THEREFERENCESSTORY

It is only logical that an eminent Storyteller such as Carl Barks has had his work imitated by other comic book artists, and that some of them have made clear references to his stories. One contemporary writer - who also did his own drawing - is the American Keno Don Rosa, who dedicated much of his Disney work to stories with references to Barks' stories.
Now one more writer has had a 14-pager story published. It is teeming with references to Barks' work and personal life - and with Barks himself in a starring role!!! The exceptional story is titled The Saga of Captain Duckburg (story code D/D 2001-020), and it emerged via Danish Egmont Publishing.

CREATORS

Script writer:

American Barks-connoisseur and biographer Geoffrey Blum lives in California. He is perhaps best known for his work in the mammoth productions The Carl Barks Library and The Carl Barks Library in Color, but he has also written several Disney duck stories.

Drawing artist:

Brazilian Carlos Mota lives in São José dos Campos and began drawing at the age of 4. His Disney career started when European editors got interested in his work, and he has since made numerous stories and front covers primarily for the Dutch and the Danish markets.

SYNOPSIS

Scrooge McDuck works in his Money Bin, where Donald Duck works with the furnace in the cellar. Scrooge is visited by the directors from the gossip magazine Hollywood Eye-Opener (Barks formerly worked for the Calgary Eye-Opener (see more HERE)). Times are not good for contemporary gossip, but nostalgia is! The directors suggest that Scrooge tries to locate the whereabouts of Temecula Sam (Carl Barks. At one time he lived in Temecula (see more HERE), who is currently believed to live in San Jacaranda (Barks once lived in the San Jacinto Valley (see more HERE)).

Scrooge realizes that there is potential in old comic books, especially those with Captain Duckburg made by Sam, who disappeared 20 years ago and is rumoured to hide out in the desert. Donald obtains the address and is sent out to contact him.

After 'three traffic jams and five wrong turns' Donald reaches Sam's house, but Sam is only interested in being left in peace. After having passed through several traps, the determined Donald is finally inside but gets caught in Sam's special barber's chair. After having dealt with that as well as even more obstacles, Donald finally corners Sam and persuades him to give a videotaped interview.

Sam shows Donald some of his memories connected to the old stories, and in the meantime Scrooge joins in - after having negotiated the traps! Although Sam has retired many years ago he is persuaded to take up his comic book work again, and he starts a new story...

EXCERPTS

Page 2: Captain Duckburg refers to Captain America and Captain Marvel (see more HERE and HERE). Also a reference to Rosa's superhero version of Scrooge in a few parody covers.

Page 3: Easily transparent references to FC0029 The Mummy's Ring, FC0275 Ancient Persia, and U$60 The Phantom of Notre Duck (see more HERE).

Page 4: The nephews' Junior Woodchucks Guidebook 'lists the street address of every living legend'. Barks once lived at 616, Carlo Drive, Goleta (see more HERE). And no, the boys prefer to watch the Tuffy Marathon on TV.

Page 8: The story carries references to both old and new films. Donald refers to Barks' first cartoon Modern Inventions from 1937 (see more HERE). Also, the barber's chair can be seen as a reference to the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale.

Page 12: In the mid 1950s Barks' publisher, Western, switched to a cheaper import from Germany, but Barks was soon allowed to return to the usual quality (see more HERE).

Page 13: Western did actually burn Barks' original pages (as well as the other artists' work) in the office's furnace, because they had insufficient storage facilities (see more HERE).

On account of its multiple in-jokes this extraordinary story is not as easily accessible as the average Disney duck story. To get the full advantage it is necessary that the reader knows a great deal about Barks' life and work.
Regrettably, this may also be a contributing reason why it will probably never be published worldwide. In the USA the story has been published by Boom Publishing in Donald Duck 363A from 2011, from which the above examples have been selected.