Strange scene in Cibola story? (US 7)

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

FRANCESCO SPREAFICO, 24-05-2001:

> The Seven Cities of Cibola have always been one of my favs, but there
> is a point that I've always found quite... strange! I thought it was 
> becasue I was reading a translation, but today I finally read the 
> original one, and the strange feeling remain.

I find your question of that email very interesting and I've tried to 
"rewrite" it by describing the scene in more detail and by putting a 
possible answer (in fact also a question) of my own into it. I'm curious
what you and others think of it:

- - - - - - -

* In panel 9.6, a vase falls apart from a nephew's hands. It's filled with
jewels, but Scrooge doesn't seem impressed. Instead, he only answers the
nephews' observing that the vase fell apart, by saying its "No wonder!"
* In panel 9.7, all the ducks gather around the vase's contents and 
Donald states they're "beads and JEWELS and ornaments of heavy GOLD!"
* In panel 9.8, Scrooge suddenly jumps over the jewels greedily, saying 
"Let me have a look at that stuff! I'm an EXPERT on GOLD!" 
* In panel 10.1, Scrooge holds the contents of the broken vase in 
his hands and says "It's REAL, boys! And the design shows it's at 
least a THOUSAND years old!"

The timing of Donald being the first to identify the vase's contents, 
followed up by Scrooge's sudden excitement, might seem a bit strange, 
as if panel 9.8 (Scrooge being excited) could have been inserted 
between panel 9.7 and panel 10.1 at a later moment.

Could there be an explanation for the "strange" timing of this scene, 
if strange at all? For example, is it possible that Barks looked over 
the story and decided to make this rather theoretical scene a bit more 
visual by inserting the excited Scrooge into it? 

BTW. Another example of such a change would be "The Golden River" (US 22),
in which Barks cut out a page of theory by replacing it for two half pages
with balloon and stilt gags. 

- - - - - - -

Francesco, in your email you mentioned that Scrooge doesn't look "Barksian"
in panel 9.6, but to me he looks as being drawn by Barks himself. In other 
words, *if* something in this scene indeed could have been changed, I think
it was done by Barks himself, not by the editor. 

My thought about panel 9.8 being inserted is just a rough first impression.
I'm not at all sure about it, rather the contrary. At this moment I do not
have the time to think of other "possibilities". I just wanted to let you 
know that I agree with your thoughts about this scene. 

- Daniel