For many of us Americans, "Changing the Clock" is a semi-annual chore, annoyance, requirement, [Fill-In-Your-Own-Negatively-Connotating-Noun-HERE] as we bounce from "Standard Time" to "Daylight Savings Time", and back again.
But, for Donald Duck, it goes beyond "Spring Forward / Fall Back" becoming its own frustrating exercise in futility.
Observe the cover of WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES #332 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: May, 1968), where Donald is (pardon the semi-pun) "alarmed" to see the boys taking aim at his cuckoo clock.
However, "Changing the Clock" to one of the "grandfather variety", as seen on the cover of WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES #452 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: May, 1978 - TEN YEARS LATER, I might add), is not the answer in Donald's case, as the boys adapt by simply aiming lower!
11 comments:
It has often been said that time is our worst enemy, and it looks like Donald's nephews have taken that a little bit too literally. On the other hand, it's probably good for Gyro Gearloose, who aside from being the "Inventor of Anything" has a lucrative yet dull side job fixing things as the local "Gadget Man".
INDUCKS calls the Barks 1968 cover a remake of the Strobl 1956 one. So interesting, that Barks made it subtler and funnier by showing the moment Just Before the cuckoo shows itself. Also interesting, that he made the arrow less child-safe!
Thanks for another delightfully pun-filled post, Joe. Though I must say I'm somewhat surprised you didn't include a reference to Vic Lockman's penchant for the phrase "let's turn back the clock."
The Carl Barks drawing wins the prize, hands down, as far as I'm concerned, and not purely because he's Barks--or maybe exactly because he IS who he is. The suspense in the drawing is palpable. By NOT showing the cuckoo he is building subconscious expectation in the eye of the beholder. The others are worthy of notice, by all means, but with one image Barks proves why he earned the title of "the good artist."
That 1968 issue came with me on our family road trip that summer...appropriately enough, our first ever trip to Disneyland! I read and re-read that book until I practically had it memorized. I believe it contains the story about Donald Duck's swimming pool--I found it horribly irritating the way the neighbors treated him once it was known he'd installed it in his back yard. I totally sympathized with Donald the whole way. Also, the book contained a chapter of the Mickey Mouse serial "Peril at Panther Pass," which I'm pretty sure at that tender age I would have pronounced as "pah-RIL".
Thanks for this "timely" reminder! I hope everyone is having a good "time" now that November is upon us!
Everyone:
Sorry for letting the comments pile up… By now, you all know “Horrifically Busy”, “Extreme Babysitting”, “Writing Deadlines”, “Defending My Clocks from Rambunctious Kids” and the like…
But now… On With the Show!
Scarecrow:
Sorry for this being one of those VERY rare occasions where I must offer you a correction but, if that issue had accompanied you on your 1968 family road trip, those particular stories did not – or vice-versa. In 1968, new, post-Barks Donald Duck lead stories still fronted WDC&S and would do so for the remainder of the year – with (I believe) the lone exception of the swimming pool story, which was not in #332. This issue offered “The Reluctant Tycoon” by Carl Fallberg and Tony Strobl in which Gyro imbues Scrooge’s business acumen into Donald, and the final chapter of the Mickey Mouse serial “ The Case of the Dazzling Hoo-Doo” which reintroduced a redesigned Emil Eagle to American Disney comics.
The Donald’s swimming pool story and “Peril at Panther Pass” were in WDC&S #335 (August, 1968 – on sale in June, 1968), which would seem to better check with a summer road trip… not that I would know, since we never did family road trips… or “family-much-of-anythings” (Sigh! Childhood Disappointment Flashback Alert!) …But, at least I was home to receive THIS by mail subscription.
Finally, that’s a GREAT observation on Barks’ version offering suspense! …Or, anticipation, rather than showing the act itself! That, subconsciously, may have been why I liked it so much! On the other hand, the unpleasantly-surprised expression on the cuckoo, scores some big points for Strobl’s version! Both work very well!
Deb:
Alas, time has become a much greater “enemy” today that it was in 1968… for me, at least, and all us children of the sixties. So, if “Father Time” (or “Doctor Chronos” from LOST IN SPACE ) could feel even the slightest twinges from HD&L’s slingshot, popgun, and REAL bow-and-arrow (!), I say… “FIRE AWAY!”
Elaine:
Of course, every online indexer and reviewer is entitled to their own view or interpretation of long-ago events, for which no source of verification exists… but, considering the gulf of years (1956 to 1968), and the known fact that Barks didn’t really pay much attention to work other than his own, I would not designate the Barks cover as a “a remake of the Strobl 1956 one”, as INDUCKS did.
I’d simply call it another one of those coincidences in writing, as described in this oft-linked-to post of mine.
The gag is too much of a “natural” to be anything but a coincidence. And, it is precisely those “coincidences”, and the occasional “purposeful remake”, that we celebrate in our “Separated At Mirth” posts!
As mentioned above, the “suspense factor” and the “cuckoo’s expression” lend some nice uniqueness to what is, without doubt, two different (and coincidental) versions of the same gag.
Sergio, you write:
“Though I must say I'm somewhat surprised you didn't include a reference to Vic Lockman's penchant for the phrase ‘let's turn back the clock.’”
Ye cats! I’m SO ASHAMED over that omission that I won’t be able to show my (clock) face in public for a week!
As Doggie Daddy would say, in his most Durante-esque voice, "Oops! And I do mean, oops!"
This will teach me to do my research before posting. But two things in my defense: first, the background cover of the other comic book is red, similarly to the cover of the posted one with the cuckoo clock. The cover of the issue I THOUGHT it was features Donald in a wrecked lounge chair while the cut rope is used by HDL as a jump-rope. THAT was the issue that traveled with me to California on that long-ago trip. The redness of both covers led to my conflation of the two. Second, since you pointed out my error I realized THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME I HAVE MADE THIS ERROR! Often as a kid in searching for the issue with the swimming pool story I would latch onto the cuckoo clock cover--and then would recall that it was a different red cover. In those days I didn't keep the issues of WDC & S together, and the chapters of the Mickey Mouse serials were all over the place. Today, I keep them bagged together according to the MM serial. Thus, my "Dazzling Hoodoo" set including the cuckoo clock cover issue is in one bag and the "Peril at Panther Pass" set including the wrecked lounge chair scene is in another. A simple check of my comic book boxes would have kept me straight!
Oh, well, it's still a great memory of an unforgettable trip, even if triggered by the wrong issue!
Sorry for the hazy memory! (Been a little under the weather this week, but that's no excuse.) Thank you for setting the record straight! Pass the sackcloth and ashes.
Whit both covers done in the same color, that's actually an easy mistake to make... so don't be "RED faced" over it!
Post a Comment