Welcome to TIAHBlog at 16 Presents 16 Covers -- Number Thirteen: "OG We There Yet?" Part One!
...Or "A TALE of THREE COVERS!" ...And our "three covers" are now on the runway, so let's meet them!
FIRST: From the year 1966... the Pinnacle of Pop Culture (at least if you're ME) hailing from Western Publishing, Poughkeepsie, New York, by way of Gold Key Comics, Los Angeles, California... PLEASE WELCOME... DONALD DUCK #109 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: September, 1966)...
Heh! Being a "first printing" you might call it (...wait for it) ...the "OG" "Og"! ...Get it?
So "Prime-Silver-Age-y" was "Og's Iron Bed" that it was chosen for the Silver Age section of the Fantagraphics hardcover DONALD DUCK THE 90th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION (2024)!
The cover is not reprinted with the story... BUT the original cover illustration is reproduced at approximately 3" by 3" in the book's Table of Contents -- marking the first time the original unaltered cover illustration has ever been reprinted in the USA!
Oh, no... wait... there IS one tiny difference... the LITTLE BLUE CLOCK STAR (...If you were expecting a pun on "ROCK STAR"... sorry!) that is to the LEFT OF THE CRESCENT MOON is missing! Oh, well, ya can't win 'em all! I guess we now have FOUR VERSIONS of this cover!
Sing it with me: "When you MISS upon a star..."
Here's the GCD INDEX for DONALD DUCK #109! ...With lots of recent additions made by yours truly, so, unlike like the comic, this index is NOT ...the "OG" "Og"! Ya gotta milk these jokes for all they're worth!
NEXT: With a noticeably different take on the same cover... ALSO from Western Publishing, Poughkeepsie, New York, by way of Gold Key Comics, Los Angeles, California... SAY HELLO TO... DONALD DUCK #198 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: August, 1978)...
Aside from many of the cover elements, including the title, moved around or outright eliminated to accommodate the (all together now) INTRUSIVE UPC BOX, the sides of this cover image are not cut-off or trimmed in this illustration... the original (you, know... the "OG" "Og") was simply WIDER and could display more of the vertical edges of the image. ...Oh, and Gyro has BLUE HAIR!
FINALLY: Rounding-out our cover competition, from Gemstone Publishing, Timonium, Maryland or York, Pennsylvania (they moved around a bit)... LET'S GIVE A WARM ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO... DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #342 (Gemstone Publishing, Cover Date: August, 2006)...
A THIRD variation that makes room for the (all together now) INTRUSIVE UPC BOX, but fakes us out by putting it on the back cover instead!
I've spent so much time introducing our three contestants that it's time for bed (...another one of those late-night ramble-written posts that have become the hallmark of this series), therefore ("and to-wit", as Snagglepuss might say)...
...You can read about their quirks and the reasons for their differences HERE!
Now, eyeball 'em all in order and send your thoughts to our Comment Section.
Sorry, later editions... but for our Cover Number Thirteen, we proudly select DONALD DUCK #109 -- the "OG" "Og"!
So, are we finished with "Og's Iron Bed"? At this late hour, who can tell... Maybe yes... Maybe not-yes... Come back tomorrow and see! G'night!
4 comments:
Happily, we had Donald Duck 109 in our box of comics in my childhood--I don't know which of us kids bought it. But I do know that I re-read Og's Iron Bed numerous times in my childhood, primarily because that cover repeatedly drew me in. It's still on my list of favorite covers, though now the great majority of covers on that list are Duck covers of far more recent vintage, whether on American or European publications. It is playful and evokes a sense of wonder at the same time. I like the way it depicts the voyage through time by depicting the vessel surrounded by clock-creatures and clock-planets. (This is also the case in the story panels, as you show, but not nearly as wondrously.) Also, the color palette of the original cover on 109 is particularly pleasing to me: that teal green and maroon are a great combo. The other American printings you show of the cover have less happy color choices. I remember when DD 342 came out: I was pleased that Gemstone printed the cover but disappointed in the coloring. Brown? Really? I also remember their explanation somewhere that they couldn't get reproducible art for the original cover, so they had to go with the version from DD 198 that had cut out the large square-bodied clock fish to make way for the UPC box (and moved the small clock fish to the end of the fishing line--but only managed to fit that fish in by bending the fishing line!).
I never really loved the story itself, partly because I did not find the resolution by double exposure at all convincing. The double exposure wouldn't prove the bed and the soldiers were cotemporal! Though I do agree that it's a stand-out story of its (silver) time.
Elaine: (you write):
“I never really loved the story itself, partly because I did not find the resolution by double exposure at all convincing. The double exposure wouldn't prove the bed and the soldiers were cotemporal! Though I do agree that it's a stand-out story of its (silver) time.”
I’m not sure about that… I don’t know how difficult (or at all possible) it was to fake such a thing with the available tools of 1966. I’d imagine that one *could* tell if Og and company were (what we would annoyingly come to call “cosplayers”) or the genuine article – especially in a world were time travel were not just possible, but readily available! Gyro and Emil each had a chronal conveyance in their garages, for Father Time’s sake! Gyro probably has as many as Jay Leno has cars!
Again, my knowledge of photography extends not much further than “point and shoot”, but I also recall this moment from VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA S3 E8 “Thing from Inner Space” (also 1966) where a TV science and nature show host with questionable credentials and an exploitive manner discovers a new species of creature while filming on a remote tropical island.
The TV host offers Admiral Nelson a photograph he took of the creature. Nelson asks if he also has the negative because “[Nelson] would like to study it. A negative is almost impossible to fake.”
Today, of course, ANYTHING is possible to fake but, if what VOYAGE put forth in an episode that would air less than four months after my initial reading of “Og’s Iron Bed” held any truth in 1966 (…and Donald didn’t lose or inadvertently destroy the negative), I’d give the photograph enough credibility for acceptance – certainly in a Silver Age comic book realm.
The original cover of DONALD DUCK # 109 was indeed the best representation of it’s concept, with it’s complete compliment of chronal creatures and its VERY pleasing background coloring – especially when compared with subsequent reprints! And, to give-credit-where-I-should-have-given-it-earlier, the cover was drawn by future Western art director Larry Mayer.
I’d long thought it was by Tony Strobl, as was the interior story, but, thanks to some work with the great Alberto Becattini, I can now detect the subtle differences in Mayer’s work. And in some early 1970s Donald Duck stories, Mayer’s inking over Strobl’s pencils (as opposed to Strobl’s “regular” inker of the mid-1960s onward, Steve Steere – who inked the interior) made Strobl’s already-great pencils look better than they had in years! …Why Mayer even made Kay Wright look kinda, sorta “good” – at least as “good” as Kay Wright’s stuff could ever look!
“Though I do agree that it's a stand-out story of its (silver) time.”
I thought (and still think) that “Og’s Iron Bed” was one of the THREE BEST Donald Duck lead stories of the period that Carl Barks had nothing to do with (…letting out “Pawns of the Loup Garou”), fitting snugly between “The Incredible Golden Iceberg” (#1) and “The Battle at Hadrian’s Wall” (#3). “Iceberg” is presumably written by Bob Ogle (having many of Ogle’s telltale signs) with “Og” and Hadrian” representing some of Vic Lockman’s best work!
On my list of favorite covers arranged by artist's name, this has for some time been listed under Larry Mayer with the note "identified by Joe Torcivia"!
My issue with the double exposure is not that the picture could have been faked, but that there would be no way of proving that the two photos making up the double exposure had been taken in the same era! That's assuming everyone involved accepts that the Ducks traveled in time, of course. But I figured that someone could argue that the one photo of the soldiers could have been taken in the distant past while the other of the iron bed was taken in the present.
Elaine: (you write):
“On my list of favorite covers arranged by artist's name, this has for some time been listed under Larry Mayer with the note "identified by Joe Torcivia"!”
I have GOT to see that list someday! …And many of your others!
“But I figured that someone could argue that the one photo of the soldiers could have been taken in the distant past while the other of the iron bed was taken in the present.”
Well, the bed in the photo would look a lot newer than the one in Scrooge’s possession! …And, if not, he could always muss it up a little! After all, he’s gotta make up the cost of that time trip somehow! :-)
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