Painting Fine-Art Cartoons in Oils - Enchanted Images

ELEMENT 2:
Distraught
ducks
Diagram of Barks’s “Dam Disaster At Money Lake.” In simple-narrative compositions like this one, it isn’t apparent how the narrative
elements interact with each other, or understanding their interaction requires information not contained in the painting.
If a painting’s subject
matter required too much
explanation to be understood
at a glance, Barks resisted
doing it. According to Barks,
fans had been asking for a
painting of the “bursting
of the money dam” since
the 1970s. Barks always
turned them down because
the subject “would take
too much explanation. It’s
something that needs a
long build-up so that you
understand what it is. It’s
the climax of a series of
attempts by the Beagle Boys
to take over that money.”
When Barks finally agreed
to paint “Dam Disaster
At Money Lake” (1986) he
insisted that the lithograph
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ELEMENT 1:
Bursting dam
reproduction of it be
accompanied by a reprint
of Uncle Scrooge FC No.
386, the story on which the
painting was based – for
good reason. Though there
are many visual elements
in the painting, they don’t
interact with each other to
imply action: We see Scrooge
and the nephews; we’re in
an outdoor setting; there’s
a river of money; coins are
flying everywhere; Donald
has a toolbox; and Scrooge,
with his battered hat, is
looking very dismayed.
But what do any of these
elements have to do with
each other? There is no
way of knowing strictly by
looking at the painting.
ELEMENT 3:
Deluge of
coins
I sifted through a couple
of libraries looking for a
definition or description
of how narrative gags
are constructed. Because
I couldn’t find one,
I’ve written my own:
A compound-narrative
composition contains three
or more visual elements that
interact with each other to
imply action. You can almost
write it out as a formula:
Element (1) interacts
with Element (2), which
interacts with Element (3),
which implies action with
(usually) Element (1). It’s
the implied action that
conveys the story. Removal
of any one element will
result in the collapse of the