I hate to say it, but I have to think that the use of the h-word in "Billions in the Hole" probably just slipped through the cracks rather than being an example of loosened-up censorship policies--after all, in "Under the Polar Ice", the editors did not censor the dialect of the genuine "wild Indians" in "Black Wednesday", but did censor the dialect of the fake tourist-Indians in "Riding the Pony Express." I suspect it all depends on what the Disney people notice and what they don't notice.
Well, Thad posted a Facebook comment a while back mentioning that he thought the message (from the Barks fans) had sunk in, as there has been no changes since "Under the Polar Ice", the volume which represented the censorship at its most extreme. The use of the modified "Bongo on the Congo" excluded, since that one appears to be a mistake on Fanta's part.
To me, that makes some sense: the censoring started rearing its head in "Christmas in Duckburg" (one word replaced), then sprung out in full bloom in "Under the Polar Ice" (tons of bizarre changes). Following reactions to that volume, there doesn't seem to have been any more censoring carried out for Fanta's editions, at least from what I've heard.
Last Edit: Sept 24, 2022 16:59:39 GMT by Mesterius
Let us hope so. I am curious to see what they do with "Treasure of Marco Polo," which was one of the handful of stories heavily censored in the original Another Rainbow Carl Barks Library. Hopefully they don't grab the censored AR copy by mistake, as with "Bongo on the Congo."
I really hate some of the colouring in the latest volume. Gladstone’s jacket in The Golden Nugget Boat, the Beagle Boy’s trousers and caps in Billions in the Hole and all the other weird bluish greens throughout the book. Almost hurts the eyes to look at.
On a more positive note I noticed that the phrase ”I’d touch off a holocaust of gas bombs and land mines” in Billions in the Hole hadn’t been censored.
Lots of people have said that the low budget "coloring" - which was done by a colorblind person - that Dell did back in the day is an insult to Barks' work and everybody's intelligence. But Fantagraphics started with copying the exact Dell coloring and they'll have to continue that to the very bitter end. To me it gets more irritating every volume and takes a lot out of the fun of looking at Barks' beautiful artwork. Fantagraphins made a humongous mistake and now their're stuck with it.
Maybe Fantagraphics thought that they had to do something different because other collected Barks works (The CB Library in Color?) already did a proper re-coloring of the comics. I do agree, however, with most people that the digital re-coloring with all that fake "airbrushed" stuff is too distracting.
But the Dell-like coloring washes out any detail in the drawings because they make objects in one single color without accenting details. And the most intelligence insulting stuff is red fish and green birds. Literally every color by Dell is plain wrong! All the wooden fences are white, not brown. That is because Dell was to cheap to color 'm in, they just accented certain parts of the fences with blue to imply that they are white.
Too bad that the 'Barks Library In Color' is in soft covers and in many, many small volumes. I think it's gonna be harder and harder to find a complete set in good condition. Still in doubt of buying a complete set of those and ditching the horrible Fantagraphics ones.
meneerjansen I could not disagree with you more. I LOOOOVE the coloring in the Barks Library books. Sure, it's not perfect but what matters is that it's FLAT coloring. What I hate is gradient coloring, when they add details with the coloring which was not originally there in the black and white pages. The comics in the DR Library are nicely colored overall, but they are filled with ugly and unnecessary gradient coloring.
My very crute attempt at removing the gradient coloring in 3 panels from the DR Library: Gradient backgrounds in the first and third panels switched to flat coloring. Completely unecessary background color in the second panel eliminated.
meneerjansen I could not disagree with you more. I LOOOOVE the coloring in the Barks Library books. Sure, it's not perfect but what matters is that it's FLAT coloring. What I hate is gradient coloring, when they add details with the coloring which was not originally there in the black and white pages. The comics in the DR Library are nicely colored overall, but they are filled with ugly and unnecessary gradient coloring.
My very crute attempt at removing the gradient coloring in 3 panels from the DR Library: Gradient backgrounds in the first and third panels switched to flat coloring. Completely unecessary background color in the second panel eliminated.
To be honest, it's hard to judge the differences between these two versions when your edit removes THAT much of the actual lineart. But I really don't mind the gradients here.
meneerjansen I could not disagree with you more. I LOOOOVE the coloring in the Barks Library books. Sure, it's not perfect but what matters is that it's FLAT coloring. What I hate is gradient coloring, when they add details with the coloring which was not originally there in the black and white pages. The comics in the DR Library are nicely colored overall, but they are filled with ugly and unnecessary gradient coloring.
My very crute attempt at removing the gradient coloring in 3 panels from the DR Library: << snip >> Gradient backgrounds in the first and third panels switched to flat coloring. Completely unecessary background color in the second panel eliminated.
I think we actually do agree, ha ha.
What I called "fake airbrush stuff" is that gradient coloring. I don't like that either. Flat coloring is nice. The pictures that you posted are a good example. I like those more with the unneeded distracting gradient coloring removed. Especially since in panel 3 the gradient is from orange to a weird blue/green color: those are complementary colors! Like I said: some comics look like they've been colored in by a color blind person. Americans like contrasting colors but this is insane.
But the Dell-like coloring in the Fantagraphics books is even worse: the fish are red and wood is white. Literally every color is off.
On top of that Fantagraphics does not do "accents". See the pic you posted. In panel 1 the power shovel vehicle in the background has more than one color. And the coins in the foreground change from blue to white (not in a gradient). And some coins have the color of brass. That's how you do it!
Last Edit: Oct 2, 2022 9:58:22 GMT by meneerjansen
I think I am in agreement with the above. I didn’t need modern colouring for the CBL, in fact I generally like the retro colours. It would have been wonderful if they had kept the 50s colour palette but fixed all the stupid colouring choices. The yellow grass, Scrooge’s everchanging frock colours, the weird blue-green bears/cannons/treetrunks/clothes and so on. Like if the original comics actually had had a competent and consistent colourer.
I think I am in agreement with the above. I didn’t need modern colouring for the CBL, in fact I generally like the retro colours. It would have been wonderful if they had kept the 50s colour palette but fixed all the stupid colouring choices. The yellow grass, Scrooge’s everchanging frock colours, the weird blue-green bears/cannons/treetrunks/clothes and so on. Like if the original comics actually had had a competent and consistent colourer.
Exactly what I mean. Blue-green bears. Who came up with that idea in the fifties and what manager at Fantagraphics thought that it was a good idea to restore that? A missed opportunity for a proper hard cover Barks Library in color.
meneerjansen I could not disagree with you more. I LOOOOVE the coloring in the Barks Library books. Sure, it's not perfect but what matters is that it's FLAT coloring. What I hate is gradient coloring, when they add details with the coloring which was not originally there in the black and white pages. The comics in the DR Library are nicely colored overall, but they are filled with ugly and unnecessary gradient coloring.
My very crute attempt at removing the gradient coloring in 3 panels from the DR Library: Gradient backgrounds in the first and third panels switched to flat coloring. Completely unecessary background color in the second panel eliminated.
But…but…that’s how Don Rosa wanted it colored. He had a say in how his stories were presented in the Don Rosa Library.
Especially since in panel 3 the gradient is from orange to a weird blue/green color: those are complementary colors!
But that's not meant to be a background anyway. It's coloring used to accent a particular moment, in this case Scrooge's realization.
Thanks. I get it now. That's why there's the blue. To be nit picky: the background, other than the blue, goes from yellow to orange. Combined with the blue, that's too much for me. Not as bad as Fantagraphics though. The blue gradient accent on panel 2 behind on of the nephews is nicer in my opinion.
But…but…that’s how Don Rosa wanted it colored. He had a say in how his stories were presented in the Don Rosa Library.
Not exactly. Don Rosa was presented with various coloring options (Egmont coloring, US coloring, etc.), picked one of them, then listed all the errors which then Fantagraphics corrected. What Don Rosa mainly cared about was that everything is colored correctly, for example that the plants and animals are the correct color, that young Scrooge's hair isn't blond, that unpainted wood is brown, etc. He did not have an input for everything and he did not request to change everything he wanted to. For example he most certainly did not specifically want Magica's clothing in "Of Ducks, Dimes and Destinies" to be that ugly pink color, yet it is pink in the DR Library because it was pink in the original coloring version Rosa picked and it's not technically incorrect so he did not request to change it.
As for the three panels I posted, he probably does not mind gradient coloring, but that does not mean he would not like flat coloring more. And he certainly does mind the background coloring in the second panel I posted. Similar background colorings (meaning when an open panel without border has a background color) were removed in the Deluxe Lo$ book.
But that's not meant to be a background anyway. It's coloring used to accent a particular moment, in this case Scrooge's realization.
Of course, but why did the colorist think he needed to accent that moment? Did he think Don Rosa's line art was not impactful enough?
Post by captaingrapple on Oct 3, 2022 17:06:44 GMT
Folks are really missing the forest for the trees here. Both the censorship and the colors are small details that don't detract from my reading enjoyment at all. The censorship is actually an improvement, if anything - I prefer my Disney comics not to be racist.
Surely you folks can appreciate Disney not wanting to publish comics featuring outdated racial stereotypes?
On the whole I of course enjoy the series, otherwise I wouldn't continue to buy it. But yes, the colouring can absolutely detract from my enjoyment. The censorship is a slightly different thing, as it's not always as obvious. I'm generally okay with stories being censored for reprints in magazines, but in a "library" I prefer to have the comics as the creator originally wrote and drew them, even when they are "racist".