Blum, Rosa, and Barks

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

DANIEL NEYER to me, 13-04-2004:

> In reply to Daniel's comments on the Blum stories--my feelings on 
> them go beyond dislike. Maybe they don't extend to hatred, but they 
> come pretty close. All the humor is either self-consciously "hip" 
> or satirical or recycled from a Barks story.

I don't like recycled Barks stuff. But Blum doesn't interfere with the 
Barks stories he's quoting, as far as I know.

The only Barks "revisits" I can appreciate are attempts to (re)construct 
pieces of lost and unfinished art. And even then, my opinion varies. :-)

> In all fairness, I don't think this can be said of Rosa stories--his 
> plot ideas sometimes come from Barks, 

If there's one artist recycling Barks plots and situations, it's Rosa.
And if Blum is taking a similar direction, then I will also dislike that.
The same for any other artists.

> but [Rosa's] humor is entirely his own, and even his most heavy-handed 
> stories (WAR OF THE WENDIGO, for example) have a lot of genuine belly 
> laughs.

Rosa has a lot of very funny jokes in his stories, but I hate dark jokes 
like the ones where Donald is being misused. I remember an awful scene of 
Donald as a human bridge, where Scrooge just comfortably tries to get a 
paper that poor tortured Donald is holding. (Which Rosa story?) :-)

I was quite upset about that scene, and I saw it as a very bad version 
of a similar situation at the end of Barks's insurance salesman ten-pager 
(WDC 180), where Donald saves Scrooge above a dangerous waterfal. Donald 
is a victim of Scrooge, too, but the characterization is sooo different. 
So much warmer, reasonable, and humorous than in Rosa's story, where 
Scrooge seems to really hate Donald, for some reason. (IMO)

> [Blum's] always read a bit too much satire into Barks' works, I think, 
> and he seems to regard satirism as the ultimate goal of a Duck writer.

Is it possible to read to much satirism in Barks's work? :-) 
But too much of anything will be bad for any story. Balance is important.

--- Daniël

"This is quite a mystery! Let's sit down with some pop and sandwiches 
and figure it out!"

(Which Barks story?) :-)

hint #1: "Keep an eye on the window!"