Biting the Barks Bullet!

Okay, readers, followers, and friends, I've stalled around long enough by running some older (...though rather entertaining in their own right) filler posts, but it's time to (as the title says) "bite the Barks bullet"!  

Yeah, lots of things have been going on, but I've promised the revelation of my favorite Carl Barks story for too long a while... 

So, without further ado... 

That greatest of works from the greatest Master of Duck that ever lived... 

Is...  

You know it.... 

You love it... 

You wanna give it a big bear hug - except it would downgrade the condition... 

The one... 

The only... 

The incredible...

LOST IN THE ANDES!!!

From DONALD DUCK FOUR COLOR #223 (Dell Comics, 1949)...

GCD LINK: https://www.comics.org/issue/7367/

...And THE BEST OF DONALD DUCK #1 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date; November 1965) where I first read it in sheer awe...

GCD LINK: https://www.comics.org/issue/19707/

...And DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES #3 (Gladstone Series I, Cover Date: February, 1988)...

GCD LINK: https://www.comics.org/issue/44021/

..And DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #325 (Gladstone Series II, Cover Date: March, 2005)...

GCD LINK: https://www.comics.org/issue/293795/

I like the Daniel Branca cover, as I like everything Branca does, BUT, WHY-OH-WHY DID THEY NOT USE THE CLASSIC COVER FOR THIS REPRINT??!! 

...And the various Carl Barks Library Collections by Gladstone and Fantagraphics...

...Like this one! 

Not only is it my FAVORITE CARL BARKS STORY, I'd go as far as to name it my FAVORITE COMIC BOOK STORY OF ALL TIME - PERIOD!  

No exaggeration, I made up a TOP TEN LIST a number of years ago, and this one topped it!  

As you might expect, there's Barks, Gottfredson, Murry, Mickey, Donald, Scrooge, Superman, Batman, and even one Judge Dredd!  

This one, to be exact! 

As to the merest hint of why LOST IN THE ANDES is my "FAVORITE COMIC BOOK STORY OF ALL TIME - PERIOD", you may wish to check out <a href= ><b>MY THIRD EVER POST</b></a> to this humble Blog!

...Go on, delve into a piece of TIAH history... No charge!  ...Step back, Scrooge... my readers go first!  

Congratulations to everyone who chose this great story as your guess, and we'll finally get to Favorite Gottfredson as soon as we can!  

Separated at Mirth: Bob Hope - "The Monarch Who's Mediocre!"

Surely, at some point, someone must have described BOB HOPE as "The King of Comedy"!  

Whether or not it ever happened, the covers of THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 58 (DC Comics, Cover Date: August-September, 1959)...

...And THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 89 (DC Comics, Cover Date: October-November, 1964)...

...Make a good case for a "Hope Mirthful Monarchy"!  

Check 'em out side-by-side...

Same layout, but different setting! 

Same guy about to jab Bob... once as a Black Knight, and once as a Centurion! 

SAME EXACT DIALOGUE BALLOON! 

  

The adoring females vary slightly, in both looks and positioning!  

But, most strangely of all... these are TWO VERY DIFFERENT STORIES!  One is not a remake of the other!  Each is unique unto itself!

Yet, they not only share the SAME COVER GAG - thus becoming our latest "Separation At Mirth", but also share the same cover LAYOUT and DIALOGUE!  

You won't see that happen very often!  

THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 58 cover is drawn by Owen Fitzgerald. 

THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 89 cover is drawn by Mort Drucker. 

Oh, and lest I forget, if anyone doesn't get the gag in our SUBJECT HEADER ("The Monarch Who's Mediocre!"), here's the inspiration for that!  

"Mickey Mouse as The Monarch of Medioka" - a classic Mouse Tale, by the great Floyd Gottfredson! 

See?  We'd never leave you hanging, now would we?  

...Though we may leave Bob Hope "hanging"... until he "gets the point"...

...Which, regardless of historical era, looks to be any second now!  

Before he yelps in pain, let's say so long and leave you with THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 58 and THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 89... Separated at Mirth! 

PS: Perhaps Bob might not have been "stuck with his fate" (...or whatever you call those pointy things), if HE had also been "SUPERMAN'S PAL" like Jimmy Olsen! 

THAT'S the kind of "pal" I'd wanna have! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Where's Walt... Oh!

The traditionalists among us, myself included, tend to lament the corporate morphing of the name Walt Disney into just plain "Disney"...or "Disney's" - demonstrating, perhaps, the omnipresent possessiveness of the ever-gobbling media giant over even its founder. 

But, we find an unusual example of the converse in the pages of DELL FOUR COLOR #805 SCAMP (Dell Comics, Cover Date: June, 1957) in the ad copy for Dell's CHIP 'N' DALE comic...

Take a gander at the possessive proper noun, and blink with wonder! 

 

Yes, the two chatterbox chipmunks could certainly be referred-to as "WALT'S CHIP 'N' DALE", as it's not too difficult to figure out who "WALT" is!  

It's not THIS GUY...

Or THIS GUY!  

But, ya gotta wonder where the "Disney" went, and how its absence passed through a presumed series of editorial reviews.  

...Maybe this is an example of REAL "Disney Magic"!  

Separated at Mirth: Too Big To Fail... But, Somehow They Do!

 Some of us never "outgrow" comic books (...and thank goodness for that)...

...But, on rare occasions, some comic book characters will "outgrow" their cover image space to where their fearsome faces are obscured by the comic's title logo! 

And, with that rather tenuous introduction, we present out latest Separated at Mirth entry: WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #159 (DC Comics, Cover Date: June, 1966), cover by classic Superman artists Curt Swan and George Klein ...

...And DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES #23 (Gladstone Series II, Cover Date: December, 1993), cover by the great Don Rosa.  

But, Joe... (you may find yourself asking), I see the "Separation" but, with our respective heroes facing such huge and overpowering adversaries, "Where's the Mirth?"  

To this, I offer that each issue's adversaries are just SOOOO BIG, that even the standard comic book cover image space cannot contain them!  

...An unusual, if not outright mirthful, use of the requisite issue title logo!  

  Gotta love this side-by-side!   

Of speculative interest: We know from previous comments, that Don Rosa read the Mort Weisinger-era Superman comics of which WORLD'S FINEST #159 is one - edited by Old Unca Mort himself.  

So, it's possible that Rosa could even have (consciously or otherwise) been influenced by that cover, when creating his own for DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES #23.  

Regardless of who may have influenced whom, we leave you with WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #159 and DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES #23...  Separated at Mirth!  

Though ya gotta wonder why the LAND OF THE GIANTS comic never tried that stunt!  

...It would have been a natural!  

R.I.P. Russ Cochran

A true giant of the comic book world has has left us, with the passing, on February 23, 2020, of Russ Cochran - publisher, historian, archivist, and (perhaps, first and foremost) fan!

Everyone who visits this Blog, owes an almost incalculable debt to Mr. Cochran, for both the multitude of things he actually did, and the many more things he either significantly influenced or set in motion for others to bring to fruition!

I wrote the following to the mailing list at Grand Comics Database, which I will reproduce here...

As a reader of the original Gladstone Disney comics, and the hardcover "Carl Barks Library", I'd say the world of classic comics has suffered a tremendous loss!  

Those original Gladstone issues were the first such comics to run actual creator credits for those who had toiled for years in unfortunate anonymity.  

They were the first in the modern era to bring Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse to a wide audience.

They were the first to treat the American readership to the great European talents of Daan Jippes, Fred Milton, Victor A. Rios ("Vicar"), Daniel Branca, and Romano Scarpa. 

And they were the first to run letter columns in Disney comics, as was standard practice for most other publishers at the time.  

In other words, it was Russ Cochran and Bruce Hamilton who brought the Disney comic book - and, actually, the funny-animal comic book in general - into the modern age!  

Oh, and there was also the discovery of Don Rosa and William Van Horn!  

...And Little Lulu and EC reprint collections!  ...And so much more! 

Joe Torcivia   

Beyond those comments, I daresay that Russ Cochran (perhaps with Byron Erickson) was the difference between the historic Gladstone Series 1 (1985-1990) and the more tepid (though "spectacular by the current publisher's recent standards") Gladstone Series 2 (1993-1999)... and that's all I'm gonna say on THAT topic!   

Rest in Peace, Mr. Russ Cochran... and thank you for everything!  

R.I.P. Russi Taylor

We mourn the passing of Russi Taylor, who sadly left us on July 26, 2019, at the (no longer old) age of 75!

Ms. Taylor, as most people know, was the longtime voice of Minnie Mouse...

...The life's delight of "you-know-who"!

Sharing the good times...

...And the not-so-good! 

But, to me, Russi Taylor's most astounding accomplishment was heard on the original 1987 version of DuckTales...

...Where she somehow managed to imbue Huey, Dewey, and Louie with understandable speech, while still allowing them to sound like their unintelligible "Unca Donald"!

Yes, Russi Taylor could make HER Duck Nephews speak lines like this (above), and this (below)...

...And still maintain that air of "Shared-Duck-Identity"...

 ...That was such a key aspect of stories like these!  Be they animated...  

...Or in comic books where they were at their best! 

So much so that I began to "hear" Russi Taylor SPEAK as the nephews, as I read the comics - though I never heard Donald's overly-quacky original voice actor Clarence Nash, or his successor Tony Anselmo, speak DONALD'S comic-book dialogue!  

To become my "official comics-reading character voice" takes a really indelible impression... and Russi Taylor had indeed made one, when it came to Huey, Dewey, and Louie!  

And also as Minnie Mouse!

When it was my great privilege to "do translations and write dialogue scripts" for these comics, it was Russi Taylor who "aided-from-afar" when it came to my putting just the right words in the mouths (balloons?) of Minnie Mouse...

...And Huey, Dewey, and Louie!

Other notable characters voiced by Russi Taylor include Martin Prince and Purple-Twins Sherri and Terri on THE SIMPSONS...

...And the indisputably indomitable and utterly unsinkable WEBBY, also on DuckTales (1987 Series)!  

But, the most "Disney-Magic-like thing" about Russi Taylor was that in 1991 she married Wayne Allwine (who passed away in 2009), who was THE LONGTIME VOICE OF MICKEY MOUSE!  

And, while we all feel the loss, we can also feel good, knowing that Mickey and Minnie are reunited... as they should always be!