"Barksing " of non-Barks stories / remounting (Re: Gemstone)

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

FRANCESCO SPREAFICO, 17-08-2003:

> - Stories written and drawn by Romano Scarpa: there are so many 
> classical stories from the Fifties (Both Ducks and Mice!) not 
> published by Gladstone... each one of them should be published in 
> a nice edition and with a good translation (possibily without 
> "barks-in' 'em up" as it happenned with the "Colossus of Rhodes" 
> years ago... if there are no references to Barks in a story let's 
> not make them up, that's my opinion).

This is my opinion, too. I strongly disagree with tranlations that 
try to change the original intention of a story, like putting 
references to Barks into them.

I'd rather read the story without such "Barks approval", because I 
want to see how other artists and writers treat the Disney characters.
That's impossible if non-Barks stories are treaten this way.

> Since there is now this new pocket "Take-Along" comic book, it seems 
> to me that it would be the best place where to publish Scarpa (or 
> any Italian 3-tiered stories), so there would be no need to remount 
> 3-tiers into 4-tiers.

Remounting page layouts is one of the worst things that can happen to 
a story, IMO. I cannot recall having seen a story that looked "right" 
after remounting.

The 3-tier version of Barks's "Kite Weather" (WDC 42) is a nice 
exception, but that's because it's a reconstruction of how the story 
would have been if it wasn't remounted to 4-tiers in the 1940s. 
It's not a definite reconstruction, though, because redrawn art has 
been used on some places. 

Still, I find it much more attractive than the "original" 4-tier 
version, which looks horrible to me. This already was the case 
before I knew that the story was remounted.

--- Daniël