Bill Peckmann &Comic Art &Disney 08 Sep 2011 06:29 am
Luck of the North – Part 2
- Here we have the continuation of the great Carl Barks story, Luck of the North. Pt. 1 was featured here. We pick up where we left off.
But first here’s a painting Barks did inspired by the original comic cover:
Art appears in “The Art of Walt Disney’s Donald Duck by Carl Barks”.
Luck of the North
Bigmouth Donald tricks his cousin Gladstone into a wild-goose chase
after a fake treasure map. and then, conscience-stricken,
chases him down through the polar bear-infested Arctic.
(Dell’s Donald Duck Four Color #256, December, 1949; see page 48).
Barks turned the cover concept into a nightscape, studded with
stars and haloed by the northern lights.
“That’s where I had my trouble,” he comments,”
in that northern lights effect at the top.
I found pictures of northern lights in some
Geographics and I kind of stole some.”
An afterthought, and Barks adds,
“I find water very difficult to paint.
It’s hard work, but I worked at this until
I got it to look halfway authentic.”
Has he ever compromised on a story idea because
of its difficulty? “It may be that I had the sense
to do that once in a while, but I doubt it. I generally just
plunged right in on an idea whether I was going to have
trouble or not. I’d start out with a simple idea,
and keep on elaborating on it until I had a
real complex thing going.”
Though one of Barks’ most famous stories,
this is the only painting of it he did.
The original comic cover.
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To be continued.
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on 08 Sep 2011 at 10:29 pm 1.The Gee said …
Admittedly, I haven’t read parts one and two yet.
Just wanted to chime in and say thanks for sharing it.
But, could I leave it at stating a little? Nah.
Does anyone who is well versed in the Donald Duck comic and with the Mickey Mouse comic strip know if they were always Adventure-centric?
True, I could research it and I know there is a collection of Mickey strips out or to be published so….
I’m just wondering when it was settled on that these characters should have far flung adventures. Was it influenced by pulp fiction of the day? By movie serials? Was it easier to fit the characters into that type of story structure rather than something based around some of the shorts?
If no one feels like taking a stab at it, no big deal. It ain’t super important.
on 09 Sep 2011 at 8:11 am 2.Bill said …
Gee, I believe you answered your own questions. The print Donalds and Mickeys were standing on the shoulders of the print characters (animal & human)that came before them. The Donald 8 pagers (WD’s Comics and Stories) had more of a shorts feel to them.
on 02 Sep 2015 at 7:58 pm 3.fred said …
A great story of Barks.