has been used in the titles for the Mickey Mouse Club on
television in the 1950s, but only for a few seconds, popping out of the
Big Bad Wolf's hat. In 1967, the Studio released a double-length short
titled 'Scrooge McDuck and Money', which was Scrooge's first appearance
in a theatrical film.

Correspondence:

January 4, 1955 letter from Ken Peterson to Carl Barks
January 10, 1955 letter from Carl Barks to Ken Peterson
February 14, 1955 letter from Ken Peterson to Carl Barks
May 6, 1955 letter from Ken Peterson to Carl Barks
October 24, 1984 letter from Ken Peterson to Geoffrey Blum

Interviews:

Interview[?] with Carl Barks by Michael Barrier, conducted in 1974.
Interview with Jack Hannah by Jim Korkis, conducted from 1977 to 1983.

SOURCES:

Michael Barrier book 'Carl Barks and the Art of the Comic Book' (page 218)
Thomas Andrae and Geoffrey Blum article 'The Animated Scrooge', published
in the Carl Barks Library (04B-459)

http://www.seriesam.com/barks/animcartunp.html#ancru_1955-uxx

--- Dani?l

"For goodness, sake! Who's that guy - the PIED PIPER?"
(Which Barks story?) :-)

hint #1: It's not "The Pied Piper of Duckburg".
hint #2: "Hold on, boys! I had no idea it was THAT tasty!"
hint #3: "Look at the mice go for that cheese!"

Hi Chris

You could try and send an e-mail to the Danish publisher (
abonnement at tsf.egmont.com <mailto:abonnement at tsf.egmont.com> ).
I don't know in what country you live, but on their homepage it says that
they also serve subscribers outside Denmark.
Perhaps they can arrange that your subscription starts with this week's
Phantom Blot issue.

Kind regards,
Niels

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: Chris Hilbig [mailto:chilbig1 at satx.rr.com]
Sendt: 11. maj 2004 01:01
Til: dcml at stp.ling.uu.se
Emne: Anders And & Co

Does anyone know where I can buy a copy of the latest Anders And & Co. I
know I can purchase a subscription via Amazon, but I'd love to get my hands
on this week's issue with the Phantom Blot. If nothing else, it'll give me
an excuse to finally learn another language. :P

Thanks,

Chris Hilbig

>The worst part, though (this has sadly been the trend lately) was the
>Mickey story, another flash and thunder "magic" tale.

I don't mind this sort of story occasionally, but every issue of at least two books a month is a bit much. It's become expected instead of a different plot device.

>It would seem
>Egmont, in reaction to the boringly perfect Mickey of Paul Murry, has
>gone to the opposite extreme and made our Mouse an unsure-of-himself
>bumbler

I've said it before, and I'll say it again....with WDCS being 64 pages, there's no reason why there can't be a new MM story, and a chapter of an old Paul Murray story. Yes, Mickey is "boringly perfect" in those, but I like Murray's art, and the stories hold value to me because I was never able to collect three issues in a row as a kid.

>This stuff on Blum's "new" story using Barks' old cartoon outline is
>interesting.....But why is he working magic into the plot?

I can't answer that question, but it's no surprise in my mind. If this story lives up to the reputation of Blum's other two Barks influenced stories, it'll be utterly forgetable, and full of modern references that are sure to delight some, and infuriate others. I'm sure we'll be seeing it soon.

rodney.

________________________________________________________________
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I've recently read "Dream of a Lifetime" (SEVERAL times, so as to catch all the LATOSM references) and while I enjoyed the artistry and cleverness of the story, I'm curious as to why Gemstone and/or Rosa didn't accompany it with an article cross-referencing the source of the "dream" references. I can't help but think that SOME readers didn't get quite as much out of the tale as they might have had they been provided this additional information. Don, Gary, any comments on this?

Chris Barat
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Anecdote on Disney Comic Sales (L. Schulte)
> 2. Re: To Pete or not to Pete (Eta Beta)
> 3. Re: DCML Digest, Vol 15, Issue 11 (GGK)
> 4. Latest Gemstone Issues and New Barks Story (Daniel J. Neyer)
> 5. Don Rosa Original Art (Jason Gerstein)
> 6. Anders And & Co (Chris Hilbig)
> 7. Re: Barks NEW story? (Daniel van Eijmeren)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 07:47:33 -0400
> From: "L. Schulte" <lschulte at sfstoledo.org>
> Subject: Anecdote on Disney Comic Sales
> To: dcml at stp.ling.uu.se
> Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.1.20040510074216.00a7b8e0 at 10.0.0.8>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii
>
> At my local comic book shop I am the only customer for Disney Comics, and
> the owner obtains only one issue for the titles I want. Otherwise the
> place is full of superhero/dark fantasy stuff and role-playing game
> supplies. It is also frequented by plump pre-adolescent and adolescent
> males, who seem to be monomaniacally attached to their roles in the
> role-playing games!
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 15:24:06 +0200
> From: Eta Beta <psersimmon at eega.net>
> Subject: Re: To Pete or not to Pete
> To: <dcml at stp.ling.uu.se>
> Message-ID: <19380404065550.24469 at mail.tin.it>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
> MACIEK
>
> >> How many DCML List members does it take to change a lightbulb?
> >
> >I love dis joke Eta Beata, good job :-)))
>
> Thanks, but it's not my own, it was recently posted on another
> mailing list after an extended OT spell (in which I took
> considerable part :-)
>
> >>So, we can say that it is historically true and estabilished that
> >>the early bear and the later cat are indeed the same character,
> >>weird as it may sound ?
> >
> >Why not. Maby he had some sort of plastic sergery :-)
>
> That's a nice one, too :-)
>
> >For me moust desterbing part is theat Pete had a Peg leg and letter his
> >normal leg it grown back.
>
> Not exactly. As explained in the 1941 daily strips continuity
> "The Mystery at Hidden River" (YM 047) by Merril De Maris and
> Floyd Gottfredson, Pete had his old peg-leg replaced with a
> modern prosthetic leg, meaning an artificial leg that looks like
> a real one.
>
>
> Cheers!
>
> Eta Beta
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 16:07:43 +0200
> From: "GGK" <ggk at wp.pl>
> Subject: Re: DCML Digest, Vol 15, Issue 11
> To: <dcml at stp.ling.uu.se>
> Message-ID: <00a601c43698$2b4b4aa0$90c7fea9 at n5e1t0f23xfprs7>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Eta Beta :
>
> >Not exactly. As explained in the 1941 daily strips continuity
> >"The Mystery at Hidden River" (YM 047) by Merril De Maris and
> >Floyd Gottfredson, Pete had his old peg-leg replaced with a
> >modern prosthetic leg, meaning an artificial leg that looks like
> >a real one.
>
> Thank's for explenation.
>
> Yours
> Maciek
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 11:15:53 -0400
> From: "Daniel J. Neyer" <jerryblake2 at juno.com>
> Subject: Latest Gemstone Issues and New Barks Story
> To: dcml at stp.ling.uu.se
> Message-ID: <20040510.111553.-160729465.0.jerryblake2 at juno.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> Just purchased (somewhat late, I know) the latest issues of Uncle Scrooge
> and Walt Disney's Comics and Stories. Really enjoyed "Dream of a
> Lifetime", and recognized all the "dream" sequences except the Blackjack
> Ballroom fire that opened and closed the story. Is this from "Hearts of
> the Yukon"? I unfortunately missed that one when Gladstone published it.
> Donald's meeting with Hortense was hilarious and a bit touching, too, and
> the "falling makes you wake up" gimmick made perfect sense to me--I've
> had that experience in dreams lots of times! One minor boo-boo--in Don's
> "Buckaroo of the Badlands", Jesse James has a moustache and a suit and
> his brother is more sloppily dressed and has a beard. In "Dream" the
> names of the James boys seem to be reversed--the moustached one is Frank
> and the bearded one is Jesse. A very good story, all in all--but I hope
> Scrooge finds out about that well entrance soon. There's no telling how
> much trouble the Beagles can cause with that secret passage into the Bin.
>
>
> The other stories in the issue were OK, but just filler compared to
> "Dream." Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, on the other hand, represents
> another "thumbs-down" issue. The Van Horn story was good as always, but
> the Daisy yarn was ridiculous (Daisy was "miscast" in the story to begin
> with, but this could have been done using any character and would still
> be as blah as all get out).
>
> The worst part, though (this has sadly been the trend lately) was the
> Mickey story, another flash and thunder "magic" tale. What, oh what, has
> happened to the Mickey who used to battle Pegleg Pete's rackteers, Wolf
> Barker's outlaws, and the like with "his naked hands"? Now he can't get
> anything done without magical powers or other outside help. It would seem
> Egmont, in reaction to the boringly perfect Mickey of Paul Murry, has
> gone to the opposite extreme and made our Mouse an unsure-of-himself
> bumbler who at best can nimbly dodge overweight thugs. There's an
> inbetween Mickey, boyishly exuberant but resourceful, unflappable, and
> good-humored, shown in the works of Gottfredson and Romano Scarpa--both
> of whom didn't exist, at least going by Gemstone's current policy. I
> repeat--stop printing Mickey altogether if you're not going to give us
> the real Mouse.
>
> The best part of this issue of WDC&S, besides the Van Horn tale, was the
> Branca-illustrated fishing yarn. I had this one in an old, second-hand
> Whitman (I think) that was unfortunately thrown out, and was delighted to
> see it again, albeit with a slightly different translation than what I
> remembered.
>
> This stuff on Blum's "new" story using Barks' old cartoon outline is
> interesting, not the least in that I remember Blum roundly dismissing the
> outline in a Carl Barks Library article as not capturing the essence of
> the characters. Guess he doesn't care what he's said in the past so long
> as he can get the acclaim of "discovering" a new Barks yarn. But why is
> he working magic into the plot? I guess that's all you can expect from a
> man whose major creative influences are "the Secret World of Jules Verne"
> and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I'm not kidding--he says so on his
> website.
>
> Sorry for the negative tone of this e-mail, but the "Brave New World" of
> Gemstone has some very unpleasant aspects that I fear may someday eclipse
> the good stories we know and love.
>
> ________________________________________________________________
> The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
> Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
> Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 13:33:01 -0400
> From: "Jason Gerstein" <rabidferret at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Don Rosa Original Art
> To: dcml at stp.ling.uu.se
> Message-ID: <BAY8-F94A6V9g8pXwTx0000b94b at hotmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>
> Hello fellow duck fans!
>
> For anyone who is searching for original Don Rosa art, 9 pages from 'The
> Incredible Shrinking Tightwad' are now available at:
>
> http://www.rabidferret.com/donrosa
>
> If you've got any questions, please feel free to ask!
> -Jason
>
> www.rabidferret.com
> AIM: rabidtarsier
> rabidferret at hotmail.com
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 18:00:55 -0500
> From: Chris Hilbig <chilbig1 at satx.rr.com>
> Subject: Anders And & Co
> To: dcml at stp.ling.uu.se
> Message-ID: <E4702CEF-A2D5-11D8-B765-000502CD2D4C at satx.rr.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Does anyone know where I can buy a copy of the latest Anders And & Co.
> I know I can purchase a subscription via Amazon, but I'd love to get my
> hands on this week's issue with the Phantom Blot. If nothing else,
> it'll give me an excuse to finally learn another language. :P
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Chris Hilbig
>

Daniel van Eijmeren wrote:

> "For goodness, sake! Who's that guy - the PIED PIPER?"
> (Which Barks story?) :-)
>
> hint #1: It's not "The Pied Piper of Duckburg".
> hint #2: "Hold on, boys! I had no idea it was THAT tasty!"
> hint #3: "Look at the mice go for that cheese!"

Hmm... could it be a Gyro story?

- Martin S. Thoresen

In a message dated 5/11/2004 11:01:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time, jerryblake2 at juno.com writes:

> You're right, Rodney--I would ten times prefer to see a Paul Murry tale
> to the junk that passes for Mickey "adventures" right now. Murry was not
> long on characterization, but his plots were always solidly
> constructed
> and sometimes brilliant.

I seem to recall that Murray stated that he didnt write any of these stories -
but the art is good, the stories by Fallberg, Christensen, Charles Beaumont, etc are nice fun stories. Certainly better than these MagicMice stories.

steven rowe

Steven Rowe
SRoweCanoe at aol.com

Luca:

>Maybe someone of you can remember the earliest stories in which Donald has
>a job at Scrooge's Money Bin consisting in cleaning all his silver coins
>(maybe with a 30 cents' daily salarium?).
>Maybe that the original idea is by Barks, or by Vic Lockman, isn't it?

I have checked my Barks and can safely say that it wasn't his idea.

There's the first Scrooge one-pager where he deals with a silverpolish
salesman and there's Scrooge cleaning some coins at the beginning of "The
Midas Touch". That's it with cleaning / polishing coins in Barks' work!

As for Donald, he has worked for Scrooge in several jobs, but would you
believe, there are only four Barks-stories, where you actually can see him
working in the money bin (no cleaning / polishing involved, though):

- "Too Safe Safe" (WDC 171, which, for some inexplicable reason, features a
cameo by a certain Cinderellian cat or, at least, a caricature of it)
- "Riches, Riches Everywhere" (US 11)
- "That's No Fable" (US 32)
- "The Invisible Intruder" (US 44, script: Lockman)

Am I the only one who is surprised? Who knows, maybe Guido Martina was the
one to introduce the money-cleaning theme. ;-)

Frank

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Daniel Neyer wrote:

> It may be just my
> imagination, but it's starting to seem to me that Gemstone has
> initiated
> some new policy to phase out the older Mouse and replace him with this
> cross between Harry Potter and Casper the Friendly Ghost.

While I have no business disputing someone's tastes in stories, I will
make it very clear that Gemstone sets no policies concerning which
"types" of characters are to be used in our comics. Moreover, everyone
here knows that there are more "older" Mice than you can shake a stick
at - we could never, in our wildest dreams, come up with any series of
stories by anyone, past, present, or future, that wouldn't seriously
violate someone's idea of the "Classic" Mickey. Frankly, Disney - and I
mean DISNEY Disney - has been in this bind for decades, and Disney
comics publishers are no less stymied.

But that isn't a call to stop criticizing Gemstone's efforts. On the
contrary, the viewpoints often expressed here, of whatever nature, are
of the keenest interest to those of us who work on these books.
Gemstone has e-mail addresses for each of the monthly titles, as
follows:

us at gemstonepub.com
wdc at gemstonepub.com
dd at gemstonepub.com
mm at gemstonepub.com

(I'll post an e-mail address for Donald Duck Adventures and the pending
Mickey Mouse Adventures pocket book titles shortly.)

These are open to anyone, to submit any commentary they like, so long
as it relates to Gemstone's Disney comics. On behalf of the entire
Gemstone editorial staff, I sincerely invite all of you to do so.

Moreover, if anyone would like Gemstone to consider publishing remarks
they make here on the DCML, just state so in your postings. Please do
so for each posting; at no time will Gemstone use anything from the
DCML for publication without this prior consent.

Gary