Tuesday, November 3, 2009

World Series Break # 2: No Game Tonight!

No game again Tuesday night, so here are some more baseball themed comic book covers!

And just think… If the Yankees had won the World Series on Monday night by not pitching A.J. Burnett on short rest, you would have missed out on THIS! So, let’s thank Joe (“D’oh!”) Girardi for the opportunity to visit with Donald Duck and his nephews, as they engage in The Great American Pastime!

It’s 1954 and Huey, Dewey, and Louie are also taking a break – from their music lessons, and into an impromptu game of Baseball.

Say! WHO’S PITCHING? That mysterious “Fourth Nephew” that shows up in the occasional artists’ mistake? And is he pitching on short rest? Oh-Oh!

(Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories # 163 – Art by Carl Barks)

And, is that a call of "Two Balls and Three Strikes" on Huey? Shouldn't he be out?!

Flash forward to 1981, and the game is still going on (Talk about EXTRA INNINGS!), having moved outdoors and with Donald as the umpire! Funny, they look as if they haven’t aged a day!

(Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories # 488)

Be back for Game Six Coverage on Wednesday… or Thursday, or whenever “Post Season Baseball TV Sleep-Deprivation” allows!

2 comments:

Chris Barat said...

Joe,

"Say! WHO’S PITCHING? That mysterious “Fourth Nephew” that shows up in the occasional artists’ mistake? And is he pitching on short rest? Oh-Oh!"

If you go by the DUCKTALES color scheme, then the Nephew in YELLOW is probably the mysterious Fooey, and Louie is on the mound... or sofa, or chair, or table, or...

Also, am I right in asserting that the 1981 cover is NOWHERE NEAR as clever or charming as Barks' version? (Where's the gag in the former? Is it simply Donald wearing the birdcage mask?) An extra, "hidden" gag in the Barks cover may be that the boys are engaging in a silent protest of sorts over being afflicted with music lessons. (Hey, at least it wasn't math homework.) In any event, Barks' cover is far, far better.

Chris

Joe Torcivia said...

Actually, Chris… If you put yourself back into the 1981 timeframe – or dive into your long boxes like a porpoise, you’ll realize that this was actually one of the best covers of the period. Of course, that says FAR MORE about the period, than it does about the cover.

Naturally, no ‘80s illustration can stack up to a good ‘50s one, certainly when it comes to Dell vs. Whitman comics. So, it’s almost unfair to even compare!

One oddity about the ’54 Barks cover… Where does the wall end and the floor begin? Darned if I can tell!