Barks 100, from Oslo / enquete

[Nils Lid Hjort]

The DCML has seen some brief reports on events taking 
place recently in Oslo, pertaining to the 100th anniversary 
of Carl Barks. List readers also know that Don Rosa was 
present in Oslo up to Sunday 25th, partly to help the Egmont 
publishers commemorate Barks and to promote the "Best of Barks"
book, and partly to assist in launching his own two books, 
"The Don Rosa Archives I & II" (the Pertwillaby Papers
and Captain Kentucky). 

Here follows a little more on the Barks 100 subject. 
(I went almost straight from the Carl Barks Centennial Party 
I was involved with on to a plane for Scotland, and have not 
been in a position to place a report before.) 

** Carl Barks 100: This event was duly noted in at least two
major newspapers, VG and Dagbladet, with two-page spreads.
Øystein Sørensen, professor of history, wrote a scholarly 
article for VG, highlighting Barks' broad international influence 
over many decades. Dagbladet interviewed "well-known" persons
about how their own lifes had been touched by Barks stories. 

** The "Best of Barks" ... and Morby/Grandey: 
This de Lux book has been launched, with a preface and story 
introductions by Sørensen, in Norwegian, Danish and Swedish.
It is at least in Norway also sold via the Narvesen chain of 
kiosks (in addition to bookstores), which means that it is really 
avaiable "everywhere". A footnote worth highlighting on the list is 
that the somewhat dubious roles played by Barks' managers Kathy Morby 
and Bill Grandey at a late stage in Barks' life is being commented 
upon in Sørensen's preface. Interestingly, some of his sentences 
regarding this point seem to have been toned down in the Danish 
edition (which I could check out in Copenhagen on Friday). 

[This is not a trivial matter, since what is written in the Danish
edition is presented as a direct translation of Sørensen's preface;
if his professional opinion has indeed been `toned down', as I suggest, 
then this is tinkering with the intellectual property of a writer.] 

** Centennial party & enquete: 
I was privileged to take part in a private "centennial party" 
on the 27th. (We were also in email-chatting contact with Don Rosa.) 
I had organised a little inofficial "enquete", with the following 
list of questions:
 
1  Give your three favourite Barks stories, category "long"; 
   rank them, if possible. 

2  Give your three favourite Barks stories, category "short"; 
   rank them, if possible. 

3  Give your three favourite Barks one-page stories; 
   rank them, if possible. 

4  Give your three favourite Barks covers; 
   rank them, if possible. 

5  Mention three comic books or Barks-related items which you 
   are particularly happy to have in your possession. 

6  If the God of Comics and Comics-Related Collections came to 
   visit *you* on Saturday, bringing three Barks-related gifts 
   specially chosen for *you*, what would these three objects or items be? 

7  What would your personal life on this planet have been like, 
   if Barks had simply stayed on as a chicken farmer? 

It took the happy congregation many hours to discuss through 
this list, with all the extra associations (and shouts of 
"oh no! I forgot that one!") and clarifications and re-shufflings
of the priority lists. The point of the exercise was not to find
"winners", as such, but provided the means of focussing discussions.
You may try this yourself ... 

I will therefore not give you results from our own lists, apart from 
quoting, in extenso, the best "essay" we had (not mine) when 
attempting to answer the question of Topic 7. This long-term fan 
of comics in general and Barks in particular answered in one word: 
	"Brutopian."  

Nils Lid Hjort