From a private email sent to "A Guidebook"-site:
From: [N.R.]
To: [dve]
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2005 4:34 PM
Subject: the four mysterious gags...
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I'm a great amateur of Carl Barks DUCKS stories. I'm trying to collect and to make an exhaustive list of all stories and gags by "the good artist".
I lead for months a serious study of many references and first your book, and my list is now quite completed, thanks to you and others good references.
But it still remains a mystery that I can resolve. There are 165 gags (1 page or less) known by Carl Barks, and only 4 gags doesn't have known creation date (the publication date is ok) :
Code Title Creation date Publication date CB Library
DD 71-05 Rainbow's End ????-??-?? 1960-05 II/3/570
US 25-07 Uncle Scrooge ????-??-?? 1959-03 IV/1/185
US 32-05 The Homey Touch ????-??-?? 1960-12 IV/2/416
US 32-07 Turnabout ????-??-?? 1960-12 IV/2/317
I would like to order all the onepagers by creation date (the comics I have) and these four are disturbing me because they have no date. I'm an exhaustive man . At least, I would like to know between which others onepagers are they (for the creation date).
I read that these four gags could originally have been one of three unidentified /disappeared Uncle Scrooge gags submitted on October 1, 1958.
About the 4 "undated" gags, the only thing I can say for sure is that they were most probably done in the second half of the 1950's. Barks' stories were usually published about a half year after he had drawn them, but there are many exceptions from this rule.
From looking at the artwork, I would say that DD 71/1, US 25/6 and US 32/4 are more typical for Barks' work of the late 1950's (i.e., 1958 or 1959), while US 32/6 seems to be a somewhat earlier work - note the stylistic and thematical resemblance to US 33/1 "Tree Trick".
So, DD 71/1 and US 32/6 may indeed be some of those unidentified gags from 1958-10-01, which is supported by the fact that the other known 1958-10-01 gag, US 27/4 "Crawls for Cash", is a half-pager, too. I have doubts about US 25/6 for which the publication date is just a bit too early. (DD 71/1 may originally have been intended for the US series).
But this is all just guesswork on my part and it doesn't solve the mystery. That's why I'm asking you :
1. Do you have new elements on these four gags ?
2. Can you tell me if you have other ideas for replacing these gags among the others by creation date. Is analysis good or do you have an other point of you ? For US 32/6, who seems to be ealier, do you have an idea to place it among the others ?
3. Could you indicate me a mean to reach the creation dates, maybe an editor, maybe ancien barks work relations, or whatever. I'm ready to lead the quest for the mysterious four gags date please just tell me how to begin...
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