Keskustelujen arkisto

The Carl Barks cover on Walt Disney Comics #717 was why I purchased it. The cover alone was worth the $4 to me. The composition of the ducks is very similar to the preliminary painting Carl did of In Uncle Walt's Collectry. I had the pleasure of owning that little Collectry painting for a while. It was actually a zerox of a drawing painted in with watercolors. One thing I especially liked about it was the ducks had outlines around them like they do in their stories. It had a lot of charm to it, and though not as polished as the final painting, I like it better.
In my living room I have a framed poster of the painting In Uncle Walt's Collectry. It's just like the litho but it's even larger and I think I only paid around $25. The paper's not as nice as on the litho and it's unsigned, but it looks really great framed. I do like some of the details better in the preliminarly painting, though. The roomer was way cooler with a window seat and hardwood floors, and I liked it better with the ducks looking at the book of collectables rather than the Mickey Mouse doll. I find the whole idea of what's real and what's not very intriguing. Real ducks (in my mind) looking at toy figures which I like to collect... fascinating!
I could go on about the In Uncle Walt's Collectry painting for quite a while but I would like to relate one story I heard for Gary Coddingham. Gary used to sell a lot of Carl's drawings for him. Gary told me that In Uncle Walt's Collectry was one of the hardest paintings Carl ever did. He said when Carl got done with it he said, "I'm glad I'm finally done with that turkey!" Then Gary added that later Carl began to really like it. It was also Gary's favorite.
The cover on Walt Disney Comics #717 is especially fun for me because it's the same type of painting only done with an adventure theme which really works for me. It's just full of cool details to poke around and look at. Years ago I had been given a black and white photocopy of this drawing which I'd always planned on coloring in myself but never got around to. I think Jake Myler did a nice job with the color on this cover and I'm sure the project took a lot of work. I would be curious how it would have looked if Susan Daigle-Leach had done it. I especailly admire her work and it's always a joy when one of my favorite stories are colored by her.
The rest of the comic I didn't care for at all. I admit I mostly just like Barks and Rosa, though. I found a little interest in the William Van Horn story but even that just didn't grab me. It didn't seem to have much depth, I don't like the look of Veracia Duckworst with her two buck teeth, and Uncle Scrooge seemed a little out of character.

Actually, after I disappointedly read the comic I grabbed my copy of Uncle Scrooge #319 and reread Don Rosa's THE BLACK KNIGHT. Now that's a story I enjoy and more to my taste!