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Archiver > BERENDO > 1999-07 > 0932535655


From: mdumas <>
Subject: Comics Update: The Yellowed Pages/Open De Box
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 22:40:55 -0700


I went and looked in Johnny's old wooden chest last night, to see just
what really was in there, and was surprised to find about a six-inch
stack of Donald Ducks and Scrooges shoehorned in there with a bunch of
old "Pogo" books (a private vice of mine in the early 50's, later
contracted and expanded on by brother Tone in the '60's). Looks like I
probably saved all the old Barks-drawn stuff I had; just a small
fraction of that whole stash that I kept above my wardrobe, which was
real heavy on Bugs and Woody and Tom'n'Jerry and all the other 'cute'
comics. (I can't believe I dumped "Little Lulu" after all she meant to
me; I expect she'll be laying for me in hell with a hot pitchfork.)
Anyway, there's maybe fifteen or twenty fairly shopworn Disneys, with
dates ranging from '51 to '54 or so. Some classic old stories are in
there, like the one about the town called "Omelet", trashed by the ducks
in a huge egg-ranching disaster; and the one where Donald and Gladstone
vie for Daisy's affections as members of the Idle Dandies Picnic
Society, and Donald rains out the picnic with a cloud-seeding plane; and
the one where Donald becomes a convert to Flipism and embarks with the
boys on a car trip whose twists and turns are all based on flipping a
coin (a favorite of Tone's and mine: "Heads the little coin doth say/We
will travel thisaway"). But of course, there's a lot that's not there,
too. One that I'd love to see again, I remember reading it with Al at
his house when we were maybe eight or so, was the episode where, for
some reason I can't remember, Donald is in "Echo Canyon" (only it
doesn't really echo) generating all kinds of strange noises (like by
bringing in odd animals) and the kids are hiding out across the canyon
reproducing all his sounds so he'll believe there's an echo. Why they'd
be doing this I can't recall, but I remember that they use multiple
noisemakers to respond to each of his sounds, like running a washing
machine filled with nuts and bolts while pulling a cat's tail, and stuff
like that. Anyone recall the details on this? How about Ray? Another one
I wish we still had is the jumping-frog story ("Froglegs?!! Whaddaya
think we are, cannibals?") Anyone got any other faded recollections? I
might turn this into a quest. --mike

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