"History Tossed," "Immovable Miser," "Windfall of the Mind," "Forgotten Precaution"

Yup, time for this again.  What can I say?  I wasn't feeling very creative this week, and I always enjoy doing these.  And this week we have not just three but FOUR pages, for reasons of, I suppose, uncontrolled exuberance.

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"The Big Bin on Killmotor Hill"

 I was just casting about for a random Barks ten-pager to do and, oh look, I stumbled upon a pivotal story.  So, well, let's do it.  Why not?

Of course, the big thing about this story--and we see it right out of the gate--is: the Money Bin.  This story appeared just a little while before "Only a Poor Old Man," and though I certainly don't KNOW the chronology here, it certainly feels as though Barks knew he was going to be starting a new line for which he was working some things out in advance.  One notable thing about "Poor Old Man" is that we don't really get a good look at the outside of the Bin, so this is important in that regard--though it didn't tend to look quite so much like a giant safe in later stories as it does here.

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"The Phantom of Notre Duck"

 Here's this.  Perhaps you have heard of it.  It's a fairly atypical Barks story, so let's get to it.

Now, you might say, this is actually kind of typical for this era of Barks, innit?  The one that also gave us "Queen of the Wild Dog Pack," "The Loony Lunar Gold Rush," "Intergalactic Postman," et al.  And you're not wrong.  There's all kinds of goofy wordplay here, eg, of which "a swingin' swingin' door" is merely the tip of the iceburg.  And generally, it's certainly goofy enough.  But also...look, it's kind of weird that I'm writing this like this, as though I'm trying to keep things quiet until I can do my big reveal.  I doubt anyone reading this hasn't also read it.  But we'll get into stuff as it comes up, kay?  Seems fair.Read more »

"Stranger than Fiction"

 So I thought I oughta become more au fait with the current crop of US Disney comics, and I am!  And I'll write about some of them, fairly soon, probably (yeah, I'm sure THAT list of qualifiers instills one with a great deal of confidence).  But I decided to read the original story entitled..."Earth's Mightiest Duck."  And I've gotta tell you folks: I have read many good Disney comics and many bad ones and many in between.  And I've certainly started reading stories and just sorta stopped reading them due to lack of interest or general intertia (think long-ish Egmont digest stories, for the most part).  But I don't think I've ever had such a vehement experience of giving up on a comic because I hated the entire premise and aesthetic, it was almost making my physically ill, and it DEFINITELY wasn't going to ever be anything other than what it was.  So, uh, don't expect to see that here.  Sorry, Aaron.  I know I advisedly sorta-kinda liked your "Infinity Dime" story, but this is a bridge too far.  And to be clear, I'm not even saying you're a bad writer!  Just that our visions of Duckdom are fundamentally incompatible.  I'm all for more original American duck stories, but if we're just doing stuff like this...well, make mine vanilla.

So instead, thought I, what's a science-fiction-y story I can do that I LIKE, or at least don't hate with the fury of a thousand suns?  So I hit on THIS, from 1961.   Now, I'm perfectly aware that this is only really "science fiction" to the extent that almost ANY story featuring Gyro is, but I don't know how I planned to end this sentence.  This is from 1961, which no one would probably call the high point of Barks' career; it also produced my single least favorite story by the master, and I'm aware that that link doesn't work currently; apparently inducks is currently down due to some ransomware attack by some real pieces of shit, which makes me more angry than almost anything, but as you could determine if you tried, by looking at the url, it's "That's No Fable," which maybe I should write about some day, but I dunno; that would make for one dispiriting blog entry.

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"Buffo or Bust," "Uncle Scrooge Crawls for Cash," "Wrong Number"

Yeah, we're doing this again.  What can I say?  I enjoy it.  I was out of town on vacation this week, but I had these preprepared for just such an occasion, so...here we are.  

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"Rescue Enhancement," "Going to Pieces," "That Sinking Feeling"

Okay, this week we shall vamp about some Barks one-pagers. If you think the fact that our entire subject matter is three pages seems kinda scanty, note that I have written five-hundred-plus words about each, making this a regulation-length entry (wait, there are regulations?). Whether you think those words were worth writing...well, that remains to be seen. It's a fun thing for me to do, though, because what always happens is I look at the comics, think, boy, THIS doesn't seem very promising for saying anything much, and then I dive in and spin things out and realize, hey, yeah, actually, I can do this ("your duck bloggers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should").

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"The Waltz King"

All right, it's been kind of a hard week, so you get some Barks.  But to clarify: just because I do Barks doesn't automatically mean it was a hard week.  And I might do something OTHER than Barks on a hard week, too.  Most likely an NBW story.  So while the story I do IS causally related to my stress levels, it's not a perfect correlation and you can't really use it for predictive purposes.  I hope that's clear.

(Did I consider doing a patriotism-themed story this week?  Um...no.  We'll say no more of that.  This story WAS written/released in the summer, though, so enjoy that fact.)

From 1947, this is an early story than we've been looking at lately.  And I have oddly mixed feelings about it.  Because there are real, definite highlights; the plot is fairly adroit--and yet, I sorta-kinda don't like it that much.  Let us try to figure out why.

Few stories get to the point faster, I'll say that for it.  Waltz contest!  Do it!  Not quite sure why Daisy's in charge of the Sub-Teen-Age Debbies Club, but hey, there's a lot we don't know about her.Read more »

"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."  "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 Riddle of the Red Hat"

 Here's a story I should probably have done some time ago.  The reason I didn't was probably because it wasn't clear how much there was to say about it.  Let's face it: it's a Barks story about Mickey.  That right there is the only reason anyone's any more interested in it than ANY old random Mickey story by Dick Moores or whomever.  It is at least a little interesting in terms of Barks' career, just because it's a rather early adventure story (if you want to call it that--it's only eleven pages, but tonally, it's definitely not the equivalent of ten-pager), so you can see his development.  Well, somewhat.  The fact that he was self-consciously using characters he usually wouldn't make it a little hard to place within the context of his work.  Still, at the very least, an interesting footnote.

Also, it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: it is in no way Barks' fault that red hats nowadays are associated with American nazis.  I wish they weren't, though!

(Side note: I have this thing where I'm always vaguely surprised to remember that Barks' and Gottfredson's careers weren't exactly concurrent.  Not that he didn't write (or at least draw, thanks to Walsh coming on board) worthwhile stories later in his career, but his most celebrated work comes from the thirties and early forties.  By the fifties, while Barks was still going on all cylinders, most of his career, at least as a crafter of actual stories, was behind him.  This is an early story for Barks, but Gottfredson at the time was doing non-household-name stuff like "Billy the Mouse."  Perhaps this should lead into a longer discussion of inconsistent perceptions of time, but as it happens, all it gets is this parenthetical.)

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"Good Canoes and Bad Canoes"

 I must admit, I like that after-the-fact title.  It's pretty solid.

Sometimes it happens that I read a story and zero in on one specific thing I want to talk about, and that's the impetus for a whole entry.  Such is the case today.  In most ways, this is a pro forma Donald vs Gladstone story--perfectly readable, but not among Barks' very best (and yet, probably still better than any story that anyone else ever wrote for Western. Agree? Disagree? Sound off!)  But!  There IS one thing here that I think needs more publicity!  And maybe some other interesting things will happen; who can say?

Yeah, it's a fairly pro forma story of its type--perfectly okay, but not one of Barks' all-time greatest.  You will note how the contours of this rivalry vary according to the needs of individual stories.  Elsewhere, maybe Donald feels despair at the impossibility of ever defeating his cousin.  But HERE, he's feeling good about it!  That could be a harbinger of bad things, but who knows?  Stay tuned.

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"Strike Up the Band"

 So here's one that doesn't really have a good title: the inducks page calls it "The Price of Fame," which I suppose is accurate, but somewhat generic.  So instead, we're using the little alternate title they provide for reasons I don't really understand.

I wanted to do something Hungarian-themed, to congratulate our Magyar friends for getting rid of Orban, but I'm not sure there ARE any Hungarian-themed Disney comics.  I figure at some point SOMEONE must've made a dumb "Hungry" joke, possibly in tandem with  "Turkey," but what else is there?  What does the average American man, woman, or enby on the street know about Hungary?  Probably not that much, and I'm certainly not setting myself up as some sort of expert.  Do the common people know that that's where Béla Lugosi is from?  Do the common people even know Béla Lugosi?  I guess you could write a Disney vampire story, with ducks or mice, of the sort Gemstone used to publish in their Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck Digests.  I think paprika is fairly strongly Hungary-coded; it's certainly distinctive-looking, so you could have a slapstick story where it gets everywhere and turns everything red.  Sure.  Or how about a duck version of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle?  Now we're cookin'!

Well you might ask: why am I babbling senselessly about Hungary in an entry that's not going to have anything to do with that?  Look, I don't know.  Maybe living like this makes me a little insane.  Also, iss a larf, innit?  For this week I just chose a silly story that I really love.  Does this indicate that this blog is going into all-positivity mode?  I...really couldn't say.  That's the excitement!  When you stop by, will you encounter a masterpiece...or something that really plumbs the depths?  It is a mystery!  Ooh!

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"Raffle Reversal"

Woof.  Tough week, eh?  It's great that civilization didn't end, but the fact that was apparently on the table, uh...well, that's just what we're stuck with for oh my god HOW long?  Ack.  Under the circumstances, I think more Barks is called for, so let's go with THIS.

We're seeing the contours of Gladstone's luck here, and from some of these stories with luck duels, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Duckburg had an entirely raffle-based economy.  Like Borges' "Lottery in Babylon?"  Sure; why not?  You'd think Gladstone would get himself banned from these things if he's driving off all the weird-looking dogfaces who'd otherwise be participating.

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"The Easter Parade"

 Well, I had something else planned for this week, but then Maciek mentioned Barks' Easter story, and I thought, yeah, oughta do that.  Probably in general, I ought to spend less time harrasing you with Western stories of varying quality.  I mean, I won't, but maybe I should.  Hard to say.  But what's happening today is: this.  I don't think it's a particularly consequential story, but it has some amusing stuff I can point out, so hey, why not?  Happy Easter to those who celebrate, and a pleasant Sunday to those who don't.

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"Spending Money"

Not a very inspiring title, is it? Of course, it has no official status; it's just what people call it.  Presumably someone from Another Rainbow(?) slapped that title on it, and here we are. Makes me wonder what WOULD make if "official." I suppose if it had the official imprimatur of The Walt Disney Company™, that would do it. They should have official contests to name Barks stories. We'd probably end up with something better than this, anyway.

...is that the trouble with being rich? IS it? I try not to bring politics into these entries too much--yes, I DO bring them in, because these stories are inherently political, but believe me, it could be MUCH worse. But damn, man. Personally, I think the worst thing about being rich--certainly being ULTRA-rich--is that it destroys your brain and you're not capable of interacting with the world in a normal way anymore. Yes, as I constantly point out, comparing Scrooge to a "real" (so-called) rich person is pointless, but this story DOES seem to be a better argument for it than most, given that his excess money DOES cause him to act in extremely dumb ways here.

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"Two-Way Luck"

 I have to get my biggest--and, really, only serious--critique of this story out of the way first, which is man, that title.  Totally generic-sounding and not providing even the vaguest hint of the story's content?  Blah!  Still, it feels ungrateful to complain too much.  I'm sure we all just think of it as "the giant emerald story" anyway--or how about "Green with Envy;" would that work?.  It's a back-up  (to "All at Sea"), the sort of thing that you expect to be a little more disposable than the main one, even coming from Barks.  But man, it isn't.  I mean okay maybe it's a little silly in some ways (a Disney comic?  Get the heck outta here, ya nut!), but the artistry is also highly apparent.  So.

I do, however, always get caught up on the "emerald contest" thing.  I mean, I don't think I did when I was small, but NOW I do.  So, in this world, can we assume that nobody really knows what the biggest jewels are, or who has them?  Because if we did, it doesn't seem like this contest would really mean much.  But Scrooge DOES appear to believe it's in some way established that his is the biggest in the world--an apprehension he could only be under if there were some kind of organization that makes these determinations.  And, I mean, he has to be cajoled into entering, and he wouldn't do it at all if his nephews weren't here, so you gotta figure there are a bunch of people with big emeralds not entering them, from ignorance or apathy, so what is being accomplished here?  Tell me!

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"The Snow Princess"

Ah yes, the holiday season!  And if you thought I wasn't going to have some Christmas gifts, then you, sir or madame, are a first-class chump.  Assuming I'm able to get my shit together, I should have something extremely interesting to share with y'all on or about Christmas.  But in the meantime, let's enjoy some vaguely Christmas-ish stories, to keep the momentum going.  And let's start with some Barks, since--as incredible as it may sound--I suspect some of you aren't as obsessed with mediocre Western also-rans as I am. 

We can call this "The Snow Princess."  That's fine.  The other title that inducks gives--I think the one that was decided on by whoever at Another Rainbow or whatever--is "Statues of Limitations," which I'd give a C-, maybe.  On the plus side, it IS a pun.  You cannot take that away from it.  On the minus side, "statues" for "statutes?"  In addition to having nothing to do with the story, that is the most boring pun in the world.  I do not approve.  Anyway.  Fifty dollars!  With inflation, that'd be five hundred-some, which is okay, I wouldn't refuse it, but still, it's not as high-stakes as you might think, given what people are willing to do for it.

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"A Spicy Tale"

 Hey, if you want, you can listen to me'n'Mark blathering about "The Twenty-Four Carat Moon."  To commemorate this occasion, I have chosen to write about a wholly unrelated story.  It's been a long time coming, though, as was me appearing on this podcast, so maybe that's a connection?  Well, maybe not.  Don't be mean to me.

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"The Chickadee Challenge"

 Hey, whaddaya know?  I was on a podcast!  Two, actually, with more to come.  It's Mark Severino's Barks Remarks, and also his spin-off Rosa Remarks, and if you want to know why it took so long for me to do this...well, it was really just a matter of missed communications.  But better late than never; the experience was extremely delightful, so I hope you like them, 'cause you haven't heard the last of me!  Grrr!

We talked about some Junior Woodchucks stories, so I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to write about "Chickadee Challenge"--one that we were contemplating discussing but then didn't.  All things considered, I think that was the right decision, but it's still worth touching on.

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"Inventor of Anything" and "The Cat Box"

 I think it makes sense to talk about these two stories--Barks' second and third Gyro four-pagers--in tandem.  Actually, it might've made sense to include the first one as well, but that ship has sailed.  

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"Bottled Battlers"

 So here we have another Barks script given life by others.  There's the usual rigamarole with the art: the story was originally drawn by Tony Strobl, but then Daan Jippes swooped in and redid it.  I'm always a bit skeptical about these redraws, and never more so here: there's no cut art to be restored, and Strobl puts in pretty solid work.  I don't have any real complaint about Jippes's art either, but I dunno: regardless of their relative levels of talent, Barks and Strobl came from the same cultural milieu, so to me, his art just seems to fit the story better than Jippes', even if the latter is a more technically proficient artist.

...okay, actually, since I might have a few non-regular readers, I'll explain for the total layperson: Carl Barks was the best Disney artist, and certainly the most prominent.  He retired in 1967, but after his retirement he was convinced to come back to write scripts for other artists to draw, of which he did several dozen.  The original artwork for most of these was pretty indifferent (although I have a soft spot for some of the artists in question, particularly Tony Strobl), which is why most or all of them were redrawn by the Dutch artist Daan Jippes in the '00s.  There; that probably covers that.

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