humans in disney comics

[Olivier]

Erik:


>>>> I recently read "Big-top Bedlam" (DDFC #300) by Barks. This is a comic
>>>> where almost everyone of the bi-characters are human. How many stories
>>>> like these did Barks do? I haven't seen another story like this one,
>>>> nor by Barks or anybody else (at least I don't recall I have).

"The Magic Hourglass" (DD FC 291, September 1950; CBL of  DDA iC Album 16)--
the Arab raiders of  No Issa.
"Dangerous Disguise" (DD FC 308, January 1951; CBL of  DDA iC Album 17)--
all the characters.

The latter is followed in the Album by Geoffrey Blum's "The Human Dilemma"
(first published as "Cold War in Chiliburgia" in DDA #2, 1987). i know
there's another article that features a half-page of  human character
studies by Barks (who would have liked to do human comics rather than funny
animal ones-- from an artistic point of  view).
In this article, Blum refers to native with human ears in "Darkest Africa"
(March of  Comics 20) and fully human features in "Voodoo Hoodoo" (DD FC
238), and other instances. A main human-faceed character is the scientist of
"in Ancient Persia"

The human characters in "Dangerous Disguise" are the extreme of  this trend
as they are drawn more "realistically", that is to say, with even more
detail, than "Big-Top Bedlam" 's  Zippo (and the circus owner).

Zippo fits well in the story, graphically: his mix of
portrait/caricature/cartoon human fits with the fact he is a quick-change
artist-- you can interepret it different ways: a mask / part of  the
strange, alien world in which Donald can't find his marks, where the poor
hapless duck is literally manipulated / the star of  the show, who clearly
stands out /...

***   "Dangerous Disguise" SPOILERS   ***
The "ducks plunged in an alien world" trait is even greater in "Dangerous
Disguisse", where the Ducks are forced to play spies. You can note that the
human characters get more caricatural as the story progresses and the ducks
find a way of  turning the table and seizing back the control of  a story in
which they were mere pawns to start with; the change starts in the train,
when they escape the beautiful Madame Triple-X. in fact, the master spy
turns out to be, not only a funny-animal, but a dead-ringer for Donald!
***   END SPOILERS   ***

More later if  I can.



>>> I think "Big-top Bedlam" is one of the best stories Barks have done.
>>> Not because of the humans, but because of the manuscript. It is a quite
>>> unusual story, although it has everything that a usual Barks-story has.
>>> I can't really explain what I think, but at least I hope I have made
>>> myself understandable!

There's another interesting Blum article, on the Bedlamn story, in CBLoDDAiC
Album 16.



Olivier