Don-Ducks, and pre-Barks Ducks

[David A Gerstein]

        Dear Folks,

        Don Rosa explained:

        "After the Danish article that said I didn't draw a
"recognizable" Donald, I decided I needed to relearn some Duck
proportions, and since I prefer Barks' Ducks to any other, I must
reteach myself using my Barks clip-file. I believe I'd been "humanizing"
my Ducks too much -- I wasn't stooping them over enough or giving them
big enough rear ends, among other problems."

        I never thought about this before, Don, but I realize you're
right.  Looking at old Rosa stories, I find that the ducks, in my
opinion, look their best in the later stories you did for Gladstone.
I'm not saying that your style is overall as subtle as it is now in
those early stories (I find some panels in "War of the Wendigo" truly
fantastic, and I've only seen one LO$ but it looks superb), but I
actually like the Ducks more as you drew them in 1989.

        On page 1 of "On a Silver Platter" your Ducks look different
than any other drawings of them you've ever done... I think of Daan
Jippes when I look at that page.  Later in the story, they look more
like you usually draw them, but that one page strikes me as different.

        And now, Don, you also asked:

        "This "long" Donald Duck adventure from 1939 is to be in the
60th Birthday issue. AND the Donald vs. Gladstone story you mentioned?
AND my 16 pager? Since when does Gladstone publish comics that thick?
Is this 60th birthday issue to be an album?  Since when does ANYONE
these days publish comics that thick, other than "graphic novels"
(comic albums)?"

        Actually, it's the one from 1937 which is *tentatively*
planned for the birthday issue... that's a 17-page story.  The entire
issue will be a thick 64 pages, with at least 58 of those being made
up of comic stories.  Gladstone has done two other 64 page issues so
far -- DM 21 and USA 23 -- since they took over again, and the next
year will see six more double-thick issues of this type, some of them
being USA, some DDA, and this 60th-birthday DD.

        And (this is Don again)

        "And I am very curious as to what these 1937 & '39 Donald
adventures are like! So Barks wasn't the first to do Duck adventure
tales -- they were being done 10 years earlier? And I can't imagine what
sort of personality Donald might have in these 30's adventures since I
don't percieve Donald as HAVING a personality until Barks had dealt with
him for 5 or 10 years. Or does he just act like a cantankerous
adolescent which is all he was prior to Barks?"

        Well, more of a compromise.  The first story, titled
"Donald Duck and the Mystery on Mars", starts out with some very
Taliaferro-ish slapstick, but when Donald is kidnapped by two crooked
scientists, things change.

	** SPOILERS AFOOT! **

	Months ago, an honest rival of these two scientists flew to
Mars in search of a chemical which was used in making a drug like
artificial adrenaline.  As far as I can figure out with next to no
knowledge of Italian, the chemical is produced by sunlight filtering
through the Martian atmosphere.

	Unfortunately the scientist was *wrecked* on Mars, so could
not come back.  Then he disappeared.  The two crooks, presuming he's
still alive, are manning a rocket themselves to go to Mars and swipe
whatever research this guy has done, then head back to Earth and claim
it for themselves.  They want Donald on the rocket to do the grunt
work, and specifically choose him because after one look at him, they
know he's expendable!

	Please note that Mars is shown much like Barks depicted the
Moon in WDC&S 95... a primitive pop-culture interpretation, with
silly-looking creatures living there.  This was the 1930s, you see.
In my version of the story, I'll make the planet something other than
Mars so to make it slightly more plausible (well, for a space opera)

	Before the end of the story, Donald has become a brave
(but foolhardy), quick-thinking duck who nonetheless retains his old
cowardice and quick temper.  He also gets doped by the valuable
chemical, whereupon he acquires the strength to subdue the villains...
if only briefly.  He charges towards them with a grim, vengeful look
on his face, but as he wrestles them (a la the Gottfredson story
"Island in the Sky," which clearly influenced the battle here and was
only made a year before) he gets a big grin on his face -- it's not
the way Superman would do it, but a lot more fun (shades of OS 199).

	(Note:  This makes Donald the first superhero -- albeit only
briefly.  The story is from 1937 you realize, pre Siegel/Schuster)

	** END OF SPOILERS **

	So Donald is shown as a more dimensional character than he was
in the cartoons at the time.  Particularly startling when you see how
he looks -- he's right in the middle of the transition, with still
rather long arms and slightly curved neck.  This is Donald as he
looked in the FIRST Taliaferro strips... *just* making the change from
his earliest long-billed look to that which Barks would later pick up.

	Anyway, the story is not perfect.  First of all, it's real
Jules Verne stuff... no more plausible than Barks' "Loony Lunar Gold
Rush".  Also, the art is wildly variant;  excellent at some points, it
is crude at others. But it's a ground-breaking story which, if not one
of the absolute best, is very funny nonetheless.  I think you'll
enjoy it, whenever it ultimately comes out here.

	As for the 1939 story, it's much closer to Taliaferro's
Donald... the Duck not only spends the story interacting with the
Gottfredson cast (not Mickey, though) as he did in Taliaferro's 1930s
Sunday strips, but he also faces Gottfredson villains (Pete and Eli 
Squinch).  The story also has a few serious logic flaws, but Fabio and
I have discussed how those can be cleaned up.  There will be some cuts
and re-arrangements if and when this one ("DD Necromancer") appears in
English.  Anyway, Donald spends this story as a stage magician,
'giving the people what they want' by pulling Barnumesque hoaxes.  I
can't say Donald is as developed as in the earlier story.

	If John Clark decides to go for the 1939 one, though, Don, as
I mentioned... if you do the cover, we'll get to see you draw Pete...

	And do you know for sure that your 16-pager will be in the DD
60th Birthday issue, Don?  John WANTS to use it, but remember that
he's got to get it from Egmont, and they've been notoriously slow
lately in getting things to him... and this, with the issue itself
probably planned for production in March!  I hope you'll take steps to
make sure this works out.

	So long for now, folks.

	David Gerstein