This article was illustrated amongst other things by four panels from “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck”. More specifically, by the four panels following the sequence where the young Scrooge picks up a large rock to throw after all the gold diggers who’re occupying his claim.
In the first of these four panels, he looks as if a thought has just struck him. And no wonder! In the previous panels, if I remember them correctly, he has failed miserably in an attempt at throwing a moderately sized rock — it was simply too heavy.
In the second panel, his face is a mask of greed. No person who’s ever seen this drawing can deny knowing how true greed looks like.
In the third panel, his expression has changed again. He has just driven the rock into the water to cleanse it of dirt, and his face is a perfect illustration of euphoria. The dream of the last twenty years or so of his life has just been fullfilled!
And in the final panel, he is simply flabbergasted as he holds a ridiculously large nugget of gold in his hands.
When my eyes fell upon these four simple, yet indescribably detailed panels, my heart started fluttering. I was filled with a feeling of nostalgia — as I have no idea how many times I read the “Life and Times…” stories when I was a kid — and of happiness: The drawings of Scrooge were so awesome, and my emotional bonds to this epic comic so strong, that I was filled with sympathy and happiness for Scrooge.
I’m beginning to remember how much I love Don Rosa, and I can’t wait to start reading “The Son of the Sun”.
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I can recommend the entirety of “Hall of Fame” - though I easily could do without the Barks-volumes, to be frank - but especially the DR-books. While he obviously isn’t always as strong, especially in later years, that man’s made some of the best comics I’ve ever read, and he did so with characters so long used by so many different creators, it’s a wonder anyone ever manages to make fresh, exciting stories with them.
You should also check out the Romano Scarpa and possibly Marco Rota-books of the series, if you’re buying individual volumes. Especially Scarpa is highly recommended by me. There are also two or three really good Mickey-author/artist-books in the series, let me know if you’re interested and I’ll double-check which ones were the really good ones before I tip you.
The entire series of books, though, is lovely, which is why I keep subscribing despite the very steep price. I just wish they’d skip the Barks-ones, they honestly don’t interest me at all, the themes of the books are lousy - “here’s a bunch of stories Carl Barks wrote that involves cars somehow”, “here’s a bunch of stories Carl Barks wrote that involves food somehow”, etc - and the stories have all been rerun in the D&D-magazine so much I was sick and tired of them ten years ago. If they make a “Here’s a bunch of storis Carl Barks wrote that involves mythology or world travel somehow”-book, I’ll be happy for it, ’cause I of course love Barks stories almost as much as the next guy, but ’til then, I could do without these reruns of countless gag-stories. (Let the Barks-fanatics subscribe to the complete Carl Barks Library-series instead. )
30. June 2007 @ 02:07 ( Permalink )
I intend to check out at least the rest of the Don Rosa-books (if there are more than two), as well as Marco Rota, whom I imagine to remember as an enjoyable writer. I’ll undoubtedly take a look at Scarpa, too, and any other I might stumble across.
And thanks for the warning on Barks; I’m not too keen on him, either, when he’s not doing mythoologically or historically inspired stories.
30. June 2007 @ 23:33 ( Permalink )
There are three or four DR-books right now, don’t remember exactly how many, and one more is added every year (six books per year, one Barks, one DR, and four others, is the norm)
1. July 2007 @ 01:40 ( Permalink )
Ah, that was me, by the way,
1. July 2007 @ 01:41 ( Permalink )