When Uncle Scrooge creator Carl Barks was coaxed out of retirement in 1969 to do more stories for Western Publishing, he managed to produce twenty-four Junior Woodchucks tales in pencil-script form that Western assigned to other artists to complete. It is no secret that many Barks fans feel the original published versions of these tales fall far short of what could have been had Barks been able to do the final artwork himself. Imagine, Donald’s famous nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, in wilderness adventures with Donald and Scrooge! But the stories’ quality could have been so much more.
Fortunately, twenty-three of Barks’ pencil scripts survived, and Another Rainbow reproduced twenty-one in Set VI of the hardbound Carl Barks Library (now out of print). Unfortunately, these pencil scripts were still too rough to be successfully presented In four-color comic books and albums. Would these formats be stuck with the uninspired Western versions of these final regular comic book stories written by the legendary Duck Man?
Not if Daan Jippes, an acknowledged modern master of the Disney ducks, could help it. And help it he did, in 1992, when he began redrawing these stories from Barks’ pencils for Holland’s Disney comics publisher, Oberon (today Sanoma), in a style uncannily faithful to the Barks idiom. The response from modern readers to Daan’s efforts indicates that he has succeeded admirably in revitalizing these tales for today’s discriminating Barks fans.
The project has taken quite some time for Daan, a meticulous craftsman, to complete; as of this publication, the last few redraws are just now appearing in Europe. But you can enjoy them in North America, too. Gemstone Publishing’s Donald Duck Family: The Daan Jippes Collection Vol. 1, a new $8.99 trade paperback on sale now, gets the benefit of Daan’s earnest toil by presenting his first five Woodchuck “revitalizations” in their original Dutch publication order! Grab them while you can.
Gemstone is your source for new and vintage Disney greats! Find our comics at your local comic shop and if you can’t find a comic shop, try the toll-free Comic Shop Locator Service at (888) COMIC BOOK or http://csls.diamondcomics.com. Our titles are also available online at www.gemstonecomics.com, www.amazon.com, and www.walmart.com.