Barks & earlier cartoonists

[Olivier]

Hi!

Rob:
>>He also mentioned liking several other strips from the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s
>>that he liked, but I cannot remember which

As you know, Donald Ault & Thomas Andrae conducted an interview of  the Duck Man
on August 4, 1975, which was filmed.

The very first question (about 0:03:00, Donald Ault) is:
"Could you tell us what your largest and most important early influence is,
especially in terms of  artists?"

And Barks answered:
"Why, it was reading the newspaper comics perhaps. And I can go back as far as Winsor McCay
as one of  the influences. I would say Barney Google and Happy Hooligan and later on  the Disney
comics of  Mickey Mouse. I liked the Mickey Mouse stories because they had humour  in  them and...
When you look at my later stories in the comic books you'll see that I was kind of  following the
format
Floyd Gotffredson established. You'd have Mickey and the other guys involved in funny situations; at
the
same time they were having serious problems, and they solved their serious problems by funny means;
some outrageous sort of  thing would happen.. And I guess that was where I automatically found the
basis
for my own storywriting."

Winsor McCay drew highly imaginative strips, especially "Little Nemo" (1905-11, 1911-14, 1924-27).
Barney Google was created by Billy De Beck in 1919.
Happy Hooligan was created by Frederick Burr Opper in1899-- 1900 according to Don's Toonepedia,
which I believe to be much more trustworthy.


Olivier