I'd like to think that the comic-marring-mathematician who marked up my copy of WOODY WOODPECKER # 124 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: July, 1972) at least cried out "A SCRATCH-PAD! A SCRATCH-PAD! MY KINGDOM FOR A SCRATCH-PAD!" before taking the drastic step of corrupting my copy with his cursedly copious calculations!
Then again, if "Don didn't doodle as he did", I wouldn't have gotten this book for a quarter!
You know... "A Quarter!" The price of a "Drooler's Delight" - my favorite Woody Woodpecker cartoon!
"Oh, boy! A Quarter!"
So, here's to Don (whoever and wherever you are), hoping your math came out right, and you didn't forget to, like "carry the four", or sumpthin'!
19 comments:
Isn't it obvious? You hold in your hand a comic-book once owned by Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck — commandeered by their uncle trying to wrap his head around his ever-increasing collection of debts, and then sold off to pay said debts! What other Don do you know?! (Alright, Don Rosa. But he, I think it's fair to say, would never.)
After all… Walter Lantz Comics was the competition. It's only fair enough that Don would fail to treat them with the respect they deserved.
YEAH, I like that, Achille!
I *can* imagine Donald, sweat pouring off his troubled brow, frantically figuring his debts! The Woody Woodpecker comic close at hand!
Not being a “Super Snooper” comic, he failed to see any worth in it beyond scratch paper… and its cover having a blank white background must have made it irresistible to someone as overcome with panicked emotion, as he tends to be.
On a completely different level, Donald (Duck, that is) may have even resented the very existence of Woody Woodpecker comics – considering that he and his nephews could easily have starred in Woody’s stories with Knothead and Splinter. Winnie became Woody’s “Daisy”. By the 1970’s, he was even given a “wacky inventor” (Cousin “Boris Voodpeckah” by name) to further motivate plot-similarities. And, believe it or not, there is a Woody Woodpecker cartoon, that I cannot recall the name of, where he has a “rich Uncle Scrooge”! …I kid you not!
So, Donald may even resent the loss of image-licensing income to Woody – income that could help relieve his (all together now) “ever-increasing collection of debts”.
Gosh, we sure go to some wonderful and unexpected places at this Blog, don’t we?
I've marred and disfigured a few of my own comics back in the day, doodling and adding alternate coloring where I didn't like the colorists work (which for Gold Key was pretty bad for a period of time in the 1960s and early 1970s where whole swaths of that ugly purplish gray were used to color in entire complex background scenes). More than a few times I would trace my favorite splash panels onto tracing paper, which inevitably left indentations on the comic paper.
I kind of like owning old comics that have been marked up, at least if it is clearly the work of some young kid like I was, because I can imagine some real person who once owned that comic and wonder what he was doing. This particular mathematical doodling is particularly interesting.
And the best part about marked up comics is that you could often get them in the bargain bin at the comic store, which was originally 5 for $1, then 4, then 3, even when some of these were classic vintage 20 year old comics that sold for multiple dollars in mint condition in those plastic bags inside the glass counter. My allowance allowed spending up to $2 per month on comics. Why save for 6 months to buy a single 1955 Walt Disney Comics and Stories (only to be frustrated when I couldn't finish the Mickey Mouse serial) when I could have 3 or 4 of the same vintage comics for 2 weeks allowance just because the cover was disfigured, loose, or torn.
I don’t remember the name either, but I do remember Woody’s Uncle Scrooge. He was a mean old cuss, he even had a moat around his house with alligators if I remember correctly. Woody didn’t realize that everything he was doing to endear himself to the cranky old curmudgeon was just annoying him further (somewhat atypically for Woody...he was usually annoying on purpose!).
That's the one, Deb! I'll have to find the name of it, so others can look it up!
Carl:
I’ve gotta agree with you there!
While I like “Very-Fine to Near-Mint” comics as much as anyone, there’s a certain charm about the “imperfect ones” – as long as they are complete and readable!
Those imperfections are most often from wear – meaning that someone(s) enjoyed the comic when it was new (perhaps a bit “too enthusiastically”?), but I find the “additions” to be the most intriguing.
You need only revisit POSTS LIKE THIS to see what I mean!
Or THIS!
Or THIS!
There aren’t many things in life that are simultaneously “horrific” and “fun” so, when you get one of these, minimize the “horror” and enjoy the “fun” in them!
Aside to Carl… If memory serves, I have owed you an e-mail reply for a long time. Very sorry about that!
Hope you are still enjoying those back issues as much as I am these days!
Just googled "Woody Woodpecker Uncle Scrooge" and the answer is... "Skin Folks" (1964), per IMDb.
I like Achille's scenario that this comic belonged to HDL and Donald scribbled on it when under financial stress. I can easily see Don using one of his nephews' comics as scratch paper, given how dismissive he usually is of them. Though I wouldn't go along with the whole idea that you elaborate on, Joe, that the Woody Woodpecker comics were competition, since there are no Donald Duck comics in my Duckworld. Scarpa to the contrary notwithstanding! But there could easily be WW comics, as there are Mickey Mouse comics in my & in Rosa's Duckverse. There could be DuckTales comics, as Rosa once depicted, if you think that DuckTales was a TV series in Duckburg "based on" the true stories of Scrooge and his nephews, in the sense that TV shows may be very loosely based on real life. But in that case Donald wouldn't be jealous of Woody Woodpecker for stealing his own comics thunder, since Donald barely appears in DuckTales.
But I am interested to hear all that ways that the WW comics echoed the DD/U$ comics, and to hear about Woody's Uncle Scrooge!
Elaine:
"Skin Folks" (1964) must certainly be it, because I remember it being much later in the run. Thank you for finding that for us!
Comics Donald and Woody have a lot in common… kids to adventure with or battle domestically, a girlfriend to bring (as STAR TREK once put it) “Pain and Delight” into their lives, an endless series of different jobs, an annoying braggart (Gladstone Gander or Wally Walrus) and some big-name creators Freddy Milton, Carl Fallberg, and Paul Murry - to name a few that shaped both characters.
And another big name who’d know a bit about this, Mark Evanier, said somewhere (wish I could actually source it) that, at Western, Donald Duck scripts were (easily) refashioned into Woody Woodpecker scripts, when the need arose.
But, as I’ve said, “To each his or her own Duckworld!” Mine HAS Mickey and company, has Moby Duck, has The Phantom Blot, and doesn’t have Duck Avenger, Double-Duck, Ultraheroes, and especially NO ONE with the initials “E.B.” that doesn’t hail from the year 2447! …Not so bad, eh?
It's worth noting that Woody Woodpecker's universe has some weighty claim to being the same universe as the Duckworld, too; the Universal-owned Oswald Rabbit and Peg-Leg Pete were eventually incorporated into Woody's comic universe (I believe Oswald even once appeared in a Woody Woodpecker cartoon as one of his last filmic appearances). And Yellow Beak sailed with in Woody Woodpecker #76, which our good host Joe himself later confirmed as a canonical event in the life of the very same Yellow Beak who sailed with Donald Duck, by referencing the story in Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold… Again!
What's more, though it can only have been coincidental, I discovered in the course of my Wiki attempt to write up a unified biography of Yellow Beak that the Woody Woodpecker story and the Italian …Again! (published a few months later) actually fit together perfectly in a wider life-story of Yellow Beak. The twist at the end of the Lantz story is that Yellow Beak is retired, and ran away from a home to playact at treasure-hunting once again (with the pirate treasure being a phony and the Pete stand-in being a retired actor he teamed up with). And of course, …Again! begins with Yellow Beak having once again run off on a comfy retirement home and trying to take to the sea once more, this time with Donald & Co.!
Achille:
It’s finding stuff like this in my Blog’s inbox that still gives me a thrill after TWELVE YEARS of doing this, as of next month! MAGNIFICENT!
Before we address the major source of my delight, I’ll first mention that Oswald and Woody interacted on MANY covers of WALTER LANTZ NEW FUNNIES, of which Oswald was a regular feature, as you can see HERE at GCD and HERE! …Indeed, Oswald was in the book (certainly as a feature-titled character) before Woody!
Well, SHAME ON ME (of all people) for not raising the matter of Yellow Beak, when it comes to intersecting Donald’s and Woody’s worlds! Indeed, that would be the most significant event of them all – dwarfing that of common creators, to which I should add John Carey, Vic Lockman, Pete Alvarado, Mark Evanier, Jack Manning, and more.
And while Donald, and not Woody, had Carl Barks – Woody, and not Donald, had John Stanley (at least in the bird’s early, wilder, and less domesticated days).
But… YEAH! Yellow Beak… perhaps the strangest and most unique crossover character of them all, as an indisputable link between Donald and Woody… and my discovery, too (see the text feature in Gladstone’s DONALD DUCK # 250 (February, 1987). Yellow Beak, who shipped-out with Donald and his nephews (and later Scrooge via Italy and Boom! Studios) as well as “Young Peter” (Peter Pan), “Sharp Woodward” (Woody Woodpecker), and “The Seagoing Seven” (The Seven Dwarfs)! All unlikely crossovers that did happen in the pages of Dell and Gold Key (in Woody’s case) Comics!
Given my association with the character (I may be the only living American left who has written for Yellow Beak – certainly in published American comic book pages), it’s inexcusable for me to have made such an omission! Thank you for a “save” worthy of the great Mariano Rivera, I say as baseball has finally returned to our land – with the Yankees winning the season opener, and Dr. Anthony Fauci throwing-out the first pitch, last night – but I digress!
Perhaps Yellow Beak simply hasn’t adjusted nearly as well to “retirement” as your humble Blog host. Then again… I’m with the person I love most (Esther, with occasional visits from granddaughter Averi as the COVID threat has lessened – at least in New York), I’m surrounded by the things I love most (lots of comics and DVDs), and I’m often immersed in the activities I love most… “The Great Comics Organization and Storage Retirement Project”, comics research, comics writing (Thank you, Fantagraphics!), comics indexing at GCD… and especially THIS BLOG, as moments like this prove again and again!
…Yellow Beak should have it so good!
Actually, the Italians weren't the only ones to have Scrooge meet Yellow Beak — in 1985, Carl Barks created his own sequel to Finds Pirate Gold featuring Scrooge, although in the form of a painting rather than a story: Return to Morgan's Island.
https://inducks.org/story.php?c=CB+OIL+129
Of course, this wholly postdates Pirate Gold… Again!, but I don't think Barks would have known about the 1962 story in 1985. At any rate, I imagine you've seen it — but the setup should still look familiar if you haven't, because Alessandro Perina recreated it, as well as several Barks paintings, for an excellent splash panel in another one of your localizations: Uncle Scrooge and the Wonderful Wishing Crown!
Achille:
If memory serves, Barks was sometimes asked to ADD Scrooge to certain classic scenes by those commissioning the paintings.
It’s always possible that Barks was aware of the story that would become “Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold… Again!” in American English but, like you, I tend to doubt it. Even I was unaware of it until it was assigned to me. (To digress, I’ve always liked the simplicity of the title I gave it – always mindful of the classic – nay, seminal – story it sprung from!)
HERE is Achille’s link to that wonderful painting!
“…but the setup should still look familiar if you haven't, because Alessandro Perina recreated it, as well as several Barks paintings, for an excellent splash panel in another one of your localizations: Uncle Scrooge and the Wonderful Wishing Crown!”
I am truly awestruck at how many things related to the character of Yellow Beak, have “come back to me” ever since bringing the Woody Woodpecker connection to light 3 ½ decades go! Never in my wildest dreams could I have envisioned all of this back in 1986!
Could Yellow Beak be my “Spirit Animal”, or something?
From Google: “A spirit animal is characterized as a teacher or messenger that comes in the form of an animal and has a personal relationship to an individual. Other names might be animal guides, spirit helpers, spirit allies, power animals, or animal helpers.”
If so, you’d think he’d lead ME to some “Pirate Gold”, for all I’ve done to keep and enhance his legend!
You might even say Yellow Beak is a patron saint of the Core Four as a whole — The Seven Dwarfs and the Pirates's treasure is not located on Morgan's Island as in 1942, or on Crying Island as in 1949, but on… Nothing Atoll, which is neat big of (I think intended) continuity with Thad's script for The Siege of Nothing Atoll from five years ago!
(…Golly… five years ago? How time flies. Like a parrot with a peg-leg, that's how it flies.)
Achille:
Maybe that five years just SEEMS longer in “Disney-Comics-Years” because of the dreadful stuff (…yet, like that now-immortal pickax , “legendary and super” in said “dreadfulness”) that we’ve gotten in the last two years (later 2018-2020)!
Of course, I *haven’t* gotten them since that that unfortunate change in creative talent – as seems to be the case well beyond myself, if the comments at this humble Blog are to be taken seriously. …And I *don’t* miss them! Especially when there are so many great older comics left to acquire and read! …But, I digress!
Thad too, eh? Hmmm… That Yellow Beak is certainly an influential character!
…Just imagine if he walked around with a pickax!
(Dear me, the Gang of the Grammar-Killers mst have gotten me but good tonight. My message above is riddled with typos, not the least of which that with all due credit to Thad, I meant to say the Nothing Atoll continuity was probably unintended; it's an obvious enough pun. Though do ask him if you get the chance.)
Aw, we don’t “call-out stuff like that” around here, Achille.
Heaven knows I make more than my share of typos and omissions… though, as the Blog host, I have some limited means of correcting them.
My guess would fall on the side of coincidence as I know I’ve seen that gag used elsewhere myself (Rocky and Bullwinkle?, something else of that vintage?).
Besides, speaking strictly for myself (but I’ve seen a number of instances where it applies to Thad as well), I tend to “borrow” from the best whenever appropriately possible. I figure it’s “just another plus” for the readers who recognize it!
Another possible point of connection between Donald's and Woody's universe that comes to my mind is the Araucan Bird (https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Aracuan_Bird), who may well be Woody's relative :)
Also, back in the day, Donald had his share of unpleasant experiences with a pesky woodpecker, as shown by Carl Barks in his ten-pager from 1945 called "Pecking Order" by I.N.D.U.C.K.S.
-------
T.
Ah, yes indeed… I also made that connection between early Woody and the Araucan Bird way back in 2008 when writing about the Jack Hannah-directed animated short “Clown of the Jungle”:
“'Clown of the Jungle' just may be the zaniest, outright funniest Donald Duck cartoon ever!!! Imagine if the more sedate, though still quite volatile, post-war Donald met the early forties wild and out of control version of Woody Woodpecker, or the Do-Do Bird from Bob Clampett’s ‘Porky in Wackyland’… and that just barely describes what goes on here. You’ll have to see it for yourself! It doesn’t even look like a Disney cartoon, but more like the product of another studio entirely!”
You can read the entire post HERE, and also get an entirely new appreciation for the tragically underrated director Jack King!
And HERE is the link for the Araucan Bird for your ease of reading.
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