Barks's Magica on a broom, and Gyro!

Daniel van Eijmeren dve at kabelfoon.nl
Sun Aug 31 06:22:01 CEST 2003


In Barks's Bottled Battlers (JW 10 / H 94141), Magica flies on a 
broom. A *motorized* broom to be exactly. On page 5, this results 
in an (IMO) very funny scene of Magica polluting the air:

Police in helicopter: "Lady! Lady! What are you burning in that 
AIR SMOGGING vehicle?"
Magica: "Pure lead-free concentrate of Vesuvian BRIMSTONE! What 
did you think?"

Earlier, on page 3, Magica says while making a looping on the broom: 
"Soon I, Magica De Spell, will be the world's RICHEST sorceress!
I feel like celebrating!"

And then she starts singing:
"I'll buy a jet with lots of room
and say goodbye to this drafty broom!"

So, according to this story, Magica is a sorceress on a motorized 
broom, dreaming of a plane instead.

There's also a May 1995 watercolor called "Frequent Flyer", which 
shows Magica on a broom. I've never seen this one, though. As far as 
I know, it's unpublished and the buyer is unknown. So, I don't know 
if the broom is motorized. (Can anybody tell me more about this?)

However, witch or sorceress, I do agree with Don Rosa that Barks's 
Magica does her tricks in (more or less) explainable ways, and that 
she's not supernatural herself. At least, I can't remember any 
exceptions.

Barks's "Jet Witch" (WDC 254) contains another reference to flying 
brooms and - this time - witches. During Halloween, Donald asks a 
shortie where everybody is. 

shortie: "I fink a old WITCH got 'em, mithter! I seed her fwy by a 
minute ago!"
Donald: "A WITCH! If I didn't know such phenomena is imaginary, I'd 
halfway believe the kid is right!"
(SWOOSH!)
silhouette: "Hee, hee, hee!"
Donald: "My stars and comets - a witch IS zooming around here!"

It turns out to be Gyro in a witch outfit, testing a new jet sky stick 
he invented. It looks like a broom, but it's a "ionic ejector", and so 
top secret that he had to wear a disguise. He figured nobody would notice 
a witch flying around on Halloween. He's wrong, though. Next pages show 
citizens in horrors when they see this witch disguise up in the air. They 
believe it's a *real* witch. And a policeman falling from his horse says: 
"A WITCH! Halt, witch! You have to have a LICENSE of some kind, I think!" 
So, they're not very used to the idea of real witches, to say the least.

"Jet witch" is one of my favourites. It has a great mysterious atmosphere, 
while there's in fact nothing really strange going on.

The only exception of a real flying broom in a Barks story, is "Trick 
or treat" (DD 26). But that story is based on an animated cartoon.
I don't know if the broom is alive in the animated cartoon, though.
Maybe an explanation could be that the broom is in fact a person under 
a spell, like the Ducks being turned into animals in "Oddball Odyssey" 
(US 40). For me, the story works fine without an explanation. I would 
find it strange to see (Barks's) *Magica* on a real broom, though.
So strange, that I'm almost getting curious to see her that way. :-)

BTW. Is Donald also sceptical towards witches in the animated "Trick or 
Treat"? Or is it something that Barks put into his comic boom version?

--- Daniël (wondering what typos and errors will pop up after pushing 
the send button)

"I've seen bottles with SHIPS inside - but kids! That took some doing!"
(Bottled Battlers, JW 10)


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