shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 2, 2018 18:08:33 GMT -5
Here's a question that just occurred to me: The major rift between the Disney comics and the Disney cartoons (you mention Duck Tales in the op) is Donald. In the comics, he's an articulate everyman, whereas in the cartoons there's clearly something wrong with his speech, and that necessarily simplifies his persona and limits his ability to participate in stories. The cartoon depiction came first, of course. But my question is whether Barks was responsible for the comic book depiction, or if that predated Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold. Donald's ability to articulate himself in the comics definitely pre-dates Pirate Gold. Keep in mind that the script for Pirate Gold was written by Bob Karp not by Barks. Karp and Al Taliaferro did the Donald Duck comic strip many of which were reprinted in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories particularly prior to Barks coming starting to work on Donald. Karp and Taliaferro's Donald was much in the vein of what you'd see in the Barks 10-pagers and one-page gags. This page is from WDC&S #21 cover dated June '42, so four months or so before Pirate Gold appeared. It's the comic strip/book Donald rather than the Donald from the cartoons. And they're strip reprints so they would date some time before that. Thanks so much for this. I'd imagine the divergence began when a writer couldn't decide how to translate Donald's pronunciations into word balloons (after all, Daisy and the nephews all speak like Donald in the cartoons at first - it was just how Disney ducks sounded) but, at some point, a clear decision was made to write the character differently in print than in animation.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 2, 2018 18:14:21 GMT -5
Holy crap I crafted a convoluted unintelligible sentence there. I clearly changed thoughts in the middle of it.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 2, 2018 21:51:10 GMT -5
Holy crap I crafted a convoluted unintelligible sentence there. I clearly changed thoughts in the middle of it. Sounds like me reviewing every post I've ever made.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 4, 2018 13:33:40 GMT -5
"I am Doom"? I wonder if Lee or Kirby read this story before they created a certain armored Latverian monarch.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 4, 2018 19:13:37 GMT -5
The Victory Garden (Walt Disney's Comics & Stories 31) Story: Carl Barks (rewrite) Art: Carl Barks. Donald wants to plant a Victory Garden. The nephews try to help him, unfortunately a trio of crows keep eating the seeds. After striking out at home, Donald creeps out at night to plant his garden at a corner vacant lot. In order to check it without the crows following him Donald dresses in drag to fool them (it doesn't work). Unfortunately the vacant lot is used by the boys and their friends as a football field. As a result the garden is ruined. The boys get some "invisible seeds" to fool the crows...but Donald thinks they are playing a trick on him and cause the seeds to be spilled in his bedroom. The bedroom is apparently very dirty...because the next morning he has a victory garden there. Historically important because it's the first story done entirely by Barks. This is a pretty typical 10-pager. A peek into the lives of the Ducks. Donald's temper is worse in this one than Pirate Gold...but still not a patch on his temper in the cartoons. And the nephews are definitely a lot more likable than their cinema doppelgangers. Stumbled upon a reprint of this in my collection today and read it for the first time. First off, I laughed my butt off when Donald intercepts the ball in drag, a child literally chomping on his leg. What's strange though is the pacing; it's played as a series of gags with a loose plot unifying the whole thing as opposed to a concise and progressing story. I guess we can chalk that up to Barks' lack of experience with the format at this point.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 4, 2018 23:13:38 GMT -5
Frozen Gold (Four Color 62) Sixteen months after The Mummy's Ring we finally get another full-length adventure in Four Color #62. In fact...we get two. The cover feature Frozen Gold and a second 28-page adventure Mystery of the Swamp. I'm going to look at them in separate posts. Donald and the boys are tired of the snow and cold weather so Donald trades his house, lot and four snow shovels for a plane to take them "south". But before they can go the Mayor of Fizzlebudget preys on Donald's vanity to get them to fly a load of penicillin to "stricken Eskimos." While they sleep, dark mysterious people hide a secret package behind one of the seats of the plane. During the trip to Alaska the plane ices up and they have to throw out everything, including the seats to lighten the load. They discover the package, which is a box belonging to "Klondike Joe" who has a million dollars in gold hidden in Alaska. They arrive at Point Marrow and deliver the load. While they sleep for the night Black Pete searches the plane for the box which isn't there. He then searches their room and is spied by Donald. Pete takes the box and Donald. The box contains a map to Klondike Joe's treasure. Pete ties Donald up far outside town with the intention that if he gets free he'll freeze. Donald gets free and goes through a number of adventures trying to get back to town, eventually becoming snowblind...which leads to more adventures. Meanwhile, the boys have noticed Donald and the box are gone and rouse the town for a search while they take the plane up to search by air...though they only have limited fuel. The boys find Donald and rescue him but the fuel is almost gone. They spy a cabin and set down. Unfortunately it's Pete's cabin and we find that Pete and his gang has found the gold. They temporarily capture Donald and the boys but the tables are soon turned and and our intrepid Ducks find fuel for the plane and capture Pete and his gang and return the gold to Klondike Joe. I was struck by shaxper 's comment on the Victory Garden. While there's a plot here, it's not much of a plot so what you get to fill out the rest of the 28 pages are a series of gags mostly dealing with snow and arctic wildlife. Some of the gags call back to Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush. It's a fun story though and there's no doubt that Black Pete would happily dispose of our intrepid ducks, given the chance. Both Donald and the boys are brave, resourceful and altruistic. There's still a ways to go before we get to the classic Barks adventure stories, but the foundation is there.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 4, 2018 23:17:05 GMT -5
I was struck by shaxper 's comment on the Victory Garden. While there's a plot here, it's not much of a plot so what you get to fill out the rest of the 28 pages are a series of gags mostly dealing with snow and arctic wildlife. Some of the gags call back to Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush. It's a fun story though and there's no doubt that Black Pete would happily dispose of our intrepid ducks, given the chance. Both Donald and the boys are brave, resourceful and altruistic. There's still a ways to go before we get to the classic Barks adventure stories, but the foundation is there. This was actually one of six stories I read today, and I have to agree with you -- it was enjoyable but certainly the most forgettable of the Barks and Rosa adventures I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with. The plot was cohesive enough that a sense of urgency pervaded much of it, but it certainly does feel like Barks doesn't quite know how to fill up the space yet.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 18, 2018 14:04:59 GMT -5
Mystery of the Swamp (Four Color 62) The second half of FC 62 finds Donald finally in the warmth of the South on vacation in Florida near the Everglades. And Donald is bored. So at the suggestion of another fellow fishing near him he outfits an expedition into the Everglades, which is virtually unexplored and full of strange creatures and places barely seen by man. Following a night in the Everglades the boys wake up to find that most of their camping equipment is gone. And upon turning around they find the tent that they were just in has vanished. They set of to find the culprits and come across a mysterious sign. The boys ignore the sign and are attacked from the swamp by hidden assailants armed with bows and arrows. They come upon a hidden village that is populated by the Gneezles, small little people who are indigenous to the swamp and have been in hiding there since before the Spanish explored Florida. The boys decide to kidnap a Gneezle and manage to do so which reveals that the Gneezles have strange powers. The Gneezles turn the table and capture all four of the boys. Donald is forced into a trial by combat, but is ultimately saved when the nephews trick the Gneezles by making the large statue they worship speak to them and tell them to dance, allowing our intrepid ducks to escape. Unfortunately the gang had eaten apples that had been doped with a forgetting formula and they had no memory of the adventure, thinking their time in the swamp had been uneventful. While you don't think about it today the Everglades, even in the 40s were still a wilderness area, the interior of which was pretty well only known to a few people who lived there. The idea of a hidden, and in this case magic, civilization hidden there wasn't as completely outlandish as it might seem. This is a fun story. Again, there is a definite sense of danger. The Gneezles use actual arrows. Donald uses a gun. The alligators certainly seem dangerous. For all that we never really think that the Ducks will be hurt. But it's a fun ride and there's a germ more of a plot here though there is still a bit of the same going from incident to incident rather than an overarching story.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 18, 2018 16:22:29 GMT -5
Four Color 79 (The Riddle of the Red Hat) And we now reach one of those anomalies...Barks' only Mickey Mouse story. I have no idea why Barks did this one and only Mickey story. If anyone knows, please shout it out. The story begins with Minnie buying a really ridiculous red hat and Mickey tactlessly telling her what he actually thinks about it. Of course Minnie lets him have it and stomps off. Clarabelle convinces Mickey to apologize and he buys chocolates for Minnie. He sees her distinctive hat and follows her to the top of a roof of a building. But it's not Minnie. It's another woman in the same hat that gives him a package to deliver to Mr. Whoosit. Mickey takes it to the police, but it's just a glass ring and they blow him off. Mickey and Goofy then find an actual ruby hidden in the ring and decide to find Mr. Whoosit. Meanwhile, Black Pete finds Minnie in her hat and thinks she's the other lady pulling a double cross. He kidnaps her and takes her to Mr. Whoosit's place. Mickey and Goofy track down Whoosit. Millionaires can't be crooks...who knew. Ultimately Mickey rescues Minnie and captures Pete and Whoosit. The ruby is stolen and the police again learn they should listen to Mickey Mouse. This is a sharp little 11 page story. There's a nice bit of action and Barks proves that he could have been equally adept at working on any other property besides the Ducks. Though I'm glad he stayed where he was.
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Post by electricmastro on Mar 25, 2020 17:49:29 GMT -5
Cool page from Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #44 (May 1944, Dell Comics).
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 15, 2020 17:26:38 GMT -5
Interesting piece of direct continuity in a place I wouldn't have expected it.
In the Donald Duck 8-pager in WDC&S #61, Huey, Dewey & Louie end the story tracking down a burglar and having a reward coming. The 10-pager in issue #62 opens with the boys having received their reward and Donald being jealous because he's broke. Of course by the end of the story Donald has borrowed all the money in order to support his shenanigans in trying to make more money than the nephews.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 15, 2020 18:05:02 GMT -5
Best Christmas (Firestone Christmas Giveaway 1945) Story & Art by Carl Barks Donald decides to rent a horse-drawn sleigh and take the boys to Grandma Duck's house for Christmas, packing up the turkey (egad) and the presents. Of course the weather turns super bad and Donald's temper causes more trouble. The gang end up at a small cottage where a mother and two children are going to be spending a very meager Christmas. The boys are super altruistic and in the end Grandma Duck saves Christmas. This isn't necessarily an important 10-pager, but it does do two things. It's characteristic of the sweet Christmas stories that will become a Barks staple. And it's the first time that Barks brings Grandma Duck in to one of his stories (though she had appeared in a number of earlier one-page newspaper strip reprints.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 21, 2020 9:28:53 GMT -5
He's ba-ack...
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 21, 2020 11:30:33 GMT -5
Hopefully will have Four Color #108 up in a couple of days. Still need to write up Planetary #6 and Fantastic Four #12.
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Post by shaxper on Jun 21, 2020 17:35:12 GMT -5
Hopefully will have Four Color #108 up in a couple of days. Still need to write up Planetary #6 and Fantastic Four #12. This has long been one of my favorite CCF review threads, even if it hasn't gotten very far. I am truly excited to see its return.
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