Nemo #7: Carl Barks part 2...the "Year of the Duck"

"Nemo: the Classic Comics Library" continues it's first year anniversary with more of it's spotlight on "Duck" comic great Carl Barks and the 50th anniversary of Donald Duck.

Talk to you soon.

Nemo #7: Carl Barks part 1 and Donald Duck

"Nemo: the Classic Comics Library" issue #7 from 1984 celebrated their first anniversary with a bang!

Carl Barks was finally garnering recognition for all his decades of work on Walt Disney comic books, most notably the line of Duck comics. Considered "The Good Duck Man", Carl added to the mythos with his creation of such characters as Uncle Scrooge.

Being that 1984 was also the 50th anniversary of "Donald Duck", "Nemo" kicked into full swing and even sprang for a few pages in glorious 4-Color!

Here's a glimpse at the Duck-laden issue...

...an editorial by Richard Marschall on the excitement of a meeting of minds. Carl Barks and "Mickey Mouse" comics' Floyd Gottfredson.

Here's the first 4 articles in Nemo's Carl Barks Tribute....enjoy!

Beginning with a conversation between Barks and Gottfredson.

...more on Barks...

...more...FROM Barks...

...and a look at how his training in animation benefited his work in comics.

...more coming tomorrow with some of Barks' original Duck oil paintings.

Talk to you soon.

Nemo #6: Floyd Gottfredson's "Mickey Mouse" and V.T. Hamlin's "Alley Oop" revisited

April 1984's "Nemo: the Classic Comics Library" issue #6 felt like they had renewed vigor for covering the diversity of the great American art-form. Covering everything from the iconic to the fantastic to the "hidden-in-the-archives", and hitting their stride with features like the continues autobiography of Allen Saunders to their "Fantasy in the Comics" to the "Penmen of the Past".

I've just recently posted 2 of the articles from this issue (it's kinda what got me started archiving ALL the issues) so today, in the interest of some semblance of order and to ensure no one missed these, we have a little re-dux, then I'll bring you the rest of this chock-full-of-goodness issue tomorrow!

Here's your little guide to all that goodness coming in the next couple of days!

And look, here's Richard Marschall's editorial speaking of the fleeting nature of paper and the treasures lost. Almost like he was commanding me from 26 years ago to digitize and preserve.

A clever man, there!

The first article up was on Mickey Mouse's comic strip godfather, Floyd Gottfredson who was finally getting some recognition for his decades of ghosting the VASTLY underrated strip. It was previously posted here on May 5 on what would have been Gottfredson's 105th birthday. In case you missed it, follow this handy link.

Later in the magazine, and also previously posted in this blog, was a short article and nice retrospective look at the work of V.T. Hamlin on his landmark strip "Alley Oop". This was posted on May 10th on what would have been Hamlin's 110th birthday. A handy dandy link here to that post. Alley Oop is a strip so many folks have heard of or know of, and here's a nice chance to wet your beak on the actual thing...read away, you'll fall in love. I promise you.

I'll be posting the rest of the issue over the weekend and the next few issues over the next week.

After about the 4th of July I am going to try to keep the "Nemo" posts to a once a week thingy so I can get back to some other things I like to talk about. It's been very cool sharing these with you folks and will continue till I have them all done and it's afforded me a chance to kind of take the month of June off while I attend to BS from the real world.

Let me know, if when I switch to a once a week schedule for "Nemo" if you would like me to post an entire issue all in one day, or if that would be too cumbersome for y'all to enjoy and you'd prefer an issue be spread over two weeks. I'm game for anything!

Talk to ya later!

Floyd Gottfredson - Mickey Mouse's Comic Strip Daddy!

Born on May 5, 1905, tomorrow would have been Floyd Gottfredson's 105th birthday!

Floyd Gottfredson went to work for the Walt Disney studio on December 19, 1929 as an apprentice animator and in-betweener. Just 5 months later Walt asked him to fill in on the Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip until a permanent replacement for the departed Ub Iwerks could be found.

He kept the "temporary" assignment for the next 45 years.


Gottfredson's work on Mickey Mouse in comic strip form was something to behold. His version of Mickey was understandably different from the animated version as different mediums tell stories differently. The daily comic strip opened up grand vistas of adventure for the little mouse, and Floyd was the perfect guy to do it.

Working for 45 years, relatively unknown ghosting for under the Walt Disney byline, Floyd turned his temporary job into a labor of love. Dense storytelling under fun melodramatic themes, Floyd's mouse also had a real liveliness to him. The few months he worked in animation really gave a spark to his strip work, and the mouse seemed truly alove and ready to jump off the page.

On a future birthday I will post some of his strip work, but for now, here's a wonderfully in-depth interview with Floyd from "Nemo: the Classic Comics Library" issue #6 from April 1984, 9 years after he retired from the comic strip he loved...and we loved. Gottfredson was finally getting some acclaim for his work after working a half a century in anonymity...and he was loving it. The article also contains a full checklist of all the Mickey Mouse storyline's that appeared in the comic strip.

Enjoy!

Thanks Floyd...for all the hard work that seemed effortless!!