Disney-comics digest #515.

[Bob Wright]

 DG> I don't know Befana the witch, but I'd like to do a story
 DG> involving the legendary Russian witch Baba Yaga.  This crone lived in
 DG> a hut that had big LEGS coming out of the bottom like a chicken's.
 DG> Everyone knew they were in for trouble when her shack came WALKING
 DG> into town.  The question is, how to get her into a Duck story?  James
 DG> and I have already done conflicts between Magica and other witches,
 DG> so that idea can't be used.

DAVID:    How about a situation involving Scrooge in Russia for a financial
deal  (I  can't  see him missing the business opportunities now open in the
former Eastern Bloc).  The scene could  be  the  Russian  steppe,  with  US
making a mining deal or an eviornmental cleanup, say, oil or nuclear waste.
Baba-Yaga  could  be woven into the story.  The locale could be switched to
Brutopia, which makes room for an appearance  by  a  certain  bald,  former
ambassador.

 DG> EVERYONE:  Here's a new idea.  What do you think are the most
 DG> INFLUENTIAL Barks stories?  I don't mean the most famous ones or the
 DG> ones you consider best.  I mean the ones that had the greatest effect
 DG> on post-Barks writers.
 DG> Anyone have some others?

DAVID:  Four Color 386, "Only A Poor, Old Man"  gets  my  vote.   Scrooge's
character  as  a  tough cookie, his defeat of the Beagle Boys by shrewdness
and plain grit, and his mania over the safety of his fortune  are  all  set
forth  as standards for the stories to follow.  Barks is at his best on the
last page when Scrooge, somewhat taken aback at his nephews' disdain for  a
pile  of  money,  says  that no man is poor if he gets to do what he really
likes now and then.  Other patterns, such  as  relatives  who  work  cheap,
swimming  in  money,  money  bin  booby  traps,  and  references to earlier
adventures, are brought together.

 DD> For one thing, Grandma's car is sometimes shown
 DD> to have a tiller instead of a steering wheel. It may even be
 DD> electric. As I understand it, such cars were manufactured around
 DD> the turn of the century and were considered a "women's" car.

DWIGHT:    The  backup  Gyro 'lightning power plant' story in US 13 clearly
establishes Grandma's car as electric.  BTW, is this  the  only  Gyro  tale
with an appearance by Morty & Ferdie?

Bob Wright

...burrow through it like a gopher...