McGreals' Three Minus Two Is One

[Matilda]

I'm wondering whether anyone would be willing to post a summary of this story: Three Minus Two Is One. It was in Picsou 524. No one is selling any comic including this story online that I can find, and I'm curious to know the plot. I'm interested both because I'm generally interested in how people handle the triplets' relationship (e.g. I love Korhonen's And Then There Were Two) and because I want to know what role Carl Barks plays in the story.

[Minotaur]

Here is an English scanlation that I can find. If you want to read it in French, I think ePresse.fr is one of the places where you can buy digital comics online. 
Edit: not quite sure if it is against the rules of this forum, I will remove the link if it is

[Matilda]

Nov 21, 2017 5:14:27 GMT Minotaur said:

Here is an English scanlation that I can find. If you want to read it in French, I think ePresse.fr is one of the places where you can buy digital comics online. 
Edit: not quite sure if it is against the rules of this forum, I will remove the link if it is

Thank you very much! I like the story more than I expected (because I thought the McGreals' Happy Birthday Times Three was only so-so). Nice scheming on the boys' part. And it's nice to know how Barks shows up, as a painter in the park in the last panel. Which means that inserting him may have been totally Rota's idea.... I like the fact that Rota shows him painting the money bin! Rota's food fight panel is also fun.

This view of HDL, where they want to stick together and dress alike but for color etc., is compatible with Rosa's HDL and with Korhonen's And Then There Were Two. That's probably why I like it better than Happy Birthday Times Three.

I will check out the option of buying French comics digitally, thanks. Mostly I've been lucky enough to find copies of stories I want for sale on eBay.fr, and I prefer to have physical copies. But occasionally that doesn't work.

Ramapith: Can I add this one to my list of stories I'd like to see in an IDW comic, please? Though Korhonen's is still higher on my want list....

[RobbK1]

I find it interesting that although Pat and Carol McGreal wrote that story originally in colloquial American English, this "English" version was probably translated from Danish (or perhaps German), it was clearly not written by an English first language speaker. I wish original English scripts would be kept by Egmont, and be accessible to English-language franchises, as well as other English language publishers who print these stories.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Not much of a story (my note on the inducks was a 5/10). But since the McGreal's are the authors that I dislike most (among those that I know ar least a bit), I can say that it is the best thing I have read by them.

EDIT: gee, what did I say? Good old Paul Halas is the author that I dislike most!

[Spectrus]

Nov 22, 2017 19:50:01 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

Not much of a story (my note on the inducks was a 5/10). But since the McGreal's are the authors that I dislike most (among those that I know ar least a bit), I can say that it is the best thing I have read by them.

EDIT: gee, what did I say? Good old Paul Halas is the author that I dislike most!

Sorta offtopic but...

The McGreals have produced a lot of stuff that is, frankly, nonsense. But - and here's the catch - every now and then they strike gold and write something that's absolutely top-notch. An example would be "Kappa! Kappa! Kappa!". I also really liked "Where's the Bin Been?".

Paul Halas, yeah, I can see where you're coming from. I'm not sure if I've ever read anything by him that was more than just 'acceptable'. But to me, he's still not as bad as Michael T. Gilbert, the Shaws or Rune Meikle - those have really come up with some of the worst, most irritating plots I've ever endured. And let's not forget the ones hiding in the anonymity of "Spectrum Associates".

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

My message was a bit misleading, probably.
To be fair, I have read more often than I wanted (or than I should have) Halas and the McGreal family, just because they are often drawn by great artists, like Rota, or sometimes even Cavazzano. So my mind says "ok, I don't expect too much by this tale, but let's give a shot at this." Then I  always find myself at the end of the reading like "Gee-- worse than my already low expectations! What the heck!". Three Minus Two Is One is the one case when the McGreals did not make me feel this "What the heck!" part. Its was simple and sweet, and appropriate to Rota's late style.

For sure there must be other writers that I disliked equally much, but maybe I have only read one or two of their stories and then decided to drop them forever. And one or two stories are too few to direct my anger against them.  

("my anger" is just a joke. I tend to forget that this is an international forum and I should pay attention at the level of irony I use, which may not be compatible with the one of people from other parts of the globe...)

[Spectrus]

I understand your point. I've often shaken my head at some of the stuff Cavazzano "had to" draw (I assume he's not being forced to do it...), including plots by the McGreals, but also Sune Troelstrup or even Gorm Transgaard (whom I normally like, but his latest Cavazzano collaboration was a real stinker IMO). But I still think "Nursing Fever", "Living Doll", "Dances With Eagles" and "Splash in the Plan" feature the worst art I've ever seen from the maestro.