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Bombie The Zombie

Bombie the Zombie

Bombie the Zombie is a fictional character created by Carl Barks for the Walt Disney Company's Donald Duck comic books. He first appeared in the story "Voodoo Hoodoo" in Donald Duck Four Color #238. In that story, he gave a voodoo doll to Donald Duck, thinking that Donald was Scrooge McDuck. Apparently, Bombie was sent by an evil witch doctor named Foola Zoola to get revenge on Scrooge for destroying his village a long time ago. Huey, Dewey and Louie befriended the zombie and helped him get back to Africa while Donald was there trying to find a cure for the Voodoo Curse. Despite the fact that he had been sent after Scrooge, Bombie never came in direct contact with Scrooge during this story. In "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Part 11", it was seen that Bombie had been stalking Scrooge for decades prior to "Voodoo Hoodoo", but Scrooge had managed to trap him on the Island of Ripan Taro. Bombie did not make any further appearances. Category:Characters in the Scrooge McDuck universe Category:Fictional undead

Zombie

]] A zombie is traditionally an undead person in the Caribbean spiritual belief system of voodoo. Essentially a dead body re-animated by unnatural means, the zombie creates dread among the living. Zombies have become a staple of horror fiction, where they usually engage in the consumption of human flesh. The term "zombism" is sometimes used to refer to the condition or disease associated with being a zombie.

Zombies in voodoo

According to the tenets of voodoo, a dead person can be revived by a houngan or mambo. After resurrection, it has no will of its own, but remains under the control of the person who performed the ritual. Such resurrected dead are called "zombies". Zombi is also the name of the voodoo snake god of Niger-Congo origin; it is akin to the Kongo word nzambi, which means "god." In 1937, while researching folklore in Haiti, Zora Neale Hurston encountered the case of Felicia Felix-Mentor, who had died and been buried in 1907 at the age of 29. Villagers believed they saw her wandering the streets in a daze thirty years later [http://mywebpages.comcast.net/scottandrewh/zombie.html] (although this was subsequently found to be false [http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/voodoo/mars-zombi.htm]). Hurston pursued rumours that the affected persons were given powerful drugs, but was unable to locate anyone willing to offer much information. She wrote: :"What is more, if science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than gestures of ceremony."[http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~gallaher/hurston/hurston.html] Several decades later, Wade Davis, a Canadian ethnobotanist, presented a pharmacological case for zombies in two books - The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985) and Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988). Davis travelled to Haiti in 1982 and, as a result of his investigations, claimed that a living person could be zombified by the ingestion of two special powders. The first, coup de poudre (french: 'powder strike' - a wordplay on coup de foudre, 'lightning-strike'), induced a 'death-like' state, the key ingredient of which was tetrodotoxin (TTX). The second powder of dissociative hallucinogens held the person in a will-less zombie state. Davis popularized the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was claimed to have succumbed to this practice. (Tetrodotoxin is the lethal toxin found in the Japanese delicacy fugu, or pufferfish (Tetraodontiformes). At near-lethal doses (LD50 of 1mg), it is said to be able to leave a person in a state near death for several days, while the person continues to be conscious.) There remains considerable skepticism to Davis's claims, and opinions remain divided as to the veracity of his work. Others have discussed the contribution of the victim's own belief-system, possibly leading to compliance with the attacker's will, and causing quasi-hysterical amnesia, catatonia, or other psychological disorders, which are then later misinterpreted as a return from the dead. Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing further highlighted the link between social and cultural expectations and compulsion, in the context of schizophrenia and other mental illness, suggesting that schizogenesis may account for some of the psychological aspects of zombification.

Zombies in folklore

In the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed that the souls of dead could return to earth and haunt the living. The belief in revenants (someone who has returned from the dead) are well documented by contemporary European writers of the time. The "draugr" of medieval Norse mythology were also believed to be the corpses of warriors returned from the dead to attack the living.

Zombies in fiction

Prior to the mid-1950s, zombies were usually presented as mindless thralls controlled like puppets by mystical masters. Sometimes the zombies were reanimated corpses, and sometimes living humans, but never independently malevolent. This changed with the publication of I Am Legend by author Richard Matheson in (1954). The story of a future Los Angeles, overrun with undead cannibalistic/bloodsucking beings changed the genre forever. One man is the sole survivor of a pandemic of a bacterium that causes vampirism. Continually, he must fight to survive attacks from the rambling, slow-witted creatures. Although ostensibly a vampire story, it had enormous impact on the zombie genre, particularly the film maker George Romero. Zombies are regularly encountered in horror- and fantasy-themed fiction, films, video games and role-playing games. They are typically depicted as mindless, shambling, decaying corpses with a hunger for human flesh, and in some cases, human brains. Many works of fiction feature zombies who spread their affliction from one to another, in a viral fashion. More often than not, the condition is spread through means of a bite or scratch, and the victim will most likely die and mutate soon after. In others, however, the condition is only acquired after death. A common plot in zombie fiction is an outbreak of the zombie plague growing out of control, resulting in an apocalyptic scenario. The story then focuses around a small group of survivors attempting to either stop the plague, or merely survive and escape the destruction. In typical horror fashion, zombie fiction rarely has a happy ending, generally ending in a dark or ambiguous manner. Popular causes of zombie outbreaks in fiction include radiation or other toxic chemicals acting on the brains of the dead, evil magic or voodoo, aliens, the use of drugs, viral infection, and telepathic control. In fiction zombies can generally be disabled by dismemberment or destruction of the brain and/or upper spinal column. In a few cases the entire body of the zombie must be destroyed, generally by burning, as individual body parts continue to move after being severed from the body.

Zombies in literature

In the novel Perelandra, the zombie Professor Weston acts as the analog of the serpent in the Garden of Eden; this is a rare example of a zombie who can talk, as it is actually being controlled by a demon. In the Xanth series by Piers Anthony the zombies are re-animated by a magical talent held by the "Zombie Master" Jonathan. He can re-animate any creature, human or otherwise, and have it under his personal control. Even when he kills himself, he returns to life as a member of the undead. The zombies of Xanth can continually fall apart without losing any mass. The character of Reginald Shoe in Terry Pratchett's Discworld books becomes a zombie by refusing to stay dead after being shot and killed. He later forms a support group for other undead, claiming they are merely "differently alive". Several other Discworld zombies, including Mr. Slant, work as unsympathetic lawyers. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling, an Inferius is essentially a zombie, a dead body controlled by a dark wizard's spells. In contemporary horror fiction, Leisure Books has published Brian Keene's debut novel The Rising and its sequel City of the Living Dead], which deal with a worldwide apocalypse of intelligent zombies, apparently caused by demonic possession. Walter Greatshell's novel Xombies is about a plague that turns women into the undead. Underpants of the Dead, a zombie satire co-authored by Bob Hinton and C.W. Prather, was serialized online from October 2003 through January 2005 on CountGore.com. Another work of zombie fiction that was initially published online, David Wellington's Monster Island, is scheduled to be available through Thunder's Mouth press in 2006.

Zombies in film

Although the depiction of zombies in film has recently become much more varied, they were originally presented in White Zombie (Victor Halperin, 1932) as mindless, unthinking henchmen under the spell of an evil magician/overlord. This depiction continued through the 1930's until they started to move around more of their own accord, as in I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943). Jacques Tourneur In 1968, George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead premiered. Critics initially reacted negatively to its depiction of cannibalism, gore, and pessimism, but the film soon developed a strong following and is now considered a modern classic. Though cannibalism in horror was nothing new at the time, the movie standardised the practice of eating human flesh in zombies, and created new rules still in use today, such as a severe head injury being the only way to kill a zombie. Romero's even more successful sequel, Dawn of the Dead (1978), can be regarded as the father of the modern zombie movie subgenre. The third entry in the series was Day of the Dead (1985), followed two decades later by the fourth entry Land of the Dead (2005). Internationally, Dawn of the Dead was released under the name Zombi, inspiring Italian director Lucio Fulci to create Zombi II (1979), an unofficial sequel to Dawn of the Dead, which would be released in North America as Zombie and spawn its own series. In America, Dan O'Bannon's 1985 movie, Return of the Living Dead, took a more comedic approach to distinguish his movie from George Romero's; it had the zombies hunger specifically for brains instead of all human flesh. After the mid-1980s, the subgenre became mostly relegated to the underground. Although director Peter Jackson made a notable entry with the ultra-gory Braindead (1992), and Michele Soavi received rave reviews for Dellamorte Dellamore (1994), it was not until the next decade's box office successes (the Resident Evil movies (2002, 2004), 28 Days Later (2002), the Dawn of the Dead remake (2004), and homage/parody Shaun of the Dead (2004) ) that the zombie subgenre began to resurface, even allowing George Romero to create a fourth part to his zombie series. Although 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle claims it is not a zombie film (the 'Infected' are not dead), it shares all of the basic characteristics of a zombie movie, and references the genre. It was largely responsible for the creation of what has been referred to as the "MTV zombie": this modern variety is much faster than the shambling hordes of the earlier generation. It is a tradition that, within zombie films, the human characters never say the word "zombie", but use designations like "them", "those things", "creatures", "corpses", "bodies", "ghouls", etc. This formed the basis for the scene in Shaun of the Dead where Simon Pegg said "Don't say that" to Nick Frost when he used the aforementioned word. However, in Land of the Dead and the original Dawn of the Dead, a character from each film breaks this tradition once.

Zombies in gaming

Zombies are common foes in horror-themed computer and video games. Zombies are a staple of the survival horror genre of video games, such as Sega's Zombies Ate My Neighbors and the influential Resident Evil series. Many other genres, especially fantasy role-playing and adventure games, also prominently feature zombies as enemies. Some titles, such as Stubbs the Zombie, put the player into the role of the zombie itself. There is also an award-winning tile-based strategy boardgame entitled Zombies!!! in which players attempt to escape a zombie-infested city, or kill 25 zombies.

Zombies on the Internet

A number of Internet websites are also dedicated to the genre, notably [http://www.homepageofthedead.com/ Homepage of the Dead], [http://www.jimrage.com Jim Rage's Elite Zombie Hunting Squad] and [http://www.zombiehunters.org/ Zombie Squad]. An increasingly popular Internet meme is the use of online journal websites such as Livejournal to create a fictional account of an undead apocalypse; the most well-known of these are [http://www.livejournal.com/users/alpha_dog/ Alpha Dog] and [http://www.tacticalunderground.us/ Day By Day Armageddon], but other popular journals include:
- [http://www.livejournal.com/users/themagestorm/ Shattered Death]
- [http://www.livejournal.com/users/azpossecommand/ Life After Death]
- [http://www.livejournal.com/users/maninadeadworld/ Man In A Dead World]
- [http://www.underpantsofthedead.com Underpants of the Dead]
- [http://www.livejournal.com/users/scarecrowster/ End Times]
- [http://www.xanga.com/tim_sailor The Milledgeville Papers]

External links


- Howstuffworks: [http://people.howstuffworks.com/zombie.htm How Zombies Work] - discusses voodoo origins of zombies.
- Triple J's Dr Karl [http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1260445.htm explains the pharmacological way to make a zombie].
- [http://www.sothisisacomic.com/Zombie/zomb3.html Zombie Infection Simulator] (requires Java).
- [http://www.urbandead.com/ Urban Dead] A browser-based MMORPG dealing with a zombie apocalypse.
- [http://www.cobra.semnatstudios.com/cg The Combat Guide] A website with media and reading covering the survival of a "zompocalypse". Category:Corporeal undead Category:Film genres Category:Legendary creatures Category:Slavery Category:Vodun ja:ゾンビ

Carl Barks

Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was a famous Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck and the Beagle Boys. The quality of his scripts and drawings earned him the nick names The Duck Man and The Good Duck Artist.

Biography

Barks was born in Merrill, Oregon to William Barks and his wife Arminta Johnson. He had an older brother named Clyde. His paternal grandfather was named David Barks and his maternal grandparents were Carl Johnson and his wife Suzanna Massey, but little else is known about his ancestors.

Childhood

According to Carl's description of his childhood, he was a rather lonely child. His parents owned one square mile (2.6 km²) of land that served as their farm. The nearest neighbor lived half a mile (800 m) away, but he was more an acquaintance to his parents than a friend. The closest school was about two miles (3 km) away and Carl had to walk that distance every day. The rural area had few children, though, and Barks later remembered that his school had only about eight or ten students including him. The lessons lasted from nine o'clock in the morning to four o'clock in the afternoon and then he had to return to the farm. There he remembered not having anybody to talk to, as his parents were busy and he had little in common with his brother. In 1908, William Barks (in an attempt to increase the family income) moved with his family to Midland, Oregon, some miles north of Merril, to be closer to the railway lines that were new at the time. He established a new stock-breeding farm and sold his produce to the local slaughterhouses. Nine-year-old Clyde and seven-year-old Carl worked long hours there. But Carl later remembered that the crowd which gathered at Midland's market place made a strong impression on him. This was expected, as he wasn't used to crowds up until then. According to Carl, his attention was mostly drawn to the cowboys that frequented the market with their revolvers, strange nicknames for each other and sense of humor. By 1911, they had been successful enough to move to Santa Rosa, California. There they started cultivating vegetables and set up some orchards. Unfortunately, the profits were not as high as William expected and they started having financial difficulties. William's anxiety over them was probably what caused his first nervous break down. As soon as William recovered, he made the decision to move back to Merrill. The year was 1913, and Carl was already twelve years old; but, due to the constant moving, he had not yet managed to complete grade school. He resumed his education at this point and finally managed to graduate in 1916. 1916 served as a turning point in Carl's life for various reasons. First, Arminta, his mother, died in this year. Secondly, his hearing problems, which had already appeared earlier, had at the time become severe enough for him to have difficulties listening to his teachers talking. His hearing would continue to get worse later, but at that point he had not yet acquired a hearing aid. Later in life, he couldn't do without one. Third, the closest high school to their farm was five miles (8 km) away and even if he did enlist in it, his bad hearing was likely to contribute to his learning problems. He had to decide to stop his school education, much to his disappointment. At the time he was a rather shy, melancholic, introverted and gangly teenager. He wouldn't be much different later in life.

From job to job

Barks started taking various jobs but had little success in such occupations as a farmer, woodcutter, turner, mule driver, cowboy and printer. At the same time he interacted with colleagues, fellow breadwinners who had satirical disposition towards even their worst troubles. Carl later said he was sure that if not for a little humor in their troubled lives, they would certainly go insane. It was an attitude towards life that Carl would adopt. Later he would say it was natural for him to satirize the secret yearnings and desires, the pompous style and the disappointments of his characters. According to Carl this period of his life would later influence his best known fictional characters: Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck. Donald's drifting from job to job was reportedly inspired by Carl's own experiences. So was his usual lack of success. And even in those that he was successful this would be temporary, just until a mistake or chance event caused another failure, another disappointment for the frustrated duck. Carl also reported that this was another thing he was familiar with. As for Scrooge's main difference to Donald according to Carl, it was that he too had faced the same difficulties in his past but that through intelligence, determination and hard work he was able to overcome them. Or as Scrooge himself would say to Huey, Dewey and Louie:by being "tougher than the toughies and sharper than the sharpies". Even in the present of his stories Scrooge would work to solve his many problems, even though the stories would often point out that his constant efforts seemed futile at the end. In addition Scrooge was quite similar to his creator in appearing often to be as melancholic, introspective and secretive as he was. Through both characters Carl would often exhibit his rather sarcastic sense of humor. It seems that this difficult period for the artist helped shape many of his later views in life that were expressed through his characters.

Professional artist

At the same time Carl had started thinking about turning a hobby that he always enjoyed into a profession: that of drawing. Since his early childhood he spent his free time by drawing on any material he could find. He had attempted to improve his style by copying the drawings of his favorite comic strip artists from the newspapers where he could find them. As he later said, he wanted to create his own facial expressions, figures and comical situations in his drawings but wanted to study the master comic artists use of the pen and their use of color and shading. Among his early favorites were Winsor McCay (mostly known for Little Nemo) and Frederick Burr Opper (mostly known for Happy Hooligan) but he would later study any style that managed to draw his attention. At sixteen he was mostly self-taught but at this point he decided to take some lessons through correspondence. He only followed the first four lessons and then had to stop because his working left him with little free time. But as he later said, the lessons proved very useful in improving his style. By December, 1918 he left his father's home to attempt to find a job in San Francisco, California. He worked for a while in a small publishing house while attempting to sell his drawings to newspapers and other printed material with little success.

First marriage

While he continued drifting through various jobs he met Pearle Turner (1904 to 1987). In 1921 they married and had two children:
- Peggy Barks, born in 1923.
- Dorothy Barks, born in 1924. In 1923 he returned to his paternal farm in Merrill in an attempt to return to the life of a farmer, but that ended soon. He continued searching for a job while attempting to sell his drawings. He soon managed to sell some of them to "Judge" magazine and then started a longtime collaboration with "Calgary-Eye-Opener". It lasted virtually till 1935 though he occasionally sold his works to other magazines as well. By that time he edited, scripted and drew most of the material of this humorous magazine. His salary set at 90 dollars a month was considered respectable enough for the time. Meanwhile he had his first divorce. He and Pearle were separated in 1929 and divorced in 1930. He moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota where "Calgary-Eye-Opener" had its offices and there he met Clara Balken who in 1938 became his second wife.

Disney

In November, 1935 when he learned that Walt Disney was seeking more artists for his Studio Carl decided to apply. He was approved for a try-out which entailed a move to Los Angeles, California. Carl was one of two in his class of trainees who was hired. His starting salary was 20 dollars a week. He started at Disney Studios in 1935, more than a year after the debut of Donald Duck on June 9, 1934 in the short The Little Red Hen. Carl initially worked as an "inbetweener". This involved being teamed and supervised by one of the head animators who did the key poses of character action (often known as extremes) for which the inbetweeners did the drawings between the extremes to provide smoothness to the illusion of movement. Carl while an inbetweener submitted gag ideas for cartoon storylines being developed and showed such a knack for creating comical situations that by 1936 he was transferred to the story department. In 1937 when Donald Duck became the star of his own series of cartoons instead of co-starring with Mickey Mouse and Goofy as previously, a new unit of storymen and animators was created devoted solely to this series. Though he originally just contributed gag ideas to some duck cartoons by 1937 Barks was (principally with partner Jack Hannah) originating story ideas that were storyboarded and (if approved by Walt) put into production. He collaborated on such cartoons as Donald's Nephews (1938), Donald's Cousin Gus (1939), Timber (1941), The Vanishing Private (1942) and The Plastics Inventor (1944).

The Good Duck Artist

Unhappy at the emerging wartime working conditions at Disney plus bothered by ongoing sinus problems caused by the studio's air conditioning, Barks quit in 1942. Shortly before quitting he moonlighted as a comic book artist contributing half the artwork for a one-shot comic book (the other half of the art being done by story partner Jack Hannah) titled Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold. This 64 page story was adapted from an unproduced feature by Donald Duck comic strip writer Bob Karp, and published in October 1942. It was the first Donald Duck story originally produced for an American comic book and also the first involving Donald and his nephews in a treasure hunting expedition, in this case for the treasure of Henry Morgan. Barks would later use the treasure hunting theme in many of his stories. After quitting the Studio, Barks hoped to start a chicken farm but initially inquired whether Western Publishing, which had published Pirate Gold, had any need for artists for Donald Duck comic book stories. He was immediately assigned to illustrate a script for a 10 page Donald Duck story for the monthly Walt Disney's Comics & Stories. At the publisher's invitation he revised the storyline and the improvements impressed the editor sufficently to invite Barks to try his hand at contributing both the script and the artwork of his follow-up story. This set the pattern for Barks' career in that (with rare exceptions) he provided art (pencil, inking, solid blacks and lettering) and scripting for his stories. The Victory Garden, that 10 page story published in April, 1943 was the first of about 500 stories featuring the Disney ducks Barks would produce for Western Publishing over the the next three decades, well into his purported retirement. These can be mostly divided into two categories: 10 pagers, comedic Donald Duck stories that were the lead for the monthly flagship title Walt Disney's Comics and Stories (whose sales peaked in the mid-50s at 3 million copies sold a month!) Humorous adventure stories, usually of 24-32 pages. In the 1940s these were one shots (issued 4-6 times a year) that starred Donald and his nephews. From the early 50's Barks undertook the quarterly adventures of Uncle Scrooge and the duck clan in Scrooge's own title. He surrounded Donald Duck with a cast of eccentric and colorful characters such as the aforementioned Scrooge McDuck—the wealthiest duck in the world, Gladstone Gander—Donald's obscenely lucky cousin, inventor Gyro Gearloose, the persistent Beagle Boys, the sorceress Magica De Spell, and The Junior Woodchucks organization. People who work for Disney generally do so in relative anonymity; the stories only carry Walt Disney's name and (sometimes) a short identification number. However, through the sheer quality of his work, people started realizing that a lot of the stories were written by one person, whom they started referring to as the Good Duck Artist. Later it was discovered that the Good Duck Artist went by the name of Carl Barks. Barks' stories were humorous adventure stories with a dark, defeatist undertone. They found popularity not only among young children but adults as well. Despite the fact that Barks had done little traveling his stories took his duck characters around the globe into the most remote or magnificent of locations. The stories themselves also traveled around the globe - the Duckburg stories in particular went down well in Germany where the translator Erika Fuchs achieved a masterpiece, coining popular new German phrases.

Third marriage

Meanwhile back in his personal life he and Clara divorced in 1951. It was his second and last divorce. In 1952 he met Margaret Wynnfred Williams (1917 to March 10, 1993), nicknamed Garé, a landscape artist. She soon started helping him with his stories. They married in 1954 and their marriage lasted till her death.

Later Life

Carl Barks retired in 1966 but continued to script a number of stories for Western. He began producing oil paintings of scenes from his stories. These paintings quickly became highly sought after and their price rocketed to Barks' astonishment. When a well-meaning fan sold unauthorized prints of some of these Uncle Scrooge based paintings, the Disney Studio took legal action and prevented Barks from doing any of these paintings. As the result of heroic efforts by Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz and screenwriter Edward Summer, Disney relented and in 1981, allowed Barks to do a now seminal oil painting called "Wanderers of Wonderlands" for a breakthrough limted edition book entitled "Uncle Scrooge McDuck: His Life and Times." After being turned down by every major publisher in New York City, Kurtz and Summer published the book through Celestial Arts which Kurtz acquired partly for this purpose. The book went on to become the model for virtually every important collection of comic book stories. It was the first book of its kind ever reviewed in Time Magazine and subsequently in Newsweek, and the first book review in Time Magazine with large color illustrations.

Final Days

Still living in a new home in Grants Pass, Oregon which he and Gare had built next door to their original home, Barks died in 2000 at the age of 99 just a few months short of his 100th birthday. Although he was undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia he was, according to caregiver Serene Hunickle, "funny up to the end."

Notable stories


- Christmas on Bear Mountain - December 1947, first appearance of Scrooge McDuck.
- The Old Castle's Secret - June, 1948.
- Sheriff of Bullet Valley - October, 1948.
- Lost in the Andes - April, 1949.
- In Old California - May, 1951.
- A Christmas for Shacktown - January, 1952.
- The Golden Helmet - July, 1952.
- Back to the Klondike - March, 1953.
- Tralla La - June, 1954.
- The Golden Fleecing - June, 1955.
- The Money Well - March, 1958.

External links


- [http://www.cbarks.dk cbarks.dk]
- [http://moneybin.at.infoseek.co.jp/ Carl Barks - his life and his work]
- [http://www.barksbase.de/ The HTML Barks base]
- [http://www.donald.org Homepage of D.O.N.A.L.D]
- http://stp.ling.uu.se/~starback/dcml/creators/carl-barks.html
- http://www.geocities.com/~jimlowe/barks/barksdex.html
- http://moneybin.at.infoseek.co.jp
- [http://coa.inducks.org/creator.php/x/CB Barks' profile on the COA webpage]
- [http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/message/an/surnames.Barks/112.1 Short listing of parentage]
- [http://www.toonopedia.com/hooligan.htm A profile of Happy Hooligan, an influential comic strip for him]
- [http://www.cbarks.dk/THETIMELINE.htm A timeline of his life] Barks, Carl Barks, Carl Barks, Carl Barks, Carl Barks, Carl Barks, Carl Barks, Carl Barks, Carl Barks, Carl Barks, Carl

Donald Duck

Donald Duck is an animated cartoon and comic-book character best known for his cartoons from Walt Disney Productions. Donald is a white anthropomorphic duck with yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He usually wears a sailor shirt and cap — but no pants (except when he goes swimming). Some people believe that Finland banned him because he has no trousers, but this is an urban legend, [http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/finland.htm explained here]. Donald's famous voice, one of the most identifiable voices in all of animation, was until 1985 performed by voice actor Clarence "Ducky" Nash. Nash came from the rural community of Watonga, Oklahoma, and due to his voice acting rose far above his economic milieu. It was largely this semi-intelligible speech that would cement Donald's image into audiences' minds and help fuel both Donald's and Clarence's rise to stardom. According to the cartoon Donald Gets Drafted (1942), Donald's full name is Donald Fauntleroy Duck (his middle name appears to be a reference to his sailor hat, which was a common accessory for Fauntleroy suits). (To find Donald's name in other countries, please see Disney characters' names in various languages.) Donald's most famous personality trait is his explosive, short temper when frustrated, which often gets him into various situations in his theatrical shorts. Despite this, however, Donald is usually shown as content and easygoing when not frustrated by a problem.

Donald in animation

Early appearances

Donald first appeared in the Silly Symphonies cartoon The Wise Little Hen on June 9, 1934 (though he is mentioned in a 1931 Disney storybook). Donald's appearance in the cartoon, as created by animator Dick Lundy, is similar to his modern look — the colors are the same, as is the blue sailor shirt and hat — but his features are more elongated, his body plumper, and his feet bigger. Donald's personality is not developed either; in the short, he only fills the role of the unhelpful friend from the original story. Bert Gillett, director of The Wise Little Hen, brought Donald back in his Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Orphan's Benefit on August 11, 1934. Donald is one of a number of characters who are giving performances in a benefit for Mickey's Orphans. Donald's act is to recite the poems Mary Had a Little Lamb and Little Boy Blue, but every time he tries, the mischievous orphans eat his specially made pie, leading the duck to fly into a squawking fit of anger. This explosive personality would remain with Donald for decades to come. Donald continued to be a hit with audiences. The character began appearing in most Mickey Mouse cartoons as a regular member of the ensemble with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto. Cartoons from this period, such as the 1935 cartoon The Band Concert — in which Donald repeatedly disrupts the Mickey Mouse Orchestra's rendition of The William Tell Overture by playing Turkey in the Straw — are regularly hailed by critics as exemplary films and classics of animation. Animator Ben Sharpsteen also minted the classic Mickey, Donald, and Goofy comedy in 1935, with the cartoon Mickey's Service Station. Donald was redesigned in 1936 to be a bit fuller, rounder, and cuter. He also began starring in solo cartoons, the first of which was the January 9, 1937 Ben Sharpsteen cartoon, Don Donald. This short also introduced Donald's long-time love interest, Daisy Duck (here called Donna Duck). Donald's nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, would make their first animated appearance a year later in the April 15, 1938 film, Donald's Nephews, directed by Jack King (they had been earlier introduced in the Donald Duck comic strip by Al Taliaferro, see below).

Wartime Donald

Al Taliaferro During World War II, film audiences were looking for brasher, edgier cartoon characters. It is no coincidence that the same era that saw the birth and rise of Bugs Bunny also saw Donald Duck's popularity soar. By 1949, Donald had surpassed Mickey Mouse as Disney's most popular character. Before 1941, Donald Duck had appeared in about 50 cartoons. Between 1941 and 1965, Donald would star in over 100. Several of Donald's shorts during the war were propaganda films, most notably Der Fuehrer's Face, released on January 1, 1943. In it, Donald plays a worker in an artillery factory in "Nutzi Land" (Nazi Germany). He struggles with long working hours, very small food rations, and having to salute every time he sees a picture of the Führer (Adolf Hitler). These pictures appear in many places, such as on the assembly line in which he is screwing in the detonators of various sizes of shells. In the end he becomes little more than a small part in a faceless machine with no choice but to obey till he falls, suffering a nervous breakdown. Then Donald wakes up to find that his experience was in fact a nightmare. At the end of the short Donald looks to the Statue of Liberty and the American flag with renewed appreciation. Der Fuehrer's Face won the 1943 Academy Award for Animated Short Film. Other notable shorts from this period include the so-called Army shorts, six films that follow Donald's life in the US Army from his drafting to his life at boot camp under sergeant Pete to his first actual mission as a commando having to sabotage a Japanese air base. Titles in the series include:
- Donald Gets Drafted - (May 1, 1942).
- The Vanishing Private - (September 25, 1942).
- Sky Trooper - (November 6, 1942).
- Fall Out Fall In - (April 23, 1943).
- The Old Army Game - (November 5, 1943).
- Commando Duck - (June 2, 1944). Donald Gets Drafted also featured Donald having a physical examination before joining the army. According to it Donald has flat feet and is unable to distinguish between the colors green and blue, which is a type of color blindness. Also in this cartoon sergeant Pete comments on Donald's lack of discipline. It is also noteworthy that thanks to these films, Donald graced the nose artwork of virtually every type of WWII Allied combat aircraft, from L-4 Piper Cub's to B-29 Superfortresses.

Post-war animation

Many of Donald's films made after the war recast the duck as the brunt of some other character's pestering. Donald is repeatedly attacked, harassed, and ridiculed by his nephews, by the chipmunks Chip 'n Dale, or by other one-shot characters such as Humphrey the Bear, Buzz the Bee, Bootle Beetle, the Aracuan Bird, Louie the Mountain Lion or a colony of ants. In effect, the Disney artists had reversed the classic screwball scenario perfected by Walter Lantz and others in which the main character is the instigator of these harassing behaviors, rather than the butt of them. However, by turning the tables, Donald's aggressors come off to some as sadistic or cruel, and some critics have found the films unfunny as a result. The post-war Donald also starred in educational films, such as Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land (1959), and made cameos in various Disney projects, such as The Reluctant Dragon (1941) and the Disneyland television show (1959). Since Clarence Nash's death in 1985, Donald's voice has been provided by Tony Anselmo, who was mentored by Nash.

Donald in comics

:Main article: Donald Duck in comics While Donald's cartoons enjoy vast popularity in the United States and around the world, his weekly and monthly comic books enjoy their greatest popularity in many European countries, most in Norway and Finland, but many other countries are right behind - most notably Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Most of them are produced and published by the Italian branch of the Walt Disney Company in Italy and by Egmont in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden. According to the Inducks, which is a database about Disney comics worldwide, American, Italian and Danish stories have been reprinted in the following countries. In most of them, publications continue: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, China (Hong Kong), Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark (Faroe Islands), Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Latvia., Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, USA, former Yugoslavia.

Early development

Though a 1931 Disney publication called Mickey Mouse Annual mentioned a character named Donald Duck, the character's first appearance in comic-strip format was a newspaper cartoon that was based on the short The Wise Little Hen and published in 1934. For the next few years, Donald made a few more appearances in Disney-themed strips, and by 1936, he had grown to be one of the most popular characters in the Silly Symphonies comic strip. Ted Osborne was the primary writer of these strips, with Al Taliaferro as his artist. Osborne and Taliaferro also introduced several members of Donald's supporting cast, including his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. In 1937, an Italian publisher named Mondadori created the first Donald Duck story intended specifically for comic books. The eighteen-page story, written by Federico Pedrocchi, is the first to feature Donald as an adventurer rather than simply a comedic character. Fleetway in England also began publishing comic-book stories featuring the duck.

Developments under Taliaferro

A daily Donald Duck comic strip drawn by Taliaferro and written by Bob Karp began running in the United States on 2 February 1938; the Sunday strip began the following year. Taliaferro and Karp created an even larger cast of characters for Donald's world. He got a new St. Bernard named Bolivar, and his family grew to include cousin Gus Goose and grandmother Elvira Coot. Donald's new rival girlfriends were Donna and Daisy Duck. Taliaferro also gave Donald his very own automobile, a 1934 Belchfire Runabout, in a 1938 story.

Developments under Barks

In 1942, Western Publishing began creating original comic-book stories about Donald and other Disney characters. Bob Karp worked on the earliest of these, a story called "Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold". The new publisher meant new illustrators, however: Carl Barks and Jack Hannah. Barks would later repeat the treasure-hunting theme in many more stories. Barks soon took over the major development of the comic-book version of the duck as both writer and illustrator. Under his pen, the comic version of Donald diverged even further from his animated counterpart, becoming more adventurous, less temperamental, and more eloquent. Black Pete was the only other major character from the Mickey Mouse comic strip to feature prominently in Barks' new Donald Duck universe. Barks placed Donald in the city of Duckburg, which Barks populated with a host of supporting players, including Gladstone Gander (1948), Gyro Gearloose, and Uncle Scrooge McDuck (1947). Many of Taliaferro's characters made the move to Barks' world as well, including Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Barks placed Donald in both domestic and adventure scenarios, and Uncle Scrooge became one of his favorite characters to pair up with Donald. Scrooge's popularity grew, and by 1952, the character had a comic book of his own. At this point, Barks concentrated his major efforts on the Scrooge stories, and Donald's appearances became more focused on comedy or he was recast as Scrooge's reluctant helper, following his rich uncle around the globe.

Further developments

Dozens of writers continued to utilize Donald in their stories around the world. Italian publisher Mondadori created many of the stories that were published throughout Europe. They also introduced numerous new characters who are today well known in Europe. One example is Donald Duck's alter-ego, a superhero called Paperinik in Italian.

Beyond Disney

Italian Donald Duck is the only popular film and television cartoon character to appear as a mascot for the sports team of a major American university, namely, the Oregon Ducks at the University of Oregon. Donald's name and image are also used on numerous commercial products, one example being Donald Duck brand orange juice, introduced by Citrus World in 1940.

Different appearances

Movies


- Saludos Amigos (1942)
- The Three Caballeros (1944)
- Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
- The Prince and the Pauper (1990)
- A Goofy Movie (1995)
- Fantasia 2000 (1999)
- Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999)
- Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse (2001)
- Mickey's House of Villains (2003)
- Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (2004)
- Mickey, Goofy, Donald: The Three Musketeers (2004)

Television series

Television seriesTelevision series and Huey, Dewey and Louie.]]
- DuckTales (1987-1990)
- Bonkers (1993-1995) (cameo)
- Quack Pack (1996-1997)
- Mickey Mouse Works (1999-2000)
- House of Mouse (2001-2003)
- Disney's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006 debut)

Video games


- Donald Duck's Playground (1988)
- Duck Tales : The quest for gold (1989) (Donald is only an NPC)
- Quackshot (1991)
- The Lucky Dime Caper starring Donald Duck (1991)
- World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (1992)
- DuckTales 2 (1993) (Donald is only an NPC)
- Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck (1993)
- Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow (1996)
- Disney's Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers (2000)
- Kingdom Hearts (2002)
- Disney Golf (2002)
- Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows (2002)
- Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (2004)
- Kingdom Hearts II (2005)

US comic books


- Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
- Donald Duck
- Uncle Scrooge
- Uncle Scrooge Adventures
- Donald Duck Adventures
- Mickey and Donald
- DuckTales
- Donald and Mickey
- Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse
- Walt Disney Giant
- Walt Disney's Comics and Stories Penny Pincher
- Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck
- The Adventurous Uncle Scrooge McDuck
- Kingdom Hearts

Famous illustrators


- Carl Barks
- Luciano Bottaro
- Giovan Battista Carpi
- Giorgio Cavazzano
- William Van Horn
- Daan Jippes
- Don Rosa
- Marco Rota
- Romano Scarpa
- Tony Strobl
- Al Taliaferro

Further reading


- Ariel Dorfman, Armand Mattelart, David Kunzle (trans.), How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic ISBN 0884770230 (Anti-Donald Duck Marxist Critique)
- Walt Disney Productions, Walt Disney's Donald Duck: 50 Years of Happy Frustration, Courage Books, May 1990 ASIN: 0894715305

External links


- [http://www.donaldduckcomics.com Donald Duck comics]
- [http://duckman.pettho.com/characters/characters.html All the Ducks]
- [http://coa.inducks.org/character.php/x/DD Donald's profile in the Inducks]
- [http://coa.inducks.org/character.php/x/PK Paperinik's profile in the Inducks]
- [http://users.cwnet.com/xephyr/rich/dzone/hoozoo/donald.html Donald's profile in the Disney HooZoo]
- [http://www.toonopedia.com/donald.htm Toonopedia: Donald Duck]
- [http://disneyshorts.toonzone.net/characters/donald.html Donald Duck shorts film]
- [http://www.marklansdown.com/pinbacks/pages/donaldduck.html Donald Duck advertising pinbacks]
- [http://ask.yahoo.com/20051005.html Ask Yahoo! - Oct 5, 2005 - Why does Donald Duck never wear pants?] Duck, Donald Duck, Donald Duck, Donald Duck, Donald Duck, Donald Duck, Donald Duck, Donald
- Category:Animated film series Duck, Donald ja:ドナルドダック

Comic book

A comic book is a magazine or book containing the sequential art in the form of a narrative. Comic books are often called comics for short. Although the term implies otherwise, the subject matter in comic books is not necessarily humorous, and in fact its dramatic seriousness varies widely. The term "comics" in this context does not refer to comic strips (such as Peanuts or Dilbert). In the last quarter of the 20th century, greater acceptance of the comics form among the general reading populace coincided with a greater usage of the term graphic novel, often meant to differentiate a book of comics with a spine from its stapled, pamphlet form, but the difference between the terms seems fuzzy at best as comics become more widespread in libraries, mainstream bookstores and other places. The earliest comic books were simply collections of comic strips that had originally been printed in newspapers. The commercial success of these collections led to work being created specifically for the comic-book form, which fostered specific conventions such as splash pages. Long-form comic books, generally with hardcover or trade-paper binding came to be known as graphic novels, but as noted above, the term's definition is especially fluid. Like jazz and a handful of other cultural artifacts, comic books are a rare indigenous American art form, [http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=004133] [http://www.disinfotainmenttoday.com/darenet/comicbook.htm] though prototypical examples of the form exist. American comic books have become closely associated with the superhero sub-genre. In the U.K., the term comic book is used to refer to American comic books by their readers and collectors, while the general populace would mainly consider a comic book a hardcover book collecting comics stories. The analogous term in the United Kingdom is a comic, short for comic paper or comic magazine.

The comic book in the United States

Since the invention of the comic book format in the 1930s, the United States has been the leading producer, with only the British comic (during the inter-war period through the 1970s) and Japanese manga as close competitors in terms of quantity of titles (although, Japan outweighs America currently in overall sales by a vast margin). The majority of all comic books in the U.S. are marketed at younger teenagers, though the market also produces work for general as well as more mature audiences. The history of the comic book in the United States is split into several ages or historical eras: The Platinum Age, The Golden Age, The Silver Age, The Bronze Age, and The Modern Age. The exact boundaries of these eras, the terms for which originated in fandom press, is a debatable point among comic book historians. The Golden Age is generally thought as lasting from 1938's introduction of Superman until the early 1950s, during which comic books enjoyed a surge of popularity, the archetype of the superhero was invented and defined, and many of comic books' most popular superheroes debuted. The Platinum Age refers to any material produced prior to this. While comics as an artform could arguably extend as far back as sequential cave paintings from thousands of years ago, comic books are dependent on printing, and the starting point for them in book form is generally considered to be the tabloid-sized The Funnies begun in 1929, or the more traditional sized Funnies on Parade from 1933. Both of these were simply reprints of newspaper strips. The Silver Age of Comic Books is generally considered to date from the first successful revival of the dormant superhero form — the debut of the Barry Allen Flash in Showcase #4 (Sept.-Oct. 1956) — and last through the early 1970s, during which time Marvel Comics revolutionized the medium with such naturalistic superheroes as the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. The beginings of the Bronze and Modern ages are far more disputable. Indeed, some suggest that we are still in the Bronze Age. Starting points that have been suggested for the Bronze Age of comics are Conan #1 (Oct. 1970), Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 (Apr. 1970) or Amazing Spider-Man #96 (May 1971) (the non-Comics Code issue). The start of the Modern Age has even more potential starting points, but is most likely the publication of Alan Moore's Watchmen in 1986. Notable events in the history of the American comic book include the psychiatrist Frederic Wertham's criticisms of the medium in his book Seduction of the Innocent, which saw the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency investigate comic books. In response to this attention from government and the media, the U.S. comic book industry created the Comics Code Authority in 1954 and drafted the Comics Code, a move which saw the particularly targeted EC change its satirical comic book Mad from comic book to magazine format in order to circumvent the Code.

Underground comics

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a surge of underground comics occurred. These comics were published and distributed independently of the established mainstream, and most reflected the youth counterculture and drug culture of the time. Many were notable for their uninhibited, irreverent style; their frankness in graphic sex, nudity, language and overt politics hadn't been seen in comics outside of their precursors, the pornographic and even more underground "Tijuana bibles". Underground comics were virtually never sold on newsstands but in such youth-oriented outlets as head shops and record stores, and by mail order. The underground-comics movement is often considered to have started with Zap Comix #1 (1968) by Canadian cartoonist Robert Crumb, a former Cleveland greeting-card artist living in San Francisco. Crumb later created the popular characters Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, and published Gilbert Shelton's The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.

Independent and alternative comics

The rise of comic-book specialty stores in the late 1970s created a dedicated market for "independent" or "alternative comics"; two of the first were the anthology series Star Reach, published by comic-book writer Mike Friedrich from 1974-1979, and Harvey Pekar's American Splendor, published from the 1970s through the present day. Some independent comics continued in the tradition of underground comics, though were generally less overtly graphic, and others resembled the output of mainstream publishers in format and genre but were published by smaller artist-owned ventures or by a single artists. A few (notably RAW) were experimental attempts to bring comics closer to the world of fine art. The "small press" scene continued to grow and diversify. By the 1980s, several such independent publishers as Eclipse Comics, First Comics, and Fantagraphics were releasing a wide range of styles and formats from color superhero, detective and science fiction comic books to black-and-white magazine-format stories of Latin American magical realism. A number of small publishers in the 1990s changed the format and distribution of their comics to more closely resemble non-comics publishing. The "minicomics" form, an extremely informal version of self-publishing, arose in the 1980s and became increasingly popular among artists in the 1990s, despite reaching an even more limited audience than the small press.

Decline of serial comic-book format

In the early 2000s, sales of standard monthly comic books declined while graphic novels made increasing headway at retail bookstores. Along with the shift toward graphic novels among comics publishers, traditional book publishers such as Pantheon have released several dozen graphic novels, including works originally released by comics publishers with much less publicity.

The comic of Europe

Franco-Belgian comics

Franco-Belgian comics are comics written in Belgium and France. These two countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are called BDs (from Bande Dessinée) in French. Belgian comic books originally written in Dutch are influenced by the francophone "Franco-Belgian" comics, but have a different feel. La bande dessinée is derived from the original description of the artform as "drawn strips". It is not insignificant that the French term contains no indication of subject matter, unlike the American terms "comics" and "funnies," which imply an art form not to be taken seriously. Indeed, the distinction of comics as the "ninth art" is prevalent in Francophone scholarship on the form (le neuvième art), as is the concept of comics criticism and scholarship itself. Relative to the respective size of their countries, the innumerable authors in the region publish huge numbers of comic books. In North America, the more serious, Franco-Belgian comics are often seen as equivalent to graphic novels, for various reasons, but whether they are long or short, bound or in magazine format, in Europe there is no need for a more sophisticated term, as the art's name does not itself imply something frivolous. In France, most comics are published at the behest of the author, who will work within his self-appointed time frame, so a wait from six months to two years between installments is common. Most books are first published as a hard cover oversized book, usually 48 or 64 pages, with later re-releases in soft cover.

The British comic

Originally the same size as the comic book in the United States, although lacking the glossy cover, the British comic has adopted a magazine size, with The Beano and The Dandy the last to adopt this size in the 1980s. Although generally referred to as a comic, it can also be referred to as a comic magazine, and has also been known historically as a comic paper. Although Ally Sloper's Half Holiday (1884), the first comic published in Britain, was marketed at adults, publishers quickly targeted a younger market, which has led to most publications being for children and created an association in the public's mind of comics being somewhat juvenile. Popular titles within the United Kingdom have included The Beano, The Dandy, The Eagle, 2000 AD and Viz. Underground comics and "small press" titles have also been published within the United Kingdom, notably Oz and Escape Magazine. The content of Action, another title aimed at children and launched in the mid 1970s became the subject of discussion in the House of Commons, and although this was on a smaller scale to such similar investigations in the United States, it also led to a moderation of content published within comics, although such moderatiuon was never formalised to the extent of a creation of any code, and nor was it particularly lasting. The United Kingdom has also established a healthy market in the reprinting and repackaging of material, notably material originated within the United States. The lack of reliable supplies of American comic books led to a variety of black and white reprints, including Marvel's 1950s monster comics, Fawcett's Captain Marvel, and some other characters such as Sheena, Mandrake the Magician and the Phantom. Several reprint companies were involved in repackaging American material for the British market, notably the importer and distributor Thorpe & Porter. Marvel eventually established a UK office, with DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics also opening offices for periods in the the 1990s. The repackaging of European material has been less frequent, although the Tintin and Asterix serials have been succesfully translated and repackaged in soft cover books.

The comic annual

At Christmas time publishers will repackage and commision material for comic annuals, hardback A4 books. DC Thomson also repackage The Broons and Oor Wullie strips in softcover A4 books for the festive season.

Italian comics

In Italy, comics (known as fumetti) made their debut as humouristic strips at the end of the 19th century, and later evolved in adventure stories inspired to those coming from the U.S. After World War II, however, artists like Hugo Pratt and Guido Crepax imposed Italian comics to an international audience. "Author" comics contain often strong erotic contents. Best sellers remain popular comic books Diabolik or the Bonelli line, namely Tex Willer or Dylan Dog. Mainstream comics are usually published on the monthly basis, in a black and white digest size format, with about 100-132 pages of story. Collections of classic material for the most famous character, usually with over 200 pages, are also common. Author comics are published in the french BD format, with an example being Pratt's Corto Maltese. Italian cartoonists have and receive great influences from other countries including Belgium, France, Spain and Argentina. Italy is also famous for being one of the foremost producers of Walt Disney comic stories, particularly. Donald Duck's superhero alter ego, Paperinik, known in English as Superduck, was created in Italy.

Other European comics

Although Switzerland contributes less to the body of work, it is significant that many scholars point to a Francophone Swiss, Rodolphe Töpffer, as the true father of comics. This choice is still controversial, with critics feeling that Töppfer's work is perhaps somewhat unconnected to the genesis of the artform as it is now known in the region.

The graphic novel

The term graphic novel was first coined by Richard Kyle in 1964, mainly as an attempt to distinguish the newly translated works from Europe which were then being published from what Kyle saw as the more juvenile publications common in the United States. The term was popularised when Will Eisner used it on the cover of the paeprback edition of his work A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories (1978). This was a more mature work than many had come to expect from the comics medium, and the critical and commercial success of A Contract with God helped to establish the term "graphic novel" in common usage.

Regional categories


- American comic book
- Argentine comics
- British comics
- Indian comics
- Manga (Japanese comics)
- Manhua (Chinese comics)
- Manhwa (Korean comics)
- European comics
  - Franco-Belgian comics - Bande Dessinée, BD
  - Italian comics - Fumetti
- Brazilian comics - Histórias em Quadrinhos, HQ

Other Forms


- Tijuana bible (aka 8-pagers)
- Underground comics
- Alternative comics
- Adult comics
- Political and religious comics

Genres

Note: As with film and literature, genres are rarely pure and often blend. Frankenstein, for example, is a science fiction/horror novel; The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. is a Western/comedy TV series. Not all superhero comics are necessarily science fiction; Marvel Comics' Daredevil, for example, despite an initial science-fiction premise, may be more usefully classified as a crime drama.
- Action/adventure comics (of which superhero is a sub-genre)
- Adaptations of narratives in other media, often movies
- Anthromorphic/funny animal comics (see also furry)
- Autobiographical comics
- Crime comics
- Dramatic adventure comics
- Historical comics
- Horror comics
- Humor comics
- Journalistic comics
- Religious comics
- Romance comics
- Satiric comics
- Science-fiction comics
- War comics
- Western comics

Some particularly notable comic books


- 2000 AD (British)
- Acme Novelty Library (United States - Fantagraphics Books)
- Akira (Japanese)
- Asterix (French)
- Batman (United States - DC Comics)
- The Beano (British)
- The Dandy (British)
- Donald Duck (United States - Disney)
- Eightball (United States - Fantagraphics Books)
- The Fantastic Four (United States - Marvel Comics)
- The Incredible Hulk (United States - Marvel Comics)
- Lone Wolf and Cub (Japanese)
- Lucky Luke (Belgium - Dupuis and Dargaud)
- Monica's Gang (Turma da Mônica) (Brazilian)
- Mortadelo y Filemón (Spain)
- Mickey Mouse (United States-Disney)
- Raw (United States - Raw Books)
- The Smurfs (Belgium - Dupuis)
- The Amazing Spider-Man (United States - Marvel Comics)
- Sandman (United States - DC Vertigo Comics, 1988 World Fantasy Award (unique win for a comic-book series)
- Spike and Suzy (Belgian Flemish, originally called Suske en Wiske)
- Superman (United States - DC Comics)
- Tintin (Belgian - Casterman)
- Viz (British)
- Wonder Woman (United States - DC Comics)
- X-Men (United States - Marvel Comics)
- Zap Comix (United States-underground comix)

See also

Comics - the sequential art form in general


- Comic strip
- Graphic novel
- Webcomic
  - Sprite comic
- Storyboard
- Cartoon
  - Political cartoon

Comic book awards


- Eisner Awards
- Harvey Awards
- Ignatz Awards
- Kirby Awards
- Prix de la critique
- Angoulême International Comics Festival Prizes (aka Alph'arts) and the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême
- Tezuka Awards
- Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards

Miscellaneous


- Cartoonist
- Comic book creator
- Comic book collecting
- Comic-Con International

Lists


- List of comic creators
- List of comic books
- List of comic book publishing companies
- List of comic and cartoon character pairs
- List of comic strips
- List of cartoonists
- List of comic and cartoon characters named after people
- Comic books in dialects

References

Inge, Thomas M., "Comics as culture" Journal of Popular Culture 12:631, 1979 (not online)

External links


- [http://www.cbgxtra.com/Default.aspx?tabid=695 Database of Comic Book Sales Figures]
- [http://www.heritagecomics.com/common/worth.php How To Figure Out How Much Your Comics Are Worth]
- [http://www.comicbookdb.com/ ComicBookDB.com]
- [http://www.comiccovers.com/ ComicCovers.com]
- [http://www.cbgxtra.com Comics Buyer's Guide]
- [http://www.comics-db.com/ The Big Comic Book Database]
- [http://www.comicbookgalaxy.com/ Comic Book Galaxy]
- [http://www.cbr.cc/ Comic Book Resources]
- [http://www.comics.org/ The Grand Comics Database]
- [http://www.crimeboss.com/history03-1.html The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency]
- [http://www.gweeb.com/ Bronze Age 1970s Comic Book Cover Showcase]
- [http://www.toonopedia.com/index.htm Don Markstein's Toonopedia]
- [http://www.knightmare6.com/faq/ Fan Site: Comic Book FAQ]
- [http://www.boldcomicsstudio.com/main/ Bold Comic Studios - A site for the independant comic creator]
- [http://www.nostalgiazone.com/doc/zine/ Comics Fan Zine: articles on comics in pop culture] Nostalgia Zine
- [http://ichibancomics.blogspot.com First Edition Comic Reviews at Ichiban Comics] ja:漫画
- Category:Comics Category:MagazinesCategory:Entertainment

Scrooge McDuck

Scrooge McDuck is a fictional character created by artist Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company's comic books. Scrooge is the uncle of Donald Duck, and is likely meant to be a caricature of Andrew Carnegie. The first member of the Clan McDuck to appear in the comics, Scrooge's name was based on Ebenezer Scrooge, a character from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Scrooge McDuck first appeared in the story Christmas on Bear Mountain in December 1947. He was also cast as the star of the Disney animated series DuckTales (voiced by Alan Young), which first aired on September 11, 1987, and produced several spin-off cartoon series.

Comics history

First appearance

Scrooge, maternal uncle of previously established character Donald Duck, made his first appearance in "Christmas on Bear Mountain" in December 1947, a story written and drawn by artist Carl Barks. The story's title was based on "Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky (the source of a scene in Fantasia featuring Chernabog). A prototype for Scrooge McDuck, however, appeared earlier in the 1943 cartoon "Spirit of '43", in which Scrooge (or his prototype) reminds Donald to save his money to support the war effort. Scrooge did not yet have his familiar characteristics in his first comic story. In "Christmas on Bear Mountain", Scrooge was a bearded, bespectacled, reasonably wealthy old man, visibly leaning on his cane. He was living in isolation in a "huge mansion", which is said to be influenced by Xanadu from Orson Welles's Citizen Kane. Scrooge has always been a somewhat bitter character, but his misanthropic thoughts in this first story are probably less characteristic of Scrooge than those of his rival Flintheart Glomgold: "Here I sit in this big lonely dump, waiting for Christmas to pass! Bah! That silly season when everybody loves everybody else! A curse on it! Me—I'm different! Everybody hates me, and I hate everybody!" In the story, Scrooge plans to entertain himself by inviting his nephews Donald, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck to his mountain cabin and then scaring them out of it. This early version of Scrooge is said to have a lot in common with The Simpsons' character of Mr. Burns.

As a recurring character

Barks would later claim that he originally only intended to use Scrooge as a one-shot character, but then decided Scrooge could prove useful in further stories. Barks continued to experiment with Scrooge's appearance and personality over the next four years. Scrooge's second appearance, in "The Old Castle's Secret" (first published in June 1948), had Scrooge recruiting his nephews to search for a family treasure hidden in Dismal Downs, the McDuck family's ancestral castle, built in the middle of Rannoch Moor in Scotland. "Foxy Relations" (first published in November 1948) was the first story where Scrooge is called by his title and catchphrase "The Richest Duck in the World". catchphrase]

First hints of Scrooge's past

"Voodoo Hoodoo", first published in August 1949, was the first story to hint at Scrooge's past with the introduction of two figures from it. The first was Foola Zoola, an old African sorcerer and chief of the Voodoo tribe who had cursed Scrooge, seeking revenge for the destruction of his village and the taking of his tribe's lands by Scrooge decades ago. Scrooge privately admitted to his nephews that he had used an army of "cutthroats" to get the tribe to abandon their lands, in order to establish a diamond-mining colony. The event was placed in 1879 during the story, but it would later be retconned to 1909 to fit with Scrooge's later-established personal history. The second figure was Bombie the Zombie, the organ of the sorcerer's curse and revenge. He had reportedly sought Scrooge for decades before reaching Duckburg, mistaking Donald for Scrooge. It should be noted that Bombie was not really undead and Foola Zoola did not practice necromancy. Barks, with a note of skepticism often found in his stories, explained the zombie as a living person who has never died, but has somehow gotten under the influence of a sorcerer. Although some scenes of the story were intended as a parody of Bela Lugosi's White Zombie, the story is the first to not only focus on Scrooge's past but also touch on the darkest aspects of his personality.

Precursors to later stories

"Trail of the Unicorn", first published in February 1950, introduced Scrooge's private zoo. One of his pilots had managed to photograph the last living unicorn, which lived on the Indian part of the Himalayas. Scrooge offered a reward to competing cousins Donald Duck and Gladstone Gander to whoever would be the first to capture the unicorn for his collection of animals. This was also the story which introduced his private airplane. Barks would later establish Scrooge as an experienced aviator. Donald had previously been shown as also being a skilled aviator, with Flintheart also being shown as such in later stories. In comparison, Huey, Dewey and Louie were only depicted having taken flying lessons in the story "Frozen Gold" (published in January 1945). "The Pixilated Parrot", first published in July 1950, introduced the precursor to Scrooge's money bin; in this story, Scrooge's central office building is said to contain "three cubic acres of money". Two nameless burglars who briefly appear during the story are considered to be the precursors of the Beagle Boys.

Scrooge as a major character

"The Magic Hourglass", first published in September 1950, was arguably the first story to change the focus of the Duck stories from Donald to Scrooge. During the story, several themes were introduced for Scrooge. Donald first mentions in this story that his uncle practically owns Duckburg, a statement that Scrooge's rival John D. Rockerduck would later put in dispute. Scrooge first hints that he was not born into wealth, as he remembers buying the Hourglass of the story in Morocco when he was a member of a ship's crew as a cabin boy. It is also the first story in which Scrooge mentions speaking another language besides his native English and reading other alphabets besides the Latin alphabet, as during the story, he speaks Arabic and reads the Arabic alphabet. The later theme would be developed further in later stories. Barks and current Scrooge writer Don Rosa have depicted Scrooge as being fluent in Arabic, Dutch, German, Mongolian, Spanish, Mayan, and various dialects of Chinese. Scrooge acquired this knowledge from years of living or traveling to the various regions of the world where those languages are spoken. Later writers would depict Scrooge having at least working knowledge of several other languages. Scrooge was shown in "The Magic Hourglass" in a more positive light than in previous stories, but his more villainous side is present too. Scrooge is seen in this story attempting to reacquire a magic hourglass that he gave to Donald, before finding out that it acted as a protective charm for him. To convince his nephews to return it, he pursues them throughout Morocco, where they had headed to earlier in the story. Memorably during the story, Scrooge interrogates Donald by having him tied up and tickled with a feat