"Much Ado About Quackly Hall"

 I'm really preoccupied by that after-the-fact title.  "It's because there's a Shakespeare play called 'Much Ado About Nothing,' only this story is about Quackly Hall," you might attempt to helpfully explain.  But I find that explanation to be A) self-evident; and B) not really an explanation.  We could do this with any story, I think.  "Much Ado About Cheltenham."   "Much Ado About Wispy Willy." https://duckcomicsrevue.blogspot.com/2018/10/wispy-willie.html  "Much Ado About Canoes."  Okay, that one's kind of good.

Anyway, Some more Barks this week; why not?  I know you'd probably like me to do some adventure stories, and I will one of these weeks, for sure, or two, but I dunno...maybe I just feel like these ten-pagers, reflecting as they do the regular ebb and flow of life in Duckburg, are ultimately more...revealing?  Maybe?  Does that make sense?

I again chose this one more or less randomly, although I have to admit, it IS from the same general period as these stories I've been writing about, so that may be in doubt.  Like that "canoes" story, I don't think it's massively distinguished as Barks stories go, but there are, perhaps a few things to say about.  We can give it a try, at any rate.

But if there's one thing that IS massively distinguished, it's the art.  LOOK at that mansion!  God, the gorgeous decay!  Like something from a Faulkner novel, only better, because Donald Duck is there.  I don't want this place refurbished; I want to just wallow in it.  Mmm!  Any other Western artist would probably have drawn it in such a way that I would have no substantial reaction at all.  And the writing ain't too bad either!

Surely someone somewhere has made a list of all the weird, abandoned edifices in Barks stories, like this and the Cathedral of Notre Duck and Pirate Inn?  The place really does feel lived in!  It's juuuuuuust ducky.  Haha!

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"The Dazzling Duck She-Venger"

 See?  I can do non-Western stories.  Just try me!  This, from 1973, seemed like a good story to do.  Right, so, just to make sure we're all on the same page: Guido Martina and Elisa Penna introduced Donald's superhero alter-ego Paperinik (Duck Avenger) in 1969 (I don't know who did what, and Martina seems to have helmed the character solo for quite a while, but I didn't want to forget about Penna).  I say "superhero" advisedly: one of the main things about the character is that, in his original appearances, he doesn't do anything heroic; he just uses his powers to indulge his petty grievances against his relatives.  That IS actually a pretty funny joke--but it's rather limited, and frankly Donald is such a jerk that they can be a little grueling to read, so it's no surprise that eventually he became more of a straightforward good guy (actually, it's possible that as of that third story, he was starting that transformation, as he IS a bit more sympathetic there--though that might just be a non-standard devitation; no later stories have been published in English, so I don't know).  I was never a big fan of these, but on rereading them in preparation for this entry, I realized that taken in moderation, I did find them fairly amusing, in an antisocial sort of way.  Probably best read while a bit drunk.

(This is from the second DA comic, and no, it's not clear why they're both hopping)

I think maybe part of the appeal of the character was that--as many or all of you will know--Martina always depicted Donald as downtrodden, especially by his raging dickhead of an uncle, so seeing him get some payback (he wins out in all of these first three stories, at any rate) might be cathartic.  Fair enough.

So before we get started, I'm going to tell you what I think, because I feel like it would be awkward to try to dance around it.  The question people ask about this story: "is it feminist?"  But I don't think that's the right question.  Don't get me wrong, it's definitely something we're going to talk about, but it's not the central point.  I think we fall into a trap with a story like this: we see some feminist or anti-feminist trappings, and therefore we prime ourselves to think of the story in those terms.  But those are big ol' red herrings.  Presumably Martina perceived that feminism was gaining traction and wanted to include some of its trappings in his story, but fundamentally, this is the same thing as those previous Paperinik stories.  As I wrote above, Donald as DA "just uses his powers to indulge his petty grievances against his relatives."  Well, here's the same thing, only with Daisy.  The story becomes A LOT more coherent when you consider it in those terms.  The very vague feminist trappings are just window dressing, and they don't play out or resolve in any coherent way.  

(I suppose in a more general way, we could see it as feminist purely in a "see? women can abuse their power and be obnoxious JUST as well as men!" which...well, true, but probably not what anyone was looking for.)

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"Light-Fingered Genie"

 So I'm not gonna lie to you: I was a little preoccupied this week, realized on Tuesday evening that I didn't have anything planned for the ol' blog, and so randomly reached into my digital collection.  And...dammit I don't know how to say this, but I came away with a Kay Wright story from 1972.  Ouch.  Look, I'm sorry that this happened, but I'll do my best to make it at least a little bit interesting.

Still: I've emphasized the bad in this sort of story quite a lot.  And look, is this a great story?  No.  Good?  No.  Fair?  Hmm...let's not exaggerate.  But I genuinely do think it has a certainy something, and that maybe with a little extra fiddling (okay, a lot), it could've become something great.  I think our writer is Bob Gregory, and even though seventies Gregory is no one's idea of a great writer, it's possible that he still had a modest amount of residual mojo [UPDATE: on further examination, maybe not. It doesn't matter.).  And it is a little bit of a weird thing for me to be trying to find the good in a not-so-good story, while also acknowledging its not-so-goodness.  But here we go.

The title is a little weird--why doesn't it start with a "the?"  This way it sounds like a Homeric epithet: Grey-eyed Athena, wine-dark sea, light-fingered genie.  Okay.

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"Redbeard's Pirate Plunder"

Hey, it can't all be Barks.  But don't worry; we're still going to be fairly positive this week.  I wanted to cover this story because a little bit ago I did a Jack Bradbury ten-pager from 1950, and it was pretty bad (this one ain't too great either).  But I think it's unfair to judge his work entirely from that, because here's an adventure story by Bradbury from 1956, and what a difference six years make!  The marked improvement in every aspect of his craft is very noticeable, and I find it quite satisfying.  Imagine, working hard and getting better!  I'm proud of you, Jack.

(And yes, there's always the caveat that I can't know for sure if Bradbury actually wrote this, or indeed the aforementioned ten-pager.  I can note that the writing doesn't leap out at me as coming from any of the usual suspects, but I still can't say with absolute certainty.  But I really want to, because I like to see people get better, and you can't prove I'm wrong!  Unless you can, in which case, dammit.  Nonetheless.)

It does feel a little weird that a real ship plays a role here, BUT...

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