Euro Disney comics have been putting us silly Americans to utter shame since at least the 1970s, when the best we could muster-up was art by Kay Wright, Bob Gregory, and a Roger Armstrong who was not even a shadow of his former self! Not to mention an almost absurd over-reliance on scripts by Vic Lockman, resulting in more substandard work than his (generally good, and sometimes even great) talents would indicate!
THE most egregious example of Kay Wright and Vic Lockman at their VERY WORST!
So, far be it from me to to be openly critical of the usually fine Disney comics work produced by my fellow European creators!
But, sometimes, even they can miss the mark, and so it was when someone(s) tried to rip-off the cover of HUEY, DEWEY AND LOUIE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS #22 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: September, 1973) for Walt Disney's Ekstra-Haefte #4/1975...
All I can say is... How Much Inappropriately Placed Character Usage could a Woodchuck Chuck, if a Woodchuck Could Chuck Inappropriately Placed Character Usage!
Ironically, the original (and far better) American cover is penciled by the very same Kay Wright whose shockingly bad "artwork" (quotes intentional) is seen at the top of this post! Thankfully, in this case, Wright was inked by the competent Larry Mayer, saving a specimen of Kay Wright's art as much as such a thing can be saved!
So, hey "Ekstra-Haefte guys"... YOU'RE EUROPEANS! If you're going to rip off a Kay Wright drawing, you MUST HAVE SOMEONE BETTER to do the job, rather than looking as if you... (I can barely type the words)... traced Kay Wright... as if anyone would ever WANT to do such a thing!
And WHY UNCLE SCROOGE?! Donald Duck was the best possible character to have been in the tent... um, "when the bough breaks"! And even Kay Wright manages to give him a suitable put-upon expression...
...With some help from Larry Mayer, so it wouldn't look like THIS!
And, I repeat... WHY UNCLE SCROOGE?! It's obvious that you're ripping-off the Gold Key cover, so why not do it all the way?
Once you've slavishly duplicated every other element - down to the FLOWERS ON THE GROUND (!) what's the purpose of substituting Uncle Scrooge for Donald?
...And, beyond that, Scrooge's EXPRESSION doesn't even FIT THE SITUATION!!!
Tired and sweaty doesn't even connect to the gag!
My guess is that this inappropriately used image is probably repurposed art from some other cover or story!
Whatever the reason, we'll just chalk-up this misplaced image of Scrooge looking as if he just crawled across the Gobi Desert to (...of all the inexplicable reasons in Heaven and Earth) be in a Kay Wright cover rip-off (!) to just another odd Adventure in Comic Boxing!
11 comments:
I wonder if Uncle Scrooge's presence to due to his popularity in Europe? To be clear, I don't know how popular his comics as opposed to Donald's were/are in Europe. I'm only speculating. Maybe it's similar to Warner Bros.'s odd decision to pit Daffy Duck against Speedy Gonzales in the 1960s. They were two very popular characters, so why not combine them?
It certainly would have been easier for them to just Xerox the original drawing, rather than go through the trouble of substituting Scrooge for Donald.
Sergio:
Putting “two very popular characters” together is not always as successful as Reece’s combining chocolate and peanut butter! As your very own example of Daffy and Speedy so perfectly illustrates!
At this point in time, I would agree that Uncle Scrooge is more popular than both Donald and Mickey - certainly among COMIC FANS! While that might have also been true in early 1975, I’d be inclined to doubt it.
After all, there were (and perhaps still are) societies of European “Donaldists”… but I can recall no equivalency for… er, um… “Scroogilists”… I’d imagine that rhymes with boxing “pugilists”!
Besides, those stories and covers were printed – and reprinted, and re-reprinted, and re-re-printed*** – all over the world, so why bother altering it? Beats me! ...Um, unless there were some type of incentive to passing this off as an "original" cover, as opposed to a licensed reprint image, I wonder?
*** With my thanks and apologies to Carl Barks for my appropriation of his “Beagle Boys Repeating Rehabilitation” gag!
Also, doesn't Scrooge's head seem a bit too large in relation to the boys?
In any case, Scrooge is not likely to be found in a tent in the local woods where the JWs would be practicing woodcraft in their uniforms. I only expect to find Scrooge camping out when he's far from home on the trail of some ancient treasure. He certainly doesn't camp out for fun.
My guess is that they thought Scrooge was a bigger draw to the comics-buying audience than Donald--or that stories in the issue featured Scrooge so they wanted him on the cover.
Elaine:
You write: “Also, doesn't Scrooge's head seem a bit too large in relation to the boys?”
Yes, I certainly agree! That’s what happens when you combine two elements that were designed separately to “create” a (poorly-designed) composite.
Say, can anyone identify the presumed original source of the Scrooge element? While it may be an original addition, it sure looks repurposed to me. That’s where the differing proportions you note come into play.
“In any case, Scrooge is not likely to be found in a tent in the local woods where the JWs would be practicing woodcraft in their uniforms. I only expect to find Scrooge camping out when he's far from home on the trail of some ancient treasure. He certainly doesn't camp out for fun.”
It amazes me how often, over the years, persons responsible for these characters just fail to “get them right”! That’s why we should treasure anything that is edited, curated, or otherwise coordinated by David Gerstein.
“My guess is that they thought Scrooge was a bigger draw to the comics-buying audience than Donald--or that stories in the issue featured Scrooge so they wanted him on the cover.”
Okay, let’s assume that Scrooge WAS a bigger draw in 1975, at least in Europe… Wouldn’t there be THOUSANDS (…if not hundreds of thousands?) of covers featuring him that could be used? Why replace Donald, who fit perfectly into that gag, with Scrooge?
Even if the content of the book were “Scrooge and Woodchuck-centric” (like some of Carl Barks’ then-contemporary Jr. Woodchucks stories, where Scrooge was repeatedly cast as some ecological despoiler), the camping mishap thing simply doesn’t suit him!
Commission a new cover to better combine Scrooge and the JWs! Heck, I’ll even create a gag for it on the spot…
WOODLAND SETTING. Concerned JW’s at left semi-background. SCROOGE is heedlessly running after a DOLLAR BILL blowing away from him in the wind – moving from left-to-right, toward a CLIFF. Depending on how artist and editor wish to sell the gag, it can be a HIGH CLIFF – perhaps with a BIRD’S NEST large enough to hold Scrooge should he go over the edge – or a SMALL DROP, with a POND at bottom for secondary-safety’s sake.
And there you are – an appropriate cover gag that DIDN’T EVEN EXIST, when I began typing this reply!
Hey, Fantagraphics and New Gold Key, I’ve got a million of these to share with your readers! You know how to reach me!
Hi there,
This cover was redrawn to match the story inside whose Danish title can be seen on the cover: "Grønspætternes nye general". INDUCKS gives its English title as "Woodsman Scrooge"; it was written and drawn by Giorgio Cavazzano for the Disney Studio program, which also gave us all those Fethry stories by Kinney and Hubbard. Here's a link to the INDUCKS file: https://inducks.org/story.php?c=S+72267
I haven't read the story, but summaries available on the internet indicate that it has Scrooge and Rockerduck compete for the right to replace the Grand Mogul on one of Junior Woodchucks' trips, which results in some unpleasant developments for both billionaires; I guess that the cover is supposed to show the effects of this rivalry on Scrooge.
Of all the things Scrooge and Rockerduck could compete over, T., replacing a Junior Woodchuck Grand Mogul would seem to be among the most unlikely… unless said Woodchuck trip led to riches or, at least in Rockerduck’s case, prestige! …Yet it somehow seems fitting as a product of the Disney Studio Program, where writing was never much of a strong point!
At least it goes a long way toward explaining why SCROOGE replaced Donald on that cover, so thank you for shedding some light on that mini-mystery!
…Though the mega-mystery remains as to why, when Europe (and even the Disney Studio Program) had so many better artists, a Kay Wright cover drawing was selected for this… um, “honor”!
HERE is T.’s link to the story at INDUCKS.
Well, I'm not surprised by the nature of their competition: the rivalry between Scrooge and Rockerduck is so intense that neither of them will ever let the other one come on top, no matter how trivial their quarrel might seem. I've read stories where they fight to determine who had better grades at school [1], who is the better connoisseur of arts [2], who has the better soccer team [3] or even who deserves more space in the encyclopedia [4]! :)
To me, the desire to see who knows more about survival in the wild is connected to one of the biggest sources of animosity between Scrooge and Rockerduck: Scrooge constantly mocks his rival as a pampered rich heir who inherited his entire wealth and never had to work for it really hard, while Rockerduck repeatedly makes fun of Scrooge's old-timer demeanor, outdated ruggedness and tall tales. Therefore, if Scrooge failed to show that he is more at ease with camping and life in the great outdoors than Rockerduck, it would in my opinion amount to a major and humiliating defeat on the part of McDuck.
Not to mention that I don't think a script by Cavazzano is likely to be utterly bland, Studio or no Studio ;)
As for the choice of cover art, honestly - I don't have a clue. I see that this publication was released in several European countries, probably as a cost-cutting measure (it's much cheaper to print the pictures together for many countries and only replace the text layer; that's why our Polish "Gigant Poleca" digest is a copy of German "Lustiges Taschenbuch"). I don't know which country was responsible for putting the book together, but it has to be noted that as far as I know, not all European states had their own Disney artists at that time: sometimes using graphics from other countries was the only (or at least the most cost effective) option.
[1] "Whale for Hire": https://inducks.org/story.php?c=D+2003-166
[2] "Zio Paperone e la truffa archeologica": https://inducks.org/story.php?c=I+TL+1263-AP
[3] "Zio Paperone il supercampionato": https://inducks.org/story.php?c=I+TL+1817-B
[4] "Zio Paperone e la "mitica" Treppaperi": https://inducks.org/story.php?c=I+TL+2329-4
You’re right, T.!
That’s what separates Rockerduck from Flintheart Glomgold! I guess I was looking for more of a “What’s in it for me, financially?” angle – and becoming a Woodchuck Grand Mogul didn’t seem to fit that premise, unless it was to lead them to some lost treasure.
And, of course I’d expect a Cavazzano script to be anything but “bland”. I’m merely referring to the general feel of the majority of Disney Studio Program stories I’ve read… and even one or two I’ve spiced up in the dialogue department.
I’d imagine not every country, or publisher, has their own “machinery” to produce original art… Heck, we don’t really have that HERE in the USA! I’m referring to whichever country or publisher of origin that produced that cover in the first place – and why take a “clip-art” approach to creating a cover, as opposed to opting for an original! …And, once again, why select Kay Wright for the overall dominant portion of the image?
Got a lotta links to process, so let’s get to it:
[1] "Whale for Hire"
[2] "Zio Paperone e la truffa archeologica"
[3] "Zio Paperone il supercampionato"
[4] "Zio Paperone e la "mitica" Treppaperi"
One more thing... Rechecking that INDUCKS entry for the Cavazzano story titled "Woodsman Scrooge", and unless I've misread it, it looks to me as if Cavazzano did not write it. Take the link in the comments above, and see for yourself.
...Can't speak for the story, but the TITLE is certainly bland! :-)
You're of course right, Joe. My mistake - Giorgio Cavazzano only provided the drawings and inking. It seems that the writer is anonymous. I also found out that when the comic was published in Italy, the script was adapted by Guido Martina, which points out that it might indeed have orginally been of sub-par quality; moreover, there are some comments saying that Scrooge and Rockerduck behave a bit out of character in the story. So, your opinion seems to be validated :)
T.:
Not having seen the story and, being an English-reading American, it seems unlikely that I will *ever* see it, I bow to the opinions of the masses… especially when they “validate” my own! :-)
Appreciate the additional information… even if I’m WAAAY late in posting it!
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