Inspiration for Spielberg – review of “Kaczogród: Pizarra’s Treasure”, vol. 15

A greedy philanthropist and something else

As always, I want to take a look at the title story, which stands out from the others collected in a specific volume. Pizarro’s Treasure is an unusual comic in many respects. First of all, I want to mention that in this comic, Scrooge McDuck shows a completely different side of himself and I am offering the Kaczogrodzians a historic ship on which the Spaniards sailed to America under the command of Pizarr. Of course, by the way, the Scrooge takes advantage of the situation and goes to Latin America to find a legendary treasure, and there he will encounter living history.

In turn, in the introduction to the volume, we can learn that Barks not only faithfully reproduced the landscape of the Inca land, but also his work became an inspiration for contemporary cinematography. For the filming of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade , Spielberg and George Lucas modeled two deadly traps after the ones they saw in the duck comics, the blade coming out of the wall and the Death Jump Abyss. The adventures of the ducks have always reminded me of an archaeologist from the previous century, and I was right. The very inscription of the first Duck Tales was modeled on the title credits of Indiana Jones, and now we have information about comic book inspirations and influencing Hollywood.

Exotic travels

Of course, this is not the end of the impressions we have in comics. It is true that the style of the story is similar in terms of graphics (we will most likely notice some changes when the volumes from the first and last years of Barks’ work are released), there will be some interesting stories. Why just a few? As some experts in his career say, the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, for reasons largely independent of Barks, was one of the weakest periods in his work.

Nevertheless, it is worth stopping at the story of The Financial Pyramid. The perfect representation of the Egyptian landscape, including the pyramids, is due to the cartoonist’s good perception and his passion for exploring the world (most likely the comic was created when he came across the National Geographic edition of Ancient Egypt).

The volume will also be completed with four stories about Grandma Duck, which were drawn by Carl Barks, but their writer was Vic Lockman. The frames with the elderly lady of the family, although they do not present long stories, contain really interesting elements. In The Flying Helper , the cameo is counted by Dumbo, and in Beczeniu Sheep – the Bard Wolf. The characters are almost as drawn as in the classic Disney animations.

More volumes ahead of us

There are exactly fifteen more volumes ahead of us. So far, the collection has not included the oldest comics in which Scrooge McDuck was not yet present , and the storyline was based mainly on important issues of domestic life of ducks and everyday problems. I look forward to completing the entire collection and want to learn more about the curiosities of the duck family world.

The only thing that deserves some summary at this halfway point is the release rating. On the one hand, I am glad that Egmont sticks to a uniform concept and, approximately every three months, I know what to expect. However, some fresh air would also be welcome. Maybe each decade would have some other distinctive addition?