Barks Remarks - a Carl Barks Podcast

18/02/2025

Hi folks! A brief check-in, from the podcast's extended vacation. Apologies, but for a variety of reasons, I needed a break from podcasting. However, I very much want to see the podcasts through to completion!

To that end, I am putting out a request for anyone interested in helping with the hardest part - EDITING. I always encourage guests to take their time and restate themselves as needed, then I edit the episode to remove revisions/restatements, etc.

I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to do some of the grunt work for me. You would listen to the episode (before anyone else!) and provide time stamps for any of the points when you encounter that need editing (e.g. off-topic, digressions/revisions, interruptions).

I can't offer payment in exchange, not even the princely sum of 30 cents per hour, but you would get to be the FIRST to hear a podcast episode and get a contributor credit. Perhaps if someone is ambitious and wants to do multiple episodes, they could join me for one; I'm not above bribery!

Thanks for reading this, and for your patience!

Edit: for clarity's sake, this would NOT require any technical knowhow whatsoever and could be done on a word processor. Literally you would just compose a list of time stamps as you listen, representing where you heard things that are obviously not intended to be on a finished podcast episode (e.g., "hold on, I gotta sneeze..." or "Hmmm, that didn't come out right, I'm gonna say it again..."). That's it. 😊

29/09/2024

Hi folks! Still here, still podcastin’! I’m hoping to release the episode covering “Lost Beneath the Sea” later this week.

In the meantime, I figured I’d put out a good ol’ Favorite & Notable Panels feature for the most recent story we covered, Isle of Golden Geese! Catch the episode here, if you missed it: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barks-remarks-a-carl-barks-podcast/id1569066754?i=1000668184813

“Isle of Golden Geese,” from U.S. #45, is a strong story from Barks’ later, mid-60s era, a play on the Aesop fable, “the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs,” though it departs significantly from the fable. The story is probably most notable for being Barks’ sole team-up of major villains with Magica De Spell as the main antagonist and the Beagle Boys in a hilarious subordinate role as her henchmen.

The story is also one of a small handful of Barks adventures to have multiple significant female characters, with both Magica and F***y Featherbrain dominating the action in the final act.

I consider this a strong, albeit quite strange Barks story, with its out-of-nowhere play on Little Bo-Peep. What do you think of this one?

04/09/2024

Whoops, listener and friend-of-the-pod Debbie Anne Perry brought to my attention an audio bug in the latest episode! The 11 seconds of silence at the outset should be gone shortly.

In the meantime, I thought this was a bit of charming of corporate promotion (but shame on them not crediting the animators).

Donald Duck is an icon of the American cinema, with countless film and television appearances to his name, and a distinctive delivery that makes every appear...

03/09/2024

What’s this? A new episode of Barks Remarks! Yes, for our glorious return, I’m joined by returning guests Elaine Ramshaw & Sara Santiago, Creative, to discuss this unusual adventure that somehow wraps in not only Magica DeSpell AND the Beagle Boys, but also a character that is unmistakably an analogue for Little Bo-Peep.

No missing sheep here, though! Scrooge and kin are off in search of golden geese and golden eggs, though it certainly doesn’t follow the track of the classic tale!

Listen wherever you get podcasts!

Apple: TBD
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3jbBhiGNqeeCAby67nmG5X?si=EcQgj-FFQ52TuD3sBAOvww

21/08/2024

Hello from the podcast! I had big plans this summer, looking to get back to a regular posting schedule. Unfortunately, I had an unexpected job transition, when the school district I was contracted with decided to stop using remote speech therapists. That came on top of a sorely needed beach vacation.

While I didn't get to do the editing that I wanted, I was able to coordinate with a number of guests to RECORD new episodes, and so I wanted to let you know that the following episodes are fully recorded, and just need editing to be released into the wild:

ISLE OF GOLDEN GEESE (featuring guests Elaine Ramshaw & Sara Santiago)
LOST BENEATH THE SEA (featuring Warren Harmon)
THE THRIFTY SPENDTHRIFT (featuring David Wolpaw)
THE MANY FACES OF MAGICA DESPELL (featuring Thomas Schroeder)
THE GREAT WIG MYSTERY (featuring Mikkel Hagan)
INTERPLANETARY POSTMAN (featuring Austin Kelly)

(Yes, there are a few stories in between "Many Faces" & "Wig" that still need to be recorded; the cover gallery below is listing episodes that are recorded, as a sort of Proof of Life for the podcast).

08/07/2024

Carl Barks, the legendary creator of Uncle Scrooge and of many classic adventure comics, famously used National Geographic as a primary source of inspiration. Follow through this gallery to see a particularly notable example, from the Yucatán-set treasure hunt “Crown of the Mayas!”

Learn more on the Barks Remarks podcast, on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/90-crown-of-the-mayas/id1569066754?i=1000661556349), Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts!

08/07/2024

All’s fair in love and archaeology (and podcasts!) and we invite you to excavate another new episode! Long time Barks fan Morten Guldberg joins me from Norway to discuss the Yucatán-set “Crown of the Mayas,” which I retrospectively realized was the FIRST Barks adventure-length Scrooge story I ever read!

In spite of its low-to-middling ranking on INDUCKS, both Morten and I really enjoyed this story, and made a few of our own discoveries about this archaeological tale!

Check it out, wherever you get podcasts and enjoy this Covers Gallery!

06/07/2024

I was traveling last week, so no episode, but expect a new one coming Monday, in which Morten Guldberg will join me to discuss the great “Crown of the Mayas!”

19/06/2024

I used to do Favorite & Notable Panel features for every release…I may or may not get back to that, but I definitely wanted to highlight this spectacular page, the obvious standout of “For Old Dime’s Sake.”

Just look at it — this sequence where Scrooge’s spies observe Magica putting her new wand through its paces is an absolute stunner, on par with anything the Duck Man did in his golden age, ten years prior.

The sequence brilliantly previews Magica’s upcoming assault and features sensational character art and snappy, evocative writing. Barks at his 60s best!

18/06/2024

What’s this? This episode’s guest host Markku Mujunen has graced the podcast with an outstanding piece of promotional art, featuring the two of us in Disney form! ❤️

Markku has done some wonderful Disney comics fan art, which you can catch over at his instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marumuju?igsh=dW9xNWgxN3VqM28z !

17/06/2024

Out now! The glorious return of Barks Remarks, with the release of our episode covering Barks’ return of Magica DeSpell in “For Old Dime’s Sake!”

Join me and my guest, Markku Mujunen, a fan and artist hailing from Finland. We had a great conversation talking about the two distinct halves of this tale, how this story became the prototype for so many other Magica appearances, and which page of the story is among Barks’ best ever!

Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts!

16/06/2024

Happy (almost) summer! You may know that my day job is with a public school as a speech therapist. Well, as of Friday, school is OUT for summer break and the podcast is BACK!

I'm aiming for a good number of releases over the next couple of months, starting with tomorrow's release of "For Old Dime's Sake!"

(I was hoping to find a panel of the nephews' on the last day of school...can anyone recall a panel like that?)

24/05/2024

Hey everyone! Sorry to p**f out of existence like that. I'll keep this short 'n sweet: I'm dealing with some burnout over the editing process lately. Editing is the most time-consuming part of the podcast process, and is on top of time with the family, a new puppy, and a full-time job. School lets out for summer soon, though, and I'm aiming to get back into the swing of things during the summer break.

I am definitely planning to see the podcast(s) through; just possibly at a jauntier pace than I was previously keeping.

Here are the upcoming episodes to look forward to, two of which are even already recorded! Release dates? Uh, I promise they'll all come out on days that end in the letter "Y."

Thanks for your patience, understanding, and most of all...YOUR EARS. 🙃

04/04/2024

New episode, now up! Geoffrey Moses, aka GeoX of the Duck Comics R***e joined me to discuss this slight, but still entertaining Barks adventure. He even has a blogger post about the story up on his site: http://duckcomicsrevue.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-case-of-sticky-money.html

You can listen to the episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts!

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2RRByUqYcP4FxcOJVtwJmh?si=e0yAZTx5RV69Mfiepmut0A

27/03/2024

Happy 123rd to the Duck Man, the subject of the podcast! Part of the foundation of the podcast is to celebrate and remember Barks’ work, and I’m especially pleased to have connected with so many others through the podcast who appreciate the man enough to observe his birthday. 🙂

24/03/2024

Releasing soon…

Sometime this week I’ll be putting out a new episode, featuring Geoffrey Moses, aka GeoX, of the Duck Comics R***e, in which we’ll talk about the not-quite-classic “the Case of the Sticky Money.” 🙂

19/03/2024

Here’s a good ol’ covers gallery for our release of “the Status Seeker,” from Uncle Scrooge #41, from 1962. Bucket Think Tank joined me to talk about this story, a fairly unusual Scrooge adventure, concerned as it is with matters of status.

It was later turned into arguably the most faithful Ducktales adaptation of a Barks story, one of the series’ standouts, IMO. It also has the 3rd ever appearance of a McSwine, here under a different name.

You can catch the episode wherever you find podcasts! Subscribing to the podcast will definitely give you high status! 😉

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barks-remarks-a-carl-barks-podcast/id1569066754?i=1000649661854

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1XmYZq1k1HSPfGyWYEWixM?si=3MeT3xiXRI2iOAYuILXNGw

Thanks to Cr Ha for providing some better cover scans!

14/03/2024

Upcoming episode, releasing soon...