I stumbled on a great Carl Barks comics site on the internet, only I forgot to bookmark it, and now I can't find it. Anyway it was great to be reminded of what a terrific storyteller Barks was. His best stories, like the Uncle Scrooge "Klondike" story pulled no punches. In Klondike he seemed to tell kids that getting rich was doable but hard work and great sacrifice were the price, and kids should man up so they'll be ready to do battle when enormous difficulties come their way.
In the Northern gold fields Scrooge encounters Glittering Goldie, the only love of his life, and she steals from him.
Scrooge forces her to repay him. He puts her to work digging for him. They both live together in the same shack til the debt is paid. Try to imagine the modern Disney corporation printing stories like this!
The site talks a lot about bloopers in the stories...little nitpicky things like Donald's car (above) having a windshield in one panel and no windshield at all in the next.
BTW: I LOVE the design on Donald's little red convertible! Somebody should build a real car that looks like that. Wait a minute. They did! Thanks to Glenn for the cool picture.
Anon sent a picture of a late 30s Bantam Roadster, which may have been the inspiration for Donald's car. The end of the link dropped out, so I didn't get to see Anon's photo, but I looked up the car on the net and discovered lots of terrific pictures.
Back to Barks' bloopers: sometimes they were glaring. Here (above) Barks adds a fourth nephew for one panel only, just to add to the weight it takes to hold a man down.
Barks was proud that he was able to work what he called his "cynical" worldview into his stories. He created Gladstone Gander (above), the lucky friend of Donald who never has to work hard for anything. We all know and secretly envy somebody like that. Gladstone reminds me of the character Al Pacino played in David Mamet's "Glengarry, Glen Ross". Come to think of it, Scrooge reminds me of the character John Wayne played in "Red River."
The site has plenty to say about Barks' wife Gare, a landscape painter (sample above) whose pictures convey enormous good cheer.
That's (above) Gare when she was young. Wow, she was a looker!
In her retirement years Gare ceased to look like a babe, and morphed into something even better...the sweetest person you could ever hope to meet; a first-rate human being. Thanks to Milt Gray I was able to spend an afternoon with Carl and Gare and was taken by how much they seemed to enjoy each other's company. I'm so happy that she and Carl found each other.
Carl recommended me to his friend Mik, the artist who did the newspaper comic strip "Ferd'nand." Mik was looking for an assistant to help draw the strip, and offered to give me a tryout. Wow! What an opportunity! Unfortunately I had to decline. I'd only recently discovered Clampett and my mind was full of the possibilities offered by funny, full animation.
Let me take a stab at the site where I got all these Barks pictures...could it have been this one?
http://www.cbarks.dk/indexint.htm
All great pictures! I guess he was the inventor of the town of ducks and dog nose people! Are those top two by Banks himself?
ReplyDeleteIs that Carl Barks coloring on the paintings? I remember his paintings had a reputation for garish color schemes but those are nice.
ReplyDeleteAlso it's a shame Mamet has apparently went crazy lately.
ReplyDeleteJoshua: Maybe his editor was the inventor of dog nose people. His editor insisted that humans be portrayed as animals of a sort.
ReplyDeleteThe top two paintings are always attributed to Barks. I guess we'll never know if Gare helped out. Their styles seemed to have merged a little over time.
I love Barks' work. The color and amazingly polished look make Carl's work timeless. His drawings never age! There is another collection of all this stuff coming out soon I believe. I also own an original copy of "Only a Poor Old Man", the first story with Scrooge as the main character. So happy with it!
ReplyDeleteUncle Eddie! Donald's car is based off a late 30's American Bantam. Check it out!
ReplyDeletehttp://geocitiessites.com/MotorCity/Garage/7896/bantam.htm
Bob Camp told me once that Barks' incidental characters looked like he flipped a coin to determine whether they'd have dog noses or pig noses.
ReplyDeleteHere (above) Barks adds a fourth nephew for one panel only...
Yeah, that's "Pooey." The rest of the family didn't talk about him much.
In her retirement years Gare seized to look like a babe, and morphed into something even better...
Did she actually "seize" something that looked like a babe, or did she instead cease looking like one herself? (BTW, you can't morph into something better - there IS nothing better.)
Well, it's interesting to hear storys about donald's car.
ReplyDeleteBut storys ain't enough sometimes, because I saw it here in Norway and it is the most accurate replica I've ever seen.
Check it out:
http://www.radiofolgefonn.no/system/forms/getimage.aspx?img=2442.jpg
http://bloggfiler.no/evia.blogg.no/images/990824-10-1309681469827.jpg
Too bad there wasn't any more pictures that I could find.
~Glenn
Whats weird is how crazy popular Disney comic books still are in Europe. It's cool but aside from the classic reprints most of the new comics are pretty inane and second rate.
ReplyDeleteIve actually read some of Carls stories from this old compilation i've found at my local library, but i'm not sure if i'd want to collect the whole series.
ReplyDeleteBy the way Eddie, i've posted some new frame grabs, with more on the way! It's a small post, so take a quick look and please leave a comment! I'll appreciate it! Here's the link to my blog below:
http://classiccartoonreviews.blogspot.com/
Barks seems to have had the Protestant work ethic in his stories that might've come through in more of Disney's whitebread offerings if Disney were willing to tell stories to a post-pubescent audience. It's a very different "cynicism" than the cynicism I'd associate with Warner Brothers characters. Almost like the early Mickey Mouse newspaper comics where he and his co-stars weren't yet completely sanitized of relatable emotions like jealousy or greed.
ReplyDeleteThere was a Mickey Mouse comic at some shops during the past Free Comic Book Day that was a story about him entering Pluto in dog races. Besides the usual mind-bending twisted illogic of dog people owning dogs, it was a great story full of assholes, hucksters and humiliation. You could tell some of the Disney guys had come of age in the Depression and occasionally got to draw on the experience.
Dragonath, Glenn: Many thanks for the great car links. I incorporated them into the post!
ReplyDeleteThe Bantam link was incomplete...maybe Blogger chopped off the end. I did look up the car though, and came up with beautiful pictures of the Roadster.
Mike: Good Grief! Another of my spelling mistakes! Thunks for lettig me no.
First, Uncle Eddie, I'm a young cartoonist who loves old cartoons and is really inspired by your cartoons and blog. You can see alotta my artwork here:http://mushmeister67.deviantart.com/
ReplyDeleteSecond, that Barks stuff is fantastic. I still haven't read the "Klondike" story, but Barks always called it his favorite. I always loved Donald more in the comics than in the cartoons, with more personality. Also, is this that Barks site you were talking about? http://www.thecarlbarksfanclub.com/index.html
Mush: Naw, that wasn't the right Barks link. Thanks for the try, though.Nice Wood picture on your blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Eddie- I've been a huge Barks fan for years, it's what first made me want to get into animation. I've been making my way through this full index when I can: http://disneycomics.free.fr/index_barks_date.php
ReplyDelete-Paul (from creative league)