Articles from KOMIX #158

[Kriton Kyrimis]

Here are the translations of two articles from last month's issue
of Komix.  [As usual, comments in square brackets are my own.]

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            The heroes who created the myth of the Wild West
                 History, Spectacle, and Fairy Tale

  In the story _The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff_, young Scrooge meets some of
  the most legendary figures of the epic of the Wild West, and Don Rosa
  page homage to the heroes, the actors and the storytellers who created
  the myth of the Western.

In Carl Barks story *Only a Poor Old Man* (_Komix_ #104), Scrooge struts
and says to himself: "I feel like my old self again! Like the Scrooge
that gummed up the James boys and outfoxed the Daltons!"... This short
phrase gave Don Rosa an incredible idea. Instead of making up one more
story based on some "forgotten" detail of Barksian mythology, he created
an adventure with the heroes who wrote some of the most important pages
from the history of his country. Both literally, by taking part in some
of the most dramatic historic events in America, and metaphorically,
by starring in publications and spectacles that gave birth to one of
the most popular modern mythologies: the myth of the Wild West.


THE SPECTACLE MAGNATE

Phineas Taylor Barnum is one of the most charismatic figures in the
history of popular entertainment. Incurably megalomaniac and outrageously
imaginative, he turned fraud into an art o attract the attention of the
public. His first large attraction was an old colored woman: the one
hundred and sixty years old nanny of George Washington! In 1880 he set up
the famous three-ring circus which toured all over the world... Although
his megalomania and his talent for exaggeration and advertisement have
nothing to be envious of the performance of modern Hollywood moguls,
it would appear that deep down he somehow honestly believed that he had
something to offer: "Men, women, and children", he wrote, "who cannot
live on seriousness alone, need something to satisfy their merrier and
lighter moods and moments. Whoever performs this service, is working in
a profession established by the Creator of human nature himself...".


THE HERO ON STAGE

William Frederick Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, is one of the
protagonists of the conquest of the Wild West. He took part in the Civil
War between North and South, took part in 16 battles of the American Army
against the Indians, and it is said that he killed 4280 bisons in eight
months, to provision the workers of the _Union Pacific Railroad_. Bill
had already become a folk hero through the accounts of his adventures in
newspapers and popular novels, when he accepted Ned Badline's offer in
1872 to play... himself in a theater play inspired from his deeds! In
1883 he founded the Wild West Show, a kind of western circus, which
presented, on stage, battles against Indians, bison hunting, acrobatics,
and a bunch of other impressive acts. The hero of the West had no trouble
becoming a pioneer showman...


THE LADY WITH THE RIFLE

Phoebe Ann Mezee ["Moses", according to Komix] was a young lady with
amazing shooting abilities. At fifteen years of age she beat experienced
marksman Frank Butler in a contest. One year later, she married him and
began participating with him in various shows using the alias Annie
Oakley. In 1885 she became a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
and developed into one of the first movie stars by appearing in one of
the movies for Thomas Edison's kinetoscope. The most impressive moment
in her career? When, during a tour of the Wild West Show in Europe,
she aimed at and shot a cigarette that her admirer... Kaiser Wilhelm II
was holding in his mouth!


THE BRAVE WHO YAWNS

The life of Geronimo, the legendary Apache chief, follows a parallel route
to that of Buffalo Bill.his real name was Gokhlayeh, which in the language
of his tribe means "he who yawns". When his tribe was finally beaten,
his bravery ensured him of the respect of his erstwhile opponents. Shortly
before he dies (1909), the untamed vanquished will tell the story of his
life to S. S.  Barrett. His autobiography is a unique document about the
epic of the conquest of the Wild West... from the side of the vanquished.


LEGENDARY VILLAINS

Joe, Jack, William, and Averel Dalton, the most famous and clumsy
desperadoes of the Ninth Art, are merely the cousins of the legendary
Dalton Brothers, who appear in only one of the first adventures of Lucky
Luke, which was written and drawn by Morris (_Hors La Loi_, 1954). The
real Gratton, Bill, Bob, and Emmett Dalton, who are mentioned in *The
Vigilante of Pizen Bluff*, began their career as law enforcers, but soon
turned astray.

After stealing animals and robbing banks, trains, , and gambling clubs,
the career of Gratton, Bob, and Emmett was finally over if Coffeeville,
Kansas, in 1892. Coming out of a bank which they had just robbed, they
fell into the hands of an armed posse... Two years later, representatives
of the law shot Bill while he was playing with his little daughter. Emmett
Dalton, the only survivor of the Coffeeville fight, was arrested and
put to jail. In 1907 he was released and he lived the rest of his life
in Los Angeles as a law-abiding and respectable businessman.


IMAGINARY ADVENTURER

Pothole McDuck, Scrooge's story-telling uncle, is not a historic person,
but he resembles greatly the famous writer of popular publications,
Ned Badline.  Edward Judson, which was his real name, served in the
American navy. He then took part in battles against the Indians and
arrested two wanted men in Kentucky, but was discharged because... he was
fond of drinking. His first stories are inspired from his real adventures,
but he soon let his imagination gallop in the trail of Buffalo Bill, with
whom he cooperated. These popular stories--known as "dime novels"--helped
create the mythology of the Wild West and, as Don himself points out,
are considered to be the forerunners of comic books.

To Don Rosa, comics is a medium that helped create a modern
mythology. After the popular publications of the end of the 19th century
and the first decades of the 20th, comic books came to bring new heroes
to the universe of modern popular mythology. To Don Rosa, comics heroes,
such as Superman, Batman, and Scrooge, are worthy successors of Buffalo
Bill and Geronimo. And great modern storytellers, such as Barks,
are worthy continuators of Ned Badline's tradition... *The Vigilante
of Pizen Bluff* is, therefore, something more than an "unknown page"
from Scrooge's biography. It is a homage to all those old storytellers,
from a modern fellow craftsman who continues worthily along the road
which they carved...

[Legends]

[p.1]
*Left* A poster for the Wild West Show.
*Below* A scene from a show of P.T. Barnum's circus.

[p.2, left]
The legendary Buffalo Bill

[p.2, center]
*Above* Annie Oakley.
*Below* Barbara Stanwick in the role of the legendary sharpshooter in
George Stevens' movie _Annie Oakley_ in 1935.

[p.2, right]
*Above* Geronimo.
*Below* The version by Moebius, the creator of _Blueberry_, perhaps the
best western comic of all time.

[p.3, left]
A cover from a popular publication of that time.

[p.3, left, first row]
Emmett, Bob, and Gratton... the real Dalton Brothers of the Wild West.

[p.3, left, second row]
*Left* Bob Dalton with his wife, in moments of family happiness.
*Middle and right* Emmett Dalton soon before he is taken to prison.

[p.3, left, bottom row]
The first bounty notices for the Daltons from the Lucky Luke story _Hors
La Loi_ in 1954.

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                Don Rosa presents the Vigilante of Pizen Bluff

                         Scrooge in the Wild West

  "At the moment, I'm preparing another long story with cowboy
  Scrooge. This story takes place in Arizona in 1890, and Buffalo Bill,
  Annie Oakley, P.T. Barnum, the Daltons, and a whole bunch of other
  existing people from the Wild West make an appearance", stated Don
  Rosa in August, 1996 in _Komix_ #98. He now comes back and presents
  the most western "Lost Episode" of the epic biography of uncle Scrooge.


The *Vigilante of Pizen Bluff* is the first "official" extra chapter which
I added to the 12 episodes of the *Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck*
(_Komix_ #100 to 111). There are two more stories which are considered
to be parts of this series (with my approval). It is *Of Ducks, Dimes,
and Destinies* (_Komix_ #154), a story which was written before I made
the decision to write the _Life and Times_ and is considered as chapter
0 of the series, and *Hearts of the Yukon*, a story which was written
in part for the celebration of one hundred years from the Yukon Gold
Rush. This story was meant to be part of a series of three or four
episodes... However, the Pizen Bluff story is the first in a series
of stories which I intend to write every one or two years... It is a
completely new chapter which takes place between episodes 6 and 7.

One of the few Barksian facts which I had not included in the _Life and
Times_ was that Scrooge had once been a prospector in a Wild West town
called Pizen Bluff, as we learn in an untitled story by Carl Barks, which
was about the return to that town and the search for an old gold mine
(_Komix_ #49). I mentioned this fact in the large introductory panel of
the 7th episode (_Komix_ #106). However, I decided to omit this particular
adventure. It would have been yet another western adventure with cowboy
Scrooge, and there were already enough such adventures in the series.

In the *Vigilante of Pizen Bluff* story, I decided to present Scrooge at
the side of several historic American heroes and outlaws, a "native" and
a showman (Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, the Daltons, "He Who Yawns", and
Phineas T. Barnum). They have all been drawn with the greatest possible
accuracy. Apart from those damn black dog noses, that is... And, first
of all, I had to find out whether these historic figures could have been
in Arizona in 1890. Fortunately, this was possible!  Bill and Annie had
just returned to America after a tour in Europe, and Phineas Barnum
was vacationing somewhere in the west that year! As for the Daltons,
they were still active that year... The Indian "He who Yawns" was in a
settlement in Florida, but he could have very well run away for a few
months. Isn't that so? Why the hell should I try respecting authentic
historical data in a talking duck story? I don't know... Just because
I'm enjoying it, I guess.

In this story I brought back Pothole McDuck, young scrooge's uncle,
who had made his first appearance in the second episode of the _Life
and Times_ (_Komix_ #101). I show how famous he had become writing "dime
novels", these cheap stories that were so popular in the end of the 19th
century, and which are considered to be the forerunners of American comic
magazines, the famous "comic books" that made their first appearance in
the 1930s.

The scenes in the beginning and the end of the story take place in
Duckburg, in the "present", which in my stories is in the mid-1950s. With
these scenes I take the reader back to the _Life and Times_ series. These
scenes are also an introduction to the "second part" of the adventure,
where I have Scrooge search for the most famous lost treasure in American
history, the Lost Dutchman Mine.

[I know I've read this text before, but I can't remember where. Perhaps
it was a posting in the DCML.]


[Inset]