The Magic Hourglass's Frame Story

[RobbK1]

Apr 23, 2017 8:15:00 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

I meant what Loke said. One of Barks's best (long) stories, that's all. Or at least one of my favorites. The main reason is the quality of the storytelling: that story flows in a perfect way, with every page staged the way it should be. Also, the story is funny, evocative and with plenty of surprises. Finally, it has a high density of gags, supported by a very expressive art (give a look for instance at the funny way panel by panel Barks develops the torment of Scrooge at pages 2 and 3).
So, I consider it one of his milestones from a purely narrative point of view. Why would a story require to introduce some great new character, or create a new genre, or upset forever the history of comics in any possible way, to be considered a great achievement? I was not giving such a strong meaning to the word "achievement", Robb.  As I said elsewhere, I do not have a personal Barks's story chart. So I do not know, where is The Magic Hourglass for me? In an unordered Top 10, I guess...   Who cares, it does not really matter. By the way, when a guy creates more than 500 stories, all of them of much higher quality than the production of his peers...well, maybe even a story in his Top 40 is "great achievement". 



(I know the behavior of Scrooge in the story is not consistent with later developments, as well as the magic explanation for his wealth. And I know many among you love to discuss about this kind of stuff. Good for you, and I like reading your discussions. But I do not like to take part in them, since I do not care much about these things. When the story is good is good, and that's enough for me.)

You make a good point here.  Maybe Barks' Top 40 long stories ARE all great achievements.  I'll have to agree with you that "The Magic Hourglass IS a very good story, and it has brought me a lot of enjoyment.

[RobbK1]

Apr 23, 2017 16:25:11 GMT drakeborough said:

I haven't read this frame story since it was never published in Italy, however I think it's worth mentioning that this was not the first time an old story is introduced by a frame story. For example, the Italian comic title "I Classici di Walt Disney" (first series, second series) consisted, from 1957 to 1984, of older stories tied together by new frame stories, which make it seem as all the reprinted stories are part of a single tale. Something simlilar happens in a current Italian comic title (Topostorie, published monthly since April 2014), though in this case each frame story introduces all the reprinted comics as flashbacks rather than as facts happening in the present.

Also, some W-coded comics were created with the purpose of being tied together by a frame story since their first publication: these include Barks' The Fantastic River Race (1957), The Black Pearls of Tabu Yama (1957) and The Forbidium Money Bin (1958)

Even Disney's classic animated shorts have often been shown as part of frame stories.

And even earlier Tony Strobl drawn stories were framed into Tony's drawing of "This Is Your life, Donald Duck".

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Apr 23, 2017 16:25:11 GMT drakeborough said:

I haven't read this frame story since it was never published in Italy, however I think it's worth mentioning that this was not the first time an old story is introduced by a frame story. For example, the Italian comic title "I Classici di Walt Disney" (first series, second series) consisted, from 1957 to 1984, of older stories tied together by new frame stories, which make it seem as all the reprinted stories are part of a single tale. Something simlilar happens in a current Italian comic title (Topostorie, published monthly since April 2014), though in this case each frame story introduces all the reprinted comics as flashbacks rather than as facts happening in the present.

Also, some W-coded comics were created with the purpose of being tied together by a frame story since their first publication: these include Barks' The Fantastic River Race (1957), The Black Pearls of Tabu Yama (1957) and The Forbidium Money Bin (1958).

Even Disney's classic animated shorts have often been shown as part of frame stories.

True, but this is different because those frame stories were "bridges" whose purpose was to link different stories together, whereas the stupid Van Horn thing we're dealing with today needlessly frames a single story.

[drakeborough]

Apr 23, 2017 17:25:26 GMT RobbK1 said:

And even earlier Tony Strobl drawn stories were framed into Tony's drawing of "This Is Your life, Donald Duck".

Uh? What do you mean? It's true that both the Disneyland episode "This Is Your life, Donald Duck" (1960) and its namesake comic book adaptation by Lockman/Strobl (also 1960) have scenes set in the present alternated with flashbacks of Donald's youth. However, in the tv episode the flasbacks are actually old cartoons (shortened), while in the comic book version the flashbacks are, as far as I know, made up from scratch, except from the shortened redrawn version of Barks' "The Think Boxes".

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Apr 23, 2017 19:47:53 GMT drakeborough said:

Apr 23, 2017 17:25:26 GMT RobbK1 said:

And even earlier Tony Strobl drawn stories were framed into Tony's drawing of "This Is Your life, Donald Duck".

Uh? What do you mean? It's true that both the Disneyland episode "This Is Your life, Donald Duck" (1960) and its namesake comic book adaptation by Lockman/Strobl (also 1960) have scenes set in the present alternated with flashbacks of Donald's youth. However, in the tv episode the flasbacks are actually old cartoons (shortened), while in the comic book version the flashbacks are, as far as I know, made up from scratch, except from the shortened redrawn version of Barks' "The Think Boxes".

I do believe Robb was referencig The Think Boxes, perhaps misremembering there being more Barks stories thrown in.

[RobbK1]

Apr 23, 2017 20:15:54 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Apr 23, 2017 19:47:53 GMT drakeborough said:

Uh? What do you mean? It's true that both the Disneyland episode "This Is Your life, Donald Duck" (1960) and its namesake comic book adaptation by Lockman/Strobl (also 1960) have scenes set in the present alternated with flashbacks of Donald's youth. However, in the tv episode the flasbacks are actually old cartoons (shortened), while in the comic book version the flashbacks are, as far as I know, made up from scratch, except from the shortened redrawn version of Barks' "The Think Boxes".

I do believe Robb was referencing The Think Boxes, perhaps misremembering there being more Barks stories thrown in.

Sorry, I thought I'd remembered some scenes from Strobl's earlier stories being used in the comic book version.  But, now that you mention it, they must have been Strobl redrawing scenes from Barks stories.