What can we say about Barks?

creator of Duckburg and Scrooge McDuck

Postby Egg » Wed Apr 19, 2006 7:50 am

Stephan wrote:
Egg wrote:"Help! Help! The indians have us surrounded! They're starting to climb the stockade!"
(which story? P.B. know?)

Maybe 'Voodoo Hoodoo'?

Indians in 'Voodoo Hoodoo'? No.
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Postby Robb_K » Wed Apr 19, 2006 8:18 am

Egg wrote:
Stephan wrote:
Egg wrote:"Help! Help! The indians have us surrounded! They're starting to climb the stockade!"
(which story? P.B. know?)

Maybe 'Voodoo Hoodoo'?

Indians in 'Voodoo Hoodoo'? No.

That story was Gyro gearloose in "War Paint". A film director was directing a film, and hired Gyro to make real war paint to put on his actors who played American Indians. Gyro succeeded TOO WELL. His paint made them really want war and scalps. It was published in USA Uncle Scrooge Nr. 30.
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Postby Doctor Witchie Britchie » Wed Apr 19, 2006 5:42 pm

Egg made this comment over on the "Disney artists you like other than Barks" thread:

Barks's career lasted more than 60 years. Those 25 years of comics were just a part of that. But often I see that people mostly focus on 1948-1952, which is only about 5 years of the more than 60 years. How can such a fan talk about a "genius" then, if Barks only made a relative small percentage of good stuff and a lot of bad stuff?

I heartily agree with this statement--I find that Only a Poor Old Man, Back to the Klondike, The Golden Helmet, The Old Castle's Secret, the Fabulous Philosopher's Stone, and other stories from this six-year period, get a disproportionate amount of attention from commentators, and are reprinted much more often than any other Barks stories. Not that all these tales aren't great, but commentators frequently dimiss all the stories that came before them as "early" work and all the stories that came after them as "campy" or uninspired. Barks' tales had greatness in them almost from the beginning, and that greatness remained throughout his comic book career and throughout his painting and sculpting career. All of Barks' Walt Disney's Comics and Stories ten-pagers throughout the forties are brilliant--many of them are laugh-out-loud hilarious, such as the one where Gladstone first appears (I love the expression on the Gander's face as he's forced to drink all that lemonade). And there are many brilliant stories in Barks' fifties and sixties output--among them Treasure of Marco Polo, House of Haunts (aka His Shining Hour), Forbidden Valley, and King Scrooge the First. I also enjoy The Golden Nugget Boat a lot--it sort of balances Back to the Klondike and implies that Scrooge isn't perhaps the King of the Sourdoughs he sometimes claims to have been.

There are many more Barks stories deserving of "classic" status than just those tales from 1948-1952.
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Postby Robb_K » Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:34 am

Egg wrote:
Doctor Witchie Britchie wrote:The reason I see "Unfriendly Enemies" as a possible spoof on the Cold War-era "summit meetings" is because it falls in Barks' later period, when he had by and large stopped doing the Donald/Jones neighbor battle stories.

I fail to see the connection. A fan reminded Barks of neighbour Jones in the early 1960s. There's a letter about that.

Doctor Witchie Britchie wrote:Huey, Dewey, and Louie, in their attempts to create "pipelines to peace" and the like sounds to me very like the Americans who were arguing that the US and Russia could peacefully co-exist at the time the story was written. I think that here Barks was using an old theme (Donald vs. Jones in slapstick battle) to make some comments on a new issue. I certainly don't see the Cold War theme in earlier Donald/Jones stories.

Wow! You're reasoning is great. Egg likes that very much.

Regarding Barks possibly having based his early '60s "resurrection" of Neighbour Jones: I don't believe Barks was inspired to this story because of "The Cold War". If THAT were the case, he'd have brought Jones back in the late '50s. I believe he brought Jones back, because a fan reminded him of Jones, AND, coincidentally, he was having difficulty thinking up ideas for new stories. He DID make his paody of "The Cold War" in his 1957 US story with The Brutopian parody of Kruschev.

My memories of my personal discussions with Mr. Barks, remind me that he was a very direct (to the point) man, and writer. As he often told me, there were few, if any, hidden messages. If he had something to say, it was very straightforward. Also, he seemed to me very suspicious of ALL politicians and political parties, and political leaders. He liked to make fun of human nature, people in all walks of life, and on ALL sides of the fence. He told me several times that he used characters, situations and story geography/props as needed on a story by story basis. He never had a map of Duckburg, Duck County and Calisota's geography, on paper or in his mind. He never really referred to a family tree of The Duck Family, when adding family characters to make a story. True, he did make one once, but it wasn't true to the characters he and Disney had used, and he never really used it. He told me he was very surprised at the lengths of "research" his fans went to, to build an idea of Duckburg's/Calisota's geography and history, and The Duck Family Tree. He said he never really thought about those things in an organised way. He only introduced a new character, technology or geographical feature/location as he needed it for a story.

No deep inspiration sources or agenda. He had a goal to make entertaining stories that he would like to read, himself. He didn't try to invent a World for The Ducks which could be recorded, catalogued and analysed to death by drooling fans. He told me that while he was writing the stories he would visit the local drugstore. He would watch the kids read the superhero comics. He NEVER saw a kid buy one of his comics! In 1966, when I met him, he was shocked that a 19 year old would still be a big fan of his work, and photcopy ALL his pages (even gathering unpublished), and pay money to have them professionally bound, and would personally hand-colour them. Colour photocopy was in its infancy then, and VERY, VERY expensive.
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Postby Paralyzed Buffalo » Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:36 am

Egg wrote:Does Paralyzed Buffalo know Barks-story with similar salesman idea?

Paralyzed Buffalo is standing with mouthful of teeth. Or is egg meaning story with Donald taking control over nephews merchandise (egg-clutchers) to sell to for example stubborn heremite?
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Postby Paralyzed Buffalo » Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:45 am

Robb-K being very interesting paleface. He one of most readingworthy blokes around. Me invite him for cosy pow-wow chit-chat smoking peacepipe with crushed ancestors bones in teepee Paralyzed Buffalo. Smoking other things in peacepipe also allowed.
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Postby Robb_K » Thu Apr 20, 2006 8:21 am

Paralyzed Buffalo wrote:Robb-K being very interesting paleface. He one of most readingworthy blokes around. Me invite him for cosy pow-wow chit-chat smoking peacepipe with crushed ancestors bones in teepee Paralyzed Buffalo. Smoking other things in peacepipe also allowed.

It could be arranged. I return to Nederland at the beginning of June. Where is your tent? Will we smoke YOUR ancestors' bones?
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Postby Egg » Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:46 pm

Paralyzed Buffalo wrote:
Egg wrote:Does Paralyzed Buffalo know Barks-story with similar salesman idea?

Paralyzed Buffalo is standing with mouthful of teeth. Or is egg meaning story with Donald taking control over nephews merchandise (egg-clutchers) to sell to for example stubborn heremite?

That's a good answer. I didn't expect that one.
I meant another salesman story. I meant a salesman story with merchandise that is difficult to sell, as happens in the Totem Poles story.
So you can have another go, ParaBuffa. Think... think..
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Postby Stephan » Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:37 pm

Can I quess too? I think I know the story.
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Postby Egg » Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:42 pm

"I did SO want to be grand marshal! But it's no use now! I'll withdraw my name!"
(which story?)
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Postby Doctor Witchie Britchie » Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:43 pm

City of Golden Roofs, I think, is the salesman story Egg is thinking of. Donald sells Shoeless Pashly recordings to the natives in the Asian jungles while Scrooge is desperately trying to sell a giant stove (intended for heating airplane hangars in Greenland). Eventually they discover the lost City of Golden Roofs and Scrooge manages to turn the tables on Donald.
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Postby Stephan » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:13 pm

That was my guess, too -). I like the first part very much, the gags with Donald and Scrooge looking for a job.
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Postby Egg » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:20 pm

Paralyzed Buffalo and Stephan think Egg is stupid. They say they knew the answer, but only afterwards, when the correct answer already has been given. Suspicious. Very suspicious.

"I did SO want to be grand marshal! But it's no use now! I'll withdraw my name!"
(which story?)

hint: Cry baby! You're a little sissy!
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Postby Doctor Witchie Britchie » Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:21 pm

The Easter Parade story, where Donald and Gladstone are competing to be Grand Marshal of the parade. At one point, Gladstone paints "Cry baby!" and "You're a little sissy" on the Easter eggs Donald is giving away to Duckburg children (the kids are the voters in the Grand Marshal election).

"He has gone back to bed--dreaming he is in a foxhole!" (which Barks story?)
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Postby Egg » Fri Apr 21, 2006 1:34 am

Doctor Witchie Britchie wrote:"He has gone back to bed--dreaming he is in a foxhole!" (which Barks story?)

The sleepwalker story?
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