I agree—so many stories reviewed at once, and I feel overwhelmed. How am I going to be able to look at all those stories to respond, or even choose one to think about? So you’ll get a better response from me personally if you post the reviews individually and spread them out over time.
Understood. It's a lot of writing on my part as well, but taking them apart book-by-book came the most naturally to me. It's nice to look at multiple stories at the same time. The next one will probably still be in this format, I'll see what I can change afterwards...
The last batch of Scrooge stories. The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan! There's not a whole lot to it, this one. Scrooge and company fly to the Himalayas, have some snowy antics, meet and then defeat a big dumb Snowman. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that the MacGuffin is the most memorable thing from this story. (Although, to be fair, that's partially influenced by the role it plays in Return to Xanadu, a much better story than this one.)
Verdict: C Inventor of Anything One of the better Gyro outings. I especially like his angry neighbor, somebody to contrast with Gyro's demure demeanor. It's got a bit too violent an ending for me though.
Verdict: B- Faulty Fortune Odd story. Sure, Barks' Scrooge is more of an airhead than most others', but he doesn't seem the coffee-bubble-reading type. The whole giveaways-in-cornflakes get-up is distinctly American (and therefore harder to relate to), as are references to gophers and the dust bowl. It also stretches my suspension of disbelief to image that they'd be able to buy up anything resembling a solid block of plots. Surely those packets would have been sold ages ago?
Verdict: D The Second-Richest Duck Once you realize this story is just an extended duck-measuring contest, you just can't unsee it. It's very inventive in how it goes about it, though, and I like that neither Scrooge nor Flintheart are below dirty trickery. (The distinction between them wouldn't appear until later.) And Chekhov's first dime is a very nice touch!
Verdict: A- The Cat Box Cats are annoying and Gyro's a bad singer. Alright.
Verdict: C- Migrating Millions Another odd story. Scrooge's money bin gets in the way of progress, so he starts moving it around. Whatever happened to the status quo?
Verdict: C- Back to Long Ago! Assassin's Creed: Duckburg! I really like this story, it's very good at selling the romance of history. And it's a nice change of pace to see Donald against Scrooge again, especially when they end up fighting with shovels! It's Letter to Santa all over again. A good old-fashioned storm is always welcome, and I love the visual parallels with Pintail and Matey. The final revelation is also an excellent twist of fate.
Verdict: A Forecasting Follies The car crash is a bit too technical to work, but otherwise this is an excellent Gyro story. Love the little helper's antics.
Verdict: A- The Collossalest Surprise Quiz Show Barks, that's not how progressive taxation works! The quiz show schtick is done better elsewhere, but I do like Donald's role in this story as pillow salesman.
Verdict: B- A Cold Bargain So begins Barks' "nature theme", from here to The Golden River. Bombastium is one of Barks' best inventions. Even though much of the story is a rerun of the first part of The Secret of Atlantis, the particular heat gags are more focused, and it's a great excuse to go to Antarctica. The penguin is adorable. The Brutopians are suitably menacing.
Verdict: A+ Fishing Mystery Barks deliberately puts everyone, including the reader, on the wrong foot. He's done better versions of the same idea.
Verdict: C+ Land of the Pygmy Indians It's a nice, early environmental message. Barks rarely treated American Indians with such dignity as he did here. The Longfellow rhyming scheme is impressive, too. But it falls just short of greatness for me, because it never fully unravels its own implications. Scrooge doesn't learn his lesson, the way he does in War of the Wendigo.
Verdict: B+ The Sure-Fire Gold Finder One of the best Gyro four-pagers. I'm fond of quoting that 'Confucius' quote: Nobody can make a machine so smart that some jerk wouldn't be too dumb to ruin it! It encapsulates the ethos of Gyro stories (see also Forecasting Follies), as well as Barks' more skeptical attitude toward mass technologies. In an age where the preachers from Silicon Valley promise us salvation through technology, this prudent attitude comes off as all the wiser.
Verdict: A The Mines of King Solomon Another semi-treasure hunt. This story mainly runs on gags about tickets and animal whistles, which run out of steam before long. There's nothing special about King Solomon's mines, either. Meh.
Verdict: C- Gyro Builds a Better House A mix-up due to external circumstances is never as satisfying, and I feel like interaction between Gyro and the little helper should be kept to a minimum.
Verdict: D+ City of Golden Roofs I really like this story, it's got spunk. The throwbacks to Scrooge's past compared with Donald's present is entertaining, and it's always nice to see them square off against one another. Barks himself makes a note about recycling the salesmen plot from Land of the Totem Poles, but I say that it's all the more reason to forget about the inferior story. This contest feels like a natural sequel to Only a Poor Old Man and its ilk, showing how Scrooge made all those unlikely sales he mentions. When Scrooge waltzes into the royal palace, I get the feeling that that this is a guy who could make three square acres of money and make it square. Oh, and the Shoeless Pashly craze? Timeless.
Verdict: A Roscoe the Robot Gyro invents a robot who can read his mind. However, it can't seem to distinguish itself from him. We've seen this done better before.
Verdict: C And that's the end of the Scrooge stories! The heights of 1949-53 never return, but there are still some pretty good stories overall.
I recently splurged on a Carl Barks Library box set (the old ones from the '80s). I've been having a good time reliving all the classic Donald Duck adventures from Barks' peak. Thought I'd review some of the old stories to get a sense of what I like to see in Duck stories. I may be giving them a bit of a hard time, but that's because they are 70 years old and have dated. I admire them for what they are, but Disney comics and evolved with the times.
I'll be using a mix of American grading and tier-based systems: S, A, B, C, D, and F. With that, let's begin.
Voodoo Hoodoo We start off with one of the stories that got me into Disney comics all those years ago. I had an old Dutch weekly from 1981, when the comic was being serialised, and it ended on the cliffhanger of Donald and the kids meeting Foola Zoola for the first time. I have fond memories of it. Despite the backlash over its racial depiction, the story remains charming. There's a great deal of character energy in it, between Donald's constant worries and the radio host's obnoxious enthusiasm, and Foola Zoola's mad cackling. It keeps the story lively long before we get to the climax. This is counterpointed by calm, grounded characters like Scrooge's reflections, Professor McCobb's positive attitude, and the kids playing with Bombie. There's a twinge of real pathos about his predicament. I also like how Barks used to end big adventures with low-key endings. "They can have it! I'll take vanilla!" In this story, more than most, Donald is written as a kind of outcast everyman. Society sneers at him, except for his jazz musician friend Bop Bop. Shades of the sailor suit take on the character of a World War II vet coming home, but never quite able to reintegrate into society. (Honestly, if the sailor suit became a kind of affix for Donald's veteran background, I would be totally on board with that.) The racism is still an unfortunate artefact of its time. Thankfully, the Africans have show some very human motives: resentment and greed. I say thankfully, because you'll be wanting some of that humanity when we get to Land of the Totem Poles! Verdict: B
Luck of the North One of my favorites of the bunch. The main motivator in this story is remorse over a prank gone wrong. We don't often get that. I love the page where Donald's triumphalism turns into a fear of Gladstone being eaten by a polar bear. Gladstone, for his part, is suitably obnoxious. It's an early part for his him, but this is one of my favorite characterizations. He's the most arrogant character, he takes his luck for granted and he's proven right. He's also not belowing swindling an Inuit tribe for his benefit. I also like that he keeps up with the latest fashion in these stories, something Barks would often do with the character but which was sadly traded in for a kind of standard costume. I understand why they'd do that, but it loses a bit of depth to the character in my opinion. There's this issue in the Dutch weekly from the 70s, where Donald and Gladstone face-off in a disco dancing contest. It was one of the last times Disney really committed to the present. There's no fun in doing something about the present if so much of the aesthetic is rooted in the 50s. Donald, is very much hoist by his own petard in this one, but his actions and their consequences means he remains broadly sympathetic. Besides which, spite is the best character motivation, don't at me. The story ends with a valuable Viking map of North America. This was never brought up in The Lost Charts of Columbus, was it? Verdict: A
Land of the Totem Poles This is one of those stories that doesn't get reprinted all that often. And it's easy to see why. It harkens back to an earlier era of Barks writing, before side characters, when Donald and the nephews would often be pitted against one another. I've always found this one of the less interesting character dynamics. There might be another reason, and that is the mindless racism against American Indians. That's what the brunt of this story's gags are allotted to: indigenous people not understanding beauty products. It's tasteless and obnoxious. Barks has shown and will show himself to be better in respect to foreign cultures. The steam calliope gag is cute, but stretched out for too long for my tastes. I do like the return of the hermit character. There's a feeling that these long stories were panorama where Barks could mature the elements he introduced in the ten-pagers. Or maybe it's just recycling. Barks' imagination didn't seem to have much on offer this week. Lazy writing. Verdict: F
Trail of the Unicorn Speaking of gags that get old quick. Yes, Uncle Scrooge. It takes up four pages in total. Yes, Uncle Scrooge. That aside, this one nestles between Race to the South Seas and The Gilded Man in stories that pit Donald against Gladstone in the hunt for some MacGuffin for a rich guy. And if I'm being honest, I think it's done better in those stories. For one, Gladstone is too active in all of his disguises. It doesn't fit his character. He best wait for Donald to fetch the thing, and then it'll magically come to him. There's also a minimal supporting cast. Scrooge is mainly just there as window dressing, most of the story takes place between Donald and the boys, the unicorn, and Gladstone. There's not even a supporting cast of Indians (like in Luck of the North) to break up the tension. The character dynamics are simpler, and there's not a lot of depth to be got out of a unicorn. This is also one of the few stories in which Donald wins. He gets two million dollars from Scrooge for curing the unicorn. It's out-of-character for Scrooge (something fixed when he starts taking them along in later stories), it counters the status quo (Donald with a massive car, which will be reset in the next story anyway), and it's just not the kind of phyrric victory that Donald Duck is supposed to get. Verdict: C
In Ancient Persia It's an interesting story, I'll give it that. It's inventive. But it's got such a disappointing climax in my opinion, that it feels like all the elements were done better elsewhere. The mysterious scientist isn't memorably kooky like the two from the Atom Bomb story. His motivations aren't explained or relevant. The domestic drama between the Persians is... ehm... an ugly wants to marry Donald? Really? Embarassing. The Donald double plot point returns in Dangerous Disguise, where it's used to much greater effect. And while the process of drying the ancients is interesting (did Barks nick this from an old Universal horror flick?), the sands of time were portrayed with more appropriate pathos in King Scrooge the First. The nephews' only contribution to the story consist of bringing Donald's doppelganger back alive, but that ultimately doesn't change how the story plays out: wedding or not, the scientist would have found the powder and brought all to dust either way. This story gets a little bonus for the very thin panels it uses. Later, we'll see Barks use more symbols and vignettes. I always thought that was neat. Verdict: C+
The Pixilated Parrot I've never been too enamoured with the annoying parrot. It's a gimmick, a ten-page story stretched out to twenty-two. (Compare A Financial Fable.) Arguably the most interesting thing is the proto-Beagle Boys, about a year before their first appearance. Other than that, there's not a whole lot there. Verdict: D
The Magic Hourglass Now this is a story I really like. I remember being impressed by the opening panel, but the actual story's got a lot going for it as well. This is from the era when money and men's motivations to acquire it began to intrigue Barks, and it led to what is arguably the most interesting run of Scrooge stories this side of the 1980s. Scrooge isn't quite himself yet here, and the story is all the richer for it. Unlike Don Rosa, I really like how Barks went back and forth on how Scrooge acquired his wealth. Much like the 'lucky' dime, there's an element of myth and superstition around it that's best left ambiguous. Did Scrooge's fortunes go south because of the hourglass, or does he subconsciously lose faith in his business empire when he's not surrounded by his talismans? I'm also fascinated by the space of No Itsa. A hidden world hidden in a cave under a lake. Much in the same way the unicorn is found, or Tralla La will be reached, this 'lost world' space behind a physical barrier fascinates me. The best part is of course the walk through the desert, when lakes turn into diamonds and sand into gold dust. Barks teaches an incredible lesson about wealth, value, and scarcity here. And I love that Donald gets to be the one to teach the lesson. Verdict: A+
Big-Top Bedlam We round out this first set with a story that I've always found a little puzzling. From wonderfully interesting adventure tales, we get a 28-page full story where Donald goes to the circus to be humiliated by a circus artist. It also makes the worst use of Daisy, as the millstone whose wrath Donald is looking to avoid. Even the nephews get in on the sadism. I get that Donald wanted to pawn Daisy's brooch at first, but it would have been more interesting to see him get into scrapes trying to retrieve the money to buy back the brooch, than this unsympathic piece of low-lying circus fruit. Verdict: D-
Do you agree with my assessments? Do you disagree? Please let me know in the thread down below. I might come back and do the second set at a later date. Enjoy!
I agree 100% on most your reviews here. The Magic Hourglass is possibly in my top five of favourite Barks stories. ('Possibly' because I never actually compiled such a ranking.) Luck of the North is the other gem in the lot of stories you mentioned. Land of the Totem Poles is the one I dislike, and not even for the outdated depiction of native Americans, it is just a recycling of a 10-pager from years before. Never understood the appeal of Trail of the Unicorn either, although I remember the plot to be solid.
The exception are The Pixilated Parrot and Big-Top Bedlam. Well, technically I agree on those two, too: they do are just pure comic stories, even slapstick in the case of the latter. However, their comedy is staged wonderfully, making them to my eyes two underrated Barks masterpieces. They are not stretched 10-pagers, in that they do not fell stretched at all. They have gags all the way through at a crazy rythm. The Big-Top Bedlam in particular is, in my view, the symbolic closure adventure of the 'hilarious' Donald of the 40's. After that, Donald will start his downfall into the role of Scrooge's sidekick, and even in his solo stories from the rest of the 50's he will loss a lot of his powerful humour.
In Old California! Call me an old sentimentalist, but this story never fails to move me. There's a few time-travel stories that manage to evoke that eerie feeling of defamiliarizing us from our home environment, but this story succeeds and then some! It's very rich with local detail and romanticism. We start on a modern Los Angeles highway, a place that gives me anxiety just thinking about it. The Ducks go off the beaten path as Donald tells a romantic history of California's Spanish history. One car crash and an Indian medicine later, the Ducks find themselves in the very same location -- but with all traces of human settlement of the last 103 years erased. Mountains covered with pine trees, wildlife roaming, roads erased, hacienda hearths burning to their heart's content. Back to the Future is my gold standard when it comes to setting up the past versus the present, and this is definitely in that ballpark! The past isn't made up of period costumes alone: it's an un-built environment, where broken clocks still work and timber is still proudly swaying in the trees. It's seeing Los Angeles -- a symbol of urban indigestion if there ever was one -- as a sleepy little pueblo.
The story itself is nothing to sneeze at either. Barks leans heavily into California's Spanish and Indian history, bringing us a cowboy who isn't quite Roy Rogers or Gene Autry. Or John Wayne, for that matter. I could argue that Barks is a little uncritical of the past in certain respects, you can't ask everything from a 28-page Donald duck comic from 1951. And once the Gold Rush hits, and it hits hard, all sense of romantic heroism is over, and plain old greed takes the upper hand once again. Verdict: S
I don't understand the appeal of In Old California! I really find it long, boring and lacking gags. And the nostalgic aura that Barks was giving to the tale felt a bit outdated to me when I read the story.
Most people would rate "Golden Helmet" at the very top also, but though the artwork is terrific, I myself find the "king of the mountain" plot a bit boring. So I'd probably give it a B, too. But it does serve as a fine introduction for the child-reader to the idea that power corrupts! So much so, that the golden helmet has become for me the symbolic shorthand for this dynamic.
The Horseradish Story of So Many Names This is one of my favorite Barks adventures. It takes its influence from The Magic Hourglass, by introducing another MacGuffin that represents all of Scrooge's wealth -- although in a Barksian twist of fate, the treasure is something nobody actually wants. This is excellent writing progress, keeping the stakes as high as in any other story where all of Scrooge's wealth is under attack, but doing so in the form of something we can easily wrap our heads around. In addition, there's also influence from The Golden Helmet, by sending us on another sea epic treasure hunt, but more importantly by introducing Chisel McSue. McSue is a ruthless villain who's got Scrooge by the legal nose, representing an amalgamation of Azure Blue and Sharky. I wonder how Barks would have kept on developing this type of villain if the Comics Code of 1954 hadn't intervened -- or is the pig villain type the ultimate evolution of this villain?
How did the Comics Code influenced Barks's villains? I thought it was only about suppressing violence from comics, any of which was in Disney stories in the first place.
For the rest, I cannot contribute much to this thread right now, asI do not have most of my Barks collection in my current apartment, so I cannot refresh my mind by having a look back at them. For a few of them I may have written a long comment on inducks, though.
I agree 100% on most your reviews here. The Magic Hourglass is possibly in my top five of favourite Barks stories. ('Possibly' because I never actually compiled such a ranking.) Luck of the North is the other gem in the lot of stories you mentioned. Land of the Totem Poles is the one I dislike, and not even for the outdated depiction of native Americans, it is just a recycling of a 10-pager from years before. Never understood the appeal of Trail of the Unicorn either, although I remember the plot to be solid.
I never really appreciated The Magic Hourglass for what it is until I read it in its proper context, and it's stayed with me as I've been reading the Scrooge stories. I'd probably bump it up a grade in a revised list. Many people dismiss the story for its earlier, less cuddly portrayal of Scrooge, which is a shame. If I were reviewing WDC stories here, you bet A Financial Fable would be up there with it.
The funny thing about Land of the Totem Poles is that it gets recycled again in City of the Golden Roofs, but it's put into such a different context that I think it's one of the best post-1953 Scrooge stories Barks ever did.
The exception are The Pixilated Parrot and Big-Top Bedlam. Well, technically I agree on those two, too: they do are just pure comic stories, even slapstick in the case of the latter. However, their comedy is staged wonderfully, making them to my eyes two underrated Barks masterpieces. They are not stretched 10-pagers, in that they do not fell stretched at all. They have gags all the way through at a crazy rythm. The Big-Top Bedlam in particular is, in my view, the symbolic closure adventure of the 'hilarious' Donald of the 40's. After that, Donald will start his downfall into the role of Scrooge's sidekick, and even in his solo stories from the rest of the 50's he will loss a lot of his powerful humour.
I guess it depends on how well you like pure comedy stories in your long yarns. For me, the evolution Barks goes through around 1947-48 makes these stories a little feel out of date. When I don't get a proper adventure in a Four Color comic, I feel a bit cheated. Put this stuff in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, please.
I don't understand the appeal of In Old California! I really find it long, boring and lacking gags. And the nostalgic aura that Barks was giving to the tale felt a bit outdated to me when I read the story.
Interesting. Could you elaborate a little? It's one of my very favorites, you see.
How did the Comics Code influenced Barks's villains? I thought it was only about suppressing violence from comics, any of which was in Disney stories in the first place.
I don't know. I think that's got something to do with it. From Terror of the River onwards, Barks was making his villains nastier and more dangerous: Blacksnake McQuirt, the professor from Ancient Persia, Madame Triple-X, Azure Blue, the Beagle Boys in Only a Poor Old Man, Witch Hazel, culminating in McSue behind the turret. There's a lot of implied or impending physical violence in these stories. But then 1954 rolls around, and villains all seem to lose their teeth: the Beagle Boys in The Seven Cities of Cibola, the professor with the stone ray, Monsieur Mattressface, the Terries and the Fermies, the Larkies and the Sleepless Dragon, the Abominable Snowman...
Given some of the censorship that went on in these stories (in particular Back to the Klondike), I can't help but think that Barks' editors told him to take it down a couple of notches. Not the Code directly (which I kinda forgot didn't apply to Dell Comics), but the general atmosphere of that era.
For the rest, I cannot contribute much to this thread right now, asI do not have most of my Barks collection in my current apartment, so I cannot refresh my mind by having a look back at them. For a few of them I may have written a long comment on inducks, though.
Yeah, I saw! I've been updating my Inducks reviews as well.
Last Edit: May 28, 2020 10:33:19 GMT by That Duckfan
I agree on “Cold Bargain”—it’s one of my absolute favorites. I had never noticed its similarity with Secret of Atlantis (another favorite of mine). To me, the main thing they have in common is the way Barks shows a seemingly ordinary occurence escalating into a grand adventure. Barks was the absolute master at that—he didn’t make the story’s build-up too long, but he did take his time to carefully let the storyline unfold. Too many non-Barks adventure stories make the reason for going on an adventure feel too forced/abrupt.
As far as “Old California” goes, I never thought it was particularly good, story-wise. It just goes on and on and on and on, barely involving the Ducks. And even if you ignore the fact that it’s a Duck comic, the storyline is not terribly exiting on its own terms, either. Of course, that doesn’t take away from the fact that Barks’ artwork of the whole historical setting is excellent here.
Post by Scrooge MacDuck on May 28, 2020 15:55:39 GMT
I think Old California fits the pattern of "marmite episodes" of long-running series which are beloved by some and leave others cold, where the truth is they're quite excellent for reasons entirely unrelated to what makes a regular entry in the series good. Old California's strength lies in the earnestness of its poetry as it evokes a time long gone by, and yadayada. Despite the time-travel, the story doesn't have the "heightened weirdness of reality" that's so typical of Disney comics. So it's bloody fantastic if you happen to be into Disney comics and earnest historical romances about antebellum California — but if you don't coincidentally also have that taste, and go to Disney comics for the "heightened weirdness" style, you're not going to get much out of the experience.
("Heightened weirdness" is maybe a strange coinage of mine, but it seems a good way to refer to the fundamental tenor of the Ducks' world, whether it expresses itself as relatively "straight" adventure yarns with things like buried treasure and lost cities, as the caricatures, schemes and coincidences of a ten-page farce, or as some combination of the two as in e.g. Lost in the Andes.)
I think Old California fits the pattern of "marmite episodes" of long-running series which are beloved by some and leave others cold, where the truth is they're quite excellent for reasons entirely unrelated to what makes a regular entry in the series good. Old California's strength lies in the earnestness of its poetry as it evokes a time long gone by, and yadayada. Despite the time-travel, the story doesn't have the "heightened weirdness of reality" that's so typical of Disney comics. So it's bloody fantastic if you happen to be into Disney comics and earnest historical romances about antebellum California — but if you don't coincidentally also have that taste, and go to Disney comics for the "heightened weirdness" style, you're not going to get much out of the experience.
("Heightened weirdness" is maybe a strange coinage of mine, but it seems a good way to refer to the fundamental tenor of the Ducks' world, whether it expresses itself as relatively "straight" adventure yarns with things like buried treasure and lost cities, as the caricatures, schemes and coincidences of a ten-page farce, or as some combination of the two as in e.g. Lost in the Andes.)
I see what you mean and I think that's a very good observation. I'm thinking of other 'marmite episodes' Barks created, maybe Dangerous Disguise (judging from this thread) and possibly Big-Top Bedlam? Disney comics seem to have more marmite creators than specific stories: Don Rosa being the obvious one, Guido Martina another, Paul Murry maybe.
Guess who's back. This batch contains some of Barks' earliest ever stories. That makes it harder to pin them down, honestly. Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold An atmospheric pirate tale of classic vintage. It's the longest story Barks ever worked on, but it never feels too long. The presence of so many wordless panels give the story the a panoramic quality and promotes the artwork over the dialogue. Barks and Hannah show a great command of staging. The three-panel format allows for much cleaner artwork. It's very different from Barks' later style, but none the worse for it. This is an excellent comic.
Verdict: A- The Mummy's Ring The first long-form story Barks pens is an adventure story with a gothic flavor. I think it's great, Barks creates a very evocative Egypt -- one of his best ever locales, honestly. He experiments with depth and the eye of the camera as well. His Donald, too, feels more three-dimensional than the more cartoony form he would soon turn into. I really like this comic.
Verdict: A- The Hard Loser Barks' first horse operetta, and the first of many race plots. This is the barebones version of Chugwagon Derby, with the physical comedy of The Tuckered Tiger or The Heedless Horseman. This one is definitely the funniest visually, but there's not much too it.
Verdict: C- Too Many Pets In later years, Barks would love to rely on pets to fill a domestic story. Here, Donald already gives them the boot. Barks' artstyle is at its worst here, and the story -- a 26-page ten-pager! -- needed a decent trimming. References to the ongoing war effort (this being 1943) are interesting and give the story a sense of more immanent danger, reminiscent of the earlier Pluto Saves the Ship. The monkey's gimmick is simple, but not half as annoying as some the later ones.
I must say that when I re-read Old California just last week for the first time in ages, it had lost nothing of its magic. And I would not say the same thing about a lot of earlier Barks stories, which started to bore me because so many of the plot devices have been used to death since (which isn't Barks' fault, but still). There's nothing - or at least very little - like "In Old California", though. It's still something very distinctly unique in its atmosphere and setting. I think as a kid, I was really hypnotized by a few Barks tales, but this is the first one, chronologically speaking, in the "complete" series they're just reissuing in German, that has maintained that flavor to me as a (sort of ) adult person.
I must say that when I re-read Old California just last week for the first time in ages, it had lost nothing of its magic. And I would not say the same thing about a lot of earlier Barks stories, which started to bore me because so many of the plot devices have been used to death since (which isn't Barks' fault, but still). There's nothing - or at least very little - like "In Old California", though. It's still something very distinctly unique in its atmosphere and setting. I think as a kid, I was really hypnotized by a few Barks tales, but this is the first one, chronologically speaking, in the "complete" series they're just reissuing in German, that has maintained that flavor to me as a (sort of ) adult person.
See, this sort of stuff is interesting. Currently reading the comics in black and white really brings out the artwork, and for many stories this is the first time that I get to read them in the original English. I'm currently reading through the 1944-47 volume of the set, and I'm getting a whole different atmosphere from the stories (case in point: Terror of the River, which I just read). They're getting a reappraisal of sorts. On the other hand, reading Mystery of the Swamp for the first time ever puts the originality I found in Land beneath the Ground! and Land of the Totem Poles in a very different perspective, and I haven't too much a fan of the former for a while (compared to the status it usually has).
It's also fascinating what color (the good, the bad, and the none) can do to a story, but that may be a story for another thread.