A short documentary in two parts about the career of the late Carl Barks, a shy, lonely boy who found his life's calling in drawing the Scrooge McDuck comics, which were among my special favorites. By the time I was 12 or so, I had amassed over 1200 comic books of all kinds, which I kept neatly filed and organized by brand, title, and date - if I had them now, I would be a rich man, but alas, all but a handful were lost to the vicissitudes of life.
Mickey Mouse never interested me much - by the early 1960's, he had become a rather bland, Ward Cleaver kind of character without any charisma, to my way of thinking. But Donald Duck was always getting into hilarious trouble, usually through his own hubris. And Uncle Scrooge stories were the most fascinating - partly because of the thought of those uncountable fantasticatillions in his Money Bin, and partly because of the rather ingenious storylines that took the reader from the Lost Cities of the Incas to the Arabian Desert to the center of the earth, and so on. Somewhere years ago I read that Barks often drew inspiration for his stories from current National Geographic articles, and that certainly gave them an exotic, intriguing atmosphere.
And no, don't even talk to me about Duck Tales - tedious juvenile pabulum. The Barks stories had an adult sophistication to them that none of his successors ever achieved.
2 comments:
I've always been a fan of Uncle Scrooge and the rest of the duck family. I subscribed to Uncle Scrooge in the early days and still have some of the original issues -- too worn and battered to be worth much to collectors, but I still treasure them. Never had any real interest in the superhero comics or the war stories. Perhaps one of the first signs that I was not like the other boys.
I have a few valuable collector's items, special editions and such, that I've acquired over the years. The stories are still wonderful and I still enjoy them. The later stories by other writers are not nearly as good as the Barks stuff.
I once passed up a chance to buy an original, signed print by Barks. It was a painting of Scrooge dressed up as a pasha in his money bin surrounded by a harem of big-breasted lady ducks. Apparently he did a few non-G-rated paintings in those days. This was probably 30 years ago and it was $500. I didn't have $500 for such foolishness then, but I still kick myself. I'm sure it would have been a fine investment, but I probably wouldn't allow myself to part with it now, anyway.
Yes, the stories are still wonderful, and still very enjoyable - in the way that all really good children's literature is, from Tom Sawyer to Harry Potter and even Dr. Seuss.
I had everything from Classics Illustrated to Disney and Looney Tunes to Superman and all his DC pals. Archie comics were good too, in those days. Wasn't much into Marvel though - the stories seemed gritty and dark, somewhat sinister.
I know what you mean about the painting - if I possessed such a treasure, I couldn't part with it either. Nice to hear from a fellow Uncle Scrooge fan.
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