Van Horn's "Magic Box" story

[David A Gerstein]

	Dear Folks,

	This letter -- regarding the Van Horn story about the
whistling flea -- was actually written last week.  I got it back with
all the gibberish at the top that you're about to see, and the
question is:  did anyone ever SEE it?

	Anyway, here it is NOW, a bit delayed.

	Your friend, 

	David.


------- Forwarded Message

Received: from sunic.sunet.se by rowe.williams.edu with SMTP id AA28356
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for <David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu>); Fri, 14 May 1993 23:05:40 -0400
Received: from Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE by sunic.sunet.se (5.65c8-/1.28)
	id AA19674; Sat, 15 May 1993 05:05:34 +0200
Received: by Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Sun-4/630, SunOS 4.1.2)
 with sendmail 5.61-bind 1.5+ida/ICU/DoCS id AA19215; Sat, 15 May 93 05:05:30 +0200
Date: Sat, 15 May 93 05:05:30 +0200
From: Mail Delivery Subsystem  <MAILER-DAEMON at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE>
Subject: Returned mail: Cannot send message for 3 days
Message-Id: <9305150305.AA19215 at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE>
To: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu
Cc: Postmaster at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE

   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
421 swap-2.ludat.lth.se (ether)... Deferred: Connection timed out during user open with swap-2.ludat.lth.se

   ----- Unsent message follows -----
Return-Path: <David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu>
Received: from rowe.williams.edu by Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Sun-4/630, SunOS 4.1.2)
 with sendmail 5.61-bind 1.5+ida/ICU/DoCS id AA23734; Wed, 12 May 93 04:58:11 +0200
Received: from bigbird.cc.williams.edu by rowe.williams.edu with SMTP id AA17091
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for <disney-comics at student.docs.uu.se>); Tue, 11 May 1993 22:58:08 -0400
Received: from localhost by bigbird.cc.williams.edu (4.1/client-1.3)
	id AA03407; Tue, 11 May 93 22:58:07 EDT
Message-Id: <9305120258.AA03407 at bigbird.cc.williams.edu>
To: Fredrik Ekman <d91fe at ide.ide.hk-r.se>, disney-comics at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE
Subject: Re: Continuity 
In-Reply-To: Your message of Tue, 11 May 93 15:01:32 BST
Date: Tue, 11 May 93 22:58:06 -0400
From: David A Gerstein <David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu>


	Dear Folks,

	One interesting thing about "The Magic Box" (which I have not
seen) is that it was originally planned and contracted for Disney.
The later Van Horn stories Disney published were quite out of the
order they were done in, and "Magica's Missin' Magic" (as it was then
called) was to have been the backup in DiDDA #17.  However, an earlier-made
story, "Kid Stuff," was substituted for it there, and indeed Disney
never did get around to buying the former story because of the decree
that their number of purchased original stories was to be slashed.  It
would have been the next one bought (and from the looks of things at
the time, might have been put in DDA 22, where presumably "Kid Stuff"
was originally meant to appear).

	Or so Bob Foster told me once.

	The interesting thing about Baron Itzy Bitzy, the whistling
flea, (that's his real name, although it could be "Baron _Von_") is
that "The Whistling Ghost" in DT 10 is not his first appearance.
Earlier on he appeared in the four-page story, "Lost on a Dog," which
was in a Gladstone US issue!
	It looks like this character is Van Horn's attempt at a
continuing character, a pet of the Ducks... and a most bizarre one,
since he doesn't have any real characteristics other than singing and
biting.

	The solicitations for the third month of Disneys mention a new
Van Horn entitled "Out of Harmony's Way."  Is this original for
Gladstone, or also European?

	Your friend,

	David Gerstein



------- End of Forwarded Message