"Kid Stuff"

Yeah yeah, more Yellow Beak is coming. Times are stressful, as you know. Would you accept a quick hit for Halloween in the meantime? Well, it's what you're getting, anyway.

This is some old 1991 Van Horn, from when he was really making an effort. As a result, it's a pretty okay story! I mean, not mind-bending. Probably. Depending how easily your mind is bent. But DEFINITELY better than that last Van Horn story I covered for a holiday (or for any reason), which was "Out of the Blue." That was pretty bad; this is pretty good. How the wheel turns.

Of course, there are some things here that make you cock a skeptical eyebrow. Like, yes, overconfidence is a Donald thing, but as we'll see, in this instance it's not actually overconfidence, and why does he feel that he must be a great painter? Shouldn't he at least talk about having read a book or taken a correspondence class or something? Actually, that would be pretty funny: a correspondence course in house painting. Van Horn definitely missed a trick not just dropping that in here.

And hey, this dialogue is pretty funny. Donald makes a good point. What more can be said?

We never get word of just what's so "unusual" about this house. I mean, there's the haunted thing, yes, but he seems to be talking about something aside from that. Seems like a normal ol' house, really. But it IS at a spooky address! Well, I suppose given Donald's own address and also license plate number, he's probably not that spooked by it. But there it is.

OoooOooooOoooo! Of course, we might ask for some degree of specificity here; just saying that something is "supposed to be haunted" really doesn't tell you much of anything about anything. Still...

...it DOES lead to this alarming panel! Crikey, Van Horn, those facial expressions...I feel like you definitely had the capacity to write horror of a sort that wouldn't have been considered appropriate for a Disney comic. I don't love these--clearly they're not meant to look as creepy as they do--but they're memorable, anyway.

But what I DO like about this story is the subtlety. Is that a weird thing to say about a Van Horn story? But the whole hauntedness aspect is generally understated, which makes it work better. Is the paint moving 'causa ghosts? Or just because the floor isn't level? There is plausible deniability, and in fact, I wish there was more of this ambiguity--instead, we mainly just get the kids making trouble.

I have decided that Donald's song is to the tune of "Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal." Or should that be EERIE CANAL OOOOOO!?! Given Van Horn's prehistoric pop culture sensibilities, it fits well.

I frankly think the ghost is a better prankster than HDL are--is just inflicting random bodily harm really going to convince anyone that there are ghosts?

I mean, fair's fair; "the floor is tilted" DOES seem like a more reasonable explanation than OMG IT'S HAAAAUUUNTED!!!11 And again, do ghosts shoot you in the back of the neck with beans? I really have extreme doubts.

Yep, here's some of the ol' Van Horn slapstick. I'm sort of lukewarm about it, but I sometimes think it would be more effective in an animated context. Van Horn is heavier on the zaniness than the character, so it seems like the animated Donald might be more his speed.

This is good. Creepy. I like those uneven stairs.

HDL are actually pretty inept here. Did they really think that Donald wouldn't recognize their voices? Does that seem probable? Did they actually put any thought into any of this stuff beforehand, or are they just ad-hocking it with indifferent results? 

I mean...of COURSE he knows Dewey's voice. This deception would work in some stories--it COULD be depicted as being competent, and I'm not even sure if Van Horn realized that it comes across otherwise--but it's reasonable for it not to also.

S-s-s-spoooky! Although how would the ghost know to refer back to that conversation where Rembrandt's name came up? Does it read minds? Hmmm...

Yeah, full marks to Van Horn here; this is pretty great.  He had chops, for sure.  Not actually showing a cartoony ghost was definitely the right choice, as was not dragging the climax out more than single page.

Happy Halloween!

You do wonder, though, why whatever forces are haunting the house apparently just leave off at this point, not bothering Donald any further. Is that a ghostly thing to do? Weird.

And you ALSO have to wonder...how the heck did Donald do such a good job? The whole point of his excessive confidence is that the reality never lives up to it. But here, it does. Go figure. Not that I necessarily think it's a terrible idea to have him succeed sometimes, but he reeeeeally seemed to be tempting fate in that opening, and to have it never referred to again? I dunno.

It's not a Halloween story if it doesn't end with spooky laughter. Okay, that's obviously not true, but it's definitely an old reliable. Have a good holiday, everyone. More at...some point. Depending of course on happenings in the coming week.