About firebug judgements and jails (David, Rob, Luca Boschi, others)

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

DAVID GERSTEIN to ROB KLEIN, 13-06-2003:

> But Carl Buettner *did* draw a whole story with Donald- WDC&S 50's 
> Three Caballeros story, which was published about a year and a half 
> before "The Firebug"

I cannot judge the identification of the artist of the last two panels, 
but I'm reading the discussion with great interest.

On 7 August 1998, Luca Boschi wrote: "I bet he has been Carl Von Buettner 
"art editor" at Western, a very clever artists. The same who redrew some 
Bugs Bunny's heads in Barks' "Porky of the Mounties". His art is very 
similar to that one showed on some covers SURELY drawn by him." 

Luca seems to have written an article about this in Zio Paperone #100, 
Italy. I'm curious for his opinion on this discussion. 


JAIL ENDINGS IN BUETTNER AND BARKS STORIES

What I find interesting is the mentioning of Carl Buettner's 'The Three 
Caballeros' (WDC 50). In that story an (innocent) Donald ends up in jail.

About 'The Firebug', Barks has said: "The editors objected to the last 
couple of panels of that story because I had Donald set fire to the judge's
wastebasket. [It] accidently burned down the courthouse, and he wound up in
jail. Western couldn't have a Disney character looking out from behind bars
in the final panel of the story, so they changed the ending. They didn't 
usually redraw my art like that; the editors would often suggest that the 
artist do the changing himself. [...]" Source: Carl Barks Library (1B-362)

I remember having written about these jail endings before, on 8 July 2001:
"http://stp.ling.uu.se/pipermail/dcml/2001-July/016408.html".

What I find remarkable is that both the Caballeros-story and 'The Firebug'
end/ended with Donald being put in jail. And there's even a *third* story 
from 1944-1946 with a similar ending: the water ski race story (WDC 62) by 
Barks. After causing great chaos during a ski race, Donald ends up in jail.

So, between November 1944 and November 1945, *before* 'The Firebug', there 
were already *two* stories with a jail ending. The Caballeros-story by 
Buettner (WDC 50) and the water ski race story by Barks (WDC 62).

The water ski race story was submitted on 27 June 1945. 'The Firebug' was 
submitted on 19 July 1945. This is less than a month later. (Correct?)

<GUESS>So, in June/July 1945, the editor saw yet another Disney comic 
jail ending, within two years - the second one within a month - and they 
decided that the stories were going into a wrong direction. They feared 
that regularly ending up in jail would become a standard element in 
Disney comics. This would give the Disney characters a criminal image. 
And so, they changed the ending to give a signal. And that signal could 
be "Don't do this too much" or simply "Don't do this ever again."</GUESS>

Does this guess make sense? Are there other USA Disney stories with Disney 
characters ending in jail, especially in the 1940s? And what about jail 
scenes *during* stories?

If Carl Buettner was staff artist, then at least he could/should have 
known that 'The Firebug' already was the third story with a jail ending, 
within two years - because he wrote and drew one of these stories, himself.

(And maybe he was even the one who started with a jail ending in USA 
Disney comics? Does someone know this?) 

Was Carl Buettner staff artist at the time of making the Caballeros-story? 
If so, that might be a case of an editor initially giving a wrong direction
to their artists. In a retrospective view, at least.

--- Daniël (intended to stay behind the computer for only a few minutes...)

<PS>In the "Caballeros"-story, Donald gets the blame for all the damage 
that is caused by his visiting two Caballeros friends, Panchito and José. 
During the visit, they are quite unmannered. Donald is held responsible, 
because they are his guests... Donald is helpless in keeping them under 
control. After a few warnings, he's put into jail. End. I remember looking 
through this story as a young kid, unable to read the dialogue and unable
to understand it. Later, when I was able to read, I still didn't get the 
point. Why should Donald be guilty of someone else's behaviour? Because 
it serves the story? Then, which story?</PS>