Has Barks ever commented "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" or any other Rosa's work? I'm curious about what he could have thought about that kind of devotion.
In Rosa’s recent liveshow on Youtube he spoke a bit about when he visited Barks, which was a sort of make up visit following issues between them which Rosa blames on Barks’ previous manager. I don’t recall exactly what the issue was, perhaps someone knows more? He also mentioned something about avoiding talking too much about Barks’ work and influence because he knew Barks wouldn’t like it.
Barks actually offered advice to Rosa when Don was working on the series. Don said he took it to heart, although he didn't use all the suggestions (e.g. Barks suggested a way to make the magic hourglass work within the context). Somebody else will have to go into it with more depth but that's the gist of it.
Okay, so I found this 1995 article in which Barks allegedly stated he disliked Rosa's work.
I quote from the link:
"Non vedo alcuna ragione perché un altro si metta a riscrivere il mio lavoro. Quello... stile (chiamiamolo così) non mi interessa proprio. Io preferisco il lavoro di altri artisti, come Daan Jippes e William Van Horn, che seguono nelle storie e nel tratto la tradizione disneyana. Insomma, il lavoro di Rosa non mi piace".
And again:
"Sarebbe come voler trovare su una cartina geografica Paperopoli e il deposito di Zio Paperone. Anche l' albero genealogico dei paperi è vago e mutabile. Posso però dire che i genitori di Uncle Scrooge sono piuttosto noiosi, così come i suoi tempi prima di Paperino e dei nipotini".
It is kind of weird, because I read that Barks kind of helped Rosa and appreciated his work (I read this from Rosa himself), but the article seems legit (the Rosa's quotes are alright! and 100% true).
Okay, so I found this 1995 article in which Barks allegedly stated he disliked Rosa's work.
I quote from the link:
"Non vedo alcuna ragione perché un altro si metta a riscrivere il mio lavoro. Quello... stile (chiamiamolo così) non mi interessa proprio. Io preferisco il lavoro di altri artisti, come Daan Jippes e William Van Horn, che seguono nelle storie e nel tratto la tradizione disneyana. Insomma, il lavoro di Rosa non mi piace".
And again:
"Sarebbe come voler trovare su una cartina geografica Paperopoli e il deposito di Zio Paperone. Anche l' albero genealogico dei paperi è vago e mutabile. Posso però dire che i genitori di Uncle Scrooge sono piuttosto noiosi, così come i suoi tempi prima di Paperino e dei nipotini".
It is kind of weird, because I read that Barks kind of helped Rosa and appreciated his work (I read this from Rosa himself), but the article seems legit (the Rosa's quotes are alright! and 100% true).
I haven't seen these Barks quotes before, but they don't surprise me. At the same time, I don't think they indicate that Barks was always globally negative about Rosa's work. I think they were very different people, and Rosa's drive for a coherent and consistent history, family tree and geography was alien to Barks' personality and his own working approach to the Duckworld. At times Barks appreciated Rosa's appreciation of his work; at times Barks was put off by Rosa's push for continuity in a fictional world where Barks did not see it as necessary or generative. And we know that Rosa acknowledged that his artwork differed from the Disney comics norm and wasn't that great in and of itself. (I love it, but only as it stands in concert with his writing, getting across his own style of humor and detail-loving narration so well.) As a huge fan of both creators, I understand Barks's annoyance with Rosa's approach but take it as a sign of the difference of their creative personalities. I myself love the Barksian Duckburg which sometimes had lots of snow on the ground and sometimes had palm trees and sometimes was on the Northeast coast (Northeaster on Cape Quack--you don't get Northeasters on the California coast!). And I love Rosa's love of the details and insane but creatively brilliant attempt to make One History and One Geography to Contain Them All. Just as I love the several different Duckburg maps I have collected, with the German ones being of course the most obsessive! (I'm ethnically mostly German, so....) I love the Life & Times. At the same time, I'm glad that there's no overall Disney Comics Canon Authority to try to enforce Rosa's continuity or the German map on other authors, because the multiplicity of published Duckburg is part of what I love about Disney comics worldwide. I am in personality closer to Rosa than to Barks with regard to my own view of Duckburg, so I make my own headcanon which is largely Rosa-inflected and has a mid-20th-century setting. But I don't pretend--and Rosa himself does not pretend--that Barks meant to create such a uniform view of Duckburg, and I'm glad that hundreds of different creators worldwide have been able to grow strikingly different views of the Duckworld from the Barksian roots.
At least that article also confirms that Scrooge and Elvira are not siblings...
But yeah, it's weird reading this. As I posted above, Rosa said (in the introduction text to chapter 5, at least in my old collected edition) that he sent the entire draft (with all the notes) as well as the first eight chapters to Barks and Barks was generally positive about the venture. Now since those are Rosa's words, he may be putting some "spin" on it, but why would Barks say that Scrooge's youth is boring?
There's something off about this article... it doesn't sound like Barks. I know it's been translated in Italian, and it might not even be a direct transcription. But the Barks I know from interviews was never this direct about his work, or his opinion of the works of others. I think this might be one of the issues fredj was talking about: that this is one of Barks' managers speaking for him, rather than Barks himself.
There also seems to be no clear context for these comments. Why did someone call Barks for his opinions on Rosa's work? Why would Barks jump to the chase like that? It's a very sensationalist article trying to stir something up between Barks and Rosa, who at the time hadn't even met one another (not until 1998, where according to Rosa they didn't even talk all that much about comics).
At least that article also confirms that Scrooge and Elvira are not siblings...
But yeah, it's weird reading this. As I posted above, Rosa said (in the introduction text to chapter 5, at least in my old collected edition) that he sent the entire draft (with all the notes) as well as the first eight chapters to Barks and Barks was generally positive about the venture. Now since those are Rosa's words, he may be putting some "spin" on it, but why would Barks say that Scrooge's youth is boring?
Yes, I also read Rosa saying that somewhere (and I also read Rosa's quote in this article before), but I have no clue why Barks should ever say something like that. Maybe because he hadn't supporting characters? (I mean known ones)
There's something off about this article... it doesn't sound like Barks. I know it's been translated in Italian, and it might not even be a direct transcription. But the Barks I know from interviews was never this direct about his work, or his opinion of the works of others. I think this might be one of the issues fredj was talking about: that this is one of Barks' managers speaking for him, rather than Barks himself.
I agree. Barks was generally quite balanced about anything and had nice words for anyone. At least, as I could have read in correspondences and interviews. But I also remember him saying he disliked Italian stories in an interview, because Scrooge was used incorrectly. The Repubblica article mentions that it could have been the manager writing those things, preferring artists with whom Barks collaborated directly. Jippes had drawn the JW stories, Van Horn the then-supernew Horsing Around with History, and therefore it could be true. I also read in a previous interview that Barks liked Vicar, but never hadI read any direct comment of him on Rosa, and that is why I opened this very thread in the first place.
About the geography thing, it looks like Barks wouldn't have appreciated the efforts of The Duckburg Times and The Barks Collector teams, which also investigated those matters (along with what the ducks' height is etc etc)