AJD

Great stuff, Matt. Thanks very much!

What he said. This is really useful. Thanks.

Andrew

I have had one of the best weeks yet in the mailbox stakes. A 7.0 Incredible Science Fiction, three new hard to find Australian Disneys and a very (very!) nice run of Dell Pogo 1-15 I won on eBay. (I know this isn't a sales announcement thread, but if you want my 5.0-7.5 undercopies of 3, 6-8, 11-15 send me a PM and we can talk...)

Here is the pick of the bunch. This Australian comic is one of the earliest reprints of US duck material. Although undated, it had to be after Sep 43 (US publication date) and before Sep-46 (when numbered and dated Australian series started). My guess is '44 or '45, because this is a very small comic - less than 5" x 7" - which suggests wartime paper shortages.

I've never seen one of these pocket-sized comics up close before, let alone owned one.(I'd only seen them online, including the very good Australian Disney comic site at http://home.goulburn.net.au/~alecto/ - this one is listed under the Ayres and James issues). I've seen a couple of lowish graded copies sell on the Bay for several hundreds of dollars in the last few years. I got this very nice one, mis-described and listed on UK ebay (probably because of the sixpence 6d price) instead of Australian. It cost me $21.

I'll post some other Aussie duck stuff in the next few days.

But why are you all showing the cover AND a page from the inside artwork?

 

I'm the one doing most of that. On the boards, I am always wondering what lies behind all the cool covers posted and just imagine that others are so I make a point of always showcasing a sample of the insides. It's fun to me

Keep it up - I always like to have a look inside. After all, the pages count too!

I must have missed something here - are we talking about WDC&S 108? the one with Donald and HDL on a small sailboat?

 

Bronty is talking about the cover of the Four Color 108 that SweetieBones posted earlier - Terror of the River, and not WDCS 108 (thumbs u

Oh.....

what's going on with the cover of 108? The art generally looks barks to me except the faces which always looked waaay off. Its like they got someone else to ink the faces??

 

or is it a barks cover at all. come to think of it the handling of donald's hands is terrible. Sure am jealous of your copy though shiv

 

 

anyways, 108 is a nice enough cover (the fact I mistook it for barks says a lot, but I'll stick with what I said about donald's hands, and the faces.

 

I must have missed something here - are we talking about WDC&S 108? the one with Donald and HDL on a small sailboat?

 

That is a lay-down classic Barks cover. One of my absolute favourites! Barrier's book has it as Barks and it was one of Gladstones Barks' poster series (I want to buy one if anyone knows where I can get it). Or did I miss something?

Since the first one seemed to be of interest, here's another. This one has a different car for Scrooge on the back cover. I suspect this scene was redrawn from Barks panels by the unknown Australian artist(s) who produced local Disney covers sometimes.

Cheers,

Andrew

I've been reading my wdcs volumes and it strikes me that its too bad all those wdcs stories had gag covers, instead of covers that were associated with the stories they told.

 

 

It also strikes me as strange that the Uncle Scrooge title went from associative covers like your Back to the Klondike, and then to gag covers... and then back to associative covers. What the hey? Was Barks ever asked about that?

Excellent point, I never thought about the gag/associative trends. One of the hardest things about distinguishing so many issues within the whole Dell/GK Uncle Scrooge run was the gag covers, which got compounded because they`d be reprinted over and over.

 

And the lack of issue numbers on the GK covers, of course.

 

Tell me about it! I can have read the issue five times and generally speaking I still won't have a clue what story I'm about to read by looking at the front cover

I think I have to stick up for the gag covers here! Those Scrooge covers in the Dell run are, to my mind, some of Barks' finest work. Classic composition, solid colours that look great and really striking images. (I have a couple framed on the wall of my office here - #4 and #10. I'm going to add #12 soon.) I think the Scrooge covers took a turn for the worse at #45, when the story-specific ones re-appeared. I'll caveat all this by saying that FC 386 and FC 456 have great and iconic covers and the first gag cover FC 495 leaves me cold. But the others make those Scrooge issues classic comics and a beautiful timeless product (which is why they keep getting reused).

BTW the Gold key issues have a date publication code that can let you work out which is which. For example, WDCS 264 is 10011-209, which breaks down to (1) decade = sep 1962- aug 1972 (0011) = WDCS (2) = 1962 (09) = september. Grabbing one at random beside me, it is 90011-205 or a WDCS between sep 72 and aug 82, and specifically is May 1982. (It has a great Barks gag cover too.)

The Uncle Scrooge codes work the same way, but the title id is 0038. So 10038-611 is Uncle Scrooge November 1966, 90038-803 is the March 1978 issue and so on. Apologies if you all knew that already, but I was very pleased when I worked it out!

Newbie here .... my first post on this thread.

 

I don't have much in Ducks from the GA-era but here's one. My favorite WDCS cover as it is the 1st issue that shows Mickey on the cover under this title.

 

- HANK

 

Welcome to the boards. Gotta say that's a fantastic book to start with! Can I have it? Please?

I just got this in, and thought I'd show it here. This is the last of 24 giveaway comics distributed in Australia starting in the mid 1960s. I remember getting this one with my dad when I was a kid - probably 1968. There was a New Zealand series as well. The Australian ones are numbered and glued, the NZ ones un-numbered and stapled.

 

... These are a collection focus for me this year. I have 12 of the 24. In the (unlikely) event that you see any, you know who to PM...

Very cool, Andrew. I really like the back cover too. I take it these are tough to track down?

 

Yes, the quality of the paper tends to work against them. The last half a dozen must have been printed in larger numbers, because they pop up on ebay a lot (and sell for $20-$30) but in my 6 years there, I think I have seen #1 and #2 once each. I've found a couple in antique stores too - Mobil collectables are a bit of a thing in some circles here, so I hope to get them all eventually. I have a lead on a #12 from New Zealand at the moment.

I just got this in, and thought I'd show it here. This is the last of 24 giveaway comics distributed in Australia starting in the mid 1960s. I remember getting this one with my dad when I was a kid - probably 1968. There was a New Zealand series as well. The Australian ones are numbered and glued, the NZ ones un-numbered and stapled.

They are printed on very poor quality paper and the production standards were low as well - that's a production crease right through the front cover. But they are a really neat little collectable - they are half the size of a regular book. The duck stories are Barks 10 pagers from WDC&S, but are edited down to fit the format. There are 16 pages, including front and back covers, making 7 and a bit normal comic pages. Sometimes the editing is well done, but sometimes odd gaps appear in the story. There were some Mickey Mouse issues, and a Sword in the Stone one.

These are a collection focus for me this year. I have 12 of the 24. In the (unlikely) event that you see any, you know who to PM...

The chart says 1184 is missing. Allow me.

GCD pictures Pogo #'s 9-13 (April 1952-September 1953) as having 15¢ cover prices and I took a look at three different issues of mine that were within easy reach and they were also priced at 15¢.

The above images are from GCD.

I don't know if 15c variants exist, but FWIW, my copies of 14-16 are all 10c. My 11-13 are 15c. (I don't have 9, 10 - yet). Maybe the price reduction was an atempt to pick sales up? After all, Pogo finished after #16.

Andrew

Sorry you didn't get it. There ought to be a ban against putting midgrade copies of the Barks issues of March of Comics in CGC holders - if any GA comics were meant to be browsed through these are the ones. Seeing the classic stories and gorgeous drawings on the cheap, flimsy pages is one of those absurd oddities that make the Golden Age so fun to collect.

 

Btw., I wonder whether the Barks drawings on the back covers of the MOCs ever have been reprinted? As far as I can tell, they were overlooked in the new European "Collected Works". Did anyone notice them in the libraries from Another Rainbow and Gladstone? Would be a fun bit of trivia if they were the only Barks Duck drawings never to be published again...

You geeky intuition is likely on target as the MOC back covers are not pictured in the Gladstone albums.

Or in the hardcover Barks Library. Can anyone post a scan? I've never seen them.

I just noticed a neat example of an artist re-using an idea. Two takes on the same gag from Walt Kelly (and ducks on both, of course).

Here's one I've had for a year or two, the Xmas 1946 WDC&S:

and here's a purchase I just made on eBay, Pogo Possum #11 from 1952:

All I know is any Barks book I do not bid on goes cheap. Any Barks I try to bid on goes for more than my bid.

I feel your pain - that's my experience too.

Bergdoll, are you (or anyone else) interested in the Australian Uncle Scrooge variants? I'd be happy to write a short article and scan some covers. I posted a couple last week.

I think this one might have been omitted from the Don Rosa index:

Title: Back in Time for a Dime!

Year: 1990

Book: DuckTales Magazine, Spring 1990

Publisher: Disney

This was reprinted in a relatively recent Uncle Scrooge. Don't go to too much effort to find it. It's a horrible 4 page story that was scripted by Rosa and drawn by someone else (Cosme Cortieri from Diaz studios).

Apologies if this was already noted.

Pogo #3

An eBay purchase of a 'VF+'.

Still, a very nice 7.0 or so for $40

Anyone else like these?

I don't know why that particular issue is larger, but I've seen a similar thing in another title. The Australian run of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories had about five issues in 1950 that were significantly larger than the earlier or later ones. As a result, they are harder to find in middle to higher grades, because they tended to stick out of piles and get beaten up more. I'd expect that to be true of the outsize Planet Comics as well.

Another Australian Scarpa reprint from the 1960s. This is my favourite Scarpa story. I wrote to Gemstone and suggested they run it - no luck so far.

I liked life & times. I couldn't get into it as individual issues, but when I reaad the trade, I was engaged in it. Most of the fun is tying in all the barks bits & clues, so it's more of a mental exercise..

 

well that's just it. he kind of sucked the fun out of those stories and made them one giant barksian research orgy. which is not my idea of what comics are all about.

I think you are being harsh there. Rosa did get a bit overwrought with the Barks legacy in places, but there is some genuinely funny and poignant stuff in there too. At his best, Rosa is great fun. At his worst, he's better than everyone else, except for Barks.

I'd even go as far as saying that Bad Rosa is better than bad Barks. Case study: Jet Witch

Here's a Scarpa cover from a 1960s Australian reprint. We got US and European stories reprinted here, with the latter presumably translated here. I have fond memories of these stories. Re-reading them, they are a fair bit better than most Euro-stories, but nowhere in Barks' league.

 

She was strangely insistent that I open it up and leaf through. Here's why

 

 

I'm glad I bought her a really nice present!

 

Great gift!!

 

I won this off of Ebay a while back, so it's possible your book was from the same collection:

 

 

You are likely right. Those signatures are almost identical - and are both slightly different from the other Barks signatures (reproduced in books) that I was able to find. What's the back story on yours?

those life & times stories didn't do much for me. I think it gets brought up just because its a) a big project and b) were published in sequential issues of scrooge, unlike most of his work.

 

That's what I felt as well. I've tried to read them and thought some were kid of novel, but I just never got captured by the stories. On the other hand, I've been rereading the 6,000 Barks pages over the past 3 years and thought at least 2/3 were a pure joy to read. Perhaps it's just a generation gap thing(?). As I've pointed out before, however, one of the truely remarkable things about working for Pixar was observing how the super talented people the story department worked. They had an extreme case of the pressure cooker effect you get when you put some of the smartest, most creative, and hardest working artists together in a small space and let them challenge each other in friendly competition. My own theory is that what made Barks' stories stand out was a combination of raw talent and - just as importantly - what he learned from the story department at Disney in the 30s. At Pixar, _everything_ was about story and a lot of knowledge was not written down anywhere. It just was passed from artist to artist. Everything I've read about the Disney studios around the time of "Snow White" sounds remarkably like the environment that existed at Pixar. Based on this, it makes perfect sense to me why so few other comic book artists, including Rosa, have come close to Barks in terms of storytelling.

This is a really insightful comment. I'm in the process of reading Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers' (a really great book), which shows how important the environment (and timing) is for generating high achievers. It's very clear that the sort of hothouse environment that Barks found himself in played a big role in his development. But, having said that, his earliest comic stories are too much like storyboards ('Pirate Gold' is almost unreadable, for example). It's the development of the more literary threads in his work that really elevates it above the pack - and that seems to have come from within.

AJD: It would be interesting to hear which Rosa stories are considered as classics? For Barks, most fans would probably agree that "Only a Poor Old Man", "Lost in the Andes", "Christmas on Bear Mountain" etc. are keys and that the original art would have been the most desirable if it had existed. Any thoughts on Rosa?

That's a good question (and one I've pondered for a day or two). The Life and Times series, of course, will be Rosa's most enduring legacy, and are great fun to boot - especially some of the 'follow-up' chapters. I'm especially fond of the Krakatoa story 'The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark'.

Of his 'sequels', I think the best is the follow-up to Uncle Scrooge 6 (Tralla la) - 'Return to Xanadu'. I still chuckle about the 'Rama Lama Dhing Dhong/You are a very strange person' dialogue (quoted from memory, so don't shoot me). He also has to get an honourable mention for the Barks 'Pied Piper' story he finished off brilliantly.

Of the Rosa 'stand alones' my shortlist would be:

Son of the Sun (not technically great, but it single handedly renewed my interest in comics when I found it on a newstand)

Mythological Menagerie - one of the best duck ten-pagers by anyone

Guardians of the Lost Library - a long but very engaging explantion for something that didn't actually need explaining.

What about the rest of you?