Penny Wise, continuity, and Italian stuff

Per Starback starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE
Fri Aug 20 23:44:45 CEST 1993


Penny Wise
~~~~~~~~~~
I think Barks has written his share of bad stories, but I certainly
don't count this one among them.  It's funny---that's enough for me.
("Umlx Cyzk bcoufsk goo!")  Who cares if Scrooge acts a bit strange
(if he really does that)?  This is a *Donald* story.

Continuity:
~~~~~~~~~~~
Don:
> 	Let me at least hear someone admit that it IS impossible to make
> perfect sense out of every one of Barks' $crooge stories when put all
> together. Do we at least realize that there ARE blatant contradictions
> since Barks never intended for there to be any continuity?
 
Yes I agree.  Doesn't everyone?  I think your attitude of not
worrying about the continuity problems of *your* stories is the only
sane one.  And that is of course what Disney writers, including Barks,
always have done.  Only a few things are the same or evolve slowly
between the stories, but most of it can change in *any* way between
stories.  If you're being *too* nitpicky about continuity with an
established map of Duckburg and floor-plan of Daisy's house and
whatever when creating new stories they will suffer of course.

BUT on the other hand, I see nothing wrong with trying to do maps and
stuff like that when it's just for the fun of it.  I'm not afraid
about turning into "geeks like those that populate science-fiction
fandom" to quote Don again.  (And I don't think that was very fair by
the way, except perhaps if you mean subfandoms like Star Trek fandom. :-)

Italian stories
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fredrik:
> [...] That one is an Italian comic spanning over more than two
> hundred pages to tell the story of how Scrooge went to the Olympic
> Games in Seoul 1988. [...] The art is pretty OK, but the story is far
> too long to be interesting in the long run. In Sweden it was published
> in one part in Kalle Ankas Pocket 98 while in Italy it was probably
> split up in several parts. The number is I1708.

If Topolino 1708 wasn't some giant size issue, it was split up,
because the Topolino's are "only" 196 pages, including covers and ads
etc.  The classics are built up more or less the same way with a
beginning, a middle and an ending with a climax that brings together
all threads in the story.  It seems to be pretty common in Italy with
longer stories that aren't like that, but are more like slices of life
that could be interrupted more or less anywhere.  Well, there are some
kind of endings of course, but I get the impression of them being like
the endings of soap opera episodes opera.  Some things are concluded,
but there are more to come.
--       "
Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden.  email: starback at student.docs.uu.[se
 "You know, I always felt I should have been an actor, and I could let
out my secret dreams and frustrations through Donald, a little bit at
least."					-- Tony Strobl (1915--1993)



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