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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Duckburg is a multiple dimension place : this is a
static place for vaudeville, comical and ludicrous stories; this is also a place
that people quit for coming back after tremendous adventures; the
city-world (a city-world because the imaginary of Duckburg goes through the
limits of the city) has some recognizable places : </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>The club of billionaires : a place where Scrooge search for
recognition (the desire of recognition for Scrooge is in the character's
personality and is put in relief by a hint of snobbery, this trait of his
character appears evidently in the old italian stories, but also in Carl Barks
(Oncle picsou et les gens qui The status seeker 1962); this trait of personality
is reinforced by a predominant ego (Picsou contre Lord Hambar where the
beginning of the chore of the plot starts...at the billionaires club); apart
from the billionaire club, other characteristic places amongst another in
Duckburg are : the money bin, the house of Donald in the suburbs, the farm of
Grandma Duck, the old house of the Beagle Boys, Gyro's workshop.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Gyro Gearloose : science as an another form of
magic : Gyro can be consider as a 'good Magica De Spell' as he practices science
on its magical side; his inventions are extraordinary and we can consider his
own science as a kind of magical practice on the elements; despite of that,
despite Magica and some Gyro's inventions, Duckburg can be affiliated to a
naturalistic universe; the basis, the roots of Duckburg being at the beginning
Donald's daily problem's of money, for finding a job and so forth...; in
fact there has been three directions for Duckburg contained in the
Barks' stories : </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1 - A vaudeville direction which has been put
in relief and exploited above all by the italian stories of the sixties with
remarkable stories and remarkable drawings.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2 - A dimension of adventure symbolized by
numerous stories and which has been blended inevitably with a dimension of time
and biographical since the origin in the C.Barks stories; why?, because we can
consider that the time is a form of distance and journey : a lot of the
journeys of Scrooge when he is travelling reminds him a moment of his past
(for example the story Back to the klondyke); that was the meaning of a part of
my comments in 'Scrooge in Europe'; this kind of trips in memory in the
areas of the past is reinforced by a certain nostalghia of C.Barks for the past
that we can see for example in the excellent 'In Old California' 1951; this
story is in fact an another story of ghosts, the tourists can laugh about what
they don't see at the end of the story, but for Donald and the Kids this house
of the gold rush is full of memory; sure, the past is certainly a little bit
idealized in the plot but this latter one concentrates a big part of what is
told about memory and trips in the stories of C.Barks; an another
example of this nostalgia for the past can be found in the space stories
where the characters of Duckburg go through the universe or exceptionally in
other dimensions (which remains the same); here the space can be assimilated to
a new gold rush : The Micro Ducks from outer space with a small trading
between Scrooge and micro-inhabitants from an another planet which can remind me
of some of the old fashion trading that people have been doing since a
while, on the contrary of the industrial world of today; in le Rêve d'or
d'Oncle Picsou Zio paperone e il regno dell'oro 1969, the story ends
hopefully with the victory of nature against a development of the gold into
the bodies of the ducks due to the desire of Scrooge; so is the Barks' story la
lune en or massif The twenty-four carats moon 1958, written at a moment in time
where the space was an important matter for the nations technically the most
advanced; in this story too Scrooge regrets keeping his golden moon instead of a
grassy planet with water at the end ; the story seems
to discredit the golden desire in favour of a more valuable
nature; the italian stories Le blouson spatial de Donald Paperino e la guibba
spaziale 1966 pencils Luciano Gatto and Donald dans l'espace sidéral Paperino e
il tandem spaziale 1965 Luciano Gatto are more poetic and sending
back at a more marvelous way in the space travel due to the progress of the
technique (the cosmic bicycle of the extraterrestrials used by Donald,
Scrooge, Gyro and the kids for fleeing away from the danger); i can think
here particurlarly to Gyro, one of the source of the situation of the plot; the
italian vaudeville doesn't imply in general this time dimension, in a lot of
their stories the action stays in the limits of Duckburg and grabs our
attention with the chacterization of the personalites which are a
source of intrigues and competitions between each other of the characters :
problems of Donald to pay the bill, to pay Scrooge, for finding a job,
competition of Scrooge due to dangerous competitors in the millionaire club
etc...here the time dimension is lacking because the time is not
materialized in the distance, the time is not the distance, the place of the
action is static, the characterization is strong; so three directions from the
original stuff of C.Barks were able to be taken : the vaudeville (italian
stories of the 50's, 60's, 70's... - the latter period , the 70's..., has less
good drawings in general compared with the 60's period),
adventure...</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>3 - and ... time (Don Rosa) - this
last dimension is linked with the adventures stories as i said above; We
can also see a hint of the future that will never be in 'Paperino anno 2001'
since Duckburg is either a world of yesterday or today for the characters but
certainly not a world of their future. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Duckburg and Donaldville : the name and the meaning
: one of the differences of the meaning after the translation of Duckburg
into Donaldville for France could consist of this one : Duckburg can be
considered, according to its meaning, as the city of the Ducks, Donaldville is
basically the city of Donald, the other Ducks have not the privilege to be
parts of the name of the city; according to this consideration, could we think
that Donald in France is considered as the main character in Duckburg; i
wouldn't say that, Scrooge is obviously very popular here, however, when i read
the recent Picsou Magazine, i find a predominance of Donald as the lead
character - perhaps because of the barks' stories released in it; Carl Barks
seems to prefer Donald, and i personally think the character of Scrooge was
better used in the best italian stories of the sixties than in the C.Barks
ones; maybe because, in my opinion, Scrooge is a more vaudevillesque character
than an adventurer; so is the vaudeville spirit in such stories as the one of
Guido Martina, Guilio Chierchini called L'oncle Picsou et le billiards aux
milliards Zio paperone e il billiardi de un milliardo 1967, or Giovan Battista
Carpi for the drawings of Donald et l'affaire des terres rares Paperino e
l'affare delle terre rare 1965.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nowadays in France, Donad turns out to be Donald
Duck; here too a small change about the name, the add of the second name Duck in
many stories could be a sign of a certain retreat of the italian creation
about the duck stories ? that could be also the result of more translations of
Carl Barks in the recent years in Picsou magazine, the desire of keeping
the american/ a part of the american name like this is more
usual nowadays for the comics characters in an overall picture, or a
desire to locate Donald and Duckburg in America definitely in the
imagination of the readers; that also could consist of a more
characterization of the ducks into a human being profile, continuing this
process present since the creation of Donald, after all there is little to
compare between the duck of the first stories in both the animated cartoons
and comics, or even in stories like 'Mickey Journaliste' by F.Gottfredson, and
the Donald of today : less animal and more human in fact, with the
time; one of the aims of the comics was evidently to separate the comic
stories from this form of animation/cartoon, so the stories should not be
cartoons anymore and the characters could exist with a finer
attitude.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The attitude in a more modern side of the existence
can be reflected in the character of Daisy; in the old italian stories, apart
from whether my memory fails a little, i don't remember seeing her working; in
the recent Jounal de Mickey, in the story 'Le Journal de Donald', Daisy has
a job, she is reporter and she must interview a celebrity at a party; i add that
the story is related with her point of view, not Donald's
one.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>