Ghosts in Barks Stories

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

NILS KLARTEKST to DON ROSA, 29-08-2003:

> DON ROSA WROTE:
> Barks would *never* use a ghost in a story. 
> AND I AGREE, BUT...
> there is one very interesting borderline case: "The [Ghost] Sheriff 
> of Las Gasp" (WDC 176).

There's another one, the will-o-the-wisp (WDC 159) story. According to 
that story, a will-o-the-wisp is a jack-o-lantern. Uncle Scrooge asks 
Dr. Superthink to make "MORE than the LANTERN!" He wants the horrible, 
slithering something that carries the lantern. Dr. Superthink captures 
a jugful of marsh gas, and completes his "weird project" with some mold 
from the mustiest depths of an old mine tunnel. He tests these gases 
and molds in a vacuum tank. The gases fuse into swamp fire and then a 
wispy shade is forming. Dr. Superthink asks for help to control it if 
it breaks. Donald says: "It's just a bunch of marsh gas and mold spores, 
but it looks like it's alive!" It gets bigger and then Donald concludes: 
"It IS alive! It's a REAL will-o-the-wisp!" The nephews say it looks 
hungry and call him(!) Willie - Wispy Willie!" According to Superthink 
it's a "transparent being that looks like an oversized mold spore!" And 
then he lets the nephews feed Willie, by grinding up some mold and tule 
roots. On the next page, Uncle Scrooge asks the Willie to go to a window 
to scare the house owners away. Donald and the nephews, to be exactly. 
Willie follows(!) Scrooge's commands, and then Scrooge is astonished to 
learn that Donald and the nephews already know Willie. And Willie looks 
happy to see them, and he smacks his lips with closed eyes when he's 
offered some tule roots.

I've never quite understood what is going on in this imaginative scenes, 
other than that "will-o-the-wisp" is an interacting, consciousness, 
living being, created by science. 

If Barks has written a weird story like this, in his so-called "classic 
years" (1950s), then I'm not so sure if he definitely would have objected 
to ghosts appearing in his stories. I would like to see him being quoted 
on that.

The money stairs to the top of a mountain (WDC 157), two issues earlier, 
would look more realistic to me than Wispy Willie. And in 1973, Barks has 
said that he thinks he decided to turn that story into a dream, because 
the money stairs looked "too IMPOSSIBLE to be real". Go figure. 

I've rarely seen Barks stating the limits of his imagination. And in his 
stories, *anything* seems to have been possible. The word "never" doesn't 
seem to have been in his dictionary. And mostly, he managed to make his 
imagination believable with only little explanation. That's what I like 
so much about his work, and that's why I tend to nitpick when the words 
"Barks" and "never" are used in one line.

--- Daniël