The Unsafe Safe (US 38) / Rug Riders in the Sky (US 50)

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

OLIVIER to me, 31-08-2003:	

> [The Unsafe Safe (US 38)] Funny story, with a funny running gag. 
> The end is a bit rushed, though; the ducks only win by sheer luck; 
> there's no fight, it just goes "Fizz! Sput!"

Sorry for just writing down the story title, but I can't resist 
replying to this.

I think the sudden, zany ending is part of the fun in a lot of Barks's 
stories with Magica. She seems to try to be impressive, but when she 
gets frustrated she's humiliated, hissing, snarling, and not so sexy 
anymore. Well, the latter is a matter of taste, of course. :-)

The only story where this zany way of story-ending disturbs me, is 
"Rug Riders in the sky" (US 50). But this story was cut-down. Barks 
describes the cut as "a gag sequence of the ducks chasing east after 
Magica, who runs out of 'fuel' and has to land the carpet in the desert. 
That would have been about page 13. No doubt readers got more pleasure 
from the Bullwinkle Cheerios ad that was made possible by the scrapping 
of that page." (March 25, 1989 notes for The Carl Barks Library.)

When Barks's stories are cut-down, his precious composition mostly falls 
flat. (IMO) It's like a scratch on a vinyl record, which skips a part of 
the song. Even a second is enough to do that, no matter how long the 
entire song is.

Before long, I didn't like Magica (Barks or not), but that has completely 
changed! And this whole witch/sorceress discussion is an imporant factor 
in that change. Thanks, everyone!

--- Daniël