HARRY W. FLUKS

The contributor comes from Holland and is a former student in econometrics. Nowadays he is the coordinator of the international I.N.D.U.C.K.S. project which aim to include information - in one database - about every Disney comic story and publication. He is also managing the Dutch branch web site called Boldergast which is the local name for Donald Duck's neighbour Jones.

My trip started in San Diego (the Comic Con), where I met a lot of people again, or for the first time (hi Michael, Barry, Todd, Don, Eric, Dana, John, Michael T., Dave, Joe, Bob, Michel!). I got an interesting view on the American comics world. It's very different from the European world. Almost every time someone said "I'm sure you know the famous..." I had to reply that I never heard of the person! On the other hand, very little European comic material there. I also got to read Don Rosa's new story with the Three Caballeros. To my surprise, I liked the story very much! I didn't expect anything from a story featuring Carioca and Panchito, but Don handled them very well.
Saturday evening was a special dinner celebrating a reunion of EC comic creators. I had a glance of "the rich and/or famous" people like Bill Elder, Bruce Hamilton, Russ Cochran. Don Rosa was there too, to explain to me who all the people were. And also to connect the EC-evening to Disney comics.

I also attended a few panels. One about the history of USA comic fandom: this was very educating for me, as a European. The other one was a presentation by Scott Shaw, about the silliness of old American comic covers. Recommended to me by Joe Torcivia. It was very funny indeed (thanks Joe!). After San Diego, I stayed a few days at Dave Rawson's house in Hollywood.

Then I went up North, to Grants Pass, Oregon, to meet Gerry Tank and his family. Gerry and I went to Barks' house, to visit him briefly. Barks can only have visits of about 5 minutes. He then sits on a chair in his bedroom. When I visited him, he had a remarkably good day. He was reading e-mail, in printed form (large print so he could read it more easily). Though he obviously was very ill, he still was the witty and clever person that I imagined him to be, judging from reports from other people and from video tapes. He was delighted when we told him that his name was on the cover of a European comic now and then, and that it would make the comic sell better.
One (more or less) interesting detail: Barks never listened to music when working. Only recently, people bought him a CD player. He likes songs by people like Bing Crosby.

After my visit to the Tanks, I went to Michael and Janet Gilbert, who live only a few hours up North. Just like at the Rawson's and Barks' home, I got a view on the office of real Disney comic writers. I had a fun time with the people I mentioned above, and I've been to several other places in California, Oregon, and Nevada. But talking about all that would become too off-topic for a Disney comics mailing list.
Except maybe the fact that I drove through Merrill, Oregon, place of Barks' younger years. But the only interesting thing about that is that there is absolutely nothing of interest in Merrill! Anyway, a big THANKS to Michael Naiman, Dave & Eileen Rawson, Gerry & Nancy Tank, and Michael & Janet Gilbert, for providing parts of an unforgettable holiday! --Harry.

The author

Barks' residence in Grants Pass in July, 2000

The easel

This contribution is an excerpt of an article from the web. © Harry W. Fluks