Geneology

  • Reading time:1 mins read

After the establishment of Rosa, the Duck annals have begun to resemble Tolkien. A prurient quote from Rosa:

What Dell licensed from the Disney corporation was the name Donald Duck. [At that time,] Donald was […] actually like an actor. He was a different character in each cartoon. A comic book has to be based on an actual character with a history. So Carl Barks took the name Donald Duck and created a… well, a character, that didn’t even look exactly like the Disney Donald Duck. […] But, he created an entire history around this duck; a family, Uncle $crooge, Duckburg, Gladstone Gander, etc. These were all creations of Carl Barks. This is the universe that all the other duck writers and artists based their stories on.

And now Rosa, with his nerdlike extrapolative tendencies, has become the new standard. And it’s getting a little insane. (In the best way.)

I really need to read those last dozen or so Rosa stories. I’ve not seen any of his work since toward the end of the second Gladstone era. I tried to subscribe to Gemstone’s new Scrooge book. Their site rejected my propositions, however. I will try again later.

Don’t Fear the Leaches

  • Reading time:5 mins read

Gemstone indeed seems to be rather smarter than Gladstone was — at least, toward the end of its second run.

Beyond the format and title reorganization (with the two premiere comics — $crooge and WDC&S — for the fans, the two standard titles — Mouse and Duck — for the casual newsstand audience, and the digest — DDA — for the impulse, give-to-the-kid-to-shut-him-up-for-a-few-hours market), they seem to acknowledge how to organize the material itself.

I tried to find a few Gemstone books for Free Comic Book Day. Hard task. They don’t seem to have all that great a distribution, as yet. Although, oddly, I kept finding posters with the classic cover to Barks’s one Mouse title, “The Riddle of the Red Hat”. Offhand, that seemed a strange choice. Even stranger if Gemstone’s comics aren’t actually available. The best I could find was the DDA digest — which, when surreptitiously removed from its folded-over comic bag, revealed itself to contain nothing but throwaway Italian Duck fare. I think the highest-grade was the likes of Scarpa. Basically filler. Kind of disappointing, as I was expecting some really long adventure tales (as the title, and the history of its use, would tend to suggest).

The Virgin Megastore, however, yielded a special Gemstone promotional issue, designed specifically for Free Comic Book Day. On the one side, Mouse. On the other, $crooge. Inside, a subscription card. Curious.

Further research reveals that the contents include the first (of only three) Barks encounters between $crooge and Glomgold and, indeed, “The Riddle of the Red Hat”. Although initially disappointing, as I was on a hunt for Rosa — or at least Van Horn — and I already have the entire Carl Barks Library in both hardbound and album form (trading cards included) — I began to realize that this was probably intentional.

In the Gemstone books I have read thus far, I have seen not a single Barks story — strange, in a sense, as even with the multiple full printings of his run, Gladstone had a tendency to reprint his work at every opportunity (to the point that it began to drive me nuts). Then again, Gemstone has a lot of Rosa and Van Horn to catch up on — as well as Jippes and some other B-plus-level writers and artists.

It’s more than that, though. As I prove on my hunt, new Rosa and Van Horn work is book-pushing material. This is the headliner stuff. On one level, Gemstone isn’t going to blow it on a promo issue, when they can use it to sell some of their major titles. On the other hand, Barks has been done to death. There is no need for him in the major titles except in a severe content draught. For a promo, though? Well. The rules are different.

I get the impression that this issue has a much wider distribution than the normal comics. Gemstone wants to pull in readers; to get out the message that they are around, and that Disney comics are being published. What better way to do this than with a two-way issue, including both the Mouse — which people associate with Disney, even if his comic life has been mostly uneventful save some refitted Godfredson serials — and $crooge, who is really the star of Disney comics, to anyone who knows a thing about them. Draw them in with the icon, and get them reading the real material.

Further, what better introduction to $crooge than Barks? And what better Barks story than an eventful one, such as his first meeting with his arch-nemesis, Glomgold? It’s also a rather poignant story. There is also the possible nostalgia factor, where old readers might be attracted by a new glimpse of “The Good Duck Artist”, from years ago. The only question now is what halfway-interesting Mouse material is available? There really isn’t much, again, unless you care to reprint a Phantom Blot serial — which would both look sloppy and be way too long. Unless, perhaps, you remember that one short Mouse tale that Barks did. It’s something of a rarity. You really only see it turn up once every decade, if that. Not a bad opportunity, this, to drag it out again.

So if Barks is promotional material, and Rosa and Van Horn are headline material, then what’s with all of the mediocre material in the DDA books? Simple: It’s a place to put it. No real use putting high-interest content in a digest, which you generally put by the toilet or throw in the back of a car. This is not high-concentration material. These books exist to fill time. So, in a sense, they are just asking for filler. The comparative junk that, in previous eras, would have cluttered the main books and caused nasty letters, is perfect fare here.

Gemstone is starting to remind me of Playmore.

I see this as a good thing.

Soccer

  • Reading time:3 mins read

Among other things, I saw this recently. It had some kick to it.

I also think that, collectively, Kill Bill is probably one of the best films made in the last decade. Not for the reasons you expect, though.

No, I don’t intend to clarify. Because. That would mean talking about it.

I bought a VCR today. The man said it came with no RCA cables, so he sold me some RCA cables that cost half as much as the VCR itself.

I assume you can guess the punchline.

We will take the cables back tomorrow.

Gladstone Comics is back in the form of Gemstone Publishing. Same people: Gary Leach, Susan Daigle-Leach, John Clark; it just seems that they have parted ways with Bruce Hamilton. They publish Don Rosa, William Van Horn, Daan Jippes, and everything. Seems that WVH now has a son named Noel, who does Mouse stuff. While he is not as interesting as his father, the influence is clear.

There are five books, in three formats, which more or less correspond to Gladstone 1’s original debut lineup: Uncle $crooge, WDC&S, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and DD Adventures. (Curious, on that last one, that they chose not to carry over the numbering from the first two Gladstone runs.) The first two are in the deluxe square-bound format that you might recall from the last year or two of Gladstone 2’s lifespan. The next two are in a standard, less expensive, more mainstream format. The final one is in the thick-n-small digest format (with which, you might remember, Gladstone experimented in the mid-late ’80s).

Were these not so expensive, I would have subscriptions to them all. This is important stuff. As far as I know, this is the only place where Duck comics are published in English. And there should be a sizey backlog of Rosa material, that he has built up at Egmont over the last half-decade or so.

For those not in the loop, this is the stuff which defines much of my personality, vocabulary, writing style, and knowledge of the world. Barks, Rosa, Van Horn, Taliaferro, Gottfredson. They, along with Tintin and Groucho Marx, are inadvertently responsible for the core of my being. Everyone who reads this, I recommend that you go to a comics shop and pick up an issue of Uncle $crooge — particularly one with a Rosa story. If you don’t already know what you’re in for, then you just don’t know.

There is… more.

Tales of Derring-Do

  • Reading time:4 mins read

As incorrect as DuckTales was, I’ve always thought the voice fellow they used made a good Scrooge — even though Rosa insists Scrooge shouldn’t really have any accent anymore. The voice just fits him better than most characters. Donald’s voice, for example; it’s fine for the screen-Donald, who, as they say, throws nuts at Chip ‘N Dale — but the comic book Duck, who has a personality, speaks like a normal human being? I have no clue what his voice would sound like.

I also do like the refined nephew voices in DuckTales. They sound “ducky” enough, but are more than normal-sounding, as well.

Actually, DT wasn’t too bad a show. It had a number of well-written episodes, and, hell, it tried. It’s virtually the only acknowledgement by Disney that Barks’ characters ever existed. Just the fact they altered so many things and got so much wrong really annoys me.

I also admit I do like Launchpad. He was basically added to take the place of the Donald role, but he’s an enjoyable character anyway.

What don’t rub me so well are:

  • Webby and “Mrs. Beakly”;
  • “Duckworth”
  • that young fellow named “Doofus”
  • the voice for Magica DeSpell — she’s supposed to be a vixen. Why does she sound like an old hag?
  • Their characterization of Glomgold as a Scotsman who lives in Duckburg rather than a Boer who lives in South Africa
  • Their dumbed-down and “modified” Beagle Boys, with their individual names and personalities (beyond the prunes and numbers)
  • The absence of Donald, he being the axis of the whole situation to begin with
  • The strange, gawky way they drew Gyro
  • The fact that Gyro’s little helper only appeared exactly twice in all the years of the show, in cameos, and that when he did appear they called him “little bulb.” Again, huh?
  • The fact that Gladstone, as major a character as he is, only appeared twice. (Perhaps in absence of his rival, Donald?) He had a brief cameo, which was cute — but when he appeared properly, they got his character all wrong.
  • The minimal acknowledgement of the Junior Woodchucks, and very un-woodchucklike behaviour on the part of the nephews
  • The unfortunate characterization, voice, and appearance they gave to Glittering Goldie.
  • the odd negative color-switch they gave to $crooge’s jersey.
  • The fact they permanently screwed things up by confusing Dewey and Louie, then insisting it had always been that way. (Rather than Huey=red; Dewey=blue and Louie=green, as it had usually tended to be (once colors had finally been settled upon), they made it Huey=red; Dewey=green and Louie=blue.)
  • The absence of the dry wit to Barks’s writing, either misinterpreting it and taking jokes seriously or just being sickly silly.

And yet: they did basically get Scrooge’s character right, which is amazing. Had they just stuck to Barks, the show could still be on now — the elements they removed could provide a virtually endless number of plot ideas, in a number of different genres — the “ten pager,” with Donald and the kids getting into trouble around town or chasing each other around or contesting against Gladstone or other day-to-day activities; the classic Scrooge adventure, which is basically all they used as inspiration; the Scrooge “ten pager,” which they did actually use on occasion, which deal with more daily, small troubles; the Donald adventure story; the Junior Woodchuck competition stories; the Gyro episode… I could go on.

The biggest error is probably their removal of Donald and Gladstone. Compared to their absence, the other changes are nothing. I guess they just didn’t think Donald would be intelligable enough for such a large role — or perhaps they didn’t want the wider public to be confused by the fact he has a personality. I think they just figured everyone else other than the nephews would be “new” characters to most of the viewing population, allowing them to mold the show however they liked.

Result, almost everyone I’ve met seems to think that Scrooge was created for DuckTales in 1986. A few correct them: no, he was the character created for Mickey’s Christmas Carol in 1980, remember? Then that just confuses the whole matter. Why would Disney use Ebenezer Scrooge as a major character and call him Donald’s uncle?