Reviews and Comments

En ikke særlig spennende fortelling fra middelalderen. Margit er ulykkelig gift, søstra Signe er singel. En av kongens menn vil fri til søstra, men så dukker en gammel flamme (som Kongen er ute etter!) opp igjen - og både Margit og Signe er gira på ham. Så der har du intrigen servert, men det hele blir aldri særlig spennende. Utgangspunktet til Ibsen her kommer bedre til uttrykk i "Hærmændene paa Helgeland".

Ibsen lot seg også her inspirere av folketro, både ved å tidvis ha folkevisens form, og ved å gjennom stykket la karakterene bruke folketro for å forklare sine følelser. Hun som er ulykkelig gift, innser at hennes situasjon er som å være bergtatt av en "Bjergkonge". Selv om det er litt påklistra, er det likevel en fin måte å trekke inn og bruke folkediktninga, som på den tiden på alvor begynte å bli tilgjengelig.

"A mater of some Gravity" is one of my favorite Don Rosa stories, but there's also a couple of stories here that's not that interesting ("The Last Lord of Eldorado", "Space-Varmints") or that I might have read too many times ("A little something special").

Finishing the "Life and Times"-series, Don Rosa fuels ahead by serving adventure and science fiction-like stories that makes his mid-1900s influences really appereant. There's one about a shrinking ray, one about a journey to the center of the earth and several historical adventure stories. My favorites in this collection is "On a silver platter" and "Hearts of the Yukon".

Almost 20 years before Don Rosa made his biography of Scrooge McDuck based on Carl Barks' writings, Jack L. Chalker did the same. The similarities ends about there. Chalker's book is a written account (and not a comic), and he is just as interested in Scrooge's adventures as an old man that he is in his back story. While this book does piece together Barks' stories, it does little to fill the gaps and expand upon them. And because Chalker is determined to include as many of Barks stories as possible, Scrooge ends up seeming like a character full of contradictions.

The latter half of the book is perhaps a bit too full of story summaries, but it is still an enjoyable read if you are into the subject.

Got this as a gift (thanks!), and it was fun to explore and Icelandic comic! The format is single panels, with jokes/gags that are based on vulgar exaggerations and shocking "twists". I think I might have read too many web comics for this to shock me at all, but Dagsson doesn't shy away from any sexual pervertion for his gags, and many of them rely on the shock value.

While the collection is just OK, there are some gags in this that I liked. For some reason I really liked one with siamese twins in a couch wishing each other happy birthday.

The art is stick man-like, and keeping the drawings this crude allows Dagsson to go quite far in what he depicts.

This volume contains two of my favorite Don Rosa stories, both in the latter half of the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. In "The King of the Klondike" you see the moment where Scrooge becomes a rich man, and in the highlight of the saga, "The Empire-Builder from Calisota", you get to see the Scrooge at his darkest. I remember crying when reading the latter chapter as a kid (and even teen). This collection also includes "Guardians of the Lost Library", a love letter to books, and the Norway-related story about the Lillehammer Olympics.

This volume is mostly the first half of 12-part epic "The life and times of Scrooge McDuck", but it starts of with "Of Ducks and Dimes and Destinies" which was made before the epic but published after. And I think it's better to read it after, as it disrupts the chronology before it even begins. But once Chapter 1 starts, it's a a great ride throughout. These are stories I grew up with, and my Norwegian book collecting them is my dearest one. Still, reading them in English (and seeing them colored the way Rosa intended) is obviously a preferred way of reading them today.

Tja. Catilina er nå spennende å lese, og interessant, i lys av at det er Ibsens første skuespill. Og jo, det er da noe her. De to kvinnelige karakterene som speiler senere kvinnefigurer i Ibsens forfatterskap. Forholdet mellom Catilinas personlige oppgjør og hans offentlige oppgjør. Og den slags. Men mens jeg ellers stort sett har klart å la meg rive med av det jeg har lest av Ibsen, var dette en kamp. Mye på grunn av den svulstige stilen, men også fordi selve intrigen ikke fanget min interesse. En slags konklusjon for min del, er at dette er et stykke som det er mer spennnende å lese om, enn å lese.

Don Rosa starts picking up steam in this second volume. There's some great stories in this one, like the classic (sequel) "Return to Plain Awful", the first of the hilarious Magica-trilogy "On a silver platter" and some other good ones. Two of them I had either forgotten, or never read. "His Fortune on the Rocks" is a short but really funny story that probably relies too heavily on word play for it to be translated to Norwegian(?), while "Back in time for a Dime" was a very sweet take on the joy of collecting. There's also some interesting extras in this, like the Ducktales-comic Don Rosa wrote, and an unpublished comic.

The first volume, featuring the earliest duck stories by Don Rosa. He is good from the get go, but this collection features mostly short gag stories, and only two really great adventures. This also affects his own commentary, because it's obvious he hasn't really a lot to say about the shorter stories. That said, it's a beautiful book, and worth it just for "The Son of the Sun" and "The Last Sled to Dawson".

Hun der Hedda, altså. Jeg tror ikke jeg har særlig nye tanker å tilføye her, det er et spennende stykke å lese. Jeg liker særlig hvor sammensatt intrigen blir, og hvordan alle karakterene opplever den ulikt. I den dramatiske sluttscenen, hvordan forstår/tolker de ulike karakterene handlingen som har skjedd? Kun Hedda sitter med alle brikkene, og det er disse Ibsen prøver å formidle. Bra greier.