DCML Digest Issue 29

[Don Rosa]

I think I see some matters here that I can help with.

Blum's stories based on Barks plots, and the use of Blackheart/Grandpa
Beagle: When Blum asked me for copies of some of my personal correspondence
with Barks, it was for use in a study he said he was making of Barks'
correspondence. There were several story ideas that Barks offered to me in
those letters (plots that I had not requested, but he was probably always
concocting story ideas in his mind). I had no plans to use either of the
plots I recall... one involved finding frozen mammoths with golden tusks (I
didn't know how the mammoths would grow golden tusks) and the other was this
one that involved the Beagles stealing $crooge's #1 Dime and how he would go
on to still be successful and "realize that the Dime was not the basis for
his luck" -- I would never have used that idea, either, since I have always
made it clear that $crooge does *not* consider the Dime responsible for his
success (though I sometimes show that he values it as inspiration, which
might be how Blum handled the idea, I dunno, I haven't received this issue
yet). I don't recall telling Blum that *he* could use the ideas that Barks
was privately giving to me... at the time he requested the letters, about 10
years back, he was not a storywriter. But since I had no plans to do
anything with the idea, it's good that someone did. Anyway, the mammoth
idea, as I recall, was only one sentence, and the #1 Dime idea was only a
few sentences longer, but included no details like supporting characters
like Grandpa Beagle.
As for my own use of Grandpa Beagle, it is correct to say I created a "new"
character by meshing the character that Barks used in the steamboat race and
the "Grandpa Beagle" in "The Money Well". I'm sure Barks never either
decided these were the same character or two different characters... it
would have made no difference to his intentions. He was not trying to make
any strong continuity between any two stories, he had no reason to, his
concept was that these comics would be bought, read once, then discarded. It
made no difference to him if these were the same character or not. He would
never guess that fans and future writer/artists would enjoy studying and
playing with his creations, or that I might come along and interpolate his
"universe" to make it all coherent just for the fun of the game.
Another thing: I would think that Barks' intention in the steamboat story
was that Blackheart Beagle is the current BB's *father*, not grandfather. I
think the mustachioed BB's in that story are intended to be THE Beagle Boy's
of current stories. I don't think Barks was trying to construct such a
complex time frame system or familial relations as I was when I decided that
those BB's in the Mississippi days could not be the same ones in current
stories. Just as I interpolated Blackheart to be Grandpa, I interpolated the
steamboat-race BBs to *not* be the current BB's because that could not have
fit into my overly analytical view.

As regards Barks' choice of subjects for paintings: as someone said, all of
those paintings were done on request. The buyer would say generally what
characters and activities he desired, or exactly what story scene or cover
recreation he was paying Barks to create. And later, when the paintings were
done for big auctions and/or lithographs, the ideas were a product of
several minds trying to think what would be the most popular with the
buyers. I mean, it seems it was quite a science, there had to be all 5
Ducks, faces turned at just the right angle, etc. I don't think Barks had
any preference as to what characters he painted... he painted what his
friends or buyers wanted. No, he did not paint the scenes because he loved
the characters and still wanted to be drawing/painting them after he
retired... no one imbued him with a love for these characters as he did for
millions of us. To him it was a job, and a job (writing/drawing stories)
that he did sensationally well. If he had *especially* liked Glittering
Goldie, he would have found a reason to use her more than once. She appears
in a number of paintings because those Yukon days (and Goldie!) are a
favorite with fans.
Does it mean anything if Barks liked a certain one of his own characters
more or less than we readers do? Nah. Some of my favorite movie directors
choose as their worst films just the ones I love the most of their work!
That's neat!
Or look at me at a convention: I'll sit sometimes for 7 to 10 hours nonstop
drawing for fans. Do I do it because I like drawing? No, I *hate* drawing! I
know some cartoonists like Jim Engel or Sergio Aragones who LOVE to draw 24
hours a day, filling private sketch books "just for fun" -- that mystifies
me! I detest drawing but I like to tell stories. I draw for the fans because
it pleases me to please them, and I draw what they ask for (as long as it's
not perverse or nuts). If they left it up to me, I'd draw them ALL pictures
of Glittering Goldie. But if they want Daisy (usually "for my 3-month old
daughter") I'll draw Daisy even though I'd rather be slapped with a wet
oolated squigg.