Keskustelujen arkisto

hello
i've been scouring the internet for the past 2 weeks, looking throughout all the online book retailers and resellers, not to mention ebay, for an affordable copy of the "Uncle Scrooge McDuck: His Life and Times" book by carl barks. i'm aware that this book was issued in limited run, but it seems as though it apparently sold out immediately every time, thus making the book extremely expensive and difficult to obtain right from the start. i just now started reading about barks and the duck universe and i'm incredibly interested in reading this book, as it seems to have gotten nothing but extremely high praise, on top of being such an interesting premise. ANYWAY, my main question remains: is it possible that the book will ever get reissued as anything more than an extremely limited and expensive collector's item?
the only way that i could logistically afford the book right now is if i bought a used softcover ex-library copy of it online, since several places seem to be offering those editions for relatively cheap ($55 ~ $65). otherwise, the hardback copy is WAY out of my price range as it currently stands (starting at $200 and going up as far as $1,000 for copies from 1987).

Quote from user: GeoXNo. No, it won't. But really, it's not like there's anything in there that hasn't been reprinted all over the place....
Exactly right. Please, for heaven's sake, no more Barks reprints!

I see your problem, istvan - but until then, couldn't you just get it from the library?
They should be outthere, so keep on looking!

geox, thanks! that does make sense. it is pretty ridiculous to have to spend that much money on something when it is obvious that alot of the material is already out there in other formats for far less money. i recently had to spend $32 to get a used pb copy of 'life and times of scrooge mcduck' by don rosa, but that wasn't too bad, especially since the book is really great, at least to someone who is completely new to the entire barks duck universe.

You're welcome, istvan. You should be able to assemble a halfway decent collection for not TOO much money.
Morequack, I would entirely agree with you--IF we were assuming that established comics aficionados who are already basically literate in Disney comics are the only ones interested in this stuff. My vision is for kids everywhere--people who don't know Barks from Adam--to be able to get into his stories. I think it's the only way that Disney comics could conceivably regain any degree of popularity in the US. But how is this going to HAPPEN if the only way to find them is sift through online sellers? You can't do that if you don't know that this stuff exists in the first place. I find it completely unacceptable that stories theoretically aimed at kids are really only available in any meaningful way to savvy, adult collectors.
'Course, I also agree that there's WAY too much (I presume) good foreign-market stuff that's never been released stateside. But Boom! isn't exactly falling over themselves to release that material either, are they?

Completely agreed. With that done, no further Barks reprints will ever, ever be necessary.
(Assuming it's a mass-market thing. Otherwise, we'll just run into the same damn problem again a few years later.)

Truth be told, as with many things, there's probably no really good, comprehensive solution, but I guess I'm picturing something like thick, cheap, and widely-distributed trade paperbacks. They wouldn't be comprehensive; they would reprint things that we've all seen billions of times, but they'd be perfect for indoctrinating The Children, and would lead them into a more general Disney comics habit--'course, that last bit would only work if Boom! would stop releasing so much useless crud.

Quote from user: GeoX(Assuming it's a mass-market thing. Otherwise, we'll just run into the same damn problem again a few years later.)
A Barks work edition a mass-market thing in America? In the face of the unfortunate fact that Disney comics are on their last legs in America, this is a complete utopia. The Carl Barks Collection wasn't really a mass-market thing, too, in the European countries where it was released.

Nevertheless, the American Carl Barks Collection is a task that must be achieved. The necessity of such an edition exists independently from the question how and if Barksism and Disney comic culture get on their feet again on a broader level in America. Either if they will or if they will not, the Carls Barks Collection must come. There will be no salvation without it.

Quote from user: Charlie BrownI don't want to buy the German one. Barks should be read in his language.
I have got the complete Carl Barks Library in Color and the three (or, until now, two and a half) German Carl Barks work editions (Barks Library, Carl Barks Collection, Barks Library HC). But I need a--hopefully--'definite' English one. ;)