Harry, David, Jakob, Mike

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

HARRY & DAVID:
 
> Recently, I got xerox copies of the original giveaway comic containing
> Barks' "Santa's Stormy Visit". I compared the xeroxes with the version
> published in Gladstone's CBL in Color album, and they were EXACTLY the same.
> So there seems no need to look for a German edition of this story.

I compared the CBL-version with the Dutch redrawn version and they 
are *different*. So, my former conclusion that they are the same is 
definitely *wrong*. (By now I realise that I only compared them from 
my memory and not by laying the versions next to each other!)

But... the CBL-version looks restored, I'm saying this because some 
lines look kinda un-Barks. The art has also thick lines, which looks 
like they used bad photostats or maybe bad xeroxes.

Of course the CBL could have used *another* redrawn version, but that 
doesn't explain why the art looks kinda "out of focus" with it's 
thick lines.

You say that the xeroxes and the CBLiC look the same, so maybe 
there's also another possibility: It could be that they indeed used 
the original photostats, but that those original photostats were made 
in a quite bad way, back in the 40's.

This could mean that there has never been a good printing of the 
story. Sometimes we hear Don complain that his art was printed quite 
muddy because of bad photostats, so it could be possible.

There are also a lot of other stories in the CBL with thick lines, so 
it could be that they also originate from bad photostats which were 
made *before* the first printing of the stories.

> DAVID: to which version did you compare this German version? Did the
> Black-and-white CBL print a version differing from the CBL in color?

Yeah, that's what I'm also wondering.


HARRY & JACOB:

>> So now [Jippes] has studied the original Barks-sketches slavily and
>> inked those old Junior Woodchucks-stories *exactly* in Barks own
>> style. He even changed back all the things that Western-publishing 
>> changed in Barks' sketches! 

> He didn't have to "change back" anything, because he worked from
> the original scripts. He just ignored the fat black lines from the 
> editor.

While comparing Jippes' "Duckmade Disaster" with the original sketches 
I *did* discover some minor differences. In the original sketches the 
man in the 5th panel of the last page looks very much the same as 
the man in the 4th panel who says: "The flood did Duckburg a 
priceless *favor*!" But Jippes drew this man as two completely 
different persons. There are also sometimes some differences in the 
crowd, sometimes a dog- or pig-face is drawn as a duck-face or vice 
versa. 

Well, I'm not saying this because it bothers me or something, it was 
just something that I noticed. Maybe I should put away my *microscope* 
and stop cavilling? ;-)


HARRY & MIKE:

> The few Halloween stories Barks made were changed into "Carnival"
> stories in Holland. Except "Trick or Treat", which had an
> explanation on the letters page of the comic: "Every year they have
> a celebration in Duckburg and in whole America...". "Trick or
> Treat" was first published in Holland in February/March, so for
> some years I thought Halloween was an American alternative for our
> Easter feasts or so.

Did you ever wonder how much of your education comes from Barks-
stories? I remember reading an article which noticed this (which was 
the reason why I also noticed it). There are really a lot of Barks-
stories including educational "lessons" which you learn without even 
realizing it! You also learn a lot about habits in countries all over 
the world and also about history.

The article about this included the line that "it's no wonder that a 
lot of young Barks readers became for example engineers and 
professors".

Well, just look at Don's former profession! ;-)


Greetings,

--- Daniel