AJD

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?

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.

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?

Link? WDC&S mailers Yikes! There was one for sale a few months ago (I think it was 1947, but could be wrong) that sold for about $120. I thought at the time that it was an item I could usefully have bid a little more on. But these prices are extraordinary. What recession?

It was bought from a family who were sometimes house guests with the Barks back in the 1970s and 80s. They had about a dozen signed copies, and decided to sell some of them. No COA, alas, but still a great item to own.

While I'm posting, here is a Christmas present I got from my wonderful wife. 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!

As promised, here is a checklist of the twelve Scrooge 60th anniversary posters by Don Rosa. I hope it is useful, but I had fun compiling it anyway. Uncle Scrooge 60th Anniversary poster series 372 – ‘Early versions of Scrooge McDuck’; from Christmas on Bear Mountain (FC 178) to the Magic Hourglass (FC 291) 373 – ‘The number one dime’; menaced by Magica (US36), a giant ant (US33), winning the day in deepest Africa (US15) etc. 374 – ‘Strange beings’; Island in the Sky natives (US 29) Harpies (US12) Venusian King (US24) Martian (US 46) Microducks (US65) Merman (US69) Terries and Fermies (US13) King of Atlantis (US5) Faceless native (US48) 375 – ‘Scrooge’s early life’; scenes from the Life and Times series 376 – ‘The Money Bin’; six different Barks variants, including the corn crib from WDC&S 126 (my favourite ever Barks story and a lovely economics parable) 377 – ‘Scrooge’s Greatest treasures’; Goose egg nugget (FC456), candy-striped ruby (US41), golden fleece (US12), philosopher’s stone (US10), Terry-Fermy trophy (US13), 1916 quarter (US5), golden moon, 7 cities of Cibola (US7), bombastium (US17), crown of the Mayas (US44), Vulcan’s hammer (US34), pearls of Kuku Maru (US37), mines of King Solomon (US19) 378 – ‘The Beagle Boys’; includes appearances from various Barks and Rosa stories 379 – ‘Monsters’; Hound of the Whiskervilles (US29), Sleepless Dragon (US12), roc (US37), giant jellyfish (US41), giant robot robber (US58), Gu the abominable snowman (US14), Bombie the zombie (FC238), queen of the wild dogpack (US62), ghost (US56), ghost of Sir Quakly McDuck (FC189) 380 – ‘Lost realms’; Castle McDuck (FC189), Valhalla (US34), Colchis (US12), Tangkor Wat (US20), Incan Gold Mines (US26), throne room of King Minos (US10), 5 of Cibola’s 7 cities (US7), Terry-Fermy (US13), Atlantis (US5), Tralla La (US6) 381 – ‘Flintheart Glomgold’; from Barks stories from US 15, 27 and 61 382 – ‘Magica de Spell’; from US 40, 43, 45 and 48, WDC 258, 265 383 – I just realised I haven’t picked this up from my LCS yet! TBA…

Well, the last twelve issues of Uncle Scrooge have had Rosa back covers celebrating the 60th anniversary of FC 178. That would be issues 372-383. Given the great public service you've done with your list (thank you - I've been meaning to do that for ages), I'll volunteer to list the themes. I'll get to it later today.

Kudos to Mio for shipping a great book to me in the Antipodes. He didn't mention that it had a name in pen on the title page though. Darn that 'Al Feldstein' guy...

Thanks to pointfive and esquirecomics for making my first two forum purchases fuss free and successful transactions. Grading was spot on.