Funniest Comics

[TheMidgetMoose]

I've had this thread on my mind to open a while. Recent conversation in "Whatever's reviews: Master Landscapist" is what spurred me to finally open it.

My questions are these:

1. Who is, in your opinion, the funniest Disney comics author and/or artist?
2. Which stories do you find to be the absolute funniest? Which ones get you laughing every time throughout a good portion of the story as opposed to just a panel here and there?

For me personally, I would say that Dick Kinney is probably the funniest author whose stories I've read, while his Fall Guy (INDUCKS: inducks.org/story.php?c=S+65049) is probably the funniest story I have read. That story is one of the few Disney comics I've ever read where I genuinely could not stop laughing. Fethry's continued attempts to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel are hilarious, as are the park ranger's attempt to stop him. Al Hubbard's art absolutely sells the story, making it the absolute funniest I personally have read.

As for Dick Kinney stories in general, I think they are among the funniest. Kinney may not be remembered for being an epic adventure writer like Barks or Rosa, but I think he may trump both of them based solely on comedy. He utilizes the characters to their fullest comic potential, uses physical humor appropriately, and litters his stories with intriguing and bursting-with-potential characters like Fethry Duck, Tabby, and Hard Haid Moe. Stories drawn by Al Hubbard only serve to increase the comedic effect.

What do you think?

[Baar Baar Jinx]

I'll repost here what I said on another (related) thread:

It's rare that I laugh out loud at anything in comics, even when I find something amusing, but Don Rosa has made me do that several times.
For example, virtually every scene in "Forget It" is hilarious. Probably the funniest Disney comic, nay, any comic, I've ever read.
The Beagle Boys laughing about how identical HD&L are in "An Eye for Detail" (and calling Scrooge a villain for working Donald too hard) is classic, as well. Not to forget the part where Donald says he recognizes one of the nephews by the mole behind his ear, and Scrooge asks, almost as an afterthought, "ear?" (This is probably the second funniest Disney comic I've ever read!)
Rosa's reputation as an expert adventure yarn spinner is well-deserved, but his sense of humor is second to none!

[Matilda]

I think "in your opinion, who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist" and "who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist to you" are two different questions. I'm not going to try to answer the first. But my answer to the second question is definitely Don Rosa. He has made me laugh more than any other Disney comics writer. What can I say? His sensibility, his sense of humor, is like unto mine.

Barks wins for "most different kinds of humor used successfully"--sometimes even in the same story. For instance, look at all the different kinds of humor employed in the "Screaming Cowboy" story. But overall, Rosa makes me laugh the most times per page of anyone. The only contemporary comics writer who rivals him in laughs-per-page is Ryan North, in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Again, speaking personally here, of how many times I laugh per page.

[djnyr]

Barks is the funniest if we're talking just Duck stories, with William Van Horn close behind him. In the Mouse arena, both Ted Osborne and Merrill deMaris were great at writing funny dialogue in Gottfredson's classic-era continuities; their dialogue was also delightfully tailored to the personalities of the characters, and derived a lot of their humor from the context in which they were said and from the identity of the character delivering the lines. One of my all-time favorite bits is when Pete, during the great final showdown in the deMaris-scripted "Mystery at Hidden River," growls "Now yuh went and hoit me dignity! I'm goin' ALL OUT atcha!" The idea of Pete, of all people, being concerned about his dignity, and the implication that he thinks he's been holding back till now (he's been acting violently murderous throughout the story) are both utterly hilarious.

Bill Walsh had a great talent for gag-writing as well, but he also had a tendency to use any character for any gag, without thinking whether it suits their personalities or not--in his strips, the humor is a lot less character-specific than it was in the deMaris/Osborne/Gottfredson strips. This is a problem I think Rosa suffers from as well; almost all of his funny lines are of the sarcastic put-down variety, and he assigns them interchangeably to Donald, Scrooge, or even the Nephews as he sees fit. In his later work, the most common use of such lines is by Scrooge at Donald's expense--like the entirely gratuitous bit in "Gyro's First Invention," where Donald comments on how smart the "lamp" (Gyro's helper) is, and Scrooge responds, with that Rosa raised eyebrow, "Well, you did say it was Gearloose's brain it got tangled with, not yours." Putting Donald on the receiving end of Scrooge's sarcasm not only gets repetitive but also isn't really all that close to the personalities established in Barks' long adventure stories; there, it's usually Donald who manages to verbally score off Scrooge, which provides to my mind a better and funnier relationship between the characters than one finds in Rosa.

[thadwell]

Aug 19, 2019 12:48:46 GMT djnyr said:

Barks is the funniest if we're talking just Duck stories, with William Van Horn close behind him. In the Mouse arena, both Ted Osborne and Merrill deMaris were great at writing funny dialogue in Gottfredson's classic-era continuities; their dialogue was also delightfully tailored to the personalities of the characters, and derived a lot of their humor from the context in which they were said and from the identity of the character delivering the lines. One of my all-time favorite bits is when Pete, during the great final showdown in the deMaris-scripted "Mystery at Hidden River," growls "Now yuh went and hoit me dignity! I'm goin' ALL OUT atcha!" The idea of Pete, of all people, being concerned about his dignity, and the implication that he thinks he's been holding back till now (he's been acting violently murderous throughout the story) are both utterly hilarious.

Bill Walsh had a great talent for gag-writing as well, but he also had a tendency to use any character for any gag, without thinking whether it suits their personalities or not--in his strips, the humor is a lot less character-specific than it was in the deMaris/Osborne/Gottfredson strips. This is a problem I think Rosa suffers from as well; almost all of his funny lines are of the sarcastic put-down variety, and he assigns them interchangeably to Donald, Scrooge, or even the Nephews as he sees fit. In his later work, the most common use of such lines is by Scrooge at Donald's expense--like the entirely gratuitous bit in "Gyro's First Invention," where Donald comments on how smart the "lamp" (Gyro's helper) is, and Scrooge responds, with that Rosa raised eyebrow, "Well, you did say it was Gearloose's brain it got tangled with, not yours." Putting Donald on the receiving end of Scrooge's sarcasm not only gets repetitive but also isn't really all that close to the personalities established in Barks' long adventure stories; there, it's usually Donald who manages to verbally score off Scrooge, which provides to my mind a better and funnier relationship between the characters than one finds in Rosa.

These are pretty much my thoughts verbatim. With the richness of the characterization and cartooning, it's sometimes overlooked just how funny those Barks ten-pagers can be, even right through his twilight years in the '60s.

It's harder to judge the non-English writers in this regard, but a lot of the Francesco Artibani and Mau Heymans stories are some of the few Disney comics to regularly make me laugh-out-loud (speaking as someone who's worked on localizing them, the laughs are usually right there in the original versions, particularly in Artibani's case).

[TheMidgetMoose]

Aug 19, 2019 3:45:37 GMT Matilda said:

I think "in your opinion, who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist" and "who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist to you" are two different questions. I'm not going to try to answer the first. But my answer to the second question is definitely Don Rosa. He has made me laugh more than any other Disney comics writer. What can I say? His sensibility, his sense of humor, is like unto mine.

Barks wins for "most different kinds of humor used successfully"--sometimes even in the same story. For instance, look at all the different kinds of humor employed in the "Screaming Cowboy" story. But overall, Rosa makes me laugh the most times per page of anyone. The only contemporary comics writer who rivals him in laughs-per-page is Ryan North, in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Again, speaking personally here, of how many times I laugh per page.

I think the "who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist to you" question is more of what I was thinking of when opening this thread.

[Mesterius]

Aug 20, 2019 16:15:14 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

Aug 19, 2019 3:45:37 GMT Matilda said:

I think "in your opinion, who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist" and "who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist to you" are two different questions. I'm not going to try to answer the first. But my answer to the second question is definitely Don Rosa. He has made me laugh more than any other Disney comics writer. What can I say? His sensibility, his sense of humor, is like unto mine.

Barks wins for "most different kinds of humor used successfully"--sometimes even in the same story. For instance, look at all the different kinds of humor employed in the "Screaming Cowboy" story. But overall, Rosa makes me laugh the most times per page of anyone. The only contemporary comics writer who rivals him in laughs-per-page is Ryan North, in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Again, speaking personally here, of how many times I laugh per page.

I think the "who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist to you" question is more of what I was thinking of when opening this thread.

I'm not sure I understand the difference between those two questions. Are we talking about "who's 'objectively' the funniest" versus "who makes you personally laugh the most"?

[TheMidgetMoose]

Aug 20, 2019 16:25:51 GMT Mesterius said:

Aug 20, 2019 16:15:14 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

I think the "who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist to you" question is more of what I was thinking of when opening this thread.

I'm not sure I understand the difference between those two questions. Are we talking about "who's 'objectively' the funniest" versus "who makes you personally laugh the most"?

That's how I interpreted Matilda's writing, though she can give you a more definitive answer. On the other hand, though, I'm not sure that there is such thing as objectively funny. Humor is mostly subjective, I believe. I think we can objectively say that some people are clever writers, good at writing puns, or good artists. Maybe not objectively funny, but objectively skilled at making things which are considered by many people to be humorous.

[Mesterius]

Aug 20, 2019 16:30:24 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

Aug 20, 2019 16:25:51 GMT Mesterius said:

I'm not sure I understand the difference between those two questions. Are we talking about "who's 'objectively' the funniest" versus "who makes you personally laugh the most"?

That's how I interpreted Matilda's writing, though she can give you a more definitive answer. On the other hand, though, I'm not sure that there is such thing as objectively funny. Humor is mostly subjective, I believe. I think we can objectively say that some people are clever writers, good at writing puns, or good artists. Maybe not objectively funny, but objectively skilled at making things which are considered by many people to be humorous.

That's why I put 'objectively' in quotation marks; it's a bit of a problematic question.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Aug 20, 2019 16:30:24 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

Aug 20, 2019 16:25:51 GMT Mesterius said:

I'm not sure I understand the difference between those two questions. Are we talking about "who's 'objectively' the funniest" versus "who makes you personally laugh the most"?

That's how I interpreted Matilda's writing, though she can give you a more definitive answer. On the other hand, though, I'm not sure that there is such thing as objectively funny. Humor is mostly subjective, I believe. I think we can objectively say that some people are clever writers, good at writing puns, or good artists. Maybe not objectively funny, but objectively skilled at making things which are considered by many people to be humorous.

I didn't quite get the distinction Matilda was trying to make, either. The only way you could "objectively" measure who the funniest writer was would be to cite the results of a validated, scientific poll. AFAIK, none exists (and it would still be subjective anyway). But Matilda didn't use the word "objective". She was making a distinction between "in your opinion, who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist" and "who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist to you". They both seem to describe the same thing to me. So I'm eager to see if she clarifies. 

[crazycatlord]

Perhaps it means something like:

"in your opinion, who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist" - what author you suppose that more people will find fun?


"who's the funniest Disney comics writer/artist to you" - what author you find more fun?

[RobbK1]

I think Carl Barks is the funniest, and he has made the most memorable funny panels. Donald in the shower, fallen through a hole in the floor, thinking he's been shrunk by Voodoo, and afraid that he'll never get back to his normal larger size is the funniest comic book drawing I can remember. The nlook of fear in his eyes is extremely funny, as we can see that he's not been shrunken, but is standing in a hole.

[Matilda]

Y'all mostly guessed right at my meaning. I was making the distinction between "who would you say rates as the funniest Disney comics creator, the Best at Humor?" and "which Disney comics creator do you personally find to be the funniest? who makes you laugh most?" I agree with TheMidgetMouse, one can make judgments about a creator's skill at humorous writing (or drawing) which are distinct from one's own preferences. James Thurber may have been a better humorist than Stephen Leacock, but Leacock made me personally laugh more. It's a matter of sensibility as well as sense of humor: for instance, I don't find Thurber's gender-based jokes funny because of my own beliefs about gender.

[Hector]

Barks in the 40s produced some comedy gold pieces.
-One where Donald, Daisy and the nephews were hypnotised into believing they were monkeys.
-One where Donald and the nephews took part in a knowledge quiz tv show.

[TheMidgetMoose]

Aug 24, 2019 19:31:42 GMT Hector said:

Barks in the 40s produced some comedy gold pieces.
-One where Donald, Daisy and the nephews were hypnotised into believing they were monkeys.
-One where Donald and the nephews took part in a knowledge quiz tv show.

Now that one was pretty good. Wasn't that the one that ended with the "Look! No head!" line? I don't find it as funny as some of Dick Kinney's work, but it was still a good, funny, and memorable story.