DCML Digest, Vol 4, Issue 20

[Gerstein, David DK - ECN]

	Various stuff today, all related to the last two panels of "Firebug"
art...

	VIC wondered if Frank McSavage might have been the artist.
	I respectfully don't think so. Frank's art is distinguished by a lot
of round, soft strokes and heavy shading- unlike the "Firebug" drawings.
Also, while the "Firebug" ducks have short bills like McSavage's, the design
of their eyes is very different.

	ROB KLEIN added that "It looks more like Buettner to me than any of
the other Western artists who drew the Ducks in the 1940s."
	A year prior to "The Firebug", Buettner drew a Three Caballeros
story for Western (WDC&S 50), with pages and pages of Donald. The art and
lettering style, and the design of Donald, are very different from "The
Firebug".

	It has been suggested that the "Firebug" artist is trying to mimic
Barks- hence the discrepancy with any other Ducks the "Firebug" artist might
have drawn. But the "Firebug" Ducks don't look like Barks imitations to me,
nor for that matter does the "Firebug" lettering look like an imitation of
Barks' lettering.

	ETA and JOE want me to positively identify examples of McKimson's
art for them.
	I've scanned in a couple of Bugs Bunny panels at large size (so the
lettering and stylistic traits are very obvious) and put them up on my old
university server:
	http://wso.williams.edu/~dgerstei/LTMM_40_Bugs_funny_face.jpg
	http://wso.williams.edu/~dgerstei/LTMM_41_George_Washington.jpg
	McKimson drew the Bugs lead stories for LOONEY TUNES AND MERRIE
MELODIES from 1944 to early 1950, with occasional exceptions. His Bugs IMHO
perfectly captures the screen character with an elegance that nobody else
matched- though many tried.
	The recent DC reprint compilation book (where "Porky of the
Mounties" reappeared a few years ago) contains no McKimson, IMHO the book's
single biggest oversight.
	In general, I think McKimson's contributions tend to be overlooked
because he worked for the comics in their very early years. His stories
largely predate what the "baby boom" generation would have grown up with
(the way they grew up with Barks), and what they nostalgically remember
today.

	Uh-oh, where did I leave Duckburg and end up in Acme Acres? I gotta
get outta here, Doc, before I get hit by one o' dem fallin' *rocks* or-
***YEEEOW!***

	David