Disney-comics digest #132.

[Geir.Hasnes@delab.sintef.no]

Hi Per, jag lyssnar till Roxette nu som jag skriver dessa ord...

>Geir wrote that
>> * Barks language was using contemporary speech, slang, newly formed
>> language structures. 
>
>Was it really?  All the time?  American English from the 50's is of
>course not my native language (and not any other English either, for
>that matter), but I've gotten an impression that the language in
>Barks's comics wasn't that "up-to-date", but rather had a special feel
>to it, even back then.  Or am I off my track here?  I don't really
>know why I have that impression.  For instance I thought that his
>frequent "baloney" was used a lot more in still earlier days (Rube
>Goldberg uses it a lot too), but I just went to the library, and I
>gather that it really was part of the current idiom (It's not
>nowadays, is it?), so it seems I was wrong on that one at least.

As you may not know yet, I have researched somewhat into the reference
material Barks used and the books he read and so on. I found he was much
more contemporary than I had imagined:

* Cars. When doing our little book on his automobiles (Duckmobiles - which
is the only detailed study in book form on Barks) I realized that he used
the models of the year in his series. He immediately saw the fun he could
have with the new models of the automobile industry. He must have been
equipped with their newest catalogues. He very seldom used older models,
i.e. more than 8-10 year old cars, except where he should depict a
situation where it would be proper to use an old car - Grandma and Scrooge
for instance. He was very careful about depicting new technology, new
gadgets of every kind. 

* Slang. In a flash I remember his jazz talk in some of the Gyro stories,
that kind of thing could only be matched by using rap talk today.

* National Geographic. He used the latest research in Geography when he
sent the Ducks to the far corners of the world. The stories are very up to
date in that he uses terms from the articles, and the language that
contemporary geography writers wrote. It was fun when Geoffrey Blum visited
us and we fought about who had found most stories in the National
Geographic that Barks had used.

* Politics. Barks discussed issues that were discussed nationwide at that
time. Some of these issues are forgotten now, but some are there to be seen
at least.

These were just a few examples that goes to show that Barks was incredibly
thorough in his work. His language was a thorough working through the
language he was served that day. He has depicted himself as a kind of
hermit, but nothing could be more wrong. Although he didnt travel much he
was well read in geography and world affairs. Although he didnt read much
contemporary fiction, he certainly knew something about popular fiction,
which he very often referred to, especially in the way of creating a story
of a certain genre, but with a different twist than the popular one. He
loved reference material - do you think the Norwegian translators saw his
pickings out of Shakespeare?

That Barks used language constructs that sometimes had gone out of fashion,
yes, that is true, but certainly not out of a certain context. He was so
careful in his wording, like a very skilled music composer, he had an ear
for language and expressions, so it would be silly to think that he was
careless about whether his expressions and wording would be read or not.

So my conclusion is that these examples show you a very up-to-date author
writing about contemporary subjects with contemporary language. When I
think about the story of the 1000 lakes, I shudder at the thought of what
Disney would have done with something so strong as that today. They would
have sacked Barks, treated him, sued him and beaten him up. 

Now let us imagine what should have been done if we were to write that kind
of contemporary stories. We should have had one story each year about the
sort of work that people are given Nobels peace price for. And those
stories should not come after the world opinion had acknowledged the price
winners and what they were fighting for, it should come before. Don Rosa is
the only one who dares to do something like that, but he would have to
write about the conflicts of the 50s. Let us see the Woodchucks help their
neighbourhood against racism, let us see Huey, Dewey and Louie make a rap
group together with other chucks of every colour. In a series that would
not depict all coloured people as heroes and all whites as silly bastards,
like how the conflict is treated today. Let us see Donald begins to be
restless about his lack of work, and march toward Scrooges money bin
together with other jobless people and politicians who want Scrooges money
to be able to create jobs to the half of Duckburg who is without. Let us
see Donald and the boys travel in South America and Central Asia to stop
the drug production and traffic - OK no drugs in the Ducks stories, I
agree, but the thing is that the big crime is not that picture you see in
the Disney comics, it is the economic crime and the drug thing, and the
Woodchucks could at least do somethng with economic crime. And they could
definitely do something with the power plants of Russia.

>Another thing that Geir wrote:
>> To a great extent a new writer / artist who has had two series
>> published, that looked almost exactly like Barks. If I didnt know all
>> of Barks, I would have believed it was him! Who is he?
>
>Well, what stories were they?  The most Barks-like items I've seen in
>recent books are Daan Jippes reinkings of Barks's Woodchuck stories,
>but I guess you include these in all-of-Barks?

One of the stories was about Scrooges money-bin. The woodchucks (would you
call the girl scouts woodchicks?) march together with other protestants
towards his bin to have it removed from the remnants of the house of
Cornelius Coot or something like that. It ends with the bin floating down a
valley and hindering the water flow past it. Something like that. The other
story was about Donald dressed as a new boy in town who wants to be a
woodchuck. He does that to get the nephews kicked out of the woodchucks, he
trows a cassette tape player down into a cave where the woodchucks are not
allowed to go. for instance. These two stories were very talented in every
way. (Or am i just starved for new stories?) Anyone who can solve this
mystery, come on!

Geir Hasnes.