Don's details...

Mattias Hallin Mattias.Hallin at jurenh.lu.se
Tue Nov 16 16:18:56 CET 1993


Howdy, y'all!!!

I spent this weekend doing many things (I try to use my preciuos freedom
well!); and one thing among others, I re-read Lo$, parts 1-9 a couple of times
straight through, and then some selective browsing of favourite parts. This
time, I got my major kick (as it seems I always do) by the marvelous portrait
of $crooge that is step by step built up throughout the series - a portrait
that I'm very impressed with for many reasons, but mainly because:

a) it makes $crooge a thoroughly likeable, and thorougbly REALISTIC human
being - the developing of his personality, his emotions, his ambitions and his
drive are pictured subtly, convincingly and with great emphaty, I find

b) all of this is so well tied in to Barks and history alike, that someday when
I got the time, I'm gonna go through this thing panel by panel, and compare,
and in particular look up everything I can possibly think of in my
Encyclopedia Brittanica (1964 edition); this weekend, f'rinstance, I was
reading the article on "Dance, modern social", when quite by accident I came
across one on "Daly, Marcus" and the Anaconda Copper Mines...

Oh, Don - you thorough ol' so-and-so...

And, yeah - speaking of thorough... Don: I'm curious if this was intentional on
your part, or if I'm just constructing things out of thin air, but in the South
African episode, in the molasses-and-feathers sequence, it seems to me that
$crooge fires his two revolvers a total of 12 times (once to break the molasses
jar; thrice in the next panel to rip up the feather-bed (I counted the
muzzle-flames); and eight times into the ground (counting the bullet-holes in
the ground); and then in the next panel where Flintheart is running away, and
$crooge is reloading his gun, there is 12 spent cartridges on the ground... Is
all this intentional? I mean, it makes sense, since the usual revolver chambers
six rounds, and 2x6=12... If so, then that is what I call attention to detail!

By the way, and speaking of the South African episode - Don, I laff mahself lak
t' split at your beautiful backgruond running gags, like f'rinstance the
rhino-in-the-tree... And, all through the series, all your animal-gags... Oh
boy! The wolf by Agony Creek, f'rinstance - his expression after $crooge
inspects his teeth, looking for traces of gold is just plain unbeatable!

Otherwise, I think that without thinking too much, the parts I like the best
are the Australian, and the whole Yukon triptych - in particular the last of
those three, i.e. part eight; perhaps because the critical parts of these
evolve so much around $crooge's basic character, around his humanity. There are
parts here that touch me rather deeply; and the final stage of part eight,
where $crooge finds the goose-egg nugget, and his hesitation and introspective
thoughts are some of the finest, most evocative scenes I've seen in a comic...
and beautifully drawn, too - in particular the very last page - a beautiful
composition, and sensitive drawings...

Well...

All my best - and my regards to your wife!

Mattias



More information about the DCML mailing list