Gyro, Helper, Walt & Carl

[Rob Klein]

Greetings, fellow Donaldists, Mickeyists and Barksists!

For Sigvald, regarding Gyro's Inventor's Prize:

In US Nr. 27 (Sept.-Nov. 1959), "The Firefly Tracker" by Barks, Gyro won First 
Prize at "Duckburg's Inventors' Congress".  Although that Congress was held in 
Duckburg, and clearly sponsored by Duckburgian representatives, - it was open 
to the "Best Minds in the World". Its promoters told Gyro to do his best 
to "Bring honour, renown and World fame to Duckburg".

For Theresa, regarding Gyro's Helper's head:

Carl Barks introduced "Helper" and gave him his first appearance in US Nr.14 
(Sept.-Nov. 1956)(story about noisy cats and Gyro's Language Translator). 
Helper was drawn by Barks from the very first, as a "semi-roundish", apparantly 
clear, apparantly thin-glassed bulb, with a light filament, and a small point 
at the top.  This makes it very clear to me that he meant it to be a simple 
light bulb, and NOT a vacuum tube. The light filament is the squiggly line 
inside the tube (which is supposed to be a thin copper? wire conductor). Vacuum 
tubes usually had many more and larger parts visible (in clear tubes, and 
nothing visable in the common "frosted tubes").  Anodes, cathodes, control 
grids, transistors, etc. were visible through clear vacuum tubes; whereas, all 
that would be visible (in most cases)in the ordinary light bulb would have been 
the wire filament. Although vacuum tubes came in all shapes and sizes 
(sometimes even faintly reminiscent of light bulbs), they generally were 
cylinderical and longer, or much fatter, or larger at the tops.  They almost 
always looked very different from the ordinary light bulb Barks attempted to 
portray. Very convincing evidence that Barks intended Helper's head to be a 
simple light bulb is the threaded screw-in node on the bottom of the bulb. It 
is the old North American fitting that works together with the old North 
American setting that holds light bulbs into electric lamps.  I have been 
around since the 1940s, during the last part of the heyday of Vacuum Tubes.  I 
seem to remember that they generally had vertical prongs protruding out of 
their bottoms, which fit into small, rectangular or round holes in a fitting 
terminal(which has since been replaced with a circuitboard).  Vacuum tubes did 
not have the screw-in style, threaded fittings that ordinary light bulbs had.  
If this is not enough circumstantial evidence for you, I have even more 
compelling evidence.  Carl, himself, admitted to me, upon my suggestive 
question, that the light bulb head was inspired by the old comic strip 
conventional symbolic use of a light bulb flashing above the head of a 
character when he came up with a great idea. 

Actually, logic tells me that the vacuum tube might have worked better! It 
controls electron flow to amplify radio waves and change from alternating to 
direct current. This might be thought of as Helper's "thinking process" moreso 
than just the heating of electrons on his lightbulb filament and the giving off 
of electrons to make the light.  But, I guess either of the two types of bulbs 
could be considered "reasonable" for Helper's head.  We must consider that 
Helper can function to a certain degree WITHOUT his head attached. When it 
broke, and when the filament burnt out, he was coherent enough to go fetch the 
replacement bulb and put it on.  Can we assume that without his "head" Helper 
can perform rudimentary "instinctive" operations; but he needs his head on and 
filament heating to do "complex thinking"?

Regarding Walt Disney being cognisant of Carl Barks' comic book work:

I believe that Walt Disney did know about Carl Barks' comic book work for 
Western Publishing (at least during the 1940s).  As Carl told me, and I also 
read in books by other studio employees, Walt had his eyes on every aspect of 
his Studio's business (at least through the mid to late 1940s).  It is true, 
that as the scope of Disney Studios' production increased exponentially in the 
late 1940s, he was able to oversee less and less.  However, even though he did 
delegate more and more authority to others, he still kept at least a cursory 
watch on most aspects of company production for quality control and to protect 
the company's image.  He knew Carl Barks personally from his entry into the 
Studios in 1935 as an in-betweener, and his quick transfer to the Story 
Department.  Walt used to make impromptu visits to every story artist (sneaking 
up behind them and looking over their shoulders). He also had much contact with 
carl from his many story presentation meetings.  Walt had always believed the 
Disney comic strips should go hand-in-hand with his film work to provide 
another outlet to help promote it.  He gave Gottfredson much leeway in running 
that department, but continued to keep an eye on what was done there. "Mickey 
Mouse Magazine" was treated in the same way. He definately kept an eye on its 
production quality and content.  He was involved in the final decision to 
change the magazine format to a comic book format in 1940, and to have 
Whitman's Western Publishing subsidiary handel the publisheing (Whitman already 
handled Disney's book publishing). I am sure Walt must have been aware of the 
decision to produce new comic book stories to test the marketability of the 
comic book format. He must have been aware of Carl's having worked on the Pluto 
and Donald Duck Four Color Comic releases done by studio staff.  As the 
coordination with Western Publishing was handled by Gottfredson and the Comic 
Strip department, Walt must have been informed that Carl (one of his most 
prolific ex-storymen) was now drawing the Donald Duck stories for Western 
(1943).  Gottfredson would have had to show Walt examples of the Western 
product from time to time, at least during the first few years.  After World 
War II, Walt probably had no time to keep an eye on such things, other than 
being given annual sales figures, and considering the renewal of contracts with 
Western.  He must have known, however, that Carl Barks was still working for 
Western.  He must also have found out that Barks was the inventor of Uncle 
Scrooge, and that Uncle Scrooge gave the Disney Comics much popularity. This 
might have occurred when Walt was in on the meetings regarding using Uncle 
Scrooge in his own cartoon in 1955. He could have made the connection regarding 
Barks through information from Chase Craig to the representatives of Western 
who dealt with Gottfredson; and then from Gottfredson to Walt.  

Rob Klein



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