"Donald Duck in the Old Castle's Secret"
by Carl Barks
The comic book "Donald Duck in the Old Castle's Secret", is a 30 page story about Donald Duck and his families adventures in Scotland as they attempt to find their ancestors lost fortune. Reading this story reminded me of the days of watching cartoons where the characters reveled in a simple conflict that would be resolved in a matter of 15-30 minutes. Unfortunately I think, for whatever reason, my brain is no longer stimulated by these types of stories. As I read through "The Old Castle's Secret" I find myself asking "what's at stake here?", "why do I care about these characters?", and "what is the take away of this story?". I know all too well that Donald isn't going to get killed by the sword wielding specter, I guess to put it simply, I just saw it all coming from a mile away. It's hard for me to explain why I cannot get into an adventure title like this one, yet can be enthralled by the surreal adventures of Little Nemo. It's so hard because I could say that I know the ending of every Little Nemo comic seeing that he always woke up in bed at the end of the adventure, but maybe there was something within the surreal imagery that I could just relate to more than the shenanigans of these ducks. I don't know man, after talking to my friend Andy about Little Nemo we came to the conclusion that the imagery and narratives of Little Nemo are more varied and unrestricted than that of the more realistic Donald Duck series. I don't know man, I just don't know. Let me know if you know because I don't know.
This is a great interpretation of the story. I haven't read it myself, but it looks like an interesting read. It would be nice to hear and learn more about this story in general your thoughts about the illustrations and how the story develops from the beginning middle and end. Donald Duck is one favorite Disney character of mine because of his mischief and humor to the cartoon. One possible reason for you not getting into an adventure like this is because if you already know what might happen to Donald Duck in this story you might find it hard to read the comic? Just a thought, but other than that nice opinion.
ReplyDelete