Quick changes in artwork and lettering (Re: Barks' 40s Editor)

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

ROB KLEIN to TIMO RONKAINEN, 14-06-2003:

> Thanks Timo, for the name of Barks' early-to-mid 1940s editor.  It was, 
> indeed, eleanor Packer. You are probably correct, that they needed the 
> story ending change quickly (otherwise they would have had the original 
> story artist make the changes).  That is probably also why they didn't 
> worry about making the replacement lettering the same size and style as 
> that of the original story.  The new lettering was smaller, and more 
> "squared". I assume that was the same situation with "The Ghost of the 
> Grotto", "The Horseradish story", and several other situations in which 
> the lettering is visibly different. 

In which case would they *slowly* change the story, then? And why would 
the editor go into great efforts to keep the lettering being done by Barks 
himself, or by someone imitating Barks?

The dialogue changes in "The Ghost of the Grotto" (OS 159), "Adventure Down

Under" (OS 159), and "The Horseradish story" (OS 495), all belong to the 
LEAST KNOWN CHANGES made in Barks' work. So far, I've only seen them being
reported here on DCML.

Why would the editor take time to imitate Barks's style, if it will take 
DECADES before only the diehard fans will notice that a NON-Barkish change 
might have been made? At that time there wasn't even a Barks culture. And 
up to now, only a few DCML-people have reported seeing such non-Barkish 
changes. They were all people with trained eyes, knowing where to look at.

In the case of "The Firebug", only two small panels were put into the
story.
(The pages counted a lot of these small panels at that time, because USA 
comics became thinner during wartime.) Maybe the editor found it too much 
effort to have the story's artwork send back and forth to Barks, only for 
relatively small changes which most of the average readers won't notice.

In the case of the lettering, I think it would be too much effort to mark 
all balloons that need to be changed (telling which change exactly has to 
be made in every instance), to have the story's artwork send back and 
forth to Barks, to check if every change has been made correctly, only for 
smoothing over some changes that only a few future fans will discover.

I might be wrong, though. I'm curious for comments.

--- Daniël