DCML digest #471

[Don Rosa]

> From: john garvin <jgarvin at bendcable.com>
> I don't have hard facts, anymore than Don has, as to the demographics of
litho buyers,

Well, all I can tell you is that when a litho showed an easily
understandable "generic" scene, such as a scene in a pile of money, buyers
were content. But when it referred to a very specific scene, such as the
dam breaking at the "Money Lake" and "Return to Plain Awful" with a square
chicken, the lithos were accompanied by a copy of a comic to explain the
scene to the buyers. I was hired to create one of those comics for the
buyers -- my "Return to Plain Awful" story was not MY idea. Bruce Hamilton
had me create that story *primarily* to be given to buyers of the litho to
explain the puzzling elements of the scene. They wanted *anybody* to buy
those scenes, Barks fans, "Disneyana" collectors who had never heard of
"Scrooge McDuck", "limited edition" art collectors/dealers/speculators,
*anybody*... they weren't trying to limit the appeal to *only* people who
had read the comics.

> And I disagree that the paintings aren't drawn directly from the comics,
because there
> are many elements taken directly from comic panels: the piles of cash,
the depth gauge,
> the square door and ladder, the tractor, the shovels, the ledger books,
Scrooge's
> diving about like a porpoise.

Obviously, but you leave out all the elements that are *not* just as in the
comics, such as the vault doors... the vault doors in the comics were very
plain looking, so they were fancied-up for the paintings. And the Bin is
shown to be as much filled with jewels and ancient treasure as it is coins,
which is nothing like what was ever shown in the comics. Nothing wrong with
that. But the purpose was not first and foremost to be accurate to the
comics. It was to make an eye-catching scene for buyers.

> Further, Don points out that the European versions were
> colored by folks who did not read the comics: you know what? so were the
American
> versions.

Well, I'm not as certain of that from personal experience as I am about the
European editions. But I've often said that the Dells were not following
Barks' ideas. For example, the Terries and Firmies were colored bright
rainbow colors, and it's clear that Barks intended them to be colored like
plain rocks, all alike. And the Philosopher's Stone is colored like gold,
though the story makes it clear that it's supposed to look like an ordinary
rock. But...

> So
> where is the evidence that Barks intended the coins to be silver?
Flipping through my
> issues of Uncle Scrooge, I find no instance of Scrooge refering to his
piles of coins
> by denomination.

Because our money is almost exclusively silver. And the stories refer to
the money in the Bin as being... normal money, not as being 3 cubic acres
of gold coins which would come from... where? Made by who? Why would Barks
intend them to be some other sort of "money" than what we use as money? I
don't get it...

> Underlying Don's comments, I think, is a belief that Scrooge is
> keeping hordes of nickels, dimes, pennys, and quarters, for sentimental
reasons, and
> that to make the coins gold lessens this sentimental attatchment.

Underlying my comments is simply the belief that we don't have gold coins
as our money. And also $crooge's sentimental attachment to them, as
demonstrated in a number of Barks stories... "I earned this dime in
so-and-so. I made this dollar working as a so-and-so".

> Indeed, the fact of the matter is that American currency
> has lots of varieties of gold coins and it is entirely possible that
Scrooge would keep
> a substantial number of them in his bin,

??? We've had some gold coins in the 19th century, even a $20 gold piece in
the early 1900's, and they were in extremely limited circulation. That
would be like having a thousand dollar bill nowadays! But I've still said
that $crooge surely has some gold coins in his Bin, I've mentioned it in
stories. But not ALL solid golden coins.
But I'm simply explaining why *I* am certain that the money in the Bin is
normal money. Sure, if, for some reason, you want to imagine that the Money
Bin is filled with small golden discs that $crooge had created himself to
swim in and refer to as "money", you are free to do so.