Barks - Republican or Democrat?

creator of Duckburg and Scrooge McDuck

Postby littlehelper » Sat Dec 08, 2007 7:42 pm

I guess this is sort of off-topic, but I'd like to know what political affiliation Unca' Carl leaned to. It's hard to judge by his work, well apart from depictions of 60's teenage culture ("the interplanetary postman" et. al.) - but I'm guessing most comic artists milked this. Did anyone know him well enough to know who he tended to vote for?
littlehelper
New member
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 3:01 pm

Postby littlehelper » Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:49 pm

Egg, do you want to take this one?
littlehelper
New member
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 3:01 pm

Postby Egg » Fri Dec 28, 2007 6:43 pm

littlehelper wrote:I guess this is sort of off-topic, but I'd like to know what political affiliation Unca' Carl leaned to. It's hard to judge by his work, well apart from depictions of 60's teenage culture ("the interplanetary postman" et. al.) - but I'm guessing most comic artists milked this. Did anyone know him well enough to know who he tended to vote for?

littlehelper wrote:Egg, do you want to take this one?

Egg hopes that Robb_K and Doctor Witchie Britchie can answer this.

As far as Egg knows, Barks was not against capitalism. In a Dutch boek by Wim van Helden, titled 'Carl Barks en de mythe van Walt Disney's Donald Duck' (1985), Barks says in an interview that the people who dare to invest in his work (his paintings) should be granted their profits.
Maybe Rockerduck or other Dutch people can help on this?

Egg also remembers that Barks didn't feel sorry for himself being exploited, as he blamed himself for not having the guts to go further with his career.
Recently Egg got from Dutch television that Americans are grown up to blame themselves when careers go wrong, while they should bless American when careers go right. Maybe Barks would fit into this?

Just guessing.

Question from Egg:
Is a capitalist necessarily a Republican, or a Democrat as well?
Egg
Member
 
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:19 am

Postby littlehelper » Sun Dec 30, 2007 3:28 am

Egg wrote:Question from Egg:
Is a capitalist necessarily a Republican, or a Democrat as well?

Gee, I'd say both. I was more thinking of, how does Barks reflect any right or left-wing views in his stories?
littlehelper
New member
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 3:01 pm

Postby littlehelper » Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:32 am

Actually, my bad re: "gee, i'd say both" - you could have a republican wanting to "destroy the money system so that something better can take its place" just as much as a democrat. Probably not a typical republican or democrat view, but I'm sure there are people on both sides that shun capatalism that aren't nessecarily "closet-far left".
littlehelper
New member
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 3:01 pm

Postby Egg » Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:37 pm

littlehelper wrote:
Egg wrote:Question from Egg:
Is a capitalist necessarily a Republican, or a Democrat as well?

Gee, I'd say both. I was more thinking of, how does Barks reflect any right or left-wing views in his stories?

littlehelper wrote:Actually, my bad re: "gee, i'd say both" - you could have a republican wanting to "destroy the money system so that something better can take its place" just as much as a democrat. Probably not a typical republican or democrat view, but I'm sure there are people on both sides that shun capatalism that aren't nessecarily "closet-far left".

Examples from stories? Egg doesn't know what would be right-wing or left-wing. But Egg can try to give some cases which might fit in one or both of them.


Washing woman in WDC 124, panel 4.3 and 4,4:
"Please, please, mister McDuck! Don't take my washing machine!"
"I need it to support my husband and three-sons-in-law!"

http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=W+WDC+124-02

Is this right-wing or left-wing?
Donald feels sorry for the poor woman versus Scrooge the rich duck. But should we feel sorry? The woman not only works for her own husband, but also for the husbands of her daughters. Why doesn''t her husband work? Why don't her daughters work? Why don't the husbands of her daughters work?
In this story, as Egg interprets it, pokes fun at the poor people that have borrowed money from rich Scrooge. In a way that the reader doesn't need to feel sorry for them. As if it's just fair that Scrooge is so rich and that they are still poor.


'The Great Wig Mystery', US 52, panel 9.5 to 9.7:
Donald, on an island: "I see you're an up-to-date nation! Have you got TELEPHONES?"
Doctor Witchie Britchie: "HAVE we gottee telephones!"
"All colors, all shapes, Fly Boy!"
"Only trouble is only ONE has wires! It's a hot line to the World Loan Bank!"

http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=W+US+++52-01

Here Kooko Coco appears to be a poor country that thanks at least some of it's modern facilitities to borrowing money from rich countries. They don't seem to use a regular telephone line for that, but a "hot line". As if poor countries misuse money to buy too much unnecessary material (too much telephones).

Elsewhere in the story, Duckburg appears to have a lazy, corrupt court. On page 8 the amount of damage Scrooge has to pay is measured on how much money Scrooge owns. As if there's no mercy for the rich people. Poor people can rob them by law.

Panel 8.4 and 8.5:
male: "Let's get down to business, jurors! Shall we award that poor, ailing sneezer the damages he seeks?"
female: "He's suing for one maximajillion dollars! How MUCH is that?"
male: "Don't know, but it SOUNDS reasonable considering that McDuck's fortune is nine hundred fantasticatillion, seven hundred doubledecadecillion, eight hundred kumquatmafrillion --"
female: "Okay! Okay! You've made your point!"


'The Giant Robot Robbers', US 58, panel 9.7:
Mayor: "Don't do anything to pique those Beagle Boys, officers! They might DAMAGE the man-robots for spite!"
Officers: "Alas! This is the darkest day in the history of law and order!"
Panel 19.7:
Mayor, after personally being put in the mud: "Army, shoot those robots to pieces if you have to! I want those BEAGLE BOYS!"

Panel 20.3:
Mayor: "SOMEBODY has to PAY for the damage to those man-robots -- and YOU'RE the only guy rich enough, McDuck!"

http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=W+US+++58-02

Egg interprets this story as refering to corruption. The government makes expensive mistakes and lets rich people, who are rich enough, pay the bill for it. Egg thinks that's very political.


Are these examples interesting?
Egg
Member
 
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:19 am

Postby Olivier » Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:54 am

I have found something! Barks seems very much to have a Republican, judging from his opinion of Democrats...

"Barks was later asked whether he though that some kind of Shangri-La might yet be possible on Earth. 'No', he riposted', The Democrats have already looted it'".
(Interview by Bruce Hamilton, June 24, 1984)

"Now there are plenty of good artists, but few markets. Blame the damn Democrats! They've been running this country since it started down hill!"
(Letter to Scott Shaw, August 21, 1976)

Both quotations appear in Geoffrey Blum's "Crumbling Empire-- Part II: The Old Campaigner", first published in Set V of The Carl Barks Library (1989) and reprinted in album 32 of The Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge Adventures in Color (July 10, 1997) (my source).

The second quotation is a bit odd: were you to blame the economic situation on someone, you would phrase it the other way around.
Olivier
Member
 
Posts: 41
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:37 am
Location: Paris, France

Postby Robb_K » Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:29 am

Having known him personally, I wouldn't say that Carl Barks was a typical Republican. He was skeptical of ALL politicians and their parties. I would say that he was, generally, a conservative person, in the areas of fiscal spending. But, I'm sure he wouldn't have liked George Bush II's measures that ended up transferring wealth from the working middle class to the very rich. He was for freedom of the individual, entrepeneurship, and minimum interference by government in people's lives (all espoused slightly more by Republicans than Democrats). But he was for basic minimums in public health, education and retirements -especially those that people paid for with taxes during their working careers, and wouldn't have wanted them stolen away from those elderly people, just so the US army could poccupy foreign countries, or billionaires could line their pockets with additional money.

I think Carl would have been as much against The Republicans as he was The Democrats (as I remember him to have been).
Robb_K
Member
 
Posts: 444
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:35 pm

Postby Olivier » Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:41 pm

Maybe he simply strongly disagreed with the Democrat way of managing things at the time of these quotations.

There's another cynical quotation to the effect that politicians are all corrupt and robbing each other, but nobody is actually (physically) harmed, so it might as well remain this way.
Olivier
Member
 
Posts: 41
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:37 am
Location: Paris, France

Postby Robb_K » Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:59 pm

Olivier wrote:Maybe he simply strongly disagreed with the Democrat way of managing things at the time of these quotations.

No doubt!

Good to see you (anyone) back here on this forum, Olivier. I thought it was completely dead! Glad to see it's not.
Robb_K
Member
 
Posts: 444
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:35 pm

Postby Jan Erik » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:47 am

I think that Barks was more of a Humanist, than Rep. or Dem.
He had - while growing up during the start of last century, WWI, the Wall Street crash - relied on the true meaning of entrepreneuring...
This is neather Republican nor Democratic idiosyncrasies, but only "survival of the fittest".

Barks grew up in a capitalistic world and knew of nothing else than the monetary system, so he saw nothing wrong in that (me neither).
What I think is more interesting is whether he was a left-wing Republican or a right-wing Democrat, because I believe he was more in this greyzone in between the Elephant and the Donkey.

At the beginning of his career, Barks related more to the "Little man" in society and described the frustrations of me, my parents and my hood, so we children felt like - and associated with - this duck...

In many of the obove mentioned examples (great ones, indeed) I mostly see him ridiculing people, who has put themselves i positions where you think that they should have known better.

In his late career he was more republican IMO, in the sence of exploiting foreign people as in "Marco Polos treasures" and the one where $crooge and Donald try to sell mini-taperecorders in, what must be Thailand (I'm not into that code-system on COA, but I guess you know what I mean), and the one with the Beduins in the crater...

I think that Barks, as well as most Americans, thought that the Scandinavian system with social wellfare, Kindergarten and Eldercare payed via taxes, was (is) plain Communism; I guess "social awareness" and pure capitalism is like mixing oil and water...

(I'm trying NOT to be off-topic, but we do discus politics right now, aren't we?)
Jan Erik
New member
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:57 pm

Postby Jan Erik » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:56 am

I suddently remember that I recently have read that he voted Democratic...
I shall return when I find the quote!
Jan Erik
New member
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:57 pm

Postby Jan Erik » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:55 pm

Jan Erik wrote:I suddently remember that I recently have read that he voted Democratic...
I shall return when I find the quote!

Sorry, I didn't read it - I head it in an interview with AC (it is here in the last part of the interview, but in Danish!) and he says that Carl Barks was registred as a REPUBLICAN. (Wooops, my mistake!)

I shall try to get a confirmation...
Jan Erik
New member
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:57 pm

Postby Robb_K » Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:48 pm

I suspect that Carl was registered as a Republican all his adult life, and was what would be considered a "liberal Republican" among the "swing vote" (voters who will vote Republican on some issues and Democrat on others, and for candidates from both parties, when they vote for the "best person for the job". He seemed to me as a person who stood for freedom for the individual and low interference from big government, but, at the same time, for big government to protect the small, hard-working people from big bullies of big business and wealth, and the power mongers. That is to say, he WAS for provision of public health, education, and things for the general good of the low, moderate and middle income people, and not for "The Robber Barons" dictating to the lower 3/4 of the population how they can live". But, he wouldn't want unlimited immigration, large amounts of welfare being handed out to lazy or fraudulent people,etc. And, he also wouldn't want lots of money taken from domestic public uses, to be put into buying or manufacturing military arms, and USA flexing their muscles around The World indiscriminantly (not for defence).

So, that would make him a conservative Democrat on
Robb_K
Member
 
Posts: 444
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:35 pm

Postby Robb_K » Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:50 pm

some issues, and a liberal Republican on others.

Nice to see you on this forum, Olivier and Jan Erik. I thought EVERYONE had left.
Robb_K
Member
 
Posts: 444
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:35 pm

Next

Return to Carl Barks

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests

cron