From d91fe at ide.ide.hk-r.se Wed Sep 1 00:13:37 1993 From: d91fe at ide.ide.hk-r.se (Fredrik Ekman) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 93 23:13:37 0100 Subject: About Wilmer's comments Message-ID: <930831231337.0000e615.d91fe@ide.ide.hk-r.se> Just a few comments that may or may not be of interest... Wilmer Rivers wrote, in reply to Don: >Maybe Barks just wants to cash in on his own popularity now that you >have pointed out to him the extent of the market [in Scandinavia]. >Of course, he does so by exploiting you to some extent, since certainly >your own stories have helped keep the duck market alive there. Firstly, I'm quite sure that Barks is, and has been for a long time, aware of his great popularity "over here". He is, after all, an honorary member of the Swedish donaldist association NAFS(k) and has received their club-fanzine and birthday greetings for several years. Secondly, about Don keeping the Scandinavian market alive, that's not quite true. The market here was very much "alive" even before Don's stories started to appear, and has been so for several decades. It is quite possible that Don's stories has attracted quite a few older readers but they are just a very minor part of the market. The average reader is, I would guess, between ten and fourteen years of age, perhaps even younger, and even though there is no reason that they should dislike Don's work I think that most of them find Vicar and others just as exciting. >Has [Barks] said anything about other comics artists in general in the >interviews in which he comes down on your work? That makes me think about a letter from Barks to Disney's Duck Tales book soon after Disney's take-over (could have been #6 or something like that). In the letter, Barks commented on the fact that they had used a character looking very much like himself in one of the previous issues (#2 or 3?). He also had some comments of the new Disney stories (which in the case of Duck Tales would have had art by Jamie Diaz' studios and story by Marv Wolfman (or am I mixing up things?)) and although he didn't say anything straight out, it was quite clear that he wasn't very fond of the "Disney" style. So far as I can remember that is the only time that I have read about Barks commenting on someone elses work (except for second-hand references from Don). Unfortunately, I have given away the comics in question, so I can't look up the details. For whatever it's worth /Fredrik Ekman From mas at cs.bu.edu Wed Sep 1 06:27:22 1993 From: mas at cs.bu.edu (Mark Semich) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 00:27:22 -0400 Subject: What happened to Gladstone? Message-ID: <9309010427.AA24903@csa.bu.edu> It's been quite a while since Gladstone has published any Don Rosa duck stories here in the states. Additionally, all of the forthcoming releases listed in Previews seem to be Barks or Van Horn stories. Mr. Barks and Mr. Van Horn are, of course, extremely talented individuals in their own right and I don't intend to slight their accomplishements; however, *why* aren't any of Mr. Rosa's stories being published?!? It's extremely disapointing whenever a new Gladstone book comes in and I anxiously check for a Don Rosa story only to discover that no, there isn't one this time, either. Does anyone know the reason for this obvious lack on Gladstone's part? Do they have some anti-Rosa policy or something? I had been under the impression that there is a virtual back-log of his stories that have been published over-seas that are just waiting to see print here. And I'm getting very blue in the face holding my breath wanting to read them... From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Wed Sep 1 09:05:22 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Wed, 01 Sep 1993 09:05:22 +0200 Subject: Barks in Ducktales Message-ID: <199309010705.AA10728@athena.research.ptt.nl> Fredrik: > That makes me think about a letter from Barks to Disney's Duck Tales book > soon after Disney's take-over (could have been #6 or something like that). > In the letter, Barks commented on the fact that they had used a character > looking very much like himself in one of the previous issues (#2 or 3?). > He also had some comments of the new Disney stories (which in the case of > Duck Tales would have had art by Jamie Diaz' studios and story by Marv > Wolfman (or am I mixing up things?)) I think you and he are referring to the first DuckTales sequel. Barks was portrayed there as a book keeper of Flintheart Glomgold. The story is by Marv Wolfman, art by Cosme Quartieri and Robert Bat. And Don: keep your work dedicated to U.C., the U.C. from the 50s that is, not today's U.C. who is heaviliy influenced by the wrong agents and doesn't know anymore what he's talking about... --Harry. From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Wed Sep 1 09:11:50 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Wed, 01 Sep 1993 09:11:50 +0200 Subject: What happened to Gladstone? Message-ID: <199309010711.AA10814@athena.research.ptt.nl> Mark Semich: > Does anyone know the reason for this obvious lack on Gladstone's > part? Do they have some anti-Rosa policy or something? One possibility is that they're saving the Rosa stories for the winter season, when they can sell more comics. In 1991 (if I remember well), Disney Comics published no Rosa at all in the summer, and then a Rosa story in almost every issue in November, December, January. On the other hand, apart from the now famous "War of the Wendigo", all Rosa stories that are not published yet in the USA, are "Life Of Scrooge" stories. Maybe they have special plans with that series and are waiting for Don to finish the last part. (Just some guesses..) --Harry. From gilbert at UNIX.CAMPBELLSVIL.edu Wed Sep 1 18:00:09 1993 From: gilbert at UNIX.CAMPBELLSVIL.edu (Gilbert Milburn) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 12:00:09 EDT Subject: Comments on Fredrik's commnets on Wilmer's comments on Don's! Message-ID: <9309011600.AA19030@unix.campbellsvil.edu> Oh, boy!.. This list/digest is really starting to heating-up! In response to: Don, Wilmer and Fredrik... (Last time) Don Rosa said: > In the meantime, folks can help me not be paranoid. Wilmer Rivers : > Well, I can **try**, but probably at least some paranoia on your > part is justifiable. Maybe the balance is misinterpretation (to > give Barks the benefit of the doubt). I suppose that all ANY of us can do!... well, I'll **try** as well and maybe WE should also wait and see what happens!! (UNLESS, Geir Hasnes knows anything the rest of *us* MIGHT NOT!) Don> You recall how Barks snubbed me in Atlanta. Wilmer> Boorish behavior on his part, even if he doesn't like your Wilmer> work. Still, maybe he's just a crank in general, so Wilmer> perhaps you shouldn't take his rudeness as being directed Wilmer> exclusively at you. If it seems to be directed Wilmer> **primarily** at you, this is probably because he does see Wilmer> you as something of a rival. If this is true, and if he Wilmer> does snub his perceived "rivals" in this manner, then it is Wilmer> Barks who is paranoid. I AGREE with Wilmer!.. and might I add there is a great deal of logic to what you've said here! Wilmer> Maybe he doesn't have it in for you in particular, but just Wilmer> for anyone who might siphon off some of the glory and/or Wilmer> cash which would otherwise come his way. Fredrik Ekman > Firstly, I'm quite sure that Barks is, and has been for a long > time, aware of his great popularity "over here". He is, after > all, an honorary member of the Swedish donaldist association > NAFS(k) and has received their club-fanzine and birthday > greetings for several years. Yes, this TRUE -- nevertheless I have asked Don (years ago on the phone) and MANY other more knowledgeable collectors then myself, about this same subject! And the general consensus/believe was that Barks had grown tired of $crooge and all the `fuss' created by this character. Because he was SO BURNT-OUT, he had become something of a recluse and didn't really care about his GREAT popularity!! Don> You saw how he's decided to write a new story and have Van Don> Horn draw it. Now, a few weeks after a large article appeared Don> in CBG which told, in part, of my popularity in Scandinavia, Don> his agent has contacted Egmont and told them that Barks wants Don> to visit Scandinavia for a tour (and wants to be paid, etc.). Don> This on top of the things he's said about me to foreign Don> magazines. Hey Don, if you wish to fight-fire-with-fire start writing stories for other artists (say: Dan Jippes) to draw while you are STILL writing/drawing your own stories... in this way, you would have TWICE as many stories as anyone else out there!!! Fredrik> [...] and although he [Barks] didn't say anything straight Fredrik> out, it was quite clear that he wasn't very fond of the Fredrik> "Disney" style. So far as I can remember that is the only Fredrik> time that I have read about Barks commenting on someone Fredrik> else's work (except for second-hand references from Don). Fredrik> Unfortunately, I have given away the comics in question, Fredrik> so I can't look up the details. For whatever it's worth That's too bad!.. maybe some other member of disney-comics <@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> has it or could find it (How about it Per?)! Don> I guess it's time to remove the "D.U.C.K." dedication from my Don> stories and covers, eh? Wilmer> Probably not, since the fact that these are duck stories, Wilmer> rather than stories featuring your original characters, is Wilmer> in fact a dedication to Barks' work. Of course, there's Wilmer> always a fine line between homage and rip-off, and maybe Wilmer> Barks sees your work as being on the wrong side of that Wilmer> line. (Again, this would be paranoia on his part rather Wilmer> than yours.) The "D.U.C.K." dedication shows what your Wilmer> intentions are, and I think it's proper to make them clear Wilmer> in that manner. You have some good suggestion (for Don) gentlemen, I was also like to say that I too am confused by ALL this *recent* Barks activity after sooo many decades of INactivity!! All can offer you Don, is my *support* and my HOPE for the BEST!!! Good Luck... Your Friend, Gil Milburn From gerstein at math.ucsb.edu Thu Sep 2 02:31:21 1993 From: gerstein at math.ucsb.edu (Larry Gerstein) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 17:31:21 -0700 Subject: Disney-comics digest #80. Message-ID: <199309020031.AA03524@math.ucsb.edu> Per: >The two issues of "The Uncensored Mouse" that Eternity published with >Mickey Mouse comics strips that were in the public domain are >currently being discussed in rec.arts.comics.misc. (Well, all of it >were *not* in the public domain, as Disney was able to stop them, but >most it was.) > >Exactly what stories were in those issues? The Mystery Island (the >very first one), I've gathered, but what more? Greetings, folks! I'm back at my Dad's office for the ONLY time before I leave for Williams College (on Monday). The bit quoted above is from the most recent letter I've read. Uncensored Mouse #1 had most of "Lost on a Desert Island", which is the official American name for this story, and #2 finished it. #2 also had about the first 3 weeks of "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley," just enough to prove that Abbeville butchered this one more than any other, completely rewriting the dialogue in many entire strips. Actually, the original seems like a pretty good story, although as it stands now John Clark says it's too long for WDC&S. Ah, well... Per, please begin sending these Digests to David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu which is once again my address as of NOW. (Sorry to be so abrupt, but I know I won't get back here again.) Thanks! When I get through reading all the digests, I'll have a more detailed response. (I'll *also* offer a large update for wdc.index, including to WDC&S #9 (which I got at the San Diego Con, where I also had the pleasure of meeting Don Rosa!!!) Your friend, David Gerstein From gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu Thu Sep 2 03:24:32 1993 From: gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu (Gilbert Milburn) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 21:24:32 EDT Subject: More questions (for Don) about Lance Message-ID: <9309020124.AA21973@unix.campbellsvil.edu> From 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM Thu Sep 2 06:05:24 1993 From: 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM (Don Rosa) Date: 02 Sep 93 00:05:24 EDT Subject: +Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #90. Message-ID: <930902040524_72260.2635_EHK35-1@CompuServe.COM> MARK SEMICH is asking why Gladstone is not using my stories. Harry had it right -- ALL my unreprinted Euro stories are in my "Life and Times of $crooge McDuck" series; Gladstone wants to print them straight through, one in each issue of UNCLE $CROOGE, and they wanted to make sure the stories would have been used in Europe (which must happen before anyone else can get them) so that Gladstone wouldn't have to skip an issue down the line. But part one is scheduled for the $CROOGE issue out in December, now that I am now working on the final chapter. During these two, long years of this "Life" series, there will be 4 other stories available for reprinting. In other words, right now there are fifteen fully-completed 15-30 page stories (by me) waiting for reprinting, not including the part 12 I'm working on right now. Exactly what they are is sorta covered in my note below. I finally looked through the "Rosa Index" that's in the Library on this service. I can make only teeny-tiny comments, but I'll go ahead and do so since such has been requested: "The Pied Piper of Duckburg" pages 1-3 were also PENCILLED by Barks, not just written. Somebody was pretty sharp to notice that there were some panels "mirrored" in Disney's use of "Super Snooper Strikes Again". I almost didn't notice it myself. I still don't know why they did it. Part 3 of the "Life" series, "The King of the Copper Hill", will be titled differently when Gladstone uses it; perhaps "The Flash in the Copper Pan" or "The Raider of the Copper Hill". How did someone know the original title of part 6? (I probably mentioned it, eh?) We might use that for Gladstone. Which sounds better? The stories waiting to be used (even in Europe) are "The Guardians of the Lost Library", 28 pages, which will be used in Europe this very month. Last I heard, I'm to make another tour through Scandanavia to help promote it as it ties in with a national "Year of the Book" in Norway (and Finland?). Also there is the 15 page "Of Ducks and Dimes and Destinies" which I did over 2 years ago, but which is being delayed since it covers much the same ground as the first chapter of the "Life" series; they should be able to use that soon, I'd think. Those two stories are two of my favorites (and I usually don't like my stories). Also there is "From Duckburg to Lillehammer", a 12 page "gag" story to coincide with the Norway winter Olympics; no big deal... some good slapstick, s'all. And then there's that "The War of the Wendigo", unused in America due to Disney's fear of using stories involving Native Americans; Gladstone has recently told me that there is not really an "official ban" on the use of that story... they just want to wait a while before they run it by the Disney folks again, and maybe the pea-brained bureaucrat who nixed it before won't be paying attention or will be working for Hanna Barbera or dead or who noze. In the COVER section: I see two listings for covers for "The Money Pit". Does someone think there were two different versions? No, the first time Disney used it they mucked about with it a bit, but when it was used in that $9 album they printed it the way I drew it. Now, there WERE two different covers for "The Son of the Sun", but the FIRST one I drew was the one they used on the reprint album and in overseas reprints. The one on UNCLE $CROOGE #219 was the SECOND one I drew -- we'd decided to omit the background figures. So, I don't know which cover you'll want to label I or II. The covers for the WALT DISNEY'S COMICS IN COLOR series? #2 was Donald drawing Mickey drawing $crooge drawing Donald, etc. #3 were the nephews "dressed" as DD & U$ & MM -- a really sick cover that was Disney's idea, say no more. #4 was DD and U$ and a Beagle Boy eyeing each other. #5 was DD, U$ and MM as "the Spirit of '76". Don't ask why. #6 was just a stupid looking pose with DD & MM. #7 was a dandy one showing all the Ducks marching off on some adventure and all sorts of trains and boats and planes in the background against a world map. The unpublished cover to #8 may still be used on a DONALD AND MICKEY issue someday. A question: my money-bin cover for the recent U$ #281 is listed as "the rainbow factor". What's that mean??? Stuff for foreign fanzines: I did the poster for the 1992 "Donaldist Kongress" in Germany -- they also used it in DER DONALDIST. It's very embarrassing in that I drew Gladstone Gander's EYES wrong, something I can't explain!!! I've done other illustrations of the Ducks for fanzines over the past 20+ years... it would take me a long time to try to figure out where and when. But they were all done before I was "legit". That's all I noticed. If there was something omitted completely from the list, I wouldn't have noticed since I don't have all my work memorized -- I always need to refer to nice people's "Rosa Indexes" to see what I've been doing, From gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu Thu Sep 2 06:20:55 1993 From: gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu (Gilbert Milburn) Date: Thu, 2 Sep 93 00:20:55 EDT Subject: Even more question (for Don) about Lance!.. Message-ID: <9309020420.AA22756@unix.campbellsvil.edu> Torsten Adair said: > Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 22:19:29 -0500 (CDT) > From: Torsten Wesley Adair > Subject: Re: More questions (for Don) about Lance > On Wed, 1 Sep 1993, Gilbert Milburn wrote: >> > Yes, that's all that I received. Blank space. A tabula Rosa, if > you will. Thanks Torsten, That's the second time that has happen... I don't know what's going on but here we go again!.. __ Hello again, On August 31 1993 in the Disney-comics digest #89 Don Rosa said: > Gil and whoever else: > I can't explain that remark that there were enough Pertwillaby > Papers left AFTER issue #1 of DRC&S to fill "three more volumes". > There was clearly only enough to fill ONE more volume. Perhaps I > wanted them to reprint the daily strips at that time. Yeah -- > maybe I vaguely recall that they balked at that because they had > been reprinted in COLLECTOR'S DREAM and RBCC already? Who knows > after 10 years (and that's just since the REPRINTS). But I did > attempt to finish "Knighttime", doing one more 10 page episode > back in '83, which no human eyes have ever seen except maybe > mine. Dear Don, Here a `wee' little thought for you about RE-reprinting those issues of: DON ROSA COMICS AND STORIES! Put them into a GIANT size comic album episodes #1-138 (and MAYBE even include "Captain Kentucky" episodes #1-150). As well as the never before published "P.P." #139 and #140 (are these the "Knighttime" episodes?) and if the "C.K." stuff is incorporated, then episode #290 (I guess it would be) of "P.P." would have to be included and they also have never been seen by any other human, besides YOU!.. maybe TWO albums would be more appropriate! Oh, yeah while we are on the subject of "Lancey" an `associate' of mine said he had once spoke to you and had asked if your lovely wife was the model for "Ms. Feather Fluff" (specifically, the secretary who burned Lance's arm in one of the C.K. episodes--which was why she was listed as one of the `people insulted in the back of the first 50 episodes') according to him you said that she was!.. is this *true* at all?? Don this said: > [...] I retired from cartooning for 4 years until Gladstone > appeared. Then I found that the same plots featuring Lance that > people cared nothing for became VERY popular when I put the Ducks > in them. That's the sort of knowledge that will always help me > remember "my place". It's the DUCKS that make me popular. > Anyway, I have no advice for you to help find old RBCCs or > COLLECTOR'S DREAMs. I plan on turning ALL those stories into Duck > stories eventually at which time they'll be improved with > slightly (but not much) better art and NO ROSA LETTERING. So I > suggest you just wait. Using this NEW found popularly of yours, this could be a chance for your Disney-fans to own a piece of pre-Disney Rosa nostalgia. If you would consider THIS proposal, then do you think that the ole "C.K." publisher (the same company that published "Captain Marvel/SHAZAM"!) -- Gladstone or maybe even Egmont would facilitate this endeavor? Although, I will be eagerly awaiting the translation of ALL those stories into Duck epics!.. I STILL would LOVE to see your ol' boy Lance back in action again, if only in reprints! Your Friend and Fan, Gil Milburn From gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu Thu Sep 2 06:39:49 1993 From: gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu (Gilbert Milburn) Date: Thu, 2 Sep 93 00:39:49 EDT Subject: What's happened to Gladstone? Message-ID: <9309020439.AA22782@unix.campbellsvil.edu> Greetings, Here's another one near and dear to me as well... > Subject: What happened to Gladstone? Mark Semich said: > It's been quite a while since Gladstone has published any Don > Rosa duck stories here in the states. Additionally, all of the > forthcoming releases listed in Previews seem to be Barks or Van > Horn stories. Tell me about it, WE (Don's fellow countrymen) would like to see his stuff just as MUCH as the Egmont countries do!! Mark: > Mr. Barks and Mr. Van Horn are, of course, extremely talented > individuals in their own right and I don't intend to slight their > accomplishements; however, *why* aren't any of Mr. Rosa's stories > being published?!? It's extremely disapointing whenever a new > Gladstone book comes in and I anxiously check for a Don Rosa > story only to discover that no, there isn't one this time, > either. I know this feeling *well* and because I have been following Don's work for a number of years the *DISAPPOINTMANT/FRUSTRATION* is unquestionably biting and strongly resented!!! Granted his covers pop-up from time-to-time... but that is NOT enough! Mark: > Does anyone know the reason for this obvious lack on Gladstone's > part? Do they have some anti-Rosa policy or something? It would certainly seem so, (I *HOPE NOT*) I even remember Per once had this to say, when I asked a question about the Life of $crooge... > Date: Thu, 29 Apr 93 21:43:50 +0200 > From: Per Starback > Subject: This and that > I think you can be pretty sure that Gladstone will print all of > Rosa's Egmont stories. He's good and, perhaps more to the point, > a fan-favourite (not totally unrelated! :-) > But if your or anyone else really has to own comic books in > Swedish with Rosa's stories please mail me about it and I'll see > if I can find any. Mark: > I had been under the impression that there is a virtual back-log > of his stories that have been published over-seas that are just > waiting to see print here. And I'm getting very blue in the face > holding my breath wanting to read them... Yes, there's definitely IS and it sure would be NICE to see the @#*&^+~%}{=! things (WOULDN'T IT!)!!! Harry Fluks then said: > One possibility is that they're saving the Rosa stories for the > winter season, when they can sell more comics. In 1991 (if I > remember well), Disney Comics published no Rosa at all in the > summer, and then a Rosa story in almost every issue in November, > December, January. Let's hope you're RIGHT about that Harry! Harry: > On the other hand, apart from the now famous "War of the > Wendigo", all Rosa stories that are not published yet in the > USA, are "Life Of Scrooge" stories. Maybe they have special plans > with that series and are waiting for Don to finish the last part. Yep, we in the states will never get to read this one (unless Gladstone has a change of heart) and it will be ages before the "Life Of Scrooge" stories ever surface HERE! As for the much celebrated "War of the Wendigo" could I add that to the list of books that you (Harry) and I where going to exchange? That all about this one, Gil Milburn P.S. Harry I have e-mailed you three different pieces of mail, did you receive them or NOT? I realize you could be very busy... but it has been over a week ago! Just let me know something so I can decided what I need to do NEXT!! From gerstein at math.ucsb.edu Thu Sep 2 03:10:20 1993 From: gerstein at math.ucsb.edu (Larry Gerstein) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 18:10:20 -0700 Subject: Recent digests Message-ID: <199309020110.AA03592@math.ucsb.edu> Dear Folks, I've been places since I last talked to you! Most notably, the San Diego Comic Convention, where I got some fine Dells, and more importantly met with my managers from Gladstone and Egmont (not to mention Don Rosa, who I was very glad to meet at last!). I don't think we need to worry that Carl Barks will try to one-up any of the Rosa sequels. His story is apparently about Scrooge searching for the original Trojan Horse (I found out same from his agents, or at least I *think* they were his agents). I now have issue dates for a few of my foreign dialogs, these being my own choices for translation: WDC&S 589 [*not* 590 as stated before] Ben Verhagen's "Bugged by Humbug" (Donald being swindled by a phony exterminator in a plot-that-builds) WDC&S 591 [tentative] Vicar's "For School the Bell Tolls" (a Donald-as-truant-officer story which I manipulated into a sequel to Barks' 1949 one; originally, the story seemed to have been written without knowledge of the earlier one, but I felt it was one of the best Vicars I'd seen, so went to work!) US 285 [tentative] 2 Daniel Branca stories: "His Master's Voice" (Scrooge tries to avoid a huge debt by posing as "rich" Donald's impoverished butler, my personal favorite of all foreign stories!) and "In and Out" (the Beagle Boys use a "money-counting" machine to swindle Scrooge). After buying those initial four dialogues from me, Gladstone has since accepted seven more, although they haven't been scheduled yet. They also have arranged to use the three that Disney Comics bought from me in 1992 and didn't use. I'll tell you about these when I know more about their impending publication. I can *also* give issue numbers for a few, although I don't know if German will correspond to Danish in all cases. (For some Rosa stories it didn't.) Last week's German MM had the first chapter of the Life of Scrooge, so they have definitely gone ahead with it. A fine translation, I might add. At the Egmont dinner I discovered that Fleetway was doing the Life of Scrooge (Don, was this the first time you'd seen a British version yourself?). They are printing the long chapters in serial form, so might they have indeed printed "War of the Wendigo" after all? Note: Fleetway is on the clumsy side, they credited the Life of Scrooge as being "A Carl Barks Classic"!!! I think some of Barks' current soreness with Rosa, completely unwarranted of course, is simply due to how Rosa's success proves him wrong. For years Barks forgot how exploited he obviously felt when he made the duck stories, saying that of course he got taken advantage of, but big business is like that and he's perfectly glad to accept the anonymity he had for so long, etc. etc. Don, you're a shining example of someone who's done what he had to to receive proper credit for his work, at least in this country, and Barks has no doubt seen what success that brought you. That's why we see him getting an agent now and going all-out to promote the name Carl Barks (as opposed to "the good artist", for example). After all, he's still not in WHO'S WHO, is he? But that's no reason to be sore with Don, just with *himself* for his own arch-conservative attitude that he deceived himself with for so long! Of course, he's missing the point by being unkind to Don, which is completely unwarranted and very unfortunate. I talked to Barks once, in 1987. I naively asked him what he thought of Don's stories, and he said then that he thought they were okay, but that the artwork in a few places was "too busy" (detailed?). I like the details, and Barks had 'em too in his late-'40s golden period! Let's see what you think, folks. I'll be back on-line at Williams in a few days, and you can reach me (and send all digests to) David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu Your friend, David Gerstein. "Why a duck?" --- Groucho Marx From gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu Thu Sep 2 22:48:42 1993 From: gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu (Gilbert Milburn) Date: Thu, 2 Sep 93 16:48:42 EDT Subject: Want ole Rosa issues?.. talk to Harry. Message-ID: <9309022048.AA26041@unix.campbellsvil.edu> Hello everyone, I received this personal post from Harry and thought I would send a excerpt to the list. For some of the rest of you (like me) who are looking for Rosa issues... > From root Thu Sep 2 05:17 EDT 1993 > Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1993 10:59:16 +0200 > From: Harry Fluks > Subject: What's happened to Harry? > To: gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu > X-Envelope-To: gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT > [...] I certainly will buy several copies of War of the > Wendigo when I see them! Also, all other Rosa comic stories that > are not reprinted in the USA. Don says they'll start with Life of > Scrooge in December, so we'll just see about that. Now REMEMBER, poor Harry is ONLY one man and can't find back issues for you and everyone you know!! However, for toughs TRUE Rosa fans out there, across America -- who want there very own copy of the "War of the Wendigo" (in Dutch) then, Harry is the man to see! Hartelijke groeten, Gil and Harry BTW: For those of you don't have there handy-dandy "Junior Woodchuck decoder-ring" on them... don't ask me what this mean? Gil Milburn P.S. I've been working on away to remove they ridiculous control Z's from the end of my posts... let me know if it has been working or not. From mas at cs.bu.edu Fri Sep 3 04:23:12 1993 From: mas at cs.bu.edu (Mark Semich) Date: Thu, 2 Sep 93 22:23:12 -0400 Subject: Want ole Rosa issues?.. talk to Harry. In-Reply-To: Gilbert Milburn's message of Thu, 2 Sep 93 16:48:42 EDT <9309022048.AA26041@unix.campbellsvil.edu> Message-ID: <9309030223.AA28677@csa.bu.edu> >From: Gilbert Milburn >> From: Harry Fluks >> [...] I certainly will buy several copies of War of the >> Wendigo when I see them! Also, all other Rosa comic stories that >> are not reprinted in the USA. Don says they'll start with Life of >> Scrooge in December, so we'll just see about that. > > Now REMEMBER, poor Harry is ONLY one man and can't find back >issues for you and everyone you know!! However, for toughs TRUE >Rosa fans out there, across America -- who want there very own copy >of the "War of the Wendigo" (in Dutch) then, Harry is the man to >see! Any chance of anyone picking up the Fleetway "Life of Scrooge" when it comes out? I'd gladly pay much money for it (or the issues, whichever way it's being printed). I may be going to England in January, but I hear that by that time, the series will have started in the U.S. Is the Fleetway thing going to be one big volume, or individual issues? From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Fri Sep 3 09:08:28 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1993 09:08:28 +0200 Subject: Want "ole" Rosa issues?.. talk to Harry. Message-ID: <199309030708.AA08250@athena.research.ptt.nl> Gilbert: > I received this personal post from Harry and thought I would > send a excerpt to the list. For some of the rest of you (like me) > who are looking for Rosa issues... > > > [...] I certainly will buy several copies of War of the > > Wendigo when I see them! Also, all other Rosa comic stories that > > are not reprinted in the USA. Don says they'll start with Life of > > Scrooge in December, so we'll just see about that. What is this? Sending PRIVATE mail to people it wasn't meant for? > Now REMEMBER, poor Harry is ONLY one man and can't find back > issues for you and everyone you know!! However, for toughs TRUE > Rosa fans out there, across America -- who want there very own copy > of the "War of the Wendigo" (in Dutch) then, Harry is the man to > see! Well, actually, this is what I had in mind: - When (or IF) I find Dutch copies for War of the Wendigo, I will buy as many as possible, and THEN offer them to whoever wants them. I'm not saying that I DO find those copies, though... - The "other Rosa comic stories" will see print in the USA, so I think it's wasting time to get the Dutch issues only a few months earlier. Gilbert explicitly asked for them though, so I'll buy some for him IN TRADE for some Rosa stuff I don't have. Hartelijke groeten (this time they're REALLY from me), --Harry. From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Fri Sep 3 09:49:44 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1993 09:49:44 +0200 Subject: Don's comments on the 'don-rosa' index Message-ID: <199309030749.AA09812@athena.research.ptt.nl> Don: > MARK SEMICH is asking why Gladstone is not using my stories. > Harry had it right -- ALL my unreprinted Euro stories are in my "Life > and Times of $crooge McDuck" series; Gladstone wants to print them > straight through, one in each issue of UNCLE $CROOGE Will this mean only six stories a year? So we'll have to wait more than two years to get the Life of Scrooge complete (in English)? > I finally looked through the "Rosa Index" that's in the Library > on this service. I can make only teeny-tiny comments, but I'll go ahead > and do so since such has been requested: Thank you very much Don! > "The Pied Piper of Duckburg" pages 1-3 were also PENCILLED by > Barks, not just written. Yeah... Per and I discussed this once, and I proposed to consider the pencils as part of the script (just like Barks' Junior Woodchuck stories), so mea culpa. > Somebody was pretty sharp to notice that there were some panels > "mirrored" in Disney's use of "Super Snooper Strikes Again". I almost > didn't notice it myself. I still don't know why they did it. The index said that the *Danish* version had mirrored panels. But that's the original, then? > How did someone know the original title of part 6? (I probably > mentioned it, eh?) We might use that for Gladstone. Which sounds better? For me as a non-American the title "The prey of the Transvaal viper" sounds much more interesting than "The terror of the Transvaal"... > In the COVER section: I see two listings for covers for "The > Money Pit". Does someone think there were two different versions? I just named the cover of the Scrooge&Donald album after the story it was inspired on (so I didn't have to think about how to describe the cover...) > No, > the first time Disney used it they mucked about with it a bit, but when > it was used in that $9 album they printed it the way I drew it. I didn't know there was a difference! > The covers for the WALT DISNEY'S COMICS IN COLOR series? BTW: I still think these are the worst artwork you have ever done. I saw the Beagle Boy cover once, and it made the comic album very unattractive. (Hope you can stand the criticism 8-) > A question: my money-bin cover for the recent U$ #281 is listed > as "the rainbow factor". What's that mean??? I think that's the name of the lead story of the comic (?) It should be corrected. > I've done other illustrations of the Ducks for fanzines over the > past 20+ years... it would take me a long time to try to figure out > where and when. Well, it's the artist's task to draw them, it's the fan's task to trace them and put them in a list 8-). Somewhere in the near future, all your remarks will be incorporated in a new, better version of the 'don-rosa' file! (Right, Per? 8-) --Harry. From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Fri Sep 3 09:55:52 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1993 09:55:52 +0200 Subject: David's dialogues Message-ID: <199309030755.AA10123@athena.research.ptt.nl> > I now have issue dates for a few of my foreign dialogs, these being > my own choices for translation: But still: do you have the story CODES? When we Europeans know the code, we can look it up more easily, and see what the story is like even before it is reprinted in the USA. --Harry. From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Fri Sep 3 09:58:26 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Fri, 3 Sep 93 09:58:26 +0200 Subject: The 'don-rosa' index In-Reply-To: Harry Fluks's message of Fri, 03 Sep 1993 09:49:44 +0200 <199309030749.AA09812@athena.research.ptt.nl> Message-ID: <9309030758.AA08263@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> Thanks for the comments on the index, Don! Harry: > Somewhere in the near future, all your [Don's] remarks will be > incorporated in a new, better version of the 'don-rosa' file! > (Right, Per? 8-) Please go ahead! If noone else does it I eventually will, but not in the near future as I'm busy busy busy right now. -- " Per From Geir.Hasnes at DELAB.SINTEF.no Fri Sep 3 11:57:05 1993 From: Geir.Hasnes at DELAB.SINTEF.no (Geir.Hasnes@DELAB.SINTEF.no) Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1993 10:57:05 +0100 Subject: Barks and the War of the Comico Message-ID: <9309030857.AA20909@figaro.er.sintef.no> > I suppose that all ANY of us can do!... well, I'll **try** as >well and maybe WE should also wait and see what happens!! (UNLESS, >Geir Hasnes knows anything the rest of *us* MIGHT NOT!) > >Wilmer> Maybe he doesn't have it in for you in particular, but just >Wilmer> for anyone who might siphon off some of the glory and/or > Hello out there, I have been so busy recently I havent had time to comment on the topics, but I have ftp-ed all the old digests and plan to go through it all. Re Barks and his new direction: I talk now and then with Geoffrey Blum, who has had running contact with Barks the last few years. Barks got more and more tired with Gladstone and Another Rainbow, thats why he stopped doing the covers for the Barks Library. He was burnt-out, that is true. However, we have to know a few things to understand what is going on now: - Barks has children from previous marriages, and these again have children. He has built up a fund for them for one or another reason. One reason may be that one daughter of him died while her children were small. I dont know the full story. - Barks was in severe debt after the breakdown of the second marriage. He has had to work hard just to keep with that. - Barks built up a fund for Gare so that if he died, she would be financially safe until she died. * These three activities were the rational basis of his continued work, when he chose to continue after he had retired. * Barks was very well paid at Western. In fact he earned very much when calculated into what it would be worth today. He never travelled and used little money on himself: consequently it is a mystery where the money went, apart from for his children and grandchildren and debt and funds. - Barks did not consciously think about what his work was worth until the activity in the 70s. - He felt very annoyed when he saw how Disney earned money on the reprints and he didnt. - He has many times said he felt that he was used by Disney, and is consequently angered and bitter. - The fans of course cheated Barks when they bought original art from him just to sell for ten times as much the next day. Barks began to understand that the art had a value, so he began selling it himself for market value. - According to Blum, Barks is that sort of guy who cannot understand the sentiments of the people who love his stories. He is not able to understand why they love his work so much. But he is aware of his own standard of work. He writes nice letters to people in response to them, because he feels it is his duty, but he will not keep his temper to people who know him, like Blum. - On the other hand, Barks can relate to the people who buy and sell his art, because he can understand them. * I think we can say that Barks has an understanding of the financial value of the stories and characters, but not of the sentimental value of it. - Barks has many times been very clear about what he means about the articles in the Barks Library. He calls it leftist quasiintellectual rubbish when they speculate. He calls it an attack on his artistic freedom when his sources are shown, like the articles from National Geographic. He doesnt like anyone building theories upon his stories, and he doesnt like anyone obviously earning money and reputation on _his_ work. - The first one to annoy Barks in that respect is Don Rosa. Geoffrey Blum has managed to steer clear of his anger, but it hasnt always been easy. Don is the first one to have a reputation actually built on Barkses own work. * Gladstone / Another Rainbow gave him a huge royalty on the library and books and comics even though they didnt have to. Because they had to pay that to Disney too, who had the rights to the material. Even though Bruce Hamilton is a money-grabbing guy, he has done more to ensure Barks in his old age than anyone else. He has not always had to pay him when they resold his paintings, he could in some states have got away with that, but he did pay him. - Barks now turns away from Hamilton simply in order to make more money. - He also attacks Rosa because Rosa drains money out of Barkses creation. - He did not do this before Gare died. Barks cared very much for Gare. - Barks is 92 years old. - Barks wanted to live alone, away from Disney. According to Blum, he has depicted himself as the old,long-lived oriental in US 71 who has gone searching for King Scrooges ancestors for two thousand years at least. Blum has painted a terrible picture of Barkses relation to Disney, I have transcribed a huge interview with Blum on these things, actually 3 taped hours, but I can never print it as long as Blum does Disney things, it was a pick behind the scenes to an unheard degree. Barks is tired, old and hates Disney and all that. Read Blums article in Barks Library set V about US 71. * We need to see that Barks is in fact a bit like the bitter side of Scrooge. He feel that the only thing they cant take from him, his whole foundation, is that he and he alone created the Duckburg universe. And he feel that if anyone else earns money on it, he should be the first one to be paid. * My theory is that he wouldnt do so much about it as long as Gare lived, but now that she is away, he concentrates about obtaining money and fame. Not that he waited to do it, but now it is the only thing he has left to think about. * And I think that no matter how much he is paid, he will not be satisfied. * And no matter how much you tell him you love his stories, he will not understand it. * Dont you see that this is the same thing as I said some digests ago, that to use the characters of Barks in such a way, digging up his sources and making more out of it, is like stealing money from Scrooge. You are stealing his life, his memories, taking his clothes off him, letting him stand there naked. There is more to Barkses stories than meets the eye at first sight. Barks had an unconscious but deep understanding of human relationships that made him do these brilliant stories. Now he acts out what he himself told. * CONCLUSION: * The only thing we can do is to continue to love Barks, and not do anything about his attacks and feverish attempts to direct money and fame to him. He doesnt do it for his own sake, he does it simply because Bruce and Don has earned money and fame on _his_ creation. If Bruce and Don werent there, he would have lived in peace and quiet. If Don hadnt gone to Scandinavia, Barks never would have thought of it. He does it to tell people that it is _him_ that is the one to look up to, it is him who should be paid. * We can continue to tell him that we love him and his creation and nothing he does now can take away the impression that he once was the greatest storyteller of our youth and that he is a part of 20th century literature for all time. * And let us for Gods sake not attack him. He has not got many years left to live. He will probably never understand our love. He panicks about, to grab money just as Scrooge when the money floats away from him. Let us view that as the pitiful reaction of an old man who has been exploited most of his life and didnt understand it until recently that something could be done with it. * Have mercy with him. Geir Hasnes. From Geir.Hasnes at DELAB.SINTEF.no Fri Sep 3 12:29:37 1993 From: Geir.Hasnes at DELAB.SINTEF.no (Geir.Hasnes@DELAB.SINTEF.no) Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1993 11:29:37 +0100 Subject: Barks and the War of the Comico Message-ID: <9309030929.AA21229@figaro.er.sintef.no> > I suppose that all ANY of us can do!... well, I'll **try** as >well and maybe WE should also wait and see what happens!! (UNLESS, >Geir Hasnes knows anything the rest of *us* MIGHT NOT!) > >Wilmer> Maybe he doesn't have it in for you in particular, but just >Wilmer> for anyone who might siphon off some of the glory and/or > Hello out there, I have been so busy recently I havent had time to comment on the topics, but I have ftp-ed all the old digests and plan to go through it all. Re Barks and his new direction: I talk now and then with Geoffrey Blum, who has had running contact with Barks the last few years. Barks got more and more tired with Gladstone and Another Rainbow, thats why he stopped doing the covers for the Barks Library. He was burnt-out, that is true. However, we have to know a few things to understand what is going on now: - Barks has children from previous marriages, and these again have children. He has built up a fund for them for one or another reason. One reason may be that one daughter of him died while her children were small. I dont know the full story. - Barks was in severe debt after the breakdown of the second marriage. He has had to work hard just to keep with that. - Barks built up a fund for Gare so that if he died, she would be financially safe until she died. * These three activities were the rational basis of his continued work, when he chose to continue after he had retired. * Barks was very well paid at Western. In fact he earned very much when calculated into what it would be worth today. He never travelled and used little money on himself: consequently it is a mystery where the money went, apart from for his children and grandchildren and debt and funds. - Barks did not consciously think about what his work was worth until the activity in the 70s. - He felt very annoyed when he saw how Disney earned money on the reprints and he didnt. - He has many times said he felt that he was used by Disney, and is consequently angered and bitter. - The fans of course cheated Barks when they bought original art from him just to sell for ten times as much the next day. Barks began to understand that the art had a value, so he began selling it himself for market value. - According to Blum, Barks is that sort of guy who cannot understand the sentiments of the people who love his stories. He is not able to understand why they love his work so much. But he is aware of his own standard of work. He writes nice letters to people in response to them, because he feels it is his duty, but he will not keep his temper to people who know him, like Blum. - On the other hand, Barks can relate to the people who buy and sell his art, because he can understand them. * I think we can say that Barks has an understanding of the financial value of the stories and characters, but not of the sentimental value of it. - Barks has many times been very clear about what he means about the articles in the Barks Library. He calls it leftist quasiintellectual rubbish when they speculate. He calls it an attack on his artistic freedom when his sources are shown, like the articles from National Geographic. He doesnt like anyone building theories upon his stories, and he doesnt like anyone obviously earning money and reputation on _his_ work. - The first one to annoy Barks in that respect is Don Rosa. Geoffrey Blum has managed to steer clear of his anger, but it hasnt always been easy. Don is the first one to have a reputation actually built on Barkses own work. * Gladstone / Another Rainbow gave him a huge royalty on the library and books and comics even though they didnt have to. Because they had to pay that to Disney too, who had the rights to the material. Even though Bruce Hamilton is a money-grabbing guy, he has done more to ensure Barks in his old age than anyone else. He has not always had to pay him when they resold his paintings, he could in some states have got away with that, but he did pay him. - Barks now turns away from Hamilton simply in order to make more money. - He also attacks Rosa because Rosa drains money out of Barkses creation. - He did not do this before Gare died. Barks cared very much for Gare. - Barks is 92 years old. - Barks wanted to live alone, away from Disney. According to Blum, he has depicted himself as the old,long-lived oriental in US 71 who has gone searching for King Scrooges ancestors for two thousand years at least. Blum has painted a terrible picture of Barkses relation to Disney, I have transcribed a huge interview with Blum on these things, actually 3 taped hours, but I can never print it as long as Blum does Disney things, it was a pick behind the scenes to an unheard degree. Barks is tired, old and hates Disney and all that. Read Blums article in Barks Library set V about US 71. * We need to see that Barks is in fact a bit like the bitter side of Scrooge. He feel that the only thing they cant take from him, his whole foundation, is that he and he alone created the Duckburg universe. And he feel that if anyone else earns money on it, he should be the first one to be paid. * My theory is that he wouldnt do so much about it as long as Gare lived, but now that she is away, he concentrates about obtaining money and fame. Not that he waited to do it, but now it is the only thing he has left to think about. * And I think that no matter how much he is paid, he will not be satisfied. * And no matter how much you tell him you love his stories, he will not understand it. * Dont you see that this is the same thing as I said some digests ago, that to use the characters of Barks in such a way, digging up his sources and making more out of it, is like stealing money from Scrooge. You are stealing his life, his memories, taking his clothes off him, letting him stand there naked. There is more to Barkses stories than meets the eye at first sight. Barks had an unconscious but deep understanding of human relationships that made him do these brilliant stories. Now he acts out what he himself told. * CONCLUSION: * The only thing we can do is to continue to love Barks, and not do anything about his attacks and feverish attempts to direct money and fame to him. He doesnt do it for his own sake, he does it simply because Bruce and Don has earned money and fame on _his_ creation. If Bruce and Don werent there, he would have lived in peace and quiet. If Don hadnt gone to Scandinavia, Barks never would have thought of it. He does it to tell people that it is _him_ that is the one to look up to, it is him who should be paid. * We can continue to tell him that we love him and his creation and nothing he does now can take away the impression that he once was the greatest storyteller of our youth and that he is a part of 20th century literature for all time. * And let us for Gods sake not attack him. He has not got many years left to live. He will probably never understand our love. He panicks about, to grab money just as Scrooge when the money floats away from him. Let us view that as the pitiful reaction of an old man who has been exploited most of his life and didnt understand it until recently that something could be done with it. * Have mercy with him. Geir Hasnes. From 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM Fri Sep 3 15:43:43 1993 From: 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM (Don Rosa) Date: 03 Sep 93 09:43:43 EDT Subject: +Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #91 (second try). Message-ID: <930903134342_72260.2635_EHK22-1@CompuServe.COM> COMMENTS ON #91: Gil: You might have an idea about reprinting my old "Pertwillaby Papers" and "Captain Kentucky"... but it wouldn't be ME that does it. I think a FEW people would find it interesting, but I don't think many people would like it as they might like what I do with the Ducks but have no interest in what I may or may not do with something that ISN'T the Disney Ducks. It would be vaguely similar to when Barks started trying to sell paintings of "Famous Waterfowl in History". Nobody wanted them. Also, that was not my wife as the girl who burnt Lance's arm with the coffee pot in C.K. (By the way, that same gag was in the first draft of part XI of the "Life" series, but I cut it for space.) That was Feather Fluff and I created Feather many years before I met my wife (who is NOTHING like her anyhow). I would never have told your friend anysuchathing! HARRY: Don't ever worry about criticizing my work! I relish it since otherwise I'll never improve! I wish you or somebody could sit and go through every panel of each of my stories and tell me just what's right or wrong or great or sucks ducks. Those covers in the WDC IN COLOR series had some bad ones... but not all! The one with the treasure chest was, I thought, one of my best! The one with the body cut-outs was one of my worst, but that was DISNEY'S fault... they forced us into using that idea and there isn't room here to explain their weird, random decisions! The one with the big Beagle Boy was a good idea, but the Beagle was out of proportion and too hairy! Some of the others were good but meaningless, and that one with the world map was one of my favorite ideas, but the Ducks were poorly drawn, especially $crooge's head. As for mirrored covers and other art, you seem to want to know which version was correct. The cover for the "Treasure Under Glass" story was used NOWHERE as I drew it. They didn't mirror it in Europe, but deleted the background. It was mirrored in America to get the chest out from under the UPC code. The "Return to Xanadu" cover was used correctly in America. They flipped it in Europe, I assume because there is no comic there where $crooge is the title character and I had $crooge on the left side of the cover where the main character should be (as in the direction we read). The "Super Snooper Strikes Again" art was flipped in America for reasons I'm not sure of. I don't recall which way they flipped it but it might have involved the fact that certain types of action should always, to my mind also, be directed certain ways. For instance, if $crooge is marching off into some unexplored jungle, that should be to the right, into "unexplored regions" to our eyes. When he returns it should be by marching left. Otherwise he would seem to be marching back into the section of the comic we've already read and it would "feel" wrong to our mind's eye. And now for GEIR!!!!!! WOW! That was wonderful! Everything you said was perfectly true. Many things you said were things that I knew but it would have been in bad taste for ME to tell of them. The most profound facts you mentioned, among many, was the idea that Barks resents people who are devoted fans of his work but loves people who want to help him make money from it. I noticed that many years ago! Barks seemed to have hated the Ducks and dislikes anyone who seems to like them too much. But... I can't really say too much about all the wisdom you dolled out... again, for me to comment too much on it all would be tactless and in bad taste... I'll leave it go at saying that you're correct in your conclusion that the guy is 93 years old and whatever he does, good or bad, cruel or kind, we should give him a break and not attack him. I know he's broken my heart, but he's done it slowly by revealing himself to me over about 7 years, so it was never too brutal (not until Atlanta -- THAT was a brutality I can't forgive). Anyway, I'd like to request that Per place Geir's letter into the library somewhere. I think it's that important. I know you can do it since Geir seems to have sent it TWICE and you have an extra one laying around. Anyway, I'm going to print a copy out -- I might need to read it over again sometime when I get peevish, which happens more and more of late. Had I told you that I was visiting Norway again late this month? Well, I'm not so sure now. They are two weeks overdue in calling me about their plans. I have a suspicion that when they heard Barks wanted to visit, they decided they wouldn't need me any longer, or Barks may have even told them that he didn't want me to get any more publicity if they didn't want to make him mad. Anyway, it now seems that I won't be coming to Scandanavia again. See if you can find out if this is another result of my "evil genius" at work. From gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu Fri Sep 3 22:39:34 1993 From: gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu (Gilbert Milburn) Date: Fri, 3 Sep 93 16:39:34 EDT Subject: This and that (comments on comments!) Message-ID: <9309032039.AA00771@unix.campbellsvil.edu> Hi, Here's some different reposes to various posts Mark on Fleetway comix ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Any chance of anyone picking up the Fleetway "Life of Scrooge" > when it comes out? I'd gladly pay much money for it (or the > issues, whichever way it's being printed). I may be going to > England in January, but I hear that by that time, the series > will have started in the U.S. Is the Fleetway thing going to > be one big volume, or individual issues? I've often wondered if we have any (lurking) British members of the list and if we don't maybe Torsten knows of some on the other list he is on who would either join or know how to help us! To Harry about that Rosa comix post ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Harry said: > What is this? Sending PRIVATE mail to people it wasn't meant > for? OPPS!.. sorry Harry. I thought I RECOLLECTED (or *maybe* I JUST ASSUMED) that you spoke about that business on here before - with Don and whoever else had any interest. I was ONLY trying to *add* to that which, I had believed to have been kicked around in PAST discussions! Harry again: > Well, actually, this is what I had in mind: > - When (or IF) I find Dutch copies for War of the Wendigo, I > will buy as many as possible, and THEN offer them to whoever > wants them. I'm not saying that I DO find those copies, > though... This is what I'm was trying to INDICATE above... Harry: > - The "other Rosa comic stories" will see print in the USA, so > I think it's wasting time to get the Dutch issues only a few > months earlier. Gilbert explicitly asked for them though, so > I'll buy some for him IN TRADE for some Rosa stuff I don't > have. I was EXCLUSIVELY (well, more or less!) referring to the: "War of the Wendigo" book by Don that will NEVER be seen inside the _U.S. of A._ by the Gladstone-fans! Geir Hasnes on Barks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When I had said something to this effect: "UNLESS, Geir Hasnes knows Maybe of somethings that maybe the rest of us don't..." I had know Idea he'd know ALL of the intricate and miniature details/facts which he reported on last time! Geir remarked: > [...] - He felt very annoyed when he saw how Disney earned > money on the reprints and he didnt. - He has many times said > he felt that he was used by Disney, and is consequently angered > and bitter. > - The fans of course cheated Barks when they bought original > art from him just to sell for ten times as much the next day. > Barks began to understand that the art had a value, so he began > selling it himself for market value. Hey, Barks is not the only one who gets ripped-off, by the fans and by Disney (*RIGHT, Don??* =) > [...] Don is the first one to have a reputation actually built > on Barkses own work. This is NOT a *fair* statement towards Don, who is above reproach as far as his honesty and love for the classic Bark adventures, which is only reason he is doing the work NOW!! Don has even said so *MANY TIMES* himself (on here at book- signings, conventions, various news articles and even on radio!) so, what's Barks' `beef'?!? > - Barks is 92 years old. > - Barks wanted to live alone, away from Disney. > [...] > * CONCLUSION: > * The only thing we can do is to continue to love Barks, and > not do anything about his attacks and feverish attempts to > direct money and fame to him. > [...] > * We can continue to tell him that we love him and his creation > and nothing he does now can take away the impression that he > once was the greatest storyteller of our youth and that he is a > part of 20th century literature for all time. > * And let us for Gods sake not attack him. He has not got many > years left to live. He will probably never understand our love. > He panicks about, to grab money just as Scrooge when the money > floats away from him. Let us view that as the pitiful reaction > of an old man who has been exploited most of his life and didnt > understand it until recently that something could be done with > it. WE will go on being his faithful/loyal fans. Although, Barks' has NO BIGGER FAN then that of Don Rosa! I don't feel it fair or right to let Don get lost-in-the-shuffle while we're ALL suppose to be trying to defend Barks!! > * Have mercy with him. We will, but remember I also said: "WE should also wait and see what happens!!" That's it, Gil Milburn P.S. It's currently raining like MAD in Campbellsville (with lot's of lightning!!!)... hope this makes it! From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Sun Sep 5 06:17:16 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1993 23:17:16 -0500 (CDT) Subject: This and that (comments on comments!) In-Reply-To: <9309032039.AA00771@unix.campbellsvil.edu> Message-ID: On Fri, 3 Sep 1993, Gilbert Milburn wrote: > Hi, > Here's some different reposes to various posts > Mark on Fleetway comix > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > Any chance of anyone picking up the Fleetway "Life of Scrooge" > > when it comes out? I'd gladly pay much money for it (or the > > issues, whichever way it's being printed). I may be going to > > England in January, but I hear that by that time, the series > > will have started in the U.S. Is the Fleetway thing going to > > be one big volume, or individual issues? > > I've often wondered if we have any (lurking) British members > of the list and if we don't maybe Torsten knows of some on the > other list he is on who would either join or know how to help us! > I'll forward this to the comix at world list, and see what happens. I'll have them post it here. My comic book store sells Fleetway's 2000 AD anthology, which it gets via Diamond, as well as Dark Horse's Star Wars and Aliens magazines. Perhaps other Fleetway magazines could be imported? And does Fleetway offer overseas subscriptions? Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA (I have discovered a bookstore here in Omaha which can get Mickey Maus Magazine from Germany. I'll let you guys know the details when I know them.) From James_Williams at ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov Wed Sep 8 20:27:21 1993 From: James_Williams at ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov (James Williams) Date: Wed, 08 Sep 93 13:27:21 EST Subject: The Phantom of Notre Duck Message-ID: <2c8e15f9@ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov> Last week I bought an old issue of Uncle Scrooge. It contained the first printing of 'The Phantom of Notre Duck'. The artwork and the story telling make me almost positive that it was done by Carl Barks. Was this written and drawn by Carl Barks? If so, I think it is the worst Barks' story I've ever read. It never explains why a duplicate of Notre Dame is in Duckburg. It never explains who the phantom is and why he looks like he does. HD&L's dog magically appears in the second half of the story. What do others think of this story? -------------------------------------------- | James Williams | | Bitnet: JWW%ESS%NIAID at NIH3PLUS.BITNET | | Internet: JWW at ESS.NIAID.PC.NIAID.NIH.GOV | | CompuServ: 70304,2462 | -------------------------------------------- From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Wed Sep 8 20:04:01 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 20:04:01 +0200 Subject: The Phantom of Notre Duck In-Reply-To: James Williams's message of Wed, 08 Sep 93 13:27:21 EST <2c8e15f9@ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov> Message-ID: <9309081804.AA29464@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> James Williams (welcome back from summer vacation!) asked about The Phandom of Notre Duck: Yes, it's by and only by Barks. > If so, I think it is the worst Barks' story I've ever read. It never > explains why a duplicate of Notre Dame is in Duckburg. I don't think it looks that much like Notre Dame. It's "just" a cathedral. Of course it's never explained why Duckburg would have a cathedral, as that would go into religion, surely a taboo subject! (I agree that it is a bit mysterious though, but I don't care much about that.) > It never > explains who the phantom is and why he looks like he does. Why not? :-) > HD&L's > dog magically appears in the second half of the story. There is surely surely nothing mysterious or magical about that at least. They boys simply go away to get the dog! > What do others think of this story? Well, it's not one of my favourites, but surely not one the Barks stories I like the least either. This is US 60 from 1965, that is pretty late in Barks's comic book career. None of the stories made around that time belong to my Barks favourites. I agree that this is a somewhat weak story though; I like US 57--59 better. -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Thu Sep 9 00:08:30 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 17:08:30 -0500 (CDT) Subject: The Phantom of Notre Duck In-Reply-To: <2c8e15f9@ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov> Message-ID: On Wed, 8 September 1993, James Williams wrote: > Last week I bought an old issue of Uncle Scrooge. It contained the > first printing of 'The Phantom of Notre Duck'. The artwork and the > story telling make me almost positive that it was done by Carl Barks. > Was this written and drawn by Carl Barks? > If so, I think it is the worst Barks' story I've ever read. It never > explains why a duplicate of Notre Dame is in Duckburg. It never > explains who the phantom is and why he looks like he does. HD&L's > dog magically appears in the second half of the story. > What do others think of this story? This was one of the first graphic albums published by Disney Comics (note capitalization). It was released along with an album of Gyro Gearloose stories. I bought this album last Spring. I bought it in a remainder bin at Waldenbooks for US$2. This should tell you how popular the album was (a book becomes a remainder when a publisher or distributor cleans out their warehouse. A discount distributor buys up the lot of books and then sells them very cheaply to bookstores. This is one of the few ways to spend less than $5 on a book (paperback OR hardcover).). I didn't think much of the story. It was fairly mediocre, and if Disney Comics had any marketing sense, they would have selected a better cover artist and a better story. What I did find interesting was that the introductory essay at the beginning of the album strongly criticized the story. Was it worth $2? Yes, if only for the binding. Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Thu Sep 9 09:40:08 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1993 09:40:08 +0200 Subject: The Phantom of Notre Duck Message-ID: <199309090740.AA01450@athena.research.ptt.nl> Torsten: > I bought this album last Spring. I bought it in a remainder bin at > Waldenbooks for US$2. This should tell you how popular the album was (a > book becomes a remainder when a publisher or distributor cleans out their > warehouse. A discount distributor buys up the lot of books and then sells > them very cheaply to bookstores. This is one of the few ways to spend > less than $5 on a book (paperback OR hardcover).). Same things happen here in Holland, but never with Barks albums... There were a lot of albums made of Taliaferro's and Gottfredson's sunday pages, that are still for sale for very low prices. > I didn't think much of the story. It was fairly mediocre, I think that story is one of Barks' best "late" stories! Maybe it's youth sentiment, because it is also one of the first Barks stories that I read (in 1967). > and if Disney > Comics had any marketing sense, they would have selected a better cover > artist and a better story. Am I correct that the cover design was taken from a "rejected" Barks cover sketch for the story? (But I agree: Barks was not that good as a COVER artist at that time...) --Harry. From 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM Thu Sep 9 15:08:35 1993 From: 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM (Don Rosa) Date: 09 Sep 93 09:08:35 EDT Subject: +Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #94. Message-ID: <930909130835_72260.2635_EHK49-1@CompuServe.COM> COMMENTS ON DIGEST #94: This is digest #94? Seriously? That many? I wasn't missing some, was I? The last I saw a new Digest was last Friday or thereabouts (Sept. 3). Which leads me to something I don't think I know the exact answer to: this Digest only goes to a certain number of people in this "Disney" group which exists over on some other BBS (than where I am - COMPUSERVE)... is that right? How many people are in that Disney-group nowadays, and how many DON'T see this digest and the stuff that is posted here??? In other news, I have something for any Norwegian Duckfans out there: from about the 23rd to the 29th of THIS month I will be in and around Oslo (my 5th visit, I think?). This is to help promote Norway's "Year of the Book" and my Uncle $crooge tie-in adventure which will be published in a special 32-page supplement with the weekly during the first week of October... this is that "Guardians of the Lost Library" story. They are working on all sorts of activities for me, including newspaper and TV interviews, and some sorta press conferences with me and the Head Librarian of Norway (I think it's great that a ANY librarian would be seen in connection with a comic book -- comic books in THIS country are not very highly regarded by librarians, and the typical American comic book SHOULDN'T be!). I'm also supposed to have appearances with ambassadors and/or representatives from Egypt, where they are currently rebuilding the Library of Alexandria (the focus of my story) and from CHINA -- though I'm not sure about the reasoning for that one, other than Egmont is currently in the early stages of launching their Disney comics throughout China (I'm not sure whether, as an American, I should refuse to be seen with Chinese officials until they restore the human rights of waterfowl or something, but I'll do what the nice Egmont people want). I'm also going to do a public comic signing somewhere; on my previous trips my signings have been at "comic book specialty shops" where the hardcore comic fans shop... but this time they plan to find which store in Oslo sells the most copies each week of DONALD DUCK & CO. and I'll be there to sign for the "average buyers". These are all tentative details, but I WILL be in Oslo doing something or other. Where's Geir Hasnes? I know you live quite some distance away from Oslo, and I certainly won't suggest I'm worth a special trip, but if you happen to be down that way be sure to call Egmont and try to find me. You know Svein-Erik Soland, the editor-in-chief? If you get him a message, he'll put us in touch somehow. I look forward to lots more Lutte-fisk and counter-poison. From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Fri Sep 10 00:11:55 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Thu, 09 Sep 93 18:11:55 -0400 Subject: Back to School, + updates Message-ID: <9309092211.AA02562@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Folks, Here I am back in Williamstown again! Times are tough (huh, bud?) and I don't have access to a comic shop, only a drug store which gets comics about 3 weeks after the direct market, and hardly gets any fanzines let alone something that would dare discuss *Disney*. So if the person who used to type in CBG Gladstone ads could do that again if something interesting appears, I'd be *very* thankful. Also, while I'm at it, if whoever supplied data on WDC&S #4 to wdc.index was willing to send me Xeroxes of Mickey Mouse "In Search of Jungle Treasure" Part 1 was willing to send me a Xerox, I can send them something in return. What that something is can be decided by whoever has the comic. I have extra copies of Uncensored Mouse #1, if it's early Mickey that gives you a kick (like me!). The recent discussion of why Carl Barks is the way he is was very interesting to me... strangely, no one commented on my own speculations a few days before. I remain somewhat puzzled, though: is Barks really *worried* about his fame? In this country, he isn't well-known simply because your average comic collector prefers some ugly mutant (or *is* an ugly mutant :-). But to those who are in the know, Barks is a legend, and will remain so, no matter how popular any more recent duck artists may become. Also... does he like his stories or hate them? He's obviously tired of ducks and feels exploited by Disney, but his stories show (at least through the late '50s) that he must have enjoyed what he was doing. His pessimism, obvious especially in the 1948-51 period, doesn't seem to be in conflict with the duck genre at all. He wants fame -- and obviously has no idea how beloved he is, due to living in a money culture that grows to exploit as opposed to Europe -- but doesn't believe that he has it. I just can't figure it out... My fellow Gottfredson fans might be interested by the CAV laser disc boxed set coming in November, "Mickey Mouse: The Original Black-and-White Cartoons." It includes about 1/2 the entries from that period (a second set will finish them off next year) including "Two-Gun Mickey" (which inspired "The Bat Bandit"), "The Mad Doctor" (which inspired "Blaggard Castle"), "Plane Crazy" (which inspired "Lost on a Desert Island"), "Camping Out" ("Dr. Oofgay's Secret Serum") and many others. These are my personal favorite animated cartoons, and I think anyone who hasn't seen them is missing a trove of treasure suitable for Scrooge McDuck's money bin. Some folks requested code numbers for the European stories I've dialogued. I have a scattered few, but not all, available right now. Some are for stories that have been scheduled; others haven't been, yet. But all of the following have been BOUGHT, so we'll see them all in time. D7238: "E. A. T." The Beagle Boys steal a metal-eating alien, called a Venut, from Gyro Gearloose and, in disguise, enter the bin as tourists on a special "open house" day the Duckburg city council has elected Scrooge to host. They leave the alien in the bin, and the havoc can only be imagined! Art by Daniel Branca. D8942: "In and Out." Scrooge accidentally hires the disguised Beagle Boys to count his fortune using a massive machine (reminiscent of the electronic brain in WDC&S 199) which they've stolen, but eventually undoes these blackguards' scheme. Art by Daniel Branca. *** This has been tentatively scheduled for US 285. *** D9904: "His Master's Voice." Donald's furiously trying to get Scrooge to take advantage of his wealth just a little more, when suddenly a fellow Scrooge once knew years before -- and owed money to at compound interest -- comes to his door. Desperate to avoid a debt, Scrooge professes that he's now poor and has taken a job as Donald's BUTLER!! Donald takes advantage of this by treating Scrooge in just this manner on a day's adventure (with creditor in tow) that includes a tour of Duckburg, lunch at the Gilded Derby delicatessen (including dishes of anchovy filets and pickled owls' eggs) and a dinner cooked by Scrooge. This is my favorite European story, and is fittingly drawn by Daniel Branca. *** This has been scheduled tentatively for US 285. *** D10140: "No Dime for Stardom" Uncle Scrooge is in the Klondike after being promised a massive salary for helping to film a documentary about his gold rush days. Magica de Spell disguises herself as a double for Glittering Goldie, horning in on the production and causing all manner of havoc as she tries to glom Ol' Number One (which due to fine print on the contract, is being used as a prop in the film). Art by Daniel Branca. D88141: "Sea Struck." Donald takes a job as first mate on a ship sailing to Cape Quack, and quickly works his way down to cook, then deck-hand, and finally causes a massive disaster reminiscent of Barks' 1949-50 work. Art by Daniel Branca. D90029: "A Case of Too Much Money." Scrooge's bin is bursting with excess cash, so he decides to remove an enormous boatload of now-worthless Castrovian Rubleniks (as in US 36's "Money Bag Goat"). No matter what he tries, Scrooge can't get rid of them, so he finally tricks the Beagles into breaking into the bin to steal them! It would work, *except*... Art by Vicar. D90192: "Catman Vs. The Masked Marauder." "Modern comic books are turning my nephews' minds into pasta salad," snorts watchful parent Donald. After burning the nephews' collection of "Catman" comics, Donald disguises himself as "Gridlock, the Masked Marauder" to teach them how susceptible they've become. But Duckburg's pop-culture scene is dominated by Catman to such an extent that both local police and a Cockney burglar mistake Donald for the "real" Gridlock. Art by Scalabroni. D90218: "For School the Bell Tolls." Dr. Wagstaff, principal of Cornelius Coot Elementary School, rehires Donald as truant officer after a look at his old report cards proves him to have been a reknowned truant himself. If Donald 'thinks like a truant', he can not only regain his former prestige (see WDC&S 100), but revolutionize schooling in general... or so thinks Dr. Wagstaff. Art by Vicar... his best, if you ask me! *** This is tentatively scheduled for WDC&S 591. *** H83120: "A Car-Gone Conclusion." (With art by Ben Verhagen.) When Donald gets fed up polishing Scrooge's coins and requests a new job, his uncle "promotes" him to running his used-car business in Pizen Bluff with the promise that if Donald sells a car in the next month, the business will be his (Scrooge in fact hopes to get rid of it, since it'll be a big tax write-off for him). After a series of attempts to refurbish and sell the archaic cars fails, Donald gets an unsuspected success when a collector of autos buys the lot from him. H86201: "The Clock Watcher." (With art by Fred Milton.) Donald gets a job guarding magician Emil von Ferkel's collection of rare clocks, which is also a prime target of the Beagle Boys. I hope you'll enjoy these stories when they appear in the United States. I have also worked on many others which I didn't have the code numbers for available just now. I wonder if you'll think they're anything special in the foreign versions? Something about them really made them seem above average. Well, that's all for now. My future messages won't be near this long, but there was a lot to say, and I hope it'll help you guys! Also, I promise no more of my personal want-ads in the foreseeable future!! Your friend, David Gerstein "Hi-Lee, Hi-Lo, the north-winds blow, the waves are rising high!" (Captain Churchmouse sang that in "Mickey Mouse Sails for Treasure Island," and Taliaferro often had Donald sing it early on. Is it the sailor suit?) From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Fri Sep 10 01:38:44 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Thu, 09 Sep 93 19:38:44 -0400 Subject: No subject Message-ID: <9309092338.AA04624@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Don (and everybody), Don: "My Uncle $crooge ... adventure [for Year of the Book] will be published in a special 32-page supplement with the weekly during the first week of October... this is that "Guardians of the Lost Library" story." Gladstone seems to print foreign stories much closer to their original European appearances than Disney did (it took them a year for some, such as "Master Landscapist"). Does that mean that we can look forward to your tale of treasured tomes on these backwards U. S. shores soon? Perhaps in some US ADVS. issue this winter? (Maybe #25?) Will the story appear only in Norway's comics, or will the supplement grace the Danish ANDERS AND, the German MICKY MAUS, etc.? Also: Harry mentioned that you can get those albums of Gottfredson and Taliaferro Sunday strips for a song in Holland now. Would he be willing to buy one or more sets of them and offer them for sale or trade to other fans? I'd certainly be interested, and I have lots of stuff to trade. Well, I must be off, folks. Your friend, David Gerstein "No iceboxes where Gladstone's going! All *ice* and no boxes!" From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Sat Sep 11 21:36:28 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 14:36:28 -0500 (CDT) Subject: TOP PUBLISHERS FOR SEPT 1993 (fwd) Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 11 September 1993 00:34:06 -0500 (CDT) From: matthew high To: comix at world.std.com Subject: TOP PUBLISHERS FOR SEPT 1993 Here's a quick list of the top publishers for September 1993, by dollar share of the direct market, as reported by Capital City. Publisher Year 1992 June July August Sept. Marvel 45.76% 32.01% 30.70% 30.74% 32.50% DC 19.34% 16.19% 16.13% 24.75% 19.01% Image 20.10% 16.02% 15.22% 14.30% [...] Gladstone .26% .17% .24% .24% .28% Alright! Four hundredths of one percent increase from August to September! (Hmmmm..... If Gladstone really wanted to gain some publicity, they could cause Uncle Scrooge to go bankrupt. How about it Don? Are you up to doing a metallic, die-cut, embossed, lenticular, holographix, pop-up cover of Uncle Scrooge?) Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA From cde at apljax.jhuapl.edu Sat Sep 11 23:32:22 1993 From: cde at apljax.jhuapl.edu (Charles D. Ellis ) Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 17:32:22 EDT Subject: Scrooge goes broke! Message-ID: <9309112132.AA02224@apljax.jhuapl.edu> Forwarded message: > From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Sat Sep 11 15:48:18 1993 > (Hmmmm..... If Gladstone really wanted to gain some publicity, they > could cause Uncle Scrooge to go bankrupt. How about it Don? Are you up > to doing a metallic, die-cut, embossed, lenticular, holographix, > pop-up cover of Uncle Scrooge?) An hilarious idea! Congratulations, Torsten! And, after making the gasping public by it in installments spread throughout all their titles at $2-5 a pop, they could reprint the whole thing in an $8 book as DC did. Maybe Scrooge on his "deathbed" could send out Donald as a "fake" Scrooge, as did Batman (so I hear). What an inspired afterthought Torsten has thrown our way. Charlie Ellis cde at aplexus.jhuapl.edu From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Sat Sep 11 23:45:46 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 16:45:46 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Scrooge goes broke! In-Reply-To: <9309112132.AA02224@apljax.jhuapl.edu> Message-ID: On Sat, 11 Sep 1993, Charles D. Ellis wrote: > > (Hmmmm..... If Gladstone really wanted to gain some publicity, they > > could cause Uncle Scrooge to go bankrupt. How about it Don? Are you up > > to doing a metallic, die-cut, embossed, lenticular, holographix, > > pop-up cover of Uncle Scrooge?) > An hilarious idea! Congratulations, Torsten! > And, after making the gasping public by it in installments > spread throughout all their titles at $2-5 a pop, they could > reprint the whole thing in an $8 book as DC did. > Maybe Scrooge on his "deathbed" could send out Donald as a > "fake" Scrooge, as did Batman (so I hear). > What an inspired afterthought Torsten has thrown our way. Gawrsh. All I did was take a few zeitgiests floating around the comic book industry here in the U.S., and apply it to Scrooge. I think Gladstone would be a more suitable replacement for Scrooge, and Glomgold could be the villain. (This thread probably makes no sense to non-U.S. readers. See "Death of Superman", "Knightfall", "Knightquest", "World Without a Superman", "Reign of the Superman", and most of the special covers published in the past two years. Oh, I forgot glow-in-the-dark, serial numbers, and holograms, not to mention all the fun stuff that could fit in a polybag. Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Sun Sep 12 19:07:03 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 13:07:03 -0400 Subject: Die-Cutting and Debtors in Duckburg In-Reply-To: Your message of Sun, 12 Sep 93 01:15:34 +0100 Message-ID: <9309121707.AA00448@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Folks, I noticed the comment about doing glow-in-the-dark, die-cut, etc. etc. covers on Gladstone comics. The frightening part is that this kind of thing actually seems to make the slop Marvel and DC ladle out *more* successful. Gladstone almost had a die-cut cover for D&M 20 (presumably those gunshot holes on the cover would have been cut out), but John Clark told me that at the last minute they found out it would have been too expensive. I'm not sure who said that Gladstone, rather than Donald, would be a better replacement for Scrooge. I guess WDC&S 124 ("Billions to Sneeze At") is a good example of why Donald wouldn't manage our favorite tightwad's moolah all that well! And Don Rosa's "Nobody's Business" backs that up. Scrooge: "Competing with the Gladstone luck in business is the only thing that could *ruin* me!" (US 220, 1987). We had a big discussion last spring as to how many Mickey stories had "emotional" moments in them like the Duck stories and how many lacked same. At the San Diego Comic Con I got WDC&S #9 and a rare Italian book in English that provided two important examples. "MM in the Foreign Legion" (in #9) has Pete -- now Sergeant Beau Chest of the Legion -- send Mickey on a 200-mile hike in the desert. When he makes the mistake of bragging about this to his superior, he's told that unless he rescues Mickey, the penalty is death, so he rides out to find him. "It's yer old pal, Pegleg Pete!" he says, as he tries to revive the unconscious Mickey. "I fergive yuh fer all thuh things yuh done tuh *me*..." (Note: Pete has always viewed Mickey as being the aggressor!) Mickey indeed revives and gets onto Pete's horse, then tells Pete, "Since you're th' one who... had me walk out here, let's see how you like *walkin' back!* So long, Pete!" After riding some distance away, Mickey breaks down. "Aw, he'd never make it... I can't let *anybody* go through what *I* went through!" So to Pete's disbelief, he rides back and picks him up. "I'm sure glad I hate yuh," grouses Pete on the ride back. "'Cause if I didn't hate yuh I'd have t' like yuh, and I don't *wanna* like yuh, cause I *hate* yuh too much!" By now, they're merely ten miles from the Legion encampment, and Mickey suddenly turns around and -- with a big grin -- shoves Pete off the horse. "[This distance] is just far enough for you t' see what y' made *me* do!" So both Mickey and Pete have had their emotional difficulties, but in the end, things are resolved back into the usual scheme of things! The other example is from "Mickey Mouse Sails for Treasure Island" which is in an Italian book from the early '70s, which prints it and the earlier "Great Orphanage Robbery" in English (seems to be a project that the publisher couldn't get permission to do in this country, so just did it in Europe). Unfortunately, the story is hurt badly by unfortunately stereotypical cannibals, something that Barks too didn't avoid, but it has some genuinely meaningful moments. I think I've already mentioned the pain Mickey goes through when he believes Minnie has died at sea, and there's also a gripping sequence in which Mickey and Captain Churchmouse race against time to sail home, as his wife -- under the belief that she will always be a widow -- is gravely ill, with no inner strength to live. Who says that Mickey stories have no meaningful moments? I'd be interested to know how you European Gottfredson fans found either of these sequences in your native languages. Did they come across as well in translation? (Note: "The Foreign Legion" as printed by Abbeville Press is pretty close to the original, but has a few minor textual changes; I have used the original version. Gladstone had planned to use the original version way back in MM #240, but Disney stopped the publication, because some of the Arab characters in the story had large noses, and they didn't want Gladstone to *redraw* the noses because it was disrespectful to Gottfredson! Yes, that's the truth!) That's all for now, folks. David Gerstein (David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu) From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Sun Sep 12 20:00:03 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 14:00:03 -0400 Subject: Disney-comics digest #97. Message-ID: <9309121800.AA02381@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> --------- Dear Folks, Another comment about the "ways for Gladstone to gain publicity" discussion: Gladstone *could* do a hologram cover using one of Barks' recent sculptures of Scrooge as the model!! (Not that I endorse that kind of thing to promote wild speculation... I just think that would be an inspired touch.) Maybe on US #300 in three years? Sincerely, David Gerstein From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Sun Sep 12 19:51:31 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 12:51:31 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Die-Cutting and Debtors in Duckburg In-Reply-To: <9309121707.AA00448@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Message-ID: On Sun, 12 Sep 1993, David A Gerstein wrote: > Dear Folks, > I noticed the comment about doing glow-in-the-dark, die-cut, > etc. etc. covers on Gladstone comics. The frightening part is that > this kind of thing actually seems to make the slop Marvel and DC ladle > out *more* successful. That's because it's used as a marketing tool, and not as an artistic tool. > Gladstone almost had a die-cut cover for D&M 20 (presumably > those gunshot holes on the cover would have been cut out), but John > Clark told me that at the last minute they found out it would have > been too expensive. Well, there was an anniversary issue of Uncle Scrooge which had a metallic gold laminate for the coins (sort of like the metallic coverings on scratch-and-win lottery tickets). Hey, that reminds me! No-one has done a scratch-and-sniff cover yet! Wow, Gladstone could sell millions! Think of all the collectors wanting to get the first scented comic book! Of course, it would lend itself to many jokes (gee, I knew Image Comics stikn, but did they have to go and prove it?). > I'm not sure who said that Gladstone, rather than Donald, > would be a better replacement for Scrooge. I guess WDC&S 124 > ("Billions to Sneeze At") is a good example of why Donald wouldn't > manage our favorite tightwad's moolah all that well! And Don Rosa's > "Nobody's Business" backs that up. Scrooge: "Competing with the > Gladstone luck in business is the only thing that could *ruin* me!" > (US 220, 1987). I said that Gladstone would be a better replacement because he is a minor character. Ask any person on the street who Gladstone Gander is, and nine times out of ten, you'll get a wrong answer, or a blank stare. This is the same reason why Robin did not replace Batman. If it doesn't work out, a minor character stays minor. If it does work, then the company has a hot new property. Oh, and don't forget the coupons for issue #0 of WDC&S, which will also be available as a collector card series, complete with a special binder. (Naturally, one of the cards will be poly-bagged with the special issue.) And a gatefold cover, and a poster insert, and a certificate of authenticity, and a magic decoder ring, and a sweepstakes ticket for all sorts of fun stuff, and .. and .. and .. I'll stop now. I'll save my ideas for Uncle Scrooge POGs for another day. Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA (Anybody else own a Uncle Scrooge Fanta bottle cap?) From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Sun Sep 12 20:08:16 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 13:08:16 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Disney-comics digest #97. In-Reply-To: <9309121800.AA02381@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Message-ID: On Sun, 12 Sep 1993, David A Gerstein wrote: > Dear Folks, > Another comment about the "ways for Gladstone to gain > publicity" discussion: Gladstone *could* do a hologram cover using > one of Barks' recent sculptures of Scrooge as the model!! (Not that I > endorse that kind of thing to promote wild speculation... I just think > that would be an inspired touch.) > Maybe on US #300 in three years? NO NO NO!!! The speculator market will collapse in less than two years! It must be done NOW, while the speculators are stilling shelling out their sheckels on comic books!!! I don't think anyone has ever done a cover sized hologram cover before. National Geographic has done it, with a cool 3-D McDonald's advertisement on the back. Also, no comic book publisher has ever done a mutli-phase hologram, where the image changes as your point-of-view changes. Maybe for the Life of Scrooge Hardcover? Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA From James_Williams at ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov Tue Sep 14 16:41:34 1993 From: James_Williams at ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov (James Williams) Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 09:41:34 EST Subject: Magica Despell Message-ID: <2c95ca0e@ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov> Have their even been any stories where Magica was after something other than Scrooge's Number One Dime? I've always tought that she was a great character who never lived up to her potential. -------------------------------------------- | James Williams | | Bitnet: JWW%ESS%NIAID at NIH3PLUS.BITNET | | Internet: JWW at ESS.NIAID.PC.NIAID.NIH.GOV | | CompuServ: 70304,2462 | -------------------------------------------- From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Tue Sep 14 23:24:47 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 23:24:47 +0200 Subject: Readership In-Reply-To: Don Rosa's message of 09 Sep 93 09:08:35 EDT <930909130835_72260.2635_EHK49-1@CompuServe.COM> Message-ID: <9309142124.AA06493@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> Don asked: > Which leads me to something I don't think I know the exact > answer to: this Digest only goes to a certain number of people in this > "Disney" group which exists over on some other BBS (than where I am - > COMPUSERVE)... is that right? How many people are in that Disney-group > nowadays, and how many DON'T see this digest and the stuff that is > posted here??? I'll try to make this clear, and answer some questions you didn't ask as well: Anyone who can receive Internet mail can subscribe to the mailing list. Internet isn't really a BBS, but rather a collection of several interconnected computer networks in lots of countries with zillions of users, most of them academics. Besides hosts directly connected to Internet, lots of other computers can receive Internet mail as well, as there are various gateways out there sitting on multiple networks that will carry a message over from one network to another. This is something commercial bboards like Compu$erve and Genie etc. tend to offer their customers. So the number of potential subscribers is probably mindboggingly huge, and probably not all Duck fans out there who have access to email don't know about it. Currently the list has 64 subscribers, with this domain distribution: (I list all top domains, and all subdomains with more than one member.) edu = USA, educational 17 (Boston University 2) com = USA, commercial 9 (Compuserve 2, General Electric 2) gov = USA, government 3 (Center for Seismic Studies, VA 2) --------------------------- USA, total: 29 ca = Canada 3 br = Brazil 1 se = Sweden 13 (Uppsala University 5, Ericsson 2) nl = Netherlands 5 no = Norway 3 de = Germany 2 dk = Denmark 2 it = Italy 2 be = Belgium 1 es = Spain 1 fi = Finland 1 uk = United Kingdom 1 --------------------------- Europe, total: 31 One of the Norwegian subscribers is an automatic address that puts the messages in a local "Usenet Newsgroup" where several people can read it. I have no idea how many readers that group have. Only 11 of these 64 subscribers subscribe to the "digest" form of the list, but what way people subscribe shouldn't matter much as you get exactly the same messages any way. The digests are collected automatically from all messages sent to the list since last time. This means among other things that the issue numbers of the digests don't mean much to most subscribers. They are there mostly so digest subscribers will notice if they miss an issue. -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se "Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!" From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Tue Sep 14 23:50:06 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 23:50:06 +0200 Subject: Comments on David's message Message-ID: <9309142150.AA06903@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> David: > [...] So if the person who used to type in CBG Gladstone ads could > do that again if something interesting appears, I'd be *very* > thankful. It's mostly Torsten we have to thank for that sort of thing, I think, and I'm also thankful for that and any type of related info. I don't read e.g., CBG, and even if I did, I'd get it later than you US people, so please continue mentioning relevant news items from as many sources as possible here. David again: > Also, while I'm at it, if whoever supplied data on WDC&S #4 to > wdc.index was willing to send me Xeroxes of Mickey Mouse "In Search of > Jungle Treasure" Part 1 was willing to send me a Xerox, [...[ wdc.index is straight from Kjell Cron'e, who isn't on this list. I could ask him about it when I send him the updates to wdc.index that you sent me long time ago. (I haven't sent them to him yet, *blush*.) But I don't know if he has it or if he got the info from somewhere else. Maybe you'll find someone else here who can help you with that ish, I certainly can't. Regarding those stories that you have dialogued, I'm curious about these Egmont stories that you find better than most of them. Is there any Scandinavian reader who knows in what issues some of these have been published over here? -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se "Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!" From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Wed Sep 15 00:22:13 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 17:22:13 -0500 (CDT) Subject: SPOILERS!! Re: Magica Despell In-Reply-To: <2c95ca0e@ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov> Message-ID: On Tue, 14 Sep 1993, James Williams wrote: > Have their even been any stories where Magica was after something other > than Scrooge's Number One Dime? I've always tought that she was a > great character who never lived up to her potential. There was a story in an issue of HDL, Junior Woodchucks, which had the JWs cleaning up litter. Magica was flying by, and a bottle containing acid (?) fell out. HDL picked it up with other bottles, Magica discovered their bottle collection, imprissioned our favorite trio in a large bottle, and HDL freed themselves by boring the contents of Magica's bottle on the large bottle. So she may have been trying to break into Scrooge's money collection (i.e. vault), but I'm sort of hazy on the details. Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Wed Sep 15 00:45:58 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 00:45:58 +0200 Subject: Barks, Scaninavia, etc. Message-ID: <9309142245.AA07562@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> I haven't entered this discussion at all (mostly because I haven't entered *any* discussions here for awhile, as I've been busy with other things). Thanks to Geir for his long and thoughtful message on Barks in this thread, which I think explains most of his current affairs. BTW, I have never even considered trying to contact Barks in any way, and that goes for almost all Donaldists here I know of (except for sending one joint greeting card for his birthday each year). When I joined Swedish duckdom (in 1982) word had already been for some years that Barks got too much fan mail and didn't like it as it took away time from doing other things. As much as I agree with most of it I don't see how this possible Scandinavia trip in any way would be part of some conspiracy directed against Don, though. Evidently Egmont has tried to get Barks over here for some years now, and maybe they'll succeed now as he is more prone to travel now that Gare has died. Scandinavia, Holland, and maybe Germany are somewhat natural candidates as the market for Barks stuff is great here. -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se "a man who never seemed to have time or money for a vacation, whose life was continuous and seemingly monotonous labor, paid piece-rate at a level which never permitted him to save, who never had and never sought an adventure, who never traveled abroad and little in the United States (only into the California and Oregon forests), who lived in other words, something of the life of the `average' U.S. worker (a life presumably shared by the parents of many of his readers)---this man wrote ceaselessly about a world of constant leisure, where `work' was defined as consumption, the exotic exploit, and fierce competition to avoid work, to which end wealth flowed freely from all quarters of the globe." (David Kunzle in the introduction to the English translation of How to Read Donald Duck, here quoted from Barrier's book) From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Wed Sep 15 00:59:11 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 00:59:11 +0200 Subject: Magica De Spell In-Reply-To: Torsten Wesley Adair's message of Tue, 14 Sep 1993 17:22:13 -0500 (CDT) Message-ID: <9309142259.AA07636@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> James Williams: > Have their even been any stories where Magica was after something other > than Scrooge's Number One Dime? I've always tought that she was a > great character who never lived up to her potential. I was just going to answer that that's all she's after in Barks's stories at least, when Torsten's answer where he mentioned "Bottled Battlers" (scripted and pencilled by Barks) arrived. Well, Magica is really on her way to cut her way into Scrooge's money bin with the help of that acid ("formula X" which contains acid from sulphurated Vesuvian fumaroles and boilings from the feet fuzz of abominable snowmen among other things). It isn't said that what it's Old Number One she's after, but presumably it is. If you take non-Barks stories into account there are lots of them though. I remember stories unworthy of being remembered where Magica is just one witch among the others (mostly Madam Mim and Witch Hazel) when they've had regular witch meetings once in a while. -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se "Does she look any *different* than usual, men?" "We'll say! She's turned into a *witch*!" From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Wed Sep 15 00:56:14 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 17:56:14 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Comments on David's message In-Reply-To: <9309142150.AA06903@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> Message-ID: On Tue, 14 Sep 1993, Per Starback wrote: > David: > > [...] So if the person who used to type in CBG Gladstone ads could > > do that again if something interesting appears, I'd be *very* > > thankful. > It's mostly Torsten we have to thank for that sort of thing, I think, > and I'm also thankful for that and any type of related info. I don't > read e.g., CBG, and even if I did, I'd get it later than you US > people, so please continue mentioning relevant news items from as many > sources as possible here. Will do! I also get Diamond Previews, which is a monthly book magazine published by a large comic book distributor (they sponsored the meeting that Don and Carl attended in Atlanta). What this thick (phone book size) monthly does is list, by company, everything coming out two months from now. Since most of Gladstone's stuff is reprints, I don't type much. If it pleases the list, I can type in the CBL in WDC&S in Color citations for each volume, but this series is chronological, and is probably duplicated by a file in the archives. No replies yet on the Fleetway Life of Scrooge. Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Wed Sep 15 10:44:56 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 10:44:56 +0200 Subject: Magica De Spell Message-ID: <199309150844.AA05834@athena.research.ptt.nl> James Williams: > Have their even been any stories where Magica was after something other > than Scrooge's Number One Dime? I've always tought that she was a > great character who never lived up to her potential. " Per Starback: > I was just going to answer that that's all she's after in Barks's > stories at least, when Torsten's answer where he mentioned > "Bottled Battlers" (...) Remember "Rug Riders In The Sky?" (US fifty-something). In that Barks story, Magica is after a (flying) carpet, not after a dime. I always found this a bit strange. Just like the stories where the #1 dime features without Magica. Until recently, I always thought that Scrooge's interest in that dime was triggered by Magica, but Per pointed out that there were several dime stories before Magica was introduced. BTW: has anyone ever heard of Jim Fletcher? --Harry. From d91fe at ide.ide.hk-r.se Tue Sep 14 17:32:14 1993 From: d91fe at ide.ide.hk-r.se (Fredrik Ekman) Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 16:32:14 0100 Subject: Bullethead Baloo Message-ID: <930914163214.00001163.d91fe@ide.ide.hk-r.se> Greetings! I recently downloaded a GIF picture from wuarchive titled bltbaloo. Upon further inspection, it turned out to depict Baloo dressed up as Rocket Ranger and a few other characters from TaleSpin. On the picture is also the text "The Adventures of Bullethead Baloo". Now, I wonder, what on earth is "The Adventures of Bullethead Baloo"? Note: This may not be directly connected to Disney _comics_, but I certainly don't intend to join the Ranger List just to get an answer to this. The activity has been low on this list lately anyway... /Fredrik Ekman From 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM Wed Sep 15 06:44:55 1993 From: 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM (Don Rosa) Date: 15 Sep 93 00:44:55 EDT Subject: +Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #99. Message-ID: <930915044455_72260.2635_EHK27-2@CompuServe.COM> Per: Thanks for the explanation on how the "Digest" and all works, and how many people see it. One thing was not 100% clear, though it's probably because I was reading too fast -- but am I correct, then, that ALL the 64 or so members of the Disney group see the same messages as the 11 Digest-receivers, but they simply don't receive it all in digest form, right??? And they can all post messages which would appear in the Digest? If that's true, they are very quiet! I especially wish that the folks outside of the US who would be able to find me some of my "foreign" reprints would speak up. Also, you made a point of mentioning that several of the US users are on General Electric Co. computers. Do those users happen to be here in Louisville? This is where GE's main computer and phone bank is, though that really doesn't mean much. And where's Geir Hasnes? It would be a shame if I don't get my message to him. From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Wed Sep 15 17:48:29 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 17:48:29 +0200 Subject: Readership, Magica De Spell, and Jim Fletcher. In-Reply-To: Don Rosa's message of 15 Sep 93 00:44:55 EDT <930915044455_72260.2635_EHK27-2@CompuServe.COM> Message-ID: <9309151548.AA16042@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> Don: > -- but am I correct, then, that ALL the 64 or so members of the > Disney group see the same messages as the 11 Digest-receivers, but > they simply don't receive it all in digest form, right??? Exactly. The digest is just an option for those of you who thinks it more convenient to get less messages in your mail boxes, at the expense of not receiving the messages immediately. > And they can all post messages which would appear in the Digest? > If that's true, they are very quiet! I think most members of most mailings lists are quiet lurkers. I'm a "read-only member" of most mailings lists I'm on anyway, so I see nothing wrong with that, even though I'd also welcome more voices here. Probably there are several subscribers who just have a passing interest in Disney comics and skim through the messages looking for something that might be of interest to them. > Also, you made a point of mentioning that several of the US > users are on General Electric Co. computers. Just two... Harry: > Remember "Rug Riders In The Sky?" (US fifty-something). In that Barks story, > Magica is after a (flying) carpet, not after a dime. Oops, I forgot about that one. It seems like there will always be exceptions to general statements. > BTW: has anyone ever heard of Jim Fletcher? Yes, he is mentioned in Beccatinis Index. (BTW, did you ever get that? BTW2, does anyone know if part 2 of it will be published soon?) -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se "Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!" From sback at astro.ge.com Wed Sep 15 18:03:10 1993 From: sback at astro.ge.com (Steve Back Tel X 1783) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 12:03:10 EDT Subject: No subject Message-ID: <9309151603.AA06214@EW0400.astro.ge.com> Here another quiet lurker signing in. It looks like Don asked how many GE people are on the comics list. Here's one, (well, I was when I first signed up, and my mail is still addressed to ge.com but GE sold my site to Martin Marietta, a few months ago.) Here is East Windsor, NJ. Now how to make this message more disney-comics related....hmmm I'll be at the disnyanna convention tomorrow, I know there are a few rec.arts.disney people going, any disney-comics people going as well? sback at astro.ge.com Steven Back From krieg at ct.med.ge.com Wed Sep 15 18:24:14 1993 From: krieg at ct.med.ge.com (Andrew Krieg 5-5379) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 11:24:14 CDT Subject: Disney <-> GE connection Message-ID: <9309151624.AA20445@ct.med.ge.com> >>Here another quiet lurker signing in. It looks like Don asked how many >>GE people are on the comics list. Here's one, (well, I was when I first >>signed up, and my mail is still addressed to ge.com but GE sold my site >>to Martin Marietta, a few months ago.) I guess I missed when Don asked about this. What is the reason for doing so? My address is a GE one, but I am just a consultant, not a regular employee (although you could never tell as I have been here 5 years!). On an unrelated topic, I thought I read somewhere that Mr. Barks may do another full length Duck story. Did I read that on here or in one of the trade magazines? Anyone know anything about it? Was I just dreaming? Andy From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Wed Sep 15 18:40:31 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 18:40:31 +0200 Subject: Trojan Horse In-Reply-To: Andrew Krieg 5-5379's message of Wed, 15 Sep 93 11:24:14 CDT <9309151624.AA20445@ct.med.ge.com> Message-ID: <9309151640.AA18670@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> Andy: > On an unrelated topic, I thought I read somewhere that Mr. Barks may do > another full length Duck story. Did I read that on here or in one of the > trade magazines? Anyone know anything about it? Was I just dreaming? I've only heard about it here, and word is that it will be drawn by William Van Horn, and that it will be about Scrooge looking for the original Trojan horse. -- Per From gadducci at di.unipi.it Wed Sep 15 20:47:35 1993 From: gadducci at di.unipi.it (gadducci@di.unipi.it) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 20:47:35 +0200 Subject: Magica De Spell Message-ID: <9309151850.AA21743@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> >James Williams: >> Have their even been any stories where Magica was after something other >> than Scrooge's Number One Dime? I've always tought that she was a >> great character who never lived up to her potential. > > " >Per Starback: >> I was just going to answer that that's all she's after in Barks's >> stories at least, when Torsten's answer where he mentioned >> "Bottled Battlers" (...) > Harry Fluks: >Remember "Rug Riders In The Sky?" (US fifty-something). In that Barks story, >Magica is after a (flying) carpet, not after a dime. > >I always found this a bit strange. Just like the stories where the #1 dime >features without Magica. Until recently, I always thought that Scrooge's >interest in that dime was triggered by Magica, but Per pointed out that >there were several dime stories before Magica was introduced. > Well, I remember a story where Magica made an agreement with Scrooge about number eleven: that dime, combined with #1 dime of other very rich men, could do the trick and make her rich... It is a story around issue 1800 of the weekly Topolino: a nice story but a not-so-nice art... Besides, there are a lot of stories about #1 dime w/o Magica, as well as stories about Scrooge ability to remember EXACTLY every thing about his money (and not only dime: he can recognize his money simply snuffing it!!) > >BTW: has anyone ever heard of Jim Fletcher? > Yes, sure, in Becattini's index, for example, as already Per pointed out (and no, Per, I'm quite sure #2 is not out yet: I'll tell you more after Lucca convention). If you are interested, I could give you more information about him, or give you the references... BTW, what about starting an archive list about all the books ON Disney comics? It would be very interesting, I think... Fabio PS Yes, I'm talking to YOU, the only Italian Donaldist in this mailing list (except me)! Come on, contact me!! ================================================================ Fabio Gadducci Dip. di Informatica Universita` di Pisa Tel. +39-50-510268 Corso Italia 40, 56100 PISA (ITALY) FAX: +39-50-510226 E-mail:gadducci at di.unipi.it ================================================================ From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Wed Sep 15 22:51:38 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 22:51:38 +0200 Subject: Books and Jim Fletcher. In-Reply-To: Harry Fluks's message of Wed, 15 Sep 1993 18:51:47 +0200 <199309151651.AA20921@athena.research.ptt.nl> Message-ID: <9309152051.AA24423@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> me> Probably there are several subscribers who just have a passing me> interest in Disney comics and skim through the messages looking for me> something that might be of interest to them. Harry> How many people would be like me: reading all messages, Harry> printing and filing them, and then re-read them several times? That sounds abnormal to me. :-) So you never got Becattini's Dell Index? When I ordered the daily strip index from the same source nothing happened for a long time. I wrote a letter about once every three months asking about it, and then out of the blue when I'd almost lost my hope I suddenly got it. Maybe you should write them and remind them? (Not that I know if that helped, though.) Well, I know nothing about Jim Fletcher except what is said in that book so I can't say anything about his drawing style, but he did many of the Mim & Magica stories, so he might be the one you're looking for. Becattini writes: " Jim FLETCHER (c. 1930s -) " " Nee James Fletcher " " (a) GOLDEN PRESS/WHITMAN Hardbacks: 101 Dalmatians (Tell-a-Tale, " 1960); Huckleberry Hound (1963) " (a) WHITMAN Coloring & Activity Books: The Flintstones Coloring " Book (1960s) " (p) Disney comics for overseas: Donald Duck, Uncle $crooge, " Mickey Mouse & Goofy, Morty & Ferdie with Molly, Chip'n'Dale, " The Li'l Bad Wolf, The Swamp Folk (Brer Rabbit), Mad Madam Mim & " Magica De Spell (1963-68) " " Comic Book credits: " " GOLD KEY/WESTERN: Funny Animal & strips c. 1962-64 (p) " (DISNEY) Donald Duck (#85, 1962) " (HANNA-BARBERA) The Jetsons, Touch'e Turtle et al. (Early 1960s) " " Also (p/i) ETERNITY COMICS (Earthlore) 1986-87 ? I think we mentioned his name here before when this very text was our source for Molly's English name. The easiest thing to look up of those things seems to be DD 85, but I don't have it. It's not in the Dell Index, as that's the first non-Dell Donald Duck, and the DD#85 entry in Kjell Crone's index is incomplete, so I don't know where it's published here in Sweden either, and there is nothing with code DD 85 in your Dutch index. Oh, well... Fabio seems to know more about him, right? Fabio> BTW, what about starting an archive list about all the books ON Fabio> Disney comics? It would be very interesting, I think... Sure. Here is an incomplete beginning, not very consistently set out: Of course there are more, but it's still a pretty finite amount of books. A bibliography that would include items from magazines would be something else altogether... Barrier, J. Michael: Carl Barks and the art of the comic book. 1981. ISBN 0-9607652-0-4 (Hardbound), 0-9607652-1-2 (Paperback) Strongly recommended. *The* book on Barks. /PS Calisota Handbook on the Works of Barks and Rosa. Calisota 5601 20th Ave. N.W. Naples FL 33999. Includes index to Barks reprints, Gladstone reprints of Barks, a list of Don Rosa Disney comic book stories, detailed list of Mickey Mouse serials from WDC and a chart listing by year and month all issues of WDC. Price: $3.50 plus 50c postage/handling. Becattini, Alberto: Disney Index : Comic Books -- Vol. 1 Italy 1992 (?), 1,000 numbered copies. Index of Disney Dell comic books, A--M. Can be bought from Al Fumetto Club Via G. Della Casa 12R 50142 FIRENZE ITALY Volume 2 planned to appear in the near future. Donald Duck Comic Book Index. Launch Pad Publications 835 Merillon Ave. Westbury NY 11590. Price: $20 (postpaid). Make checks payable to Joe Torcivia. Includes story titles, character appearances, and artist/writer credits (if known) from Dell to Gladstone. Becattini, Alberto & Luca Boschi Disney Index: La produzione sindacata Italy, 1984. Index of Disney comic strips and Sunday pages. 500 numbered copies?? (Is it? Mine says so, but it isn't numbered.) There is also a second edition of this book. -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se "Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!" From Hans.Koehling.Pedersen at HOSTESS.GRAPHICS.CS.CMU.EDU Thu Sep 16 05:10:18 1993 From: Hans.Koehling.Pedersen at HOSTESS.GRAPHICS.CS.CMU.EDU (Hans.Koehling.Pedersen@HOSTESS.GRAPHICS.CS.CMU.EDU) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 23:10:18 EDT Subject: Thanks! Message-ID: <9309160312.AA29144@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> Having been "a quiet lurker" on this list for a looong time, I thought that the ***100th*** list would be a nice opportunity to thank Per for all the work he has put into this. Also thanks to David, Torsten, Harry, Gilbert, James, Wilmer, Andrew, and certainly not least to Don Rosa for having made many lonely nights at school a little more enjoyable! As most of you subscribers to this list probably know most of Barks' work, I think it could be fun to hear more about which stories you think are the best. I can't remember that we have had such a vote on the list before; forgive me in case I missed it! Anyway, here are my own favorites: Story: Motivation: ============================================================================ 1. Lost in the Andes What else? I still remember the day I read this one for the first time. Without doubt Barks' greatest and most original adventure. 2. Only a Poor Old Man Scrooge became a 3D character. Ingenious and sensitive story. Barrier mentions that Barks was having serious personal problems when he wrote this, which makes it's quality even more remarkable. 3. Race to the South Seas Gladstone got his personality in this story (not counting the earlier "Golf Game" story from WDCS ?, where he was just "lucky"). The story also added depth to Donald's character, as he got a hitherto unseen amount of sympathy from the reader. 4. Luck of the North The first ten pages are probably Barks' best work ever. He demonstrates an incredible amount of control over his protagonist character. The page where Donald without saying one word shows his growing regret is ... 5. Frozen Gold The first successful long story. A bit primitive, and that's why I like it so much. 6. Old Castle's Secret Another masterpiece from the "adventure" period. Has a lot of atmosphere (I read it for the first time back in 1975, when I was 8, and I _really_ believed that the ghost was "real"). Well, didn't quite make the top 10 I was aiming for. Still, I think it would be fun to hear more about why you guys like Barks (especially from the other quiet lurkers!). Back to work... - Hans From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Thu Sep 16 18:43:28 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 18:43:28 +0200 Subject: Jim Fletcher and Books. Message-ID: <199309161643.AA18273@athena.research.ptt.nl> Per (to me): > So you never got Becattini's Dell Index? Nope. Maybe Fabio can ask the Al Fumetto Shop about it, whenever he is in the neighbourhood of Firenze? 8-) > Well, I know nothing about Jim Fletcher except what is said in that > book so I can't say anything about his drawing style, but he did many > of the Mim & Magica stories, so he might be the one you're looking > for. Becattini writes (...) This must be the person I had in mind. I coded his work 'v68' in my Dutch comics index. And the fact that he did one story for Gold Key explains why one of the Dutch reprints (63-17) has that weird Gold Key comic page format... > I think we mentioned his name here before when this very text was our > source for Molly's English name. Could this be in a private discussion? I don't remember the name Molly... Fabio: > BTW, what about starting an archive list about all the books ON > Disney comics? It would be very interesting, I think... Per: > Sure. Here is an incomplete beginning, not very consistently set out: > Of course there are more, but it's still a pretty finite amount of > books. A bibliography that would include items from magazines would > be something else altogether... Anyone interested in Dutch books/magazines? --Harry. From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Thu Sep 16 21:25:02 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 21:25:02 +0200 Subject: Various replies Message-ID: <9309161925.AA05184@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> me> I think we mentioned [Jim Fletcher's] name here before when this me> very text was our source for Molly's English name. Harry> Could this be in a private discussion? I don't remember the Harry> name Molly... I think it was here, way back when Rich Bellacera (not on the list any longer) was constructing his list of recurring characters. Molly is probably the English name of Minnie's niece, known as Tuttan in Sweden and Tone in Norway. (Hmm, she's not in Fredrik's name list...) Harry> Anyone interested in Dutch books/magazines? Sure. I'm interested in everything! :-) Hans, thanks for thanks! Your list of six favourite stories only contains two stories that are on my top five list as published here in April: Lost in the Andes, Luck of the North, Christmas for Shacktown, The Golden Helmet, Seven Cities of Cibola. Note, that list isn't ordered! Harry said that his favourite was Christmas for Shacktown. Anyone else? Steven Back: > I'll be at the disnyanna convention tomorrow, I know there are a > few rec.arts.disney people going, any disney-comics people going as > well? Not me. :-) Any comics there? -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Fri Sep 17 03:32:44 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 21:32:44 -0400 Subject: Minnie's Nieces and Barks Favorites In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, 17 Sep 93 01:17:06 +0100 Message-ID: <9309170132.AA16247@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Folks, First of all, I saw a Paul Murry story in some 1970s issue of MM -- the nadir of Mouse material -- in which Minnie's nieces appeared with the names Pammy and Tammy. Is everyone confused now? In the 1930s Gottfredson strip Minnie had no nieces, only a nephew, named Manfred. I only have record of him in a single Sunday strip, from 1937 I think. As for my own favorite Barks stories: Story: Motivation: ============================================================================ 1. Voodoo Hoodoo No other story grabbed me quite like this one, which I first read in Gladstone Comic Album #16 at the age of 14. I liked it so much that I read it *every* day for the week after that, twice on some days. I have yet to see Bop Bop in a new story... one of these days, I'm gonna do one. 2. Lost in the Andes And why not? :-) 3. Back to the Klondike The first long Barks adventure I ever read, way back in 1979. It matured and grew as I did, gaining its previously excised pages back to enthrall me anew as I grew. 4. Thievery Afoot This ten-page story from 1945's WDC&S #52 led off the first wartime issue of WDC&S I ever acquired. Simple, yet great. 5. The Trouble with Dimes Donald's glorious get-rich-quick scheme in WDC&S #130's ten-pager was exactly the kind of thing I always would have liked to pull off. 6. The Old Castle's Secret This is Barks' first Scrooge treasure hunt story, and uses -- interestingly, for its early date -- a gentler Scrooge more like that of post-1954 stories. Yet its art, done in the prime of Barks' career, makes all the difference. And what a *plot!* Hoots, Mon! 7. The Mighty Trapper As a kid I always dug huge, obvious pit traps in our backyard, covering them with branches and leaves and hoping that one of FANTASIA's live brooms -- no, really, I was 5 years old -- would wander into them. This very early story still hits me right where I live. That's all I can list for sure right now. But I also grew up on Gottfredson, and have a long list of favorites among his stories, too. I love Barks and the Ducks, but have a special affinity for Mickey, and always identified with him. What's more, Mickey is very hard to write stories for -- that *aren't* stodgy crook chases a la Carl Fallberg, I mean -- and that gives me a very special appreciation for Gottfredson's talent. A few of my favorites: 1. Monarch of Medioka Gottfredson outdid himself with this rich, opulent story of the Mouse rescuing a country from several forces at once... a feat that's by no means easy, especially when he's betrothed to be married! 2. Island in the Sky Dr. Einmug's floating island is the stage for one of the most reknowned Mickey tales. As well as being perhaps the ultimate Mickey/Pete matchup, it also has great philosophical weight to it. 3. In the Foreign Legion (See my recent posting.) 4. The Phantom Blot The most famous of all Mickey stories is not, I feel, Gottfredson's best story, but has so many fine moments that it's one of my favorites nonetheless. 5. Boxing Champion I have only read this story in German, but I find it one of the greatest early stories -- kinda like Hans with "Frozen Gold". 6. MM Vs. Katt Nipp Again, only in German. This early on in 1931, we find Gottfredson trying hard to be Otto Messmer, and he *almost* succeeds with a very crafty, cocky Mickey who's at this point more like Bugs Bunny! 7. MM Sails for Treasure Island This story with fine, emotional moments, the debuts of Captain Churchmouse and Spooks, and perhaps the best Sylvester Shyster appearance, would head off my list if it were not badly damaged by its racial stereotypes. Nonetheless, it deserves inclusion here. Well, that's all for now. I'd like to hear what others' favorite Barks and Gottfredson stories are!!! Yours, David From 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM Fri Sep 17 15:03:31 1993 From: 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM (Don Rosa) Date: 17 Sep 93 09:03:31 EDT Subject: +Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #101. Message-ID: <930917130331_72260.2635_EHK5-2@CompuServe.COM> DISNEYANA CONVENTION I see little reason to go to one of those conventions. The people that attend are almost exclusively mindless speculators in those stupid animation cels or they collect "pin-back buttons" (which, in the world of idiotic "collectibles", is perhaps the most idiotic), or they go simply because they think "Chip and Dale are the the CUTEST things" or other such intellectual reasons. In other words, most of those "collectibles" people pick Disney only because they see it as investment potential or they think Mickey is just too sweet, though they know nothing about his history or details about his artists and writers. From my experience, they are only vaguely aware that there ever were any Disney comic books, and they couldn't care less about them since they weren't animated (they WOULD care less if they knew Disney never had anything to do with their creation, but they couldn't understand that system even after lengthy explanations). I've had fugitives from these conventions come to me at shows and claim they are huge Donald Duck fans and they LOVE everything about Donald Duck and they collect all the Donald Duck stuff; this will intrigue me as a Donald Duck fan, and soon I'll ask what their favorite comic story is -- they'll always say "Comic books? Oh, I've never seen any comic books!" and I'll tell them that they don't even know who Donald Duck is if they think he's just some slapstick character who throws walnuts at Chip and Dale. "Oh, yes, aren't they just the cutest things!" Obviously, I have littel respect for most of those sort of "Disney fans". If they don't have an intellectual basis for their interests, I think they're wasting their time. The only reason anyone at that show will be interested in Carl Barks is because they will have read all the hype that the show promotors will give him and they will all hope thay can get a signature so they can sell it to somebody. Feh on 'em. From James_Williams at ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov Fri Sep 17 17:21:58 1993 From: James_Williams at ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov (James Williams) Date: Fri, 17 Sep 93 10:21:58 EST Subject: Barks' Best Message-ID: <2c99c806@ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov> As much as I enjoy Barks' longer adventure stories, I don't think they are amoung his best work. I have always prefered his shorter stories. My four favorite Barks' stories are: (I don't remember the titles, so I'm giving brief summaries). * The story where Donald attends the costume party as a knight in armor. It is probably Donald's finest moment. Plus the story has great depth to it. * 'A Financial Fable'. This was the 2nd Barks story I ever read. I love the fact that Scrooge keeps his head after loosing all of his fortune. Plus, it tought me more about economics than 16 years of school * The story where they spend Christmas on a submarine. This was the very first Barks' story I ever read. I loved the story as a kid and it wasn't until years later that I learned who had done it. * The story where Donald forces HD&L to partice music until they get one particular song right. Barks' is one of the few people who used music in his comic books. From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Fri Sep 17 16:23:55 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 09:23:55 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Back to School, + updates In-Reply-To: <9309092211.AA02562@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Message-ID: On Thu, 9 Sep 1993, David A Gerstein wrote: > Dear Folks, > So if the person who used to type in CBG Gladstone ads could > do that again if something interesting appears, I'd be *very* > thankful. Sure, Dave, but remember that a lot of the ads are either repeats, or are selling something else, such as Disney cels, so don't worry if I don't send anything for a while. > My fellow Gottfredson fans might be interested by the CAV > laser disc boxed set coming in November, "Mickey Mouse: The Original > Black-and-White Cartoons." It includes about 1/2 the entries from > that period (a second set will finish them off next year) including > "Two-Gun Mickey" (which inspired "The Bat Bandit"), "The Mad Doctor" > (which inspired "Blaggard Castle"), "Plane Crazy" (which inspired > "Lost on a Desert Island"), "Camping Out" ("Dr. Oofgay's Secret > Serum") and many others. These are my personal favorite animated > cartoons, and I think anyone who hasn't seen them is missing a trove > of treasure suitable for Scrooge McDuck's money bin. HALLELUJAH!!!! Disney has finally seen the light! Can a boxed set of Disney academy award nominated shorts be in the works? How about a chronological CAV boxed set series? (I wonder if they will release The Golden Touch, the only short directed by Disney (after Disney started making talkies). Never heard of it? There's a very good reason. Disney, while a creative person and shrewd businessman, was also a terrible animation director. Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Fri Sep 17 17:25:53 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Fri, 17 Sep 93 11:25:53 -0400 Subject: Here we go again... Message-ID: <9309171525.AA04840@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Folks, Some of you apparently didn't get this, which I mailed last week. So here it is again. A *long* list of D- and H-codes for stories that I have dialogued for Gladstone, mostly. Some people asked for this. Regardez: ------- Forwarded Message Received: from sun2.nsfnet-relay.ac.uk by rowe.williams.edu with SMTP id AA26268 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for ); Fri, 17 Sep 1993 10:02:57 -0400 Via: uk.ac.uwe-bristol.pat; Fri, 17 Sep 1993 15:02:40 +0100 From: Mail Delivery Subsystem Date: Fri, 17 Sep 93 15:03:17 BST Message-Id: <28300.9309171403 at pat.uwe.ac.uk> Subject: Returned mail: User unknown To: David A Gerstein ----- Transcript of session follows ----- 550 m_lott at uk.ac.uwe-bristol.pat... User unknown ----- Unsent message follows ----- Received: from nsf.ac.uk by pat.uwe.ac.uk; Fri, 17 Sep 93 15:03:17 BST Received: from sunic.sunet.se by sun3.nsfnet-relay.ac.uk with Internet SMTP id ; Fri, 17 Sep 1993 14:50:43 +0100 Received: from Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE by sunic.sunet.se (5.65c8-/1.49) id AA08789; Fri, 17 Sep 1993 15:46:04 +0200 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 AA26194; Fri, 10 Sep 93 00:12:08 +0200 Received: from bigbird.cc.williams.edu by rowe.williams.edu with SMTP id AA19385 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for ); Thu, 9 Sep 1993 18:11:57 -0400 Received: from localhost by bigbird.cc.williams.edu (4.1/client-1.3) id AA02562; Thu, 9 Sep 93 18:11:56 EDT Message-Id: <9309092211.AA02562 at bigbird.cc.williams.edu> To: disney-comics at SE.UU.DoCS.Minsk Subject: Back to School, + updates Date: Thu, 09 Sep 93 18:11:55 -0400 From: David A Gerstein Dear Folks, Here I am back in Williamstown again! Times are tough (huh, bud?) and I don't have access to a comic shop, only a drug store which gets comics about 3 weeks after the direct market, and hardly gets any fanzines let alone something that would dare discuss *Disney*. So if the person who used to type in CBG Gladstone ads could do that again if something interesting appears, I'd be *very* thankful. Also, while I'm at it, if whoever supplied data on WDC&S #4 to wdc.index was willing to send me Xeroxes of Mickey Mouse "In Search of Jungle Treasure" Part 1 was willing to send me a Xerox, I can send them something in return. What that something is can be decided by whoever has the comic. I have extra copies of Uncensored Mouse #1, if it's early Mickey that gives you a kick (like me!). The recent discussion of why Carl Barks is the way he is was very interesting to me... strangely, no one commented on my own speculations a few days before. I remain somewhat puzzled, though: is Barks really *worried* about his fame? In this country, he isn't well-known simply because your average comic collector prefers some ugly mutant (or *is* an ugly mutant :-). But to those who are in the know, Barks is a legend, and will remain so, no matter how popular any more recent duck artists may become. Also... does he like his stories or hate them? He's obviously tired of ducks and feels exploited by Disney, but his stories show (at least through the late '50s) that he must have enjoyed what he was doing. His pessimism, obvious especially in the 1948-51 period, doesn't seem to be in conflict with the duck genre at all. He wants fame -- and obviously has no idea how beloved he is, due to living in a money culture that grows to exploit as opposed to Europe -- but doesn't believe that he has it. I just can't figure it out... My fellow Gottfredson fans might be interested by the CAV laser disc boxed set coming in November, "Mickey Mouse: The Original Black-and-White Cartoons." It includes about 1/2 the entries from that period (a second set will finish them off next year) including "Two-Gun Mickey" (which inspired "The Bat Bandit"), "The Mad Doctor" (which inspired "Blaggard Castle"), "Plane Crazy" (which inspired "Lost on a Desert Island"), "Camping Out" ("Dr. Oofgay's Secret Serum") and many others. These are my personal favorite animated cartoons, and I think anyone who hasn't seen them is missing a trove of treasure suitable for Scrooge McDuck's money bin. Some folks requested code numbers for the European stories I've dialogued. I have a scattered few, but not all, available right now. Some are for stories that have been scheduled; others haven't been, yet. But all of the following have been BOUGHT, so we'll see them all in time. D7238: "E. A. T." The Beagle Boys steal a metal-eating alien, called a Venut, from Gyro Gearloose and, in disguise, enter the bin as tourists on a special "open house" day the Duckburg city council has elected Scrooge to host. They leave the alien in the bin, and the havoc can only be imagined! Art by Daniel Branca. D8942: "In and Out." Scrooge accidentally hires the disguised Beagle Boys to count his fortune using a massive machine (reminiscent of the electronic brain in WDC&S 199) which they've stolen, but eventually undoes these blackguards' scheme. Art by Daniel Branca. *** This has been tentatively scheduled for US 285. *** D9904: "His Master's Voice." Donald's furiously trying to get Scrooge to take advantage of his wealth just a little more, when suddenly a fellow Scrooge once knew years before -- and owed money to at compound interest -- comes to his door. Desperate to avoid a debt, Scrooge professes that he's now poor and has taken a job as Donald's BUTLER!! Donald takes advantage of this by treating Scrooge in just this manner on a day's adventure (with creditor in tow) that includes a tour of Duckburg, lunch at the Gilded Derby delicatessen (including dishes of anchovy filets and pickled owls' eggs) and a dinner cooked by Scrooge. This is my favorite European story, and is fittingly drawn by Daniel Branca. *** This has been scheduled tentatively for US 285. *** D10140: "No Dime for Stardom" Uncle Scrooge is in the Klondike after being promised a massive salary for helping to film a documentary about his gold rush days. Magica de Spell disguises herself as a double for Glittering Goldie, horning in on the production and causing all manner of havoc as she tries to glom Ol' Number One (which due to fine print on the contract, is being used as a prop in the film). Art by Daniel Branca. D88141: "Sea Struck." Donald takes a job as first mate on a ship sailing to Cape Quack, and quickly works his way down to cook, then deck-hand, and finally causes a massive disaster reminiscent of Barks' 1949-50 work. Art by Daniel Branca. D90029: "A Case of Too Much Money." Scrooge's bin is bursting with excess cash, so he decides to remove an enormous boatload of now-worthless Castrovian Rubleniks (as in US 36's "Money Bag Goat"). No matter what he tries, Scrooge can't get rid of them, so he finally tricks the Beagles into breaking into the bin to steal them! It would work, *except*... Art by Vicar. D90192: "Catman Vs. The Masked Marauder." "Modern comic books are turning my nephews' minds into pasta salad," snorts watchful parent Donald. After burning the nephews' collection of "Catman" comics, Donald disguises himself as "Gridlock, the Masked Marauder" to teach them how susceptible they've become. But Duckburg's pop-culture scene is dominated by Catman to such an extent that both local police and a Cockney burglar mistake Donald for the "real" Gridlock. Art by Scalabroni. D90218: "For School the Bell Tolls." Dr. Wagstaff, principal of Cornelius Coot Elementary School, rehires Donald as truant officer after a look at his old report cards proves him to have been a reknowned truant himself. If Donald 'thinks like a truant', he can not only regain his former prestige (see WDC&S 100), but revolutionize schooling in general... or so thinks Dr. Wagstaff. Art by Vicar... his best, if you ask me! *** This is tentatively scheduled for WDC&S 591. *** H83120: "A Car-Gone Conclusion." (With art by Ben Verhagen.) When Donald gets fed up polishing Scrooge's coins and requests a new job, his uncle "promotes" him to running his used-car business in Pizen Bluff with the promise that if Donald sells a car in the next month, the business will be his (Scrooge in fact hopes to get rid of it, since it'll be a big tax write-off for him). After a series of attempts to refurbish and sell the archaic cars fails, Donald gets an unsuspected success when a collector of autos buys the lot from him. H86201: "The Clock Watcher." (With art by Fred Milton.) Donald gets a job guarding magician Emil von Ferkel's collection of rare clocks, which is also a prime target of the Beagle Boys. I hope you'll enjoy these stories when they appear in the United States. I have also worked on many others which I didn't have the code numbers for available just now. I wonder if you'll think they're anything special in the foreign versions? Something about them really made them seem above average. Well, that's all for now. My future messages won't be near this long, but there was a lot to say, and I hope it'll help you guys! Also, I promise no more of my personal want-ads in the foreseeable future!! Your friend, David Gerstein "Hi-Lee, Hi-Lo, the north-winds blow, the waves are rising high!" (Captain Churchmouse sang that in "Mickey Mouse Sails for Treasure Island," and Taliaferro often had Donald sing it early on. Is it the sailor suit?) ------- End of Forwarded Message From gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu Fri Sep 17 18:44:43 1993 From: gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu (Gilbert Milburn) Date: Fri, 17 Sep 93 12:44:43 EDT Subject: Stand up and be heard!!!.. Please! Message-ID: <9309171644.AA01295@unix.campbellsvil.edu> Hello everyone (long time no nothing!), Last time in... Disney-comics digest #101: > Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 23:10:18 EDT > From: Hans.Koehling.Pedersen at HOSTESS.GRAPHICS.CS.CMU.EDU > Subject: Thanks! > Having been "a quiet lurker" on this list for a looong time, I > thought that the ***100th*** list would be a nice opportunity to > thank Per for all the work he has put into this. Also thanks to > David, Torsten, Harry, Gilbert, James, Wilmer, Andrew, and > certainly not least to Don Rosa for having made many lonely > nights at school a little more enjoyable! > As most of you subscribers to this list probably know most of > Barks' work, I think it could be fun to hear more about which > stories you think are the best. I can't remember that we have had > such a vote on the list before; forgive me in case I missed it! On behalf of: Per, Don, David, Torsten, Harry, Fredrik, James, Wilmer, Andrew, and all the rest.. I'll like to say that you are most `welcome'. And might I add, that I know how you feel, this list/digest is a great help for the lonely college student (or otherwise)! And also on behalf of those mention above, let me thank you, for coming out from the ranks of the `lurkers'it good to hear from you guys! =D So, way to go Hans (and keep it up =)!!.. this is something which I've meant to address many times! So, I'm going to do exactly that!! Way back in Disney-comics digest #18... > Date: Tuesday, 11 May 1993 15:44 PT > From: rich.bellacera at amail.amdahl.com > Subject: o/~ Now it's time to say goodbye...o/~ > Hi everyone. I'm sorry to say that I will be loosing my account > by the end of this month. My company is having *another* lay-off > and I'm slated to be released this time around. > I will really miss this group. I've learned quite a lot about > the past of Disney Comics and their masters (Carl, Don, Floyd, et > al). Oh well. I'll maintain the e-mail address and maybe one > day you'll hear from me again. Until the end of the month I'd > like to maintain my membership, tho. >> My name is Chris Lawton. I have lived in Pleasanton, CA (about >> 40 mile east San Francisco or about 10 miles west of Lawrence >> Livermore Labratories) for past 17 years. I'm now 25. > Hi Chris. I live just a few miles from you (in San Jose) and > pass by Pleasonton everytime I drive to my brother's house (in > Dixon). So, Howdy neighbor. > To the rest: Take care. I'll try to post one final time (at > least) before I'm completely gone. ..Don't be like poor Richard, to wait until your going to logoff for the last time, before you say anything! Although, Rich submitted quite a bit to the list, if my memory serves me correctly! Then a little later: > Date: Tue, 11 May 1993 23:46:07 -0500 (CDT) > From: Torsten Wesley Adair > Subject: Re: Various replies > [...] > Good move! Maybe that is something we all ought to do? > Ahem. My name is Torsten Adair. I am a library science student > who hopes to infiltrate libraries from the inside, and thus > expose a greater number of the American populace to the wonders > and excitement of reading comic books. I am 23 years old, and I > once read the Dell/Western/Gold Key Disney as a child. I > started collecting comic books in 1984, and bought the early > Gladstones. While not a devout Disney Comics collector, I do > enjoy the stories, and I find them a nice balance to the more > heavier Cerebus and Sandman. My mother comes from Hanover, > Germany, which explains how an American like myself got such a > non-American name. I agree with Torsten (although, it was long ago!) and believe that it would be outstanding to know a little more about my fellow allies of the net! So, here goes nothing... Uh-hem, Hello, my full name is: Gilbert Brady Milburn (although, most of my friends and family call me Gil!). I am an Art Major and a CIS Minor who hopes to one day be a cartoonist (that's half as good as Mr. Rosa!!). I am 25 years old and have been reading and collecting many types of comics for a looooong time now! I, like Torsten find the Disney comics a good balance to the heavier books (which, I am finding to be at times, too *heavy* and am getting kind of sick of!!).. yet, I am a Rosa fan, first and foremost! I have some `old' Golden Keys books from when I way a kid, but I have only, recently, started collecting Disney stuff when: "Son of the Sun" first came out, and I still buy them when I can afford them! Also, I have, had lucker(s) contact me privately who've said, that they are still a little nervous about blindly writing to any list that Mr. Rosa is a member of.... my response has always been something to this effect: "I can understand your feelings, but I have known Don now, for about 10+ years (and I known OF him even LONGER) -- he's one of the easiest persons that I know to talk to and HIGHLY appreciative of his fans! However, I too still get a little nervous at times!! So, I can't really blame you for remaining a *lurker* (although, it would be NICE if you joined us in the sunshine! =)." ..and you already know this, (you know who you are out THERE) if you received my letter (but regardless of, whether you have or haven't... write back as soon as you can!). Don has even asked Per before, about how many members we have on this list/digest. Don't keep him (or the rest of us) in the dark, anymore. Don Rosa and David Gerstein (as well as some others) have *both* told us a little about themselves in previous posts, but I still don't know that much about Per (and we exchange e-mail letters!!).. so come on Pal, get in this too. I am condignly inviting/appealing to EVERYONE, to tell at least a little something about themselves and to post something else, from time to time! We have a diverse group of internationals here on this list/digest and it would be good (and important) to have different views and prospectives on various things discussed here (or anywhere else, for that matter! =) There's no reason to be *shy* step up and be heard... we'll be waiting! Anxiously awaiting your replies, Gil Milburn From krieg at ct.med.ge.com Fri Sep 17 22:14:54 1993 From: krieg at ct.med.ge.com (Andrew Krieg 5-5379) Date: Fri, 17 Sep 93 15:14:54 CDT Subject: Carl Barks checklist Message-ID: <9309172014.AA18204@ct.med.ge.com> Does anyone have a Carl Barks checklist listing all of the stories and gags he has produced? I don't have the Carl Barks Library, so I can't make one myself. I would like to have an ASCII listing so I can determine what I yet need to obtain. The Disney and Gladstone indices are a good place to begin to create a list. Anyone have a rough idea of the percentage of Barks' stories reprinted in Gladstone and Disney comics? Thanks much. Andy From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Sat Sep 18 18:29:51 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Sat, 18 Sep 93 12:29:51 -0400 Subject: Don Rosa on the Disneyana Convention In-Reply-To: Your message of Sat, 18 Sep 93 01:15:35 +0100 Message-ID: <9309181629.AA14090@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Don (and everyone), Re: Disneyana Convention -- I AGREE!!! Chip 'n' Dale fandom eludes me, but more generally, I really am sick of people who don't really understand the sophistication of the characters, but run up the price by buying things they consider "cute".... for massive prices, partly because that makes "status" nowadays. I became interested in the 1930s Mickey Mouse through a mixture of cartoons and Gottfredson strips, identified with him immediately and *kept* reading the comics, so that's why *I'm* a collector. It's not just that he's an attractive-looking cartoon character (although I think he *is* a good-looking character when he's well-drawn!). But due to that kind of "junkie" collecting, *I* can't afford the things I'd *like* to get! (Like a copy of 1930's MICKEY MOUSE BOOK, which has exploded in price since its affordability in reading-copy form ten years ago! Or early WDC&S issues... I can certainly *find* them, but it's a struggle to find them in such poor condition that I can afford them -- that is, $25 and under, in most cases.) As for Donald, the concept of him "throwing walnuts at Chip 'n' Dale" raises something that I would like to hear folks out about: After Barks left the Disney story department, Donald was absolutely never the same! He lost his pretentions to grandeur (most evident in "Fire Chief," my favorite Duck cartoon) and became a very formulaic, bullying character. In fact, when Jack Hannah began directing, he began to play up the formerly-obnoxious critters who Donald dealt with as heroes and sympathetic characters. By the end of the series, Donald had become the *villain* of his own cartoons. Chip 'n' Dale entries in the series are the best example of this, although the chipmunks themselves do even the score a bit by being not wholly lovable. I actually think Jack Hannah didn't have a very broad conception of Donald Duck. What do you folks think? Say, Don, do you have issue numbers for the coming Olympic story or the Life of Scrooge as they'll be printed by Gladstone? Might you be able to divulge them? Sincerely, David Gerstein From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Sat Sep 18 21:14:38 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Sat, 18 Sep 1993 14:14:38 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Disney LDs In-Reply-To: Message-ID: On Fri, 17 Sep 1993, Torsten Wesley Adair wrote: > On Thu, 9 Sep 1993, David A Gerstein wrote: > > Dear Folks, > > My fellow Gottfredson fans might be interested by the CAV > > laser disc boxed set coming in November, "Mickey Mouse: The Original > > Black-and-White Cartoons." It includes about 1/2 the entries from > > that period (a second set will finish them off next year) including > > "Two-Gun Mickey" (which inspired "The Bat Bandit"), "The Mad Doctor" > > (which inspired "Blaggard Castle"), "Plane Crazy" (which inspired > > "Lost on a Desert Island"), "Camping Out" ("Dr. Oofgay's Secret > > Serum") and many others. These are my personal favorite animated > > cartoons, and I think anyone who hasn't seen them is missing a trove > > of treasure suitable for Scrooge McDuck's money bin. > HALLELUJAH!!!! > Disney has finally seen the light! I talked to my friendly neighborhood video retailer, and he says the Disney shorts laserdisc will be out November 12th or so. (And Aladdin will be out sometime in October, although the laserdisc edition will not be, but the Beauty and the Beast laser might.) But I digress. Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Sat Sep 18 21:23:31 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Sat, 18 Sep 1993 14:23:31 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Stand up and be heard!!!.. Please! In-Reply-To: <9309171644.AA01295@unix.campbellsvil.edu> Message-ID: On Fri, 17 Sep 1993, Gilbert Milburn wrote: > > Also, I have, had lucker(s) contact me privately who've said, > that they are still a little nervous about blindly writing to any > list that Mr. Rosa is a member of.... my response has always been > something to this effect: "I can understand your feelings, but I > have known Don now, for about 10+ years (and I known OF him even > LONGER) -- he's one of the easiest persons that I know to talk to > and HIGHLY appreciative of his fans! However, I too still get a > little nervous at times!! So, I can't really blame you for > remaining a *lurker* (although, it would be NICE if you joined us > in the sunshine! =)." ..and you already know this, (you know who > you are out THERE) if you received my letter (but regardless of, > whether you have or haven't... write back as soon as you can!). I am going to repeat the advice I have heard from comic book convention attendees. 1) Don't be afraid to approach a professional. They may be wonderful and creative people, but they are people, and most like to meet the people who enjoy their work. 2) Be polite. If they are talking to someone, or they are on their way to a panel, then wait, or politely introduce yourself. 3) You don't have to give a detailed explanation of why you liked a particular story ("The fight between Foobar-Man and Acme Lad, symbolizing the inner conflict we all face when we select a brand of toothpaste, was sheer genius!") A "I really like Fumtu Comics.", while corny and fanboy-ish, is more sincere. 4) Go ahead and ask questions about the comic books. Just be polite. 5) Some creators might autograph a comic book, others might require you to stand in line to get something signed. Be reasonable, and understanding. Some creators have to erect tents and take reservations because everyone wants their signatures. Don, are there any additions you might wish to add? I know you are not as recognizable as some creators out there, but how do you like to be treated by fans? Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA From 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM Mon Sep 20 00:40:22 1993 From: 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM (Don Rosa) Date: 19 Sep 93 18:40:22 EDT Subject: +Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #103. Message-ID: <930919224022_72260.2635_EHK19-1@CompuServe.COM> Answering questions: When does Gladstone start using my LIFE AND TIMES OF $CROOGE MCDUCK and same for my "Winter Olympics" story? The LIFE OF $CROOGE will be used in the first issue of UNCLE $CROOGE of 1994, whatever that is and whenever it comes out, January of February. I guess the same goes for the Olympics story, but it's not much to wait for. What advice do I have for comic fans approaching "professionals"... I assume at a show/convention? I guess Torsten covered the song and dance I hear the show promotors offer. I think the only problem I have are with how to deal with stupid questions without being sarcastic... but then, I have trouble dealing with ANYTHING without being sarcastic since I don't consider sarcasm to be automatically mean-spirited. For example, to the question "Which do you do first... write the story or draw it?" (which I am asked very frequently), I always answer "First I do all the artwork, filling a few dozen pages with haphazard drawings... then I go back and think up a story that will fit the random illustrations." This usually satisfies the questioner. Another good one I'm asked several times per year by some creep who doesn't know his head from a hole inna ground and is simply trying to get a "collectible" autograph for resale takes the form of the guy (usually an older flea-market dealer or such) plopping a 1962 Dell DONALD DUCK on my table and asking me to sign it; I'll look at him and say, "Pal, I was 11 years old when this comic was published!" And he'll say, "Uh-huh.... (pause)..... does that mean you didn't draw it?" I am not exaggerating either of these incidents. Anyway, I can't think of many suggestions for MY fans since, as Duck fans, they're usually older and vastly more sophisticated than the typical American comic book zombie anyway. This doesn't apply to anyone on here who, as has been suggested, is intimidated by my presence. This is good because I'll bite your @#$%&?* head off if you have the audacity to post a message on here. And don't forget it! From d91fe at hkr01.ide.hk-r.se Fri Sep 17 19:04:28 1993 From: d91fe at hkr01.ide.hk-r.se (Fredrik Ekman) Date: Fri, 17 Sep 93 18:04:28 0100 Subject: Various replies Message-ID: <930917180428.0000192b.d91fe@hkr01.ide.hk-r.se> Per wrote: >Molly is probably the English name of Minnie's niece, known as >Tuttan in Sweden and Tone in Norway. (Hmm, she's not in Fredrik's >name list...) So expect her in the next version. Do we have any other translations for her? /Fredrik From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Mon Sep 20 10:17:14 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 10:17:14 +0200 Subject: Bop (re: Barks Favorites) Message-ID: <199309200817.AA20916@athena.research.ptt.nl> David wrote: > As for my own favorite Barks stories: > > 1. Voodoo Hoodoo No other story grabbed me quite like this > one, which I first read in Gladstone Comic > Album #16 at the age of 14. I liked it so > much that I read it *every* day for the > week after that, twice on some days. I > have yet to see Bop Bop in a new story... > one of these days, I'm gonna do one. I don't think the guy is called Bop Bop, just Bop. On the first page of the story, Donald says: "Hi, Bop, Bop! You're an expert (...)" It sounds to me that Donald is just saying Bops name twice: first greeting him, and then as "introduction" to the next question. And you will have the problem that Don Rosa once pointed out: will you use the original version of Bop (Bop), or the censored version? (But if you're selling stories to Egmont, the original Bop (Bop) would be most appropriate, because the Voodoo Hoodoo story was never censored in Europe.) --Harry. From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Mon Sep 20 10:37:03 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 10:37:03 +0200 Subject: Carl Barks checklist Message-ID: <199309200837.AA21966@athena.research.ptt.nl> Andy wrote: > Does anyone have a Carl Barks checklist listing all of the stories and > gags he has produced? On our ftp site, there are two Barks checklists, one in Swedish and one in Dutch. I wrote the Dutch one (of course 8-) and maybe you can use that one: all the stories are there, ordered by USA issue, with issue code (like WDC 132), number of pages, American title (if any), and the date that Barks delivered the story. For stories that have no title, a Dutch description is added. And there is no data about USA reprints, but you could use the Gladstone/Disney lists for that... (grep 'CB' | sort, or something like that) For Dell comics only, you could use Kjell Crone's index as well, but he doesn't list WDC issues (yet)... ftp.lysator.liu.se: pub/comics/disney/dutch/barks-index /swedish/nk5 etc. /crone/four-colors.index etc. --Harry. From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Mon Sep 20 12:33:16 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 12:33:16 +0200 Subject: Molly/Tone/Tuttan Message-ID: <199309201033.AA27202@athena.research.ptt.nl> Per: > Molly is probably the English name of Minnie's niece, known as > Tuttan in Sweden and Tone in Norway. (Hmm, she's not in Fredrik's > name list...) Fredrik: > So expect her in the next version. Do we have any other translations > for her? In the two stories I could find in Holland (1965 and 1966) she is called Moppie. But noone would remember that name today. --Harry. Harry Fluks ()_() Dutch Disney comics freak PTT Research, Leidschendam (NL) (_) H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl "Yeah... I've _heard_ of coral barques!" From 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM Tue Sep 21 05:44:01 1993 From: 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM (Don Rosa) Date: 20 Sep 93 23:44:01 EDT Subject: +Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #105. Message-ID: <930921034400_72260.2635_EHK46-1@CompuServe.COM> Harry, Harry: How often do you address a note like the above? Or address someone in that fashion at all, in any way-shape-or-form? You don't. The fella's name is Bop Bop, perhaps written as "Bop, Bop". Also, that "Voodoo Hoodoo" story was not censored the last time it was used in Holland, whenever that was... but it is NOW. The original version is banned except in the form that appeared in the Gladstone BARKS LIBRARY and/or their album #16. Disney refused to allow them to reprint that story until the art was altered, and when it was Disney adopted that version as the "official" version for all future reprintings. I had the dilemma of how to depict the characters from that story when I dealt with Foola Zoola and Bombie in my chapter 11. I was told that if I didn't draw the character's lips and noses as they were shown in the Gladstone books, my story could not be used. And even if I did draw it in the 1949 style, it wouldn't match any other uses of the story, certainly none in America since 1949 and none in any other country for a loooong while, so it would be sorta pointless. Finally I drew the noses and lips the same, but I gave Foola Zoola his sharpened teeth back. But teeth and noses aside (ouch), the way I draw Bombie with all my grotesque detailing, I imagine they will realize that they haven't banned that story enough, and take further action. Even my modernized Bombie looks VERY politically incorrect and stereotypical, which is my way of saying that if Disney thinks that my Peeweegahs are insulting, wait till they see my Bombie. From krieg at ct.med.ge.com Tue Sep 21 15:38:07 1993 From: krieg at ct.med.ge.com (Andrew Krieg 5-5379) Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 08:38:07 CDT Subject: Bombie the Zombie Message-ID: <9309211338.AA17710@ct.med.ge.com> I have only seen the Gladstone version of Bombie. Where can I look to see the original Barks' version? Andy From sback at astro.ge.com Tue Sep 21 15:49:51 1993 From: sback at astro.ge.com (Steve Back Tel X 1783) Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 09:49:51 EDT Subject: No subject Message-ID: <9309211349.AA09598@EW0400.astro.ge.com> In refrence to the disneyana convention last week, some people asked if there was going to be any 'comics' there. I couldn't answer then as I did not have the finale schedual of events. For future disneyana conventions...the answer is YES. Though it is not the main theam of the convention, at the trade show there was a number of venders with clasic collections of disney comics. Heavy on #1's and 'old' collections. In addtion Carl Barks was there, I missed him myself, but he was 'featured' a "meet the authors" signing event. I not ready to give a compleat convention report yet, but when I am I'll post it to rec.arts.disney. Steven Back sback at astro.ge.com From sback at astro.ge.com Tue Sep 21 16:38:22 1993 From: sback at astro.ge.com (Steve Back Tel X 1783) Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 10:38:22 EDT Subject: DISNEYANA CONVENTION Message-ID: <9309211438.AA09932@EW0400.astro.ge.com> Now this gets me angry! In his latest posting Don Rosa, attacks (in a hateful manor) Disneyanna fans. Though there is a small germ of truth that SOME people who collect Disneyanna ONLY do it for perceived profits and value, but Don lumps all Disneyanna fans in that same bucket and tosses in a few additional flames as well. I have gone to a number of these conventions and they are FUN. In fact the people who get the least out of the conventions are the ones who only are there for the money. The rest (majority) are deep fans of many things about Disney (not just comics). And yes we do wear blinders about all the 'horrible' things Disney has done in order to be a profitable company and forgive them for the 'sins' of being successful. But the fans that go to the convention are FAR from ignorant of the history of the company and the characters. Don's episodic descriptions of an encounter with one fan, who was a duck fan but never read the comics, is hardly the norm. Sometime while reading his posts I wonder if Don likes any group other than his own set of fans. (There seems to be a running theme of disdain in many of Don's letters about many groups, Disney, Americans, Carl Barks fans...) By the way I expect to get a few e-mail flame for saying even this much because I dare to complain about some of the things that Don Rosa has written about. Any complaints along the line "how dare you scold Don, he's a celebrity and you might scare him away!" will go promptly to /dev/null. I do not think I should need to explain why. Steven Back sback at astro.ge.com From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Tue Sep 21 18:19:59 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 18:19:59 +0200 Subject: Voodoo Hoodoo Message-ID: <199309211619.AA10704@athena.research.ptt.nl> A message to Don: Hi, Don! Don, don't you think one can be adressed this way? I know my English is not that good, but in Dutch it would be OK... Anyway, this would still mean the interpunction in "Voodoo Hoodoo" is at least a bit strange. And you wrote: > Also, that "Voodoo Hoodoo" story was not censored the last time > it was used in Holland, whenever that was... but it is NOW. I think this is not true. The last time the story was used was in 1992 and that was long after Disney put it on the black list (and after Gladstone published it). The European Disney corp. may not be that strict about publishing censored stories... --Harry. From mas at cs.bu.edu Wed Sep 22 04:55:20 1993 From: mas at cs.bu.edu (Mark Semich) Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 22:55:20 -0400 Subject: DISNEYANA CONVENTION In-Reply-To: <9309211438.AA09932@EW0400.astro.ge.com> (sback@astro.ge.com) Message-ID: <9309220255.AA27262@csa.bu.edu> >From: sback at astro.ge.com (Steve Back Tel X 1783) >Don's episodic descriptions of an encounter with one fan, who was a >duck fan but never read the comics, is hardly the norm. Sometime while >reading his posts I wonder if Don likes any group other than his own >set of fans. (There seems to be a running theme of disdain in many of >Don's letters about many groups, Disney, Americans, Carl Barks fans...) I've been to enough comic book conventions to realize just how many ignorant bozo fan-boys, similar to the one that Don describes, show up at these things. Yes, a comic book convention is not the same thing as a Disneyana convention, but I suspect that the same money-grubbing, "most have HOT items!" attitude can be just as prevelent. Due to over exposure to the used-car salesman attitude and the prevelance of ignorant "fans" (who are truly *not* fans of quality, but merely sheep being led to the slaughter) that I've seen at cons, I've become somewhat disillusioned with the entire scene myself. I can easily see that if *I* were the one sitting at a convention table and I were apprached by 1357 fools and a mere 1 or 2 reasonably intelligent people who appreciated my work and understood its background, I, too, would probably come to believe that most people at these conventions were of the fool breed. Do you think that I would be wrong? I've seen countless good comic-books, movies, and music albums die a quick death in the U.S.A from corporate greed, only to be replaced by vacuous garbage of absolutely no redeeming quality whatsoever. I suspect that I haven't abandoned as much hope as Don Rosa may have, but I can certainly understand just how one could. I saw Don Rosa on a humor panel at the Chicago comic book convention and tried to ask a question about why Gladstone and other companies didn't advertise or do *something* to expand their readership. Unfortunately, I was so tongue-tied and in awe of directly addressing the great Don Rosa that my question wasn't exactly clear, but I believe that most people on the panel did their best at answering it. Most of the people on the panel, not just Mr. Rosa, seemed to have given up hope of any people, besides a select few, appreciating quality work. After two days at the con, I came to the same conclusion myself. Interestingly enough, that panel, along with every other panel that I attended that weekend, quickly turned into a "just how the current state of the comic book industry in the U.S.A sucks" panel. (BTW, *many* thank-you's, Don, for autographing my copy of Uncle Scrooge Adventures #5, which contains "Last Sled to Dawson," the best Uncle Scrooge story I've ever read. I drove from Boston to Chicago on the chance that I might actually meet you at the con and get a chance to see some pages from your "Life of Scrooge" epic. I anxiously await it!) =========================================================================== "I am Scrooge McDuck of the clan McDuck. There can be only one!" -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- mark a. semich mas at csa.bu.edu =========================================================================== From 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM Wed Sep 22 07:40:26 1993 From: 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM (Don Rosa) Date: 22 Sep 93 01:40:26 EDT Subject: +Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #106. Message-ID: <930922054025_72260.2635_EHK45-2@CompuServe.COM> For Steve Back: Hey, I don't mind someone disagreeing with me! And it's also unfair to say I look askance at all groups except MY FANS... that's not a very large group and since I don't care for my own work that much, I think I look a bit askance at them, too. But I do know that I've met many types of Disney fans and I've watched these hobbies develop from how they were in the mid-60s to what they are like and who they attract nowadays, and I don't think I'm off the mark. I wish I could demonstrate by waving my hand and making all Disney toys and comics and artwork and ANIMATION CELS worthless as of (bing) now... and we'll see how many "fans" show up at the next convention. I wish I could do the same for all old comics -- and, heck, ALL hobbies based on used goodies everywhere. And I'd restore the way of things to the pre-Price-Guide era when the only collectors of this or that were the people with an honest interest. Then I'd start working on all the housewives who think Chip 'n' Dale are "just the cutest things". Bwah-ha-ha-ha! But I'll back down and say I've never been to a Disneyana convention... I've only talked to all the Disneyana collectors and dealers that spread out through all the flea markets and comic shows and Sotheby's auctions of the country. So they are not representative of the folks at a Disneyana convention? How so? Harry: The balloon in "Voodoo Hoodoo" was not in the form of your note. It wasn't "Hey, Bop! Bop, what is...". It was "Hey, Bop, Bop! What is..." That seems clear that the fellas name is "Bop Bop" or (for whatever reason) "Bop, Bop". I guess the reason that I need to bounce around such trivia is that I might have needed to use that guy (?) in my "Life" series, at which time it would have become very important to figure this out! And, Harry, there's nothing wrong with your English! If my wife's high school students could only read or write English as well as you, we'd be in good (better) shape. That's right -- as a group, I look askance at semi-literates. From 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM Wed Sep 22 07:45:00 1993 From: 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM (Don Rosa) Date: 22 Sep 93 01:45:00 EDT Subject: +Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #106. Message-ID: <930922054500_72260.2635_EHK45-3@CompuServe.COM> Oh, and I almost forgot, Harry... all I know is what I'm told. And Disney has forbidden the use of the 1949 "Voodoo Hoodoo", and that means all over the world, including Holland. If Oberon used Bombie's big nose and Foola Zoola's big white lips in 1992, they did it against Disney's orders, and of course that's their gamble. They've been returning artist's art for years against Disney's firm policy, and that is also simply something they manage to get away with as long as Disney pays so little attention to comic books. From d91fe at hkr01.ide.hk-r.se Wed Sep 22 01:00:29 1993 From: d91fe at hkr01.ide.hk-r.se (Fredrik Ekman) Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 00:00:29 0100 Subject: On various subjects Message-ID: <930922000029.ffe86914.d91fe@hkr01.ide.hk-r.se> David: Thanks for listing the stories you've been working on. Very interesting. > H86201: "The Clock Watcher." (With art by Fred Milton.) This one was the only one i recognized, however. If anyone is interested, I could find out which Swedish issue it was published in. If memory serves me right, it was one of the issues with Rosa's Peeweegah story. And yes, I did like the story. It has a slower tempo than many other short stories, especially some D-coded, and the script is definitely good enough to make up for that. The art is not outstanding, but still quite good. And Harry wrote, on the subject of Molly/Tone/Tuttan: >In the two stories I could find in Holland (1965 and 1966) she is called >Moppie. But noone would remember that name today. Big deal! I'll add it anyway. Then Per can just delete that name when he sends out extracts to new members... About writing to a list where Don Rosa is a member; as you can see, it's obviously not THAT hard. I've even critisized him and my head still didn't fall off! (You don't bite people for critisizing you, do you, Don?) A question for Don: When did you start making you DUCK dedications? I can't seem to find them in any of your Gladstone works. And are they always on the first page? What about covers, did you put any there? And as the subject of introductions has come up again, I may just take the oportunity to introduce myself. (You can stop reading now, I won't say anything interesting in the remainder of this letter. ;-) My name (as you probably already know) is Fredrik Ekman and I am a 23-year- old student at a Swedish college (h"ogskola) in Ronneby. This college is very small and specialized in computer-related educations. Some Swedes on the list may have heard about Soft Center; this is it! I read a lot of different comics, but I generally try to stay away from superhero comics. The only such that I read regularily is Spiderman, and that is only because I am trying to get a complete Swedish collection. I'm not normally a collector, this is just some strange idea that I have... I guess that if I had to choose one favourite kind of comics, it'd be Disney, my favourite Disney artists being Barks, Rosa and Van Horn. At least, I'm not trying to be original... :-) As for my favourite Barks stories; the last time that subject came up here, I stated that I cannot just choose any five or ten top stories, since he has done so many of them. Also, there are still lots and lots of Barks I haven't read at all, so any such listing would be incomplete anyway. When I don't study or read comics, I read books (you know, the ones with no pictures in them), practise Ju-Jutsu and sing in a choire (spelling?). Well, that about covers it, I guess. Bye for now /Fredrik PS. If anyone for any reason should try to send personal mail to me, don't use the address I'm sending this from since that won't work! The address to reach me, at least in the nearest future, is still: d91fe at ide.ide.hk-r.se. DS. From mas at cs.bu.edu Wed Sep 22 20:57:49 1993 From: mas at cs.bu.edu (Mark Semich) Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 14:57:49 -0400 Subject: Uncle Scrooge Message-ID: <9309221857.AA17831@csa.bu.edu> Well, I already mailed off a rant on the state of the comic book industry (for which I apologize if it seemed a bit *too* rantish..), and the question that I'm going to ask in this message may seem somewhat silly, but I assume that the more traffic in disney-comics, the better. :-) When I first read Uncle Scrooge comics in my youth, I heard Scrooge in my head with an American accent. Now that Disney has decreed that Scrooge has a Scottish accent (and has produced films in which Scrooge has this accent), I've actually started to "hear" Scrooge with the occasionaly Scottish accent when I read the comics. Sometimes I am surprised by this, as I still remember Scrooge with his old voice. I'd be curious to know how Don Rosa and other people involved with the comic book think of Scrooge's accent, and if there is a general preference... =========================================================================== "I am Scrooge McDuck of the clan McDuck. There can be only one!" -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- mark a. semich mas at csa.bu.edu =========================================================================== From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Thu Sep 23 00:40:59 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 17:40:59 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Uncle Scrooge In-Reply-To: <9309221857.AA17831@csa.bu.edu> Message-ID: On Wed, 22 Sep 1993, Mark Semich wrote: > When I first read Uncle Scrooge comics in my youth, I heard Scrooge in > my head with an American accent. Now that Disney has decreed that > Scrooge has a Scottish accent (and has produced films in which > Scrooge has this accent), I've actually started to "hear" Scrooge > with the occasionaly Scottish accent when I read the comics. > Sometimes I am surprised by this, as I still remember Scrooge with his > old voice. When I read the comic book, I don't "hear" the characters' voices. Donald does not spit or lisp (?) when he speaks, Scrooge has a normal American voice, and HDL do not sound like children. > I'd be curious to know how Don Rosa and other people involved with the > comic book think of Scrooge's accent, and if there is a general > preference... The easiest way to denote an accent in writing is to change da spellin' uv da letturz so dat da readurz kin undahstands dat chur writin' in, uh, di-uh-lekt, and not Uhmurican. Scrooge did appear in a few educational Disney shorts in the fifties or sixties. I don't know what his accent was. Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA (#1 in announcer exports) ((no accent)) From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Thu Sep 23 01:26:46 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 19:26:46 -0400 Subject: Disney-comics digest #107. In-Reply-To: Your message of Thu, 23 Sep 93 01:15:35 +0100 Message-ID: <9309222326.AA18449@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Folks, *Very* brief, now... (Gotta get to badminton club) When Uncle Scrooge appeared in the 1967 cartoon "Scrooge McDuck and Money" (boy, what a terrible cartoon!), he had a Scottish accent very similar to what he's got in recent cartoon appearances. Disney's banned stories really do have virtually no effect on European publications... particularly the Gottfredson stuff. Droves of that is banned over here, but you can get it all in Germany and Italy up to about 1938. The two most offensive stories -- "In Search of Jungle Treasure" and "An Education for Thursday" have both been reprinted in recent years, the former one in 1990. Disney doesn't always have their eyes open *here* either. Gladstone was not allowed to use the Gottfredson story, "Island in the Sky," because the supporting hero, Dr. Einmug, was German. Cris Palomino *snuck* it by, I'm led to believe, when it appeared in WDC&S #582-83. My guess is that if Gladstone asked to print it now, they would meet with a refusal. Same thing with "Darkest Africa" -- as you may or may not know, Gladstone couldn't even get permission to use a *censored* version of that, but Bob Foster threw it in and was prepared for a big fight after it went to press. It did, and nobody noticed. Your friend, David Gerstein From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Thu Sep 23 02:03:44 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 02:03:44 +0200 Subject: Comments comments comments Message-ID: <9309230003.AA02314@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> Minnie's Nieces ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ David: > First of all, I saw a Paul Murry story in some 1970s issue of > MM -- the nadir of Mouse material -- in which Minnie's nieces appeared > with the names Pammy and Tammy. Is everyone confused now? Not very. I think Rich Bellacera (not on the list anymore) also had read that, because he kept talking about Minnie having two nieces but couldn't remember their names. Nadir? I seems like the idea of nieces for Minnie has a tendency to appear when bad Mouse stories are made. The only reason this Molly (a single niece) is remembered here is because the Norwegian book Donaldismen (The Donaldism) by Jon Gisle made her the symbol of the bad stories in Scandinavia in the mid-sixties. Favourite stories ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ David had a couple of 10-pagers in his list and James explicitly said that he preferred the shorter stories, so I'd like to make clear that what I set out to do in my list was to list my favourite *long* (more than 10 pages) stories by Barks. I'd have a harder time to come up with my favourite 10-pagers, and I think it's hard to compare them, so making one single top list would be still harder. (I'll try to come up with my favourite 10-pagers soon though.) David> Well, that's all for now. I'd like to hear what others' David> favorite Barks and Gottfredson stories are!!! Sorry, no Gottfredson list here, but I would also be interested in seeing more folks' lists of favourites. Up to now the lists haven't looked very much like one another which I think is pretty interesting. Me, Myself, and I ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gilbert: > ... but I still don't know that much about Per (and we exchange > e-mail letters!!).. so come on Pal, get in this too. I am condignly > inviting/appealing to EVERYONE, to tell at least a little something > about themselves and to post something else, from time to time! Well, hmm, I think I wrote something about that'd it be interesting if people on the list said something about themselves way back, so I guess I should oblige myself... I'm 28 years old. I have studied computer science and lingustics (and a little of this and that besides that) at the university here, where I'm now working (at the dept. of linguistics). As a kid I read more books than comics, but I did read a lot of comics as well. I read almost no super heroes though, and I read absolutely no realistically drawn black and white adventure strips and that type of thing. My eyes just passed over them as if they didn't exist. (Characteristically the super hero comic I read the most of was the somewhat cartoony Shazam.) So what I did read was mostly Disney and other funny animals and European comics like Tintin, Lucky Luke, and Asterix. Later I added underground comix and post-underground comics and lots of non-kiddie comics, but that was after joining Swedish duckdom which sort of made me yet more interested in comics in general. I was specially interested in Disney (both animation and comics), and I read what I could find on the subject. The first time I learned about Carl Barks was in the (largely erratic) foreword to _Jag Kalle Anka_ (the Swedish version of Abbeville's big white book _Donald Duck_, originally of Italian origin). That book was really a treat back then, even though I nowadays really wouldn't like anyone to meet those stories in that severely butchered form. I also read everything on comics I could find in my local public library, and that's where I found _Donaldismen_ (mentioned earlier in this post). Then I knew that there at least *had been* Duck fans once upon a time in Oslo. Later, in high school, I and a couple of my friends got to know about NAFS(k), the Swedish Donaldist Association, immediately joined, and suddenly the collected wisdom and knowledge of international duckdom was available to me. :-) Nowadays I've cut down on my comics reading a lot. I recently started subscribing to the American Disney comics again after not having them through the Disney era, but I will probably let them go again, as I can't afford them, and the only other comic book I subscribe to now is Yummy Fur. Discussions on this very mailing list have made me re-read lots of stories that I haven't read for some years, which I thank you all for, as it's always good to find that those old stories still really are so good. My main pursuit nowadays is otherwise to learn to juggle five balls. Hmm, time to sleep. I'll get back to the rest of the subjects I intended to comment on some other time. -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se "Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!" From gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu Thu Sep 23 04:19:47 1993 From: gilbert at unix.campbellsvil.edu (Gilbert Milburn) Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 22:19:47 EDT Subject: $crooge's accent Message-ID: <9309230219.AA06063@unix.campbellsvil.edu> Dear fellow subscribers, Last time in Disney-comics digest #107: > Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 14:57:49 -0400 > From: mas at cs.bu.edu (Mark Semich) > Subject: Uncle Scrooge > Well, I already mailed off a rant on the state of the comic book industry > (for which I apologize if it seemed a bit *too* rantish..), and the > question that I'm going to ask in this message may seem somewhat silly, > but I assume that the more traffic in disney-comics, the better. :-) Mark, this is NOT a silly question! I once asked this same question to Don, a few years ago and he amusing/interesting. He said: "I've never had anyone ask me that before!" Torsten [about $crooges accent]: > When I read the comic book, I don't "hear" the characters' voices. Donald > does not spit or lisp (?) when he speaks, Scrooge has a normal American > voice, and HDL do not sound like children. I *sometimes* "hear" the voices of the character in the stories that I read. Like: SMAUG "The Great and Terrible" (the Red Dragon, from J.R.R. Tolkien's _The Hobbit_) "sounds" nothing like $crooge McDuck, in my mind! Mark: > I'd be curious to know how Don Rosa and other people involved > with the comic book think of Scrooge's accent, and if there is a > general preference... I could tell you what Don told me... but, I let him do that himself!.. Torsten: > Scrooge did appear in a few educational Disney shorts in the fifties or > sixties. I don't know what his accent was. Yes, he did at that, but don't forget about DuckTales!.. sorry Don! Mark I like your signature, it pretty funny! I am also glad to see a few *NEW* names in the the contents of this list/digest keep up the good work guys! Later, Gil Milburn "Hello, I am Ignigo Montoya, you have killed my Father... prepare to die!" From mas at cs.bu.edu Thu Sep 23 05:16:27 1993 From: mas at cs.bu.edu (Mark Semich) Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 23:16:27 -0400 Subject: Duckburg fanzine? Message-ID: <9309230316.AA29312@csa.bu.edu> Sorry if this is common knowledge, but I haven't been able to find this out: I've heard tale of a duck fanzine called something along the lines of the "Duckburg Gazette" or the "Duckburg Times." Does anyone know if it still exists, what it's about, or how one could contact its publishers? =========================================================================== "I am Scrooge McDuck of the clan McDuck. There can be only one!" -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- mark a. semich mas at csa.bu.edu =========================================================================== From lrn at daimi.aau.dk Thu Sep 23 17:08:55 1993 From: lrn at daimi.aau.dk (Lasse Reichstein Nielsen) Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 17:08:55 METDST Subject: Hi everybody... In-Reply-To: <9309202318.AA13017@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE>; from "disney-comics@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE" at Sep 21, 93 1:18 am Message-ID: <199309231509.AA04179@vita.daimi.aau.dk> All right, I'll face front... Hi. I'm Ole Reichstein Nielsen, or just ROC (thats COMMANDER ROC to you!). I'm that other Dane; you've already heard from Jan Lund Thomsen (Yo, Cute:) I just got on your list, or more precisely, my brother Lasse does the up'n'down loading for me, so it'll probably be his tag, LRN, you'll see on my mail. Glad to be here. I'm 28 and-then-some and started collecting ducks long before I could read. I did my first index in '78 and it took another couple of years before I found out that it should be titled 'Barks'. Following a dark age in Danish Anders And & Co., I got the feeling that I'd seen just about all the Barks stories, and it was getting too easy, with Gladstone filling the few remaining holes. Anyway I couldn't afford it. The last one I bought was US224, then I quit. Then in the autumn of '91 I picked up the Danish autumn-double-issue, and found that the special wasn't a couple of old Barks' 10-pagers or Milton's stuff from Holland, which had been the rule in these seasonal extras, but in fact a dead good story from that guy who did Son of the Sun (Yo, Don:) I remembered that! Not only that, the story was credited!! Biggest news since Donald's blouse got blue stripes instead of yellow back in '83! So for the next couple of mondays you could find me browsing the latest issue at the local K-Mart. Three issues later War of the Wendigo started. The rest is hook, line and sinker. Since then I have been raiding 2-hand shops for those missing Anders And'er from my years in exile, ordering Gladstone's and Disney's at bulk-freight from Fantask (Denmark's most well-known comic-shop) and recently started subscribing on Swedish Kalle Anka & C:o. Yesterday, my first Norwegian issue arrived. I'm Back. I happen to have the Danish publications of most of those upcoming translations by David Gerstein (Yo, Dave:) D 10140 "No Dime For Stardom" - AA 48/90 D 88141 "Sea Struck" - AA 38/90 D 90029 "A Case of Too Much Money" - AA 11/91 D 90192 "Catman vs. The Masked Marauder" - AA 43/91 plot:P.Halas, script:Unn P-P. D 90218 "For School the Bell Tolls - AA 33/91 plot & script:Frank Madsen H 83120 "A Car-Gone Conclusion" - AA 12B/89 H 86201 "The Clock Watcher" - AA 47/91 Swedes, Norwegians and even Germans can try a sneak preview... HELP: (that's an offer) I have indexes of all the Danish AA&Co, (up to '82 from "Carl Barks & Co.") The last couple of years are in ASCII, another 10 years is in unintelligible crayola-on-A4. (I _did_ manage to find those above!) Would you like them translated? All of them? And should I try to identify ALL the artists, not just the good (American and Dutch) ones? HELP: (that's a request) The German Donald Duck Sonderheft has been running a series called 'Entenhausener Geschichte(n)' (The Duckburg (Hi)story) which are impressingly informative on Barks' stories. Chapter 22 (Sonderheft 126) deals with Gyro Gearloose's hammer-on-the-head as featured in WDC171 and WDC201. More interestingly, it reveals that Gyro is based on the same character as Gus Goose. In 1937 Barks worked on a cartoon, 'The Interior Decorator.' Barks did part of the script and the storyboard, and made Gus the always-eater. The project was cancelled due to a weak story-line, though there were some good gags. Later Gus, who had gotten a lot fatter, appeared in 'Donald's Cousin Gus.' The original 'slim-line' version of Gus was later used as a model for Gyro. Well, it's news to me. Could anybody in Germany scan these articles and upload them, xerox them for me, give me an address for subscription or downright sell me some? I am also interested in subscriptions on Dutch and, possibly, Finnish Donald Duck weeklies, could anyone help me with that? (and BTW wot's _in_ Finnish Akku Anka these days? I read that it was high quality in the late 70's.) Ferioli. -Ole Roc co/ lrn at daimi.aau.dk From rivers at seismo.CSS.GOV Thu Sep 23 19:48:02 1993 From: rivers at seismo.CSS.GOV (Wilmer Rivers) Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 13:48:02 EDT Subject: more political correctness Message-ID: <9309231748.AA11092@beno.CSS.GOV> First, a brief aside. Don Rosa says that at comics conventions he is often asked: > .. the question "Which do you do first... write the story or draw it?" > (which I am asked very frequently), I always answer "First I do all > the artwork, filling a few dozen pages with haphazard drawings... then > I go back and think up a story that will fit the random illustrations. > This usually satisfies the questioner. > Of course it does. The fan-boy probably got an identical answer, in complete seriousness, when he asked that same question of the creators at the Image Comics tent. Now on to the subject of this posting... This group has had discussions about at least 3 instances of classic duck material being forbidden to be reprinted, or at least required to be altered, on account of changing attitudes towards racial minorities (In Darkest Africa, apparently anything at all with Indians in it, and now Voodoo Hoodoo). I would like to bring to your attention one more case in which a Barks story had to be edited before being reprinted (by Disney Comics). This was "The Terrible Turkey", a harmless bit of fluff about Donald's going hunting to shoot a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. You will recall that in the original, after many amusing failed attempts, Donald finally shoots a bird and takes it to someone to have it cleaned and plucked for cooking. The punchline is that when Thanks- giving dinnertime arrives, the person to whom he took the bird to be prepared tells Donald that his meal will be inedible because the "turkey" is actually an eagle! Now in the USA, killing an eagle, even by mistake, is a serious crime. (I think this is true of all types of eagles and not just the American national symbol, the bald eagle.) Someone at Disney apparently decided that they couldn't let Donald commit an offense punishable with a lengthy prison sentence, so they changed the word "eagle" to "quail". I have 3 questions. (1) Was this done because in these environmentally sensitive times, accidentally killing a member of an endangered species is considered a more serious offense than the deliberate mischief and acts of aggrevated assault in which Donald is usually involved, especially with neighbor Jones? (2) A "quail"???? First of all, how could a bird the size of a quail be mistaken for a turkey? If Donald had shot a quail, he certainly wouldn't have taken it in to be prepared as a meal sufficient for 4 people! And even if he did, what's wrong with eating a quail for Thanksgiving dinner (other than its small size)? The joke about the eagle was of course that it was much too tough, but quails are just fine to eat. Who at Disney Comics made such a dumb substitution of "quail" in place of "eagle"? The punchline to the whole story was thereby rendered completely meaningless (unless you were familiar with the original). If they felt compelled to come up with a substitute for "eagle", why didn't they use "buzzard" or some such? (3) When this story is reprinted in Europe, is it still an "eagle" there or does Disney require it to be edited? Is killing an eagle punished as harshly in Europe as it is in the USA, and does that matter to Disney? One final, completely irrelevant, note. A number of people on this list have been telling us a bit about themselves lately, and I'm getting depressed. Will someone please tell me (lie, if necessary) that I'm not the oldest person in this group? I'm 44, and I learned how to read from following the words and pictures in WDC&S in the early 1950s. Am I now considered too old still to be a fan of "funny books", as we used to call them? Wilmer Rivers rivers at seismo.css.gov From 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM Thu Sep 23 04:12:04 1993 From: 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM (Don Rosa) Date: 22 Sep 93 22:12:04 EDT Subject: +Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #107. Message-ID: <930923021203_72260.2635_EHK33-1@CompuServe.COM> To Mark Semich: You didn't really drive all the way to Chicago just to see me, did you? If so, you should have spent lots more time seein' me. I mistakenly gave you the impression that I've been to a Disneyana convention and had a bad experience. My little stories of odd experiences were from comics conventions. If I ever appeared at a Disneyana convention, I would be a total unknown since I do those comic books that the "Disneyana" fans don't know have ever existed... or if they did, they must be done by Disney... and if they weren't, they couldn't be any good because Disney is so wonderful and glorious and marvi. Actually, for some reason I neglected to address that aspect in my hurry to reply last time -- but the thing that might irk me the most about the people in those Disney clubs and at those conventions is their blind devotion to Disney as some sort of high-water mark for all earthly goodness and light. Their devotion is so little based on defining quality but on just loving all things Disney. I tried a few of their BBS from time to time, but my stomach is quickly turned by this attitude as well as all the pin-back button collectors and people bragging to each other how they went to Disneyland for the 237th time (rather than going someplace REAL for a change of pace, like a mountain or forest someplace). But I can't believe how I overlooked Steve's own words... of his actual concious admission that Disney fans overlook Disney's misdeeds because, whatever Disney has done, it's made Disney a SUCCESS and that's the important thing. This is a definition of moral corruption. It's this kind of thinking on a grand scale that makes the American morality what a mess it is today. The end justifies the means since we can overlook what we wish to laud the results. It's exactly this sort of attitude that allows Disney to continue to cheat and bully freelance artists like myself. If Disneyans fans would stand up to Disney as they and many others should, and not simply IGNORE Disney's misdemeanors, maybe things would change... and Disney would STILL be just as successful, but not as evil. This sort of attitude makes the lives of people like me very uncomfortable and far less rewarding than we deserve... so it's easy to see how I could deeply resent that sort of thinking. But apart from that, my regard for Disneyana collectors comes from meetings with them outside of Disneyana conventions. One very good example is found in the books by some obscure (?) writer of collectibles guides named David Longest. He has moved into writing books about Disney toys and claims that he does so only because he is a devoted Disney fan and collector and loves everything about Disney and how Disney is the fulfillment of all our dreams and hopes and purity and light and... you can imagine the hoaky, flowery adoration that these collectors lavish on themselves as if they are supporting something just this side of heaven. Then he goes on to say, after all that, that real Disney fans all know not to collect any Disney toys newer than the 30s since they just aren't very rare and aren't worth having around since they'll never be valuable. It's painfully obvious what this guy is REALLY interested in. BUT-- Mark asked me some other questions. $crooge's accent? Disney says $crooge has a Scottish accent? So? Did Disney have anything at all with the creation or first 40 years of $crooge's existance? No. So whatever Disney has to say about $crooge is THEIR "DuckTales" Scrooge, not THE $crooge of the comic books, the REAL $crooge. Like everyone else, $crooge and Donald and HD&L have always spoken in my mind with normal voices. But I was forced to deal with this accent stuff in my "Life of $crooge" series; in part 1 I have $crooge's family speaking with heavy accents, and $crooge speaking with a slight accent. But I show that at age 13 he leaves Scotland and grows up as a globetrotter, mostly in the English speaking areas of America, Australia, South Africa, Canada, and such. The adult $crooge has NO Scottish accent. And, Mark, where did you get that line "I am $McD of the clan McD... there can be no other"??? Also, you said my art on "War of the Wendigo" was "not outstanding"... which is fine. But you can't say that without telling me how or why or where it was not-so-good so I can improve! Oh, wait... that was Fredrik who said that! So the question goes to Fredrik! And Fredrik askes when I started putting my "D.U.C.K." dedication in my comics. It was in the last panel of the first one I did, "The Son of the Sun"... but Gladstone removed it since it looked as if it might be a signature. However, when they used that story in certain foreign countries, you can see the dedication still there. That dedication has been in every story I've ever done, in the splash (first) panel after the first 2 stories... but early on at both Gladstone and Egmont the editors removed it. Now that I hide it and have explained what it is, it is no longer removed. I also started putting it on the covers as well, beginning with the covers I did for Disney Comics a few years ago. Any covers after that time, or any stories where you CAN'T locate the dedication, just ask me and I'll either tell you where to look or tell you it's not there to be found. There....that was a nice long letter. Now I leave for a week in Oslo to meet with all sorts of dignitaries and ambassadors and have signing sessions at major stores and all manner of stuff that the wild Norwegian editor has arranged! I'll have lots of digests waiting for me when I get home, eh? From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Thu Sep 23 23:22:58 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 23:22:58 +0200 Subject: More comments on various subjects Message-ID: <9309232122.AA09772@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> On Disney fans who aren't interested in comics books: Well, it's their loss, but it's perfectly possible to be interested in Disney animation for its own sake. Don> and I'll tell them that they don't even know who Donald Duck is Don> if they think he's just some slapstick character who throws Don> walnuts at Chip and Dale. "Oh, yes, aren't they just the cutest Don> things!" Of course they know who "their" Donald Duck is, and he is not "just some slapstick character" on the screen either, even though slapstick is more suitable to the cartoons than the comics, and thus is more prevalent there. I think Chip and Dale are pretty cute by the way, especially when drawn by Al Hubbard. :-) Don> Obviously, I have littel respect for most of those sort of Don> "Disney fans". If they don't have an intellectual basis for their Don> interests, I think they're wasting their time. The basis for my interest in Disney (comics and animation) is probably more emotional than intellectual. Is that bad? Why? David: > As for Donald, the concept of him "throwing walnuts at Chip > 'n' Dale" raises something that I would like to hear folks out about: > After Barks left the Disney story department, Donald was absolutely > never the same! He lost his pretentions to grandeur (most evident in > "Fire Chief," my favorite Duck cartoon) and became a very formulaic, > bullying character. > In fact, when Jack Hannah began directing, he began to play up > the formerly-obnoxious critters who Donald dealt with as heroes and > sympathetic characters. By the end of the series, Donald had become > the *villain* of his own cartoons. Well, there was a change in the cartoons, but I never thought that Barks's influence was that great. The Studio changed a lot during WW2, and never came out the same afterwards. Maybe Barks's influcence was greater than I've thought, but nevertheless I think Jack Hannah directed many fine Donald cartoons in the years that followed. Andy: > I have only seen the Gladstone version of Bombie. Where can I look to > see the original Barks' version? You'd have to look in the original Donald Duch One Shot #238 I guess. Of course I don't have that by the way. According to Barrier's book the editors substituted "done for" for "dead" on page 1 and 22 of that story (but left "dead" unchanged on page 6). It seems like Another Rainbow redone those changes at least, 'cause CBL has: Bop, Bop: "A-a man that wouldn't stay dead, Donald!" (page 1) Scrooge: "He's just *dumb*, as who wouldn't be that's been dead a *thousand* years!" (page 6) Cornelius McCobb: "Don't let him fool you! He's not dead!" (page 26) and finally Steve (on a recent Disneyana convention): > In addtion Carl Barks was there, I missed him myself, but he was > 'featured' a "meet the authors" signing event. It seems like Carl Barks travels around a lot nowadays. Any other places where he'll be? -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se "Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!" From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Thu Sep 23 23:54:35 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 23:54:35 +0200 Subject: Voices In-Reply-To: Mark Semich's message of Wed, 22 Sep 93 14:57:49 -0400 <9309221857.AA17831@csa.bu.edu> Message-ID: <9309232154.AA10335@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> Mark asked about how we think Scrooge sounds: > When I first read Uncle Scrooge comics in my youth, I heard Scrooge in > my head with an American accent. When I first read Uncle Scrooge comics in my youth he spoke Swedish so I don't have much input here. I've never really thought about voices for the characters though, and I can't remember any internal evidence on anything about the characters' voices in the comics (like someone hearing that Scrooge is from Scotland or someone having a hard time to hear what Donald is saying). Torsten: > The easiest way to denote an accent in writing is to change da spellin' uv > da letturz so dat da readurz kin undahstands dat chur writin' in, uh, > di-uh-lekt, and not Uhmurican. Such comic book spellings are not common at all in Sweden (I guess they are afraid the kids won't learn to spell properly if they read too much of it), but I think they add colour to the dialogues. Interestingly enough some of those spellings really don't indicate any substandard or non-standard pronuncation, like "sez" for "says", but anyway the reader is supposed to understand that that speaker doesn't speak very proper. Note Scrooge speech in The Old Castle's Secret where Barks first told us of Scrooge's Scottish heritage, by the way! He calls the boys lads repeatedly, and says "aye" instead of yes. -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se "Take it easy, Scottie, ol' man! 'Tis me, Scrooge! The last McDuck!" From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Fri Sep 24 00:08:47 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 93 00:08:47 +0200 Subject: Duckburg fanzine? In-Reply-To: Mark Semich's message of Wed, 22 Sep 93 23:16:27 -0400 <9309230316.AA29312@csa.bu.edu> Message-ID: <9309232208.AA10513@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> > Sorry if this is common knowledge, but I haven't been able to find > this out: > > I've heard tale of a duck fanzine called something along the lines of > the "Duckburg Gazette" or the "Duckburg Times." Does anyone know if > it still exists, what it's about, or how one could contact its > publishers? Yep, straight from ``fanzines'' in the ftp archive: > * The Duckburg Times > Published by Dana Gabbard, 3010 Wilshire Bl. #362, Los Angeles CA > 90010. Irregularly published, sample copy $3. Back issues available. > Emphasis on Disney comics with news, articles, interviews and reviews. > The latest issue is #24/25 with a focus on DuckTales. #26 will > include a profile on Italian artist Marco Rota, an article by Ken > Bausert titled "The World According to Carl Barks" and an installment > of Andy Lendacky's series on Barks's use of language, among other > things. > Issue #27 will probably be a special issue devoted to the Carl Barks > Library. -- Per From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Fri Sep 24 00:41:18 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 93 00:41:18 +0200 Subject: Hi everybody... In-Reply-To: Lasse Reichstein Nielsen's message of Thu, 23 Sep 93 17:08:55 METDST <199309231509.AA04179@vita.daimi.aau.dk> Message-ID: <9309232241.AA10958@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> > Hi. I'm Ole Reichstein Nielsen, or just ROC (thats COMMANDER ROC to you!). Hi there! Hmm, doesn't that come out as "ORC"? > ... and recently started subscribing on Swedish Kalle Anka & C:o. > Yesterday, my first Norwegian issue arrived. I'm Back. What dedication! What on earth do you need Danish, Swedish, *and* Norwegian issues for? They are almost the same anyway, right? > I have indexes of all the Danish AA&Co, (up to '82 from "Carl Barks & Co.") So this is Martin Olsen's "Det Store Index", right? Are there any problems with spreading it? (Ole has since sent me lots of files that will appear on the ftp archive eventually. (That computer doesn't respond right now.) Thanks!) > More interestingly, it reveals that Gyro is based on the same > character as Gus Goose. In 1937 Barks worked on a cartoon, 'The > Interior Decorator.' Barks did part of the script and the storyboard, > and made Gus the always-eater. The project was cancelled due to a weak > story-line, though there were some good gags. Later Gus, who had > gotten a lot fatter, appeared in 'Donald's Cousin Gus.' The original > 'slim-line' version of Gus was later used as a model for Gyro. Well, > it's news to me. There are some storyboards for Interior Decorators in Carl Barks Library, set II, but the Gus in them reminds me more of Gus than of Gyro, even though I guess there are similarities. Anyway, I don't have late issues of those German fanzines and I'm not sure what the current address of D.O.N.A.L.D. is. Anyone know? (Otherwise I'll look it up somewhere. I've been on my way to rejoin it for some time anyway.) -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se "Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!" From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Fri Sep 24 00:51:43 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 93 00:51:43 +0200 Subject: Bop, Bop In-Reply-To: Per Starback's message of Thu, 23 Sep 93 23:22:58 +0200 <9309232122.AA09772@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> Message-ID: <9309232251.AA11038@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> I wrote: > Bop, Bop: "A-a man that wouldn't stay dead, Donald!" (page 1) ^^^^^^^^ Oops, It seems like I took a stand on a controversial issue there. :-) -- " Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se "Boppeti Bop! Buppity Bup! Shoeless Pashly!" From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Fri Sep 24 02:18:09 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 20:18:09 -0400 Subject: Disney-comics digest #108. In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, 24 Sep 93 01:15:35 +0100 Message-ID: <9309240018.AA15071@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Folks, LO-OO-ONG digest today! Boy, just the kind of thing to top off my day! Great to hear *so much* from my fellow duck fans... and the occasional Mouse fan; we can always use *more* you know! (If anyone here isn't familiar with the works of the great Gatsby -- er, Gottfredson -- just buy your choice of: WDC&S 582-83, 587-Present; MM 219-239, 241-244, 246-249, 251-253.) I'll take ye on one at a time: Mark Semich: Yeahhh, where *did* you get that quote? I assumed it was from one of Don Rosa's stories! (And it seemed funny that I couldn't remember *which* one!) Ole Reichstein: Swell to hear that someone's found "my" stories (i. e. the Danish/Dutch stories I've translated). Sadly, I still haven't dug up the code numbers for any others, but I can give summaries of a few... maybe you'll know them. "His Master's Voice" (Branca, maybe in the issues numbered 2.91 or thereabouts?) (Scrooge as Donald's butler) "The Hoard at the Rainbow's End" (Verhagen) (Donald travels to the Oriental country of Onamatapang in search of an empress' treasure) "Bornworthy's Job" (Branca, circa issue 51.89) (Bornworthy is trained to deliver mail to snowbound miners) "E. A. T." (Branca, circa late 1989) (The Beagle Boys steal a money-eating Alien from Gyro Gearloose) "The Rarest Dog in the World" (Vicar, *perhaps* D89000) (Scrooge is in search of a wooly Goat-Hound in feudal Nomoola) "Bugged by Humbug" (Verhagen) (Donald is swindled by a phony exterminator) On one story which I did way back when for *Disney Comics* (which bought my first three and never printed them... now Gladstone gets to), I didn't know it at the time but Bob Foster'd already bought Gary Gabner's version. "A Sense of Humor" (DiDDA 25) was called "All the World's a Prank" in my version, and excellent as Gabner's version was, it still meant that my personal favorite line of *any* of my dialogs will never see print, as no one had any real reason to buy my version of the story!!! Donald to gym owner Charles Hapless (which is what I called him) as he sprays him with water from a trick flower: "Here's where May flowers bring April showers! Getting that washed-out feeling?" Wilmer Rivers: Ah, but the quail (formerly an eagle) as printed in WDC&S 579 was a *giant* quail. (The word "giant" wasn't in the original, either.) Can't say that'd make him tougher eating, though. The original version, by the way, is not banned; Disney just chose to change that one printing. In CBL Album #12 (is that the one?) the story appears with the eagle staying an eagle. Same exact color job as WDC&S 579, though. WDC&S 566 featured the Barks story "Will o' the Wisp" (is that from WDC&S 159?). In perhaps the most infuriating example of what Len Wein would do to stories, when Scrooge takes out his "book of devious strategems," Wein went in and actually lettered that phrase *onto* the book as its *title*!!!!!!!!!!!! Bob Foster had nothing to do with that. In the same story, Scrooge's top hat was redrawn so that it wasn't partially covered by a word balloon in the first panel. WDC&S 575 featured Barks' Olympic try-out story. The Olympic Committee blackmailed Disney into paying a hefty fee to them for permission to use any Olympic-themed stories (Gladstone just printed some... didn't matter four years earlier!), then insisted on editorial control, so the story was *butchered*. This one has too many changes for me to go through right now. Don Rosa: The earliest story I ever saw your D. U. C. K. in was "Nobody's Business" (US 220), on some comic book Gladstone was reading during the story. Were you under the impression Gladstone had deleted that, or just the one in "Son of the Sun"?? Per Starback: On Gladstone's Carl Barks Heroes and Villains Trading Card #16 (or whatever the one is for Bombie), the illustrations from "Voodoo Hoodoo" are the original, unchanged versions. John Clark tells me he's going to try to coax Disney into letting him use the original version when the story's printed in his upcoming Carl Barks Library Album DD One-Shot series, too. I always imagined Scrooge having a Scottish accent, but not one half as strong as it is in "DuckTales". Scrooge not only speaks with some Scottish dialect in OS 186, but also in some of the 1960s Barks stories, which of all the CB material obviously had the greatest influence, unfortunately, on "DuckTales". In England, Goofy doesn't speak in written-out hick dialect, a real shock to me! As Goofy himself once said about his cousin Arizona Goof's normal English, "Seems tuh me he got some kind o' speech impeddyment." Speaking of speech impediments, B'dee-b'dee-b'dee... That's all, Folks! David Gerstein (Don't get after me for that last bit... Barks did do a Porky Pig story, after all! And he sure does a *good* Porky!) From Anders.Berglund at eua.ericsson.se Fri Sep 24 14:10:49 1993 From: Anders.Berglund at eua.ericsson.se (Anders Berglund) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 93 14:10:49 +0200 Subject: Voices Message-ID: <9309241210.AA15973@euax2i6c11.eua.ericsson.se> Some people have said (or written - Wonder what they sound like?) several things about Scrooge's accent, e. g.: > > Mark asked about how we think Scrooge sounds: > > When I first read Uncle Scrooge comics in my youth, I heard Scrooge in > > my head with an American accent. > --- > Note Scrooge speech in The Old Castle's Secret where Barks first > told us of Scrooge's Scottish heritage, by the way! He calls the boys > lads repeatedly, and says "aye" instead of yes. > -- " > Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se I just want to add that there is a reference to Scrooge's accent in Mystery of the Swamp (if I remember the title right; what I mean is the mid-sixties US story with the Brutopian consul and the little box that makes dogs able to grasp integral calculus...; Tr|stl|sa Tr{sket i Swedish). It's when Donald meets Scrooge, who doesn't remember who he is. After having been told that this old duck is not at all his uncle, but a "senor Pato", Donald looks bewildered after him, thinking that "he sure sounded like Scrooge - the same broad Duckburg accent" (or something to that extent; This is taken from my memory version of the Swedish translation). Anders Berglund, Stockholm, Sweden. From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Fri Sep 24 14:12:54 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 14:12:54 +0200 Subject: Replies part 1 Message-ID: <199309241212.AA03508@athena.research.ptt.nl> I have only been away for 2 days and there's a lot of traffic on the list! I'll reply to some now, in separate mails. Don Rosa: > The balloon in "Voodoo Hoodoo" was not in the form of your note. > It wasn't "Hey, Bop! Bop, what is...". It was "Hey, Bop, Bop! What > is..." That seems clear that the fellas name is "Bop Bop" or (for > whatever reason) "Bop, Bop". I guess the reason that I need to bounce > around such trivia is that I might have needed to use that guy (?) in my > "Life" series, at which time it would have become very important to > figure this out! Same reason for me: I wanted to make sure sobody made a mistake about this before David would use the character in a story. I'm convinced now 8-) > And, Harry, there's nothing wrong with your English! (...) > as a group, I look askance at semi-literates. I'll have to look up the word 'askance' in a dictionary 8-) --Harry. "So solly! Me no speakee lingo!" From d91fe at hkr01.ide.hk-r.se Fri Sep 24 05:16:26 1993 From: d91fe at hkr01.ide.hk-r.se (Fredrik Ekman) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 93 04:16:26 0100 Subject: List of Lists Message-ID: <930924041626.00002ce9.d91fe@hkr01.ide.hk-r.se> H'lo! Yesterday, I found a rather interesting List of Lists on r.a.d. This list obviously contained all the lists that appears more or less regularily on r.a.d and some others as well (two of them maintained by our own Andy Krieg, btw). And of course, none of the lists included any info about comics. I have now taken the liberty of informing the List of Lists maintainer about the existence of our group and our FTP archive, so now it is up to him if he wants to include "our" lists and indexes or not. I also thought that this would be a good idea to announce our existence on r.a.d, perhaps as a reply to abovementioned list. I believe that this has been done before, but that was some time ago, right? Unfortunately I cannot do this myself as I can currently only read news, not post anything. So I toss the ball over to you. /Fredrik email: d91fe at ide.ide.hk-r.se From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Fri Sep 24 15:30:11 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 15:30:11 +0200 Subject: Replies part x Message-ID: <199309241330.AA06842@athena.research.ptt.nl> Bad stories ~~~~~~~~~~~ About Minnie's nieces, Per wrote: > Nadir? I seems like the idea of > nieces for Minnie has a tendency to appear when bad Mouse stories are > made. The only reason this Molly (a single niece) is remembered here > is because the Norwegian book Donaldismen (The Donaldism) by Jon Gisle > made her the symbol of the bad stories in Scandinavia in the > mid-sixties. David once told me that some D-coded stories were bad... you should see THESE stories! They appear to have been drawn by Jim Fletcher. Now that he was described on this list, let's FORGET all about him and continue with the stories that are really worth talking about... Good stories ~~~~~~~~~~~~ About my favourite stories: I think I once stated that the "Cornelius Coot statue" story was my favourite 10-page Barks story. I'm not good at explaining why. My favourite Gottfredson story is "Medioka". And I chose that story long before I knew all the backgrounds of it. My favourite Rosa story is "His Majesty, McDuck", though "Return to Xanadu" is a close 2nd. My favourite Jippes story is the one from the very first Gladstone WDC issue, about the charity club. I think that story deserves a USA reprint in much better colouring! Maybe needless to say: my favourite Disney comic artists are Barks, Jippes, Gottfredson, Rosa (in that order). About me ~~~~~~~~ I'm 31 years old. I have studied econometrics (with lots of computer science) at the university of Groningen. I now work at the research department of the Dutch mail and telephone company (PTT). As a kid I read more books than comics, but I did read a lot of comics as well. I read no super heroes though, what I read was mostly Disney and European comics like Tintin, Lucky Luke, and Asterix. Later I added lots of non-kiddie comics, but that was after reading comic fanzines and visiting conventions which sort of made me yet more interested in comics in general. I was specially interested in Disney (a bit animation, but much more comics), and I read what I could find on the subject. The first time I learned about Carl Barks was in the foreword of the Dutch "Beste Verhalen van Donald Duck" #4. One year later, I read the Dutch "Barks Boek" by Rob Stechweij. It gave a (largely erratic) index on all Barks stories. Since then, I tried to make my own index, which became computerised in 1983, and public (on our ftp site) in 1992/1993. Only in 1986, when I moved from Groningen to Leidschendam (near The Hague), I found out that in the cities in this area in Holland, there were some comic specialty shops that sold American comics, like Gladstone comics. Nowadays I try to read all my Disney material in sequence: when I'm finished with the last issue, I start again with the first. Such a cycle can take 2 or 3 years... I have a subscription to the Dutch Donald Duck, and I only buy foreign Disney comics (German, USA) if they contain interesting stories. Since my Barks, Jippes and Gottfredson collections are a good as complete, I have much fun in trying to get a complete Rosa collection. I try to collect Disney comic stories, but not at all cost: I have a sort of maximum price per page. If a comic is considered rare and expensive, I try to get a reprint. I'm collecting comic STORIES, not comic ISSUES. Other hobbies include reading and geography (which means finding out where Mount Rosa is etc.) (Maybe this text looks familiar to you? Discover the differences with Per's!) --Harry. Harry Fluks ()_() Dutch Disney comics freak PTT Research, Leidschendam (NL) (_) H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl "Yeah... I've _heard_ of coral barques!" (a quote few people 'outside' understand, but which honours both Carl and Don. Per once pointed out this joke on this list.) From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Fri Sep 24 15:38:47 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 15:38:47 +0200 Subject: Replies part x+1 Message-ID: <199309241338.AA07301@athena.research.ptt.nl> Wilmer, about the Turkey hunt story, WDC 87: > When this > story is reprinted in Europe, is it still an "eagle" there or does > Disney require it to be edited? Is killing an eagle punished as harshly > in Europe as it is in the USA, and does that matter to Disney? It is an eagle in Holland. I think killing an eagle is not different from killing other birds of the same kind, here. There is no extra punishment for killing a symbol. > Will someone please tell me (lie, if necessary) that I'm > not the oldest person in this group? I'm 44 (...) What a relief! I thought I was the oldest on the list (31). I'm glad you told your age. Now I can go back to reading my comics without feeling guilty... (Sorry Wilmer, I'm not good at lying.) --Harry. From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Fri Sep 24 15:44:20 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 15:44:20 +0200 Subject: Replies part 4 (= x + 2) Message-ID: <199309241344.AA07619@athena.research.ptt.nl> Don Rosa, about the "D.U.C.K." in his stories: > That dedication has been in every story I've ever done, in the > splash (first) panel after the first 2 stories... but early on at both > Gladstone and Egmont the editors removed it. Now that I hide it and have > explained what it is, it is no longer removed. I also started putting it > on the covers as well, beginning with the covers I did for Disney Comics > a few years ago. Yes, you said in the album "Donald & Scrooge": "I even hid it in the new cover". I have looked at that cover many times, but I CAN'T FIND the @#$% thing! Did you hide it behind some money bags or what? --Harry. Harry Fluks ()_() Dutch Disney comics freak PTT Research, Leidschendam (NL) (_) H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl "Yeah... I've _heard_ of coral barques!" (D.U.K.H.) From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Fri Sep 24 15:49:59 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 15:49:59 +0200 Subject: Replies part 5 Message-ID: <199309241350.AA08141@athena.research.ptt.nl> Andy: > I have only seen the Gladstone version of Bombie. Where can I look to > see the original Barks' version? Per: > You'd have to look in the original Donald Duch One Shot #238 I guess. Or look at a foreign reprint, of course. Voodoo Hoodoo has been reprinted in a more original form (but translated, of course) in Holland and Germany, at least. > Of course I don't have that by the way. According to Barrier's book > the editors substituted "done for" for "dead" on page 1 and 22 of that > story (but left "dead" unchanged on page 6). It seems like Another > Rainbow redone those changes at least Yes, they did, and they explained this in the Gladstone Album where it was reprinted. It's funny that this kind of explanations were not in the CBL, only in the albums. They didn't even mention the censoring in the CBL, although a model sheet drawing of Bombie is shown in its original form. --Harry. From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Fri Sep 24 16:01:23 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 16:01:23 +0200 Subject: Replies part 6 Message-ID: <199309241401.AA08657@athena.research.ptt.nl> David: > Ole Reichstein: Swell to hear that someone's found "my" > stories (i. e. the Danish/Dutch stories I've translated). Sadly, I > still haven't dug up the code numbers for any others, but I can give > summaries of a few... maybe you'll know them. I found some: > "The Hoard at the Rainbow's End" (Verhagen) (Donald travels to > the Oriental country of Onamatapang in search of an empress' treasure) H 84133, 20 pages, text by Jan Kruse. > "Bornworthy's Job" (Branca, circa issue 51.89) (Bornworthy is > trained to deliver mail to snowbound miners) D 88121, 8 pages. > "Bugged by Humbug" (Verhagen) (Donald is swindled by a phony > exterminator) H 86117, 10 pages. > B'dee-b'dee-b'dee... That's all, Folks! > > (Don't get after me for that last bit... Barks did do a Porky > Pig story, after all! And he sure does a *good* Porky!) The story was good, but the art wasn't all Barks! The editor let someone else redraw all the heads of Porky, Petunia and Bugs, because Barks's heads weren't good enough! That's one reason that Barks never did a Porky Pig again. --Harry. From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Fri Sep 24 16:13:33 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 16:13:33 +0200 Subject: Replies part 7 (final part) Message-ID: <199309241413.AA09374@athena.research.ptt.nl> Ole Reichstein Nielsen (ROC) [Welcome!]: > I did my first index in '78 and it took another couple of years before I found > out that it should be titled 'Barks'. Back in 1977, I made a list of the best Donald Duck stories I knew then. Later, 12 out of 15 stories came out to be Barks stories (and I only knew stories from the 60s then!). The others were 2 Strobls and a Hubbard (yes Per, a HUBBARD story). > I happen to have the Danish publications of most of those upcoming translations > by David Gerstein (Yo, Dave:) > > H 83120 "A Car-Gone Conclusion" - AA 12B/89 Script by Ruud Straatman. > HELP: (that's an offer) > > I have indexes of all the Danish AA&Co, (up to '82 from "Carl Barks & Co.") > The last couple of years are in ASCII, another 10 years is in unintelligible > crayola-on-A4. (I _did_ manage to find those above!) Would you like them > translated? All of them? And should I try to identify ALL the artists, not > just the good (American and Dutch) ones? I LOVE to see indexes! I can't wait to see it, when the ftp site is 'up' again... BTW, about indexes: Fredrik made some contributions to our Disney Comics index. A new version can be expected next week. And David is working on a Gottfredson sunday pages index. > HELP: (that's a request) > > I am also interested in subscriptions on Dutch and, possibly, Finnish Donald > Duck weeklies, could anyone help me with that? I can give you the address of the Dutch editor, but I don't have it here right now. Next time. --Harry. From gadducci at di.unipi.it Sat Sep 25 17:03:34 1993 From: gadducci at di.unipi.it (gadducci@di.unipi.it) Date: Sat, 25 Sep 93 17:03:34 +0200 Subject: Gawsh... (*LONG*) Message-ID: <199309251507.AA16356@columba.udac.uu.se> ... the number of messages you receive in 10 days is almost incredible!! Lot more than those received from CATEGORIES or CONCURRENCY mailing lists!! Mmmmmh, maybe there is a deep meaning on this... Ok, let's go!! A long time ago, Per wrote (to Harry) > >So you never got Becattini's Dell Index? When I ordered the daily >strip index from the same source nothing happened for a long time. I >wrote a letter about once every three months asking about it, and then >out of the blue when I'd almost lost my hope I suddenly got it. Maybe >you should write them and remind them? (Not that I know if that >helped, though.) > >Well, I know nothing about Jim Fletcher except what is said in that >book so I can't say anything about his drawing style, but he did many >of the Mim & Magica stories, so he might be the one you're looking >for. Becattini writes: > [stuff deleted] > >I think we mentioned his name here before when this very text was our >source for Molly's English name. The easiest thing to look up of >those things seems to be DD 85, but I don't have it. It's not in the >Dell Index, as that's the first non-Dell Donald Duck, and the DD#85 >entry in Kjell Crone's index is incomplete, so I don't know where it's >published here in Sweden either, and there is nothing with code DD 85 >in your Dutch index. Oh, well... Fabio seems to know more about him, >right? Well... I had in mind exactly the Dell Index by Becattini, since it is one of the few books that is not in a box (I'm still moving), but I'm almost sure that you can get more information on the Comic-Book encyclopedia by Ron Goulart (a Fact on File publication, I think to remember...). And talking about books on Disney comics: I actually live near Florence (you were right, Harry), and the owner of Al Fumetto Club is a friend of mine. So, if you are interested in any of his books (the publishing house is Glamour, same owner of the store), tell me!! (Btw, I could get them with a little discount... ;-). Besides, should the books list include only English-language stuff? Or, as Harry suggested, even references in other languages? Obviously, I have in mind MANY Italian books... Now about my favourite stories... Well, I do not think I can list only TEN stories... Maybe my Barks' favourite one is the full version of "Back to the Klondike" (if I HAD to decide), and that is probably my favourite duck story, too, even if there are at least a couple of Italian (which are linked to my childhood) by Romano Scarpa (Zio Paperone e le lenticchie di Babilonia) and Pezzin-Cavazzano (Paperino e l'isola vulcano) which are close enough... (ok, go on: flame me :-) And for Gottfredson... well, surely Island in the Sky from the Thirties, but his best stuff is maybe from the Forties (even if I do not remember the English titles...). More on this next time... :-) About the DYSNEYANA querelle: well, my point of view is quite different from all thre others, since in Italy the Disney cartoons are not well know, and a duck fan is usually a comics fan... Besides, the Disney fan is usually older and wiser (:-) than the other kinds of comic books fan: actually, the target of Disney comics here in Italy is very differentiated, while the large part of teenagers (the *ignorant* crowd) are superheroes (or manga, maybe) zombies... Anyway, Don is perfectly right: he describes very well the average comics fan... Scottish accent? I was absolutely sure he talked in a plain Italian... :-) Finally, who I am... My complete name is Fabio Gadducci, and I am a 27 years-old Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Pisa. I read, collected, worship... ehm, read AND collected comic books (not only Disney's) for all my sentient life: there should be almost ten thousand in my collection... (Only Yummi Fur? What about Fantagraphics, Per?) When I do not read comics (and sci-fi books - tons of those, too) or study I WRITE on these topics (and now you obviously understand that you are talking with a lunatic) since I am a regular contributor to some newszines and fanzines here in Italy... I recently joined this mailing list, and I started feeling envious of all of you who can read Life of $crooge (Grrrrrrr....) Well, we are starting to be too much *too long* here, and I'll cut down: more on Italian political correctness next time... :-) Fabio ================================================================ Fabio Gadducci Dip. di Informatica Universita` di Pisa Tel. +39-50-510268 Corso Italia 40, 56100 PISA (ITALY) FAX: +39-50-510226 E-mail:gadducci at di.unipi.it ================================================================ From mas at cs.bu.edu Fri Sep 24 18:49:27 1993 From: mas at cs.bu.edu (Mark Semich) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 93 12:49:27 -0400 Subject: D.U.C.K.? (was Re: Replies part 4 (= x + 2)) In-Reply-To: <199309241344.AA07619@athena.research.ptt.nl> (message from Harry Fluks on Fri, 24 Sep 1993 15:44:20 +0200) Message-ID: <9309241649.AA23879@csa.bu.edu> >From: Harry Fluks >Don Rosa, about the "D.U.C.K." in his stories: >> That dedication has been in every story I've ever done, in the >> splash (first) panel after the first 2 stories... but early on at both >> Gladstone and Egmont the editors removed it. Does this mean that your story in which Gladstone founds Gladstone Comics is one of your first two? As someone else recently pointed out, the "D.U.C.K" is in the last panel, not on the splash. >> Now that I hide it and have >> explained what it is, it is no longer removed. I also started putting it >> on the covers as well, beginning with the covers I did for Disney Comics >> a few years ago. > >Yes, you said in the album "Donald & Scrooge": "I even hid it in the new >cover". I have looked at that cover many times, but I CAN'T FIND the @#$% >thing! Did you hide it behind some money bags or what? Don must have become *very* adept at hiding it - I've been looking for the dedication on "Donald and Scrooge" for quite a while and have been unable to locate it. I also can't find it on the cover of Gladstone's latest "Donald Duck Adventures", #23. Did anyone have any luck on this one? From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Fri Sep 24 18:17:33 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 93 12:17:33 -0400 Subject: Disney-comics digest #108. In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, 24 Sep 93 01:15:35 +0100 Message-ID: <9309241617.AA15008@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Don (and everyone), You asked for critical comments about your stories. I have to admit I have very few -- most of which I've already asked about. But here's one that's been nagging at me: "The Money Pit"'s artwork has mysteriously thicker, blunter lines in its artwork in many places. The Ducks also look more angst-ridden, nervous and harsh than they do most of the time, right from Donald's picture in the opening splash. The whole story is just somehow slightly more abrasive. (Even the coins in the bin look less round, in effect "sharper" than usual.) This is the only story that I have seen that looks this way. In contrast to the letter that inspired this one, I actually find War of the Wendigo to be my *favorite* art among your stories, essentially because its linework seems smoother and more supple, particularly in the last few pages. Does the "Money Pit" art reflect your general disgust with the management at Disney and your doubt that they would "see the light" and agree after that to return your art (which was well-founded doubt, as said management didn't change their ways for approximately 30 months after that)? I'm just wondering. And... where's the D. U. C. K. on your two published Gladstone covers so far? (Well, okay, DDA #23 has been printed now, but hasn't made it to Williamstown yet) I'm also interested in other digest-reader responses to this, so I'm sending it to the digest in general. Sincerely, David Gerstein "They can have it! I'll take vanilla!" From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Sun Sep 26 02:05:24 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Sat, 25 Sep 93 21:05:24 -0400 Subject: Disney-comics digest #109. In-Reply-To: Your message of Sun, 26 Sep 93 01:15:37 +0100 Message-ID: <9309260105.AA07794@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Folks: The "D. U. C. K." on Disney Comics' "DONALD AND SCROOGE" is very hard to find, but it can be found nonetheless. Turn the comic 90 degrees. Now look at the treasure chest (or one of the wooden objects on the cover, I'm not sure)... But wherever the "D. U. C. K" is on US 281 completely eludes me!!! I'm stuck! Harry... *boy*, I envy you, having as good as all of the Gottfredson stories! As of this summer I have every existing reprint in English, but as any fan who does a little research will find out, that's only about 1/3 of the stories. I have some others in 1940s Dell printings, but they're in serial form and thus missing chapters here and there. (I *do* have "Goofy and Agnes" complete... and in the single week that Bob Karp wrote, Mickey suddenly gets Donald's temper!!!) I was so bothered that I didn't have Dell's complete printing of "The 'Lectro Box" (this was about Feb. 1991) that I began to pester Bob Foster to see it printed. That's essentially how I *really* got to know him (only brief conversations took place before that). Soon he indeed printed "The 'Lectro Box" for me! (That being WDC&S 568). Who's Jim Fletcher? As far as I'm concerned, the worst Disney artist of all time is Stan Walsh who drew MM and "The Robot Army" which somehow, Bob Foster got several requests for and ran in WDC&S 574-77. This story contains the ugliest version of Mickey and Goofy that I've ever seen... well, the ugliest Goofy, anyway (Mickey looks pretty bad in some Dick Moores stories, too). I have tracked down "The Swamp of No Return" (I'm not sure who was discussing that story), and the quote is "...that old duck sure had a *SCOTTISH* accent like Uncle Scrooge's!" That's the clincher; like I've always figured, Scrooge talks with a slight accent, but it's not strong enough to be "heard" via dialect in the balloons. Len Wein, by the way, laid down the law in 1990 that in new stories, Scrooge should have his DuckTales dialect written into the balloons! Hence stories like "Coffee, Louie or Me" in US 257, wherein Scrooge refers to "m' money bin!" Phooey! (Van Horn didn't obey that regulation; *only* Jaime Diaz stories adopted it.) I met Jaime Diaz in a Disney Publishing elevator on a trip there to meet Cris Palomino, in 1992. I had quite a talk with him, during which it was revealed that he *dislikes* Barks' work which is why he makes sure *none* of his artists imitates Barks. So if they're not going to respect Barks (by respect I don't mean copy him slavishly, but "respect" like Egmont and Oberon do), then *why* use Barks characters (i. e. Scrooge) and situations (i. e. bin raids) to begin with? The end result is stories no better than Whitman's stuff. When it comes to the Ducks, anyway. As for the Diaz Mouse work, D&M was going to feature that in perpetuity. Now John Clark tells me that the last one will be #24. That suggests that it has not been well received. I like Diaz Goofy stuff a bit (i. e. the long "historical" stories), but even those are awkwardly paced... very slow, in the case of "Goofy Midas." I sure would have rather seen Gottfredson's "Mickey Mouse, Boxing Champion" in place of that Midas story, with its references to "moo cows" and other juvenile stuff. So beginning with D&M #25, Italian Mouse stories will appear there. I say... great! Thanks for the credits for those Dutch stories. I can *really* use that information! My warmest wishes to all who offered such information! Your friend, David Gerstein From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Sun Sep 26 02:17:45 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Sat, 25 Sep 93 21:17:45 -0400 Subject: Pork-barrel politics In-Reply-To: Your message of Sun, 26 Sep 93 01:15:37 +0100 Message-ID: <9309260117.AA08121@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Folks, Forgot to reply to one or two items. The credits for "Porky Pig of the Mounties" are: Story/script by Chase Craig. Art by Carl Barks. Some reinking by Carl Beuttner. Beuttner didn't redo more than a minority of the Porky/Petunia heads. It's easy to tell his pig, because the eyes almost come to a teardrop point on top (the picture of Porky on the cover of the Barks Bear Book is actually one of his). By contrast, Barks' Porky has more accurate, rounded eyes. Also a fatter snout. The most obvious contrast between them is in the page where Porky meets the baby bear. The first two panels on the page are both close-ups, one by Barks, one by Beuttner. Other characteristic Beuttner "reinks" are in the last panel of the story. As for Bugs, yes, nearly all of the Bugs heads were redrawn. But you can tell Barks' right off the bat; Barks gives Bugs a black nose, while Beuttner doesn't ink in the nose. On the page reproduced in the Barrier book, the scene of Bugs tugging at the wafer with his teeth -- eyes closed -- is perhaps the best example of Barks' Bugs. (I came to these conclusions by comparing contemporary work by Beuttner -- who drew most Porky stories at the time -- with "Porky of the Mounties.") That Porky story had its roots in the 1936 Pig cartoon "Porky in the Northwoods," in which Porky is a Mountie rescuing animals from an evil trapper. That was only the inspiration for the comic, though, which had a much more detailed plot (and explained how Porky became a Mountie; to be precise, he *wasn't* really one), as well as adding Bugs and Petunia (neither of whom existed in 1936). Can anyone recommend a few particularly good Danish or Dutch stories published by Egmont since July 1992 (when I had to stop getting the weekly German Egmont edition)? I want to do some really recent stories, but have little access to them. Well, gotta go. Your friend, David Gerstein "Can I help it if this barrel wasn't big enough fer *both* of us to hide in?" From mas at cs.bu.edu Mon Sep 27 03:20:37 1993 From: mas at cs.bu.edu (Mark Semich) Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 22:20:37 -0400 Subject: Disney-comics digest #109. In-Reply-To: <9309260105.AA07794@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> (message from David A Gerstein on Sat, 25 Sep 93 21:05:24 -0400) Message-ID: <9309270220.AA06648@csa.bu.edu> David Gerstein writes: > But wherever the "D. U. C. K" is on US 281 completely eludes >me!!! I'm stuck! It took me a while, but I managed to find it - it's in the coins that Scrooge has in his shovel. > Len Wein, by the way, laid down the law in 1990 that in new >stories, Scrooge should have his DuckTales dialect written into the >balloons! Hence stories like "Coffee, Louie or Me" in US 257, wherein >Scrooge refers to "m' money bin!" Phooey! (Van Horn didn't obey that >regulation; *only* Jaime Diaz stories adopted it.) I'm not that informed, but from what I've been able to gather, there seem to be *many* reasons to dislike Len's tenure on the Disney books. =========================================================================== "I am Scrooge McDuck of the clan McDuck. There can be only one!" -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- mark a. semich mas at csa.bu.edu =========================================================================== From mas at cs.bu.edu Mon Sep 27 04:24:42 1993 From: mas at cs.bu.edu (Mark Semich) Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 23:24:42 -0400 Subject: Disney-comics digest #108. In-Reply-To: <9309240018.AA15071@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> (message from David A Gerstein on Thu, 23 Sep 93 20:18:09 -0400) Message-ID: <9309270324.AA09679@csa.bu.edu> >From: David A Gerstein >(If anyone here isn't familiar with the works of the great Gatsby -- >er, Gottfredson -- just buy your choice of: WDC&S 582-83, >587-Present; MM 219-239, 241-244, 246-249, 251-253.) Thank you for the index! I have a few of these issues , now I know what other ones to look for. > Mark Semich: Yeahhh, where *did* you get that quote? I >assumed it was from one of Don Rosa's stories! (And it seemed funny >that I couldn't remember *which* one!) A few people have asked me the source of the quote in my signature file. I must confess that it sprang, unbidden, like a cancerous growth, from the bowels of my own fervid imagination. It's actually a slight modification of "I am Conner McCleod of the clan McCleod. There can be only one!" from the movie "Highlander." =========================================================================== "I am Scrooge McDuck of the clan McDuck. There can be only one!" -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- mark a. semich mas at csa.bu.edu =========================================================================== From bevilal at hp1.sm.dsi.unimi.it Mon Sep 27 12:41:56 1993 From: bevilal at hp1.sm.dsi.unimi.it (luigi bevilacqua) Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 12:41:56 +0100 (MET) Subject: Here I am Message-ID: <9309271141.AA04787@hp1.sm.dsi.unimi.it> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text Size: 1536 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://nafsk.se/pipermail/dcml/attachments/19930927/c7252304/attachment.ksh From gadducci at di.unipi.it Mon Sep 27 18:36:03 1993 From: gadducci at di.unipi.it (gadducci@di.unipi.it) Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 18:36:03 +0100 Subject: Gawsh ... - The sequel (*Not so long*) Message-ID: <199309271638.AA29620@columba.udac.uu.se> Well, my 2 cent coin about political correctness in Italy. There had been no problem with translation or political correctness in the DD & MM stories here in Italy till the '80s, and an eagle was an eagle. Now the current editors (Gaudenzio Capelli and Elisa Penna) and the wimmens'staff (yes, almost all of those involved with 'Topolino' editorial staff are women...) chose a environment-safe politics (maybe under the direction of the new management of the Italian branch of Disney): as an example, usually ducks are vegetarians in current Italian stories.... Another example: there is an ongoing series called 'Zio Paperone' that reprints at a low price the CBL. They presented the revised edition of Darkest Africa, obviously, but the art of the political uncorrect stories is not changed (if CBL did not change it)!! Anyway, they sometimes modify the text to give it an environment-safe flavour; I do not remember if the eagle is still an eagle, but an interesting example is the old story about DD trapping a fake wolf. The nephews decide to make DD a joke, using Daisy's fur coats, and in this modern translation those fur coats are "false ones"... There was an article in the "cultural" pages of 'La Repubblica' (maybe the most important Italian daily newspaper), some months ago: the author was Luca Raffaelli (a well know expert of comics and cartoons), and was devoted to the topic of censorship in Disney comics... Now talking about Disney and moral corruption (yo, Don :-): did anybody read "Walt Disney, the dark prince"? It was out some month ago, even if I did not yet received it! I read a brief summary, however, and it seemed a kind of "Disney, Babylon" book: very interesting!! And this quote is for you, Don: "Cuteness is a worldwide problem of major proportion. Though cuteness has been with us for centuries, its most recent proliferation threatens to smother us in a plethora of plastic Snoopy pillows". And more "At the hearth of the cuteness impulse is the desire to trivialize everything... to remove the presence of real-life & substitute for it a blande, reassuring 'cleanliness'..." (in 'Griffith Observatory', an underground strip by Bill Griffith -the same of Zippy- reprinted last summer by Fantagraphics: go and buy it!!) Well, he used Porky-Pig as a graphical example, but it could work for Chip&Dale, too, I think... :-) Bye for now Fabio ================================================================ Fabio Gadducci Dip. di Informatica Universita` di Pisa Tel. +39-50-510268 Corso Italia 40, 56100 PISA (ITALY) FAX: +39-50-510226 E-mail:gadducci at di.unipi.it ================================================================ From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Mon Sep 27 17:57:48 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 17:57:48 +0100 Subject: Gawsh... (Re: Fabio) Message-ID: <199309271657.AA09349@athena.research.ptt.nl> > Now about my favourite stories... Well, I do not think I can list only TEN > stories... Maybe my Barks' favourite one is the full version of "Back to > the Klondike" (if I HAD to decide), and that is probably my favourite duck > story, too, even if there are at least a couple of Italian (which are > linked to my childhood) by Romano Scarpa (Zio Paperone e le lenticchie di > Babilonia) and Pezzin-Cavazzano (Paperino e l'isola vulcano) which are > close enough... > (ok, go on: flame me :-) I remember a LOT of VERY BAD Italian stories, and a few good ones: Scrooge in search of a fish for a 'kaibi' bird, featuring something like 'the Flying Dutchman'; Scrooge and Donald on a butterfly hunt, featuring Brigitta MacBridge I think those two were early Scarpa stories; they were printed in Holland in the early 70s. > And for Gottfredson... well, surely Island in the Sky from the Thirties, > but his best stuff is maybe from the Forties (even if I do not remember the > English titles...). More on this next time... :-) I disagree: the best stuff is from the 30s! In the 40s, you get the stories with Eega Beeva, which are quite OK (but not the best), and after th t, well.. > [Scrooge has a] Scottish accent? I was absolutely sure he talked in a plain > Italian... :-) But if I remember well, the Italian Disney characters do GRUNT, SNORT and make other noises in English! And Scrooge has dollars in his money bin. Does that mean that Duckburg is in the USA, even in the Italian translations? (In Holland, Duckburg is in some undefined country, but they pay in guilders.) --Harry. From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Mon Sep 27 18:12:49 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 18:12:49 +0100 Subject: Pork-barrel politics Message-ID: <199309271712.AA09533@athena.research.ptt.nl> David: > The credits for "Porky > Pig of the Mounties" are: Story/script by Chase Craig. Art by Carl > Barks. Some reinking by Carl Beuttner. Thank you for that and the other information! But Carl should be Buettner, right? --Harry. From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Tue Sep 28 01:41:41 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 20:41:41 -0400 Subject: Political Correctness; also, Egmont's Mickey Message-ID: <9309280041.AA08463@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Harry (and everyone), Yeah... Carl should be *Buettner*, with the "u" before the "e". Thanks, Harry. (I don't think I've ever spelled that fellow's name consistently.) Buetnner's art is really unique in the mid-1940s, with a softness to it that refrains from cuteness (as Jack Bradbury would later get just *mired* in). By the way, the stories in the first Br'er Rabbit comic are his, not Murry's. (The way the boldface italics are lettered in the word balloons is enough of a giveaway... compare those stories to BROS 208's Murry items and you'll see the difference.) When it comes to political correctness... Disney management told Bob Foster that he couldn't reprint old Br'er Rabbit stories without rewriting the dialect to remove the Southern accents... offensive to Southerners, apparently (not to blacks in particular as far as I know, but I'm not sure). In WDC&S 576, he snuck two consecutive Sunday-strip stories in completely unchanged. The readers loved them, so maybe Gladstone will get a better deal. Fabio: I'm not sure what you meant about Darkest Africa. It was censored in the CBL (more so than any other story... it being the *only* one from which a whole panel was actually cut), censored the same way when it appeared last year in DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES, and if that's what was printed in Italy, that was censored the same way. Donald as a vegetarian? Hmmmm... he often eats roast chicken, and one of his best friends (Gyro) is that very bird. At least one story has also shown him eating roast goose, and that defines both Gus and Gladstone. Vicar's story in US 265 showed Scrooge having a "ham steak" for lunch, and merely five issues later we saw him opposing the classic *pig* villain, Argus McSwine. Perhaps the ultimate helping of confusion is Barks' classic "Think Box" story in WDC&S 141. I'm in fact finishing off a sequel to that for Egmont right now! And Mickey is willing to eat roast duck... for example, see "The Bat Bandit of Inferno Gulch," in which Mickey returns home to be given a celebratory *duck* dinner. And if you think things changed after Donald appeared in the MM strip, nope... in "Unhappy Campers" (1939) Mickey catches ducks for dinner, too. So maybe the ducks have been made vegetarians to avoid rather squeamish undertones, but maybe not. An interesting story to that respect is "My Friends the Trees," a Vicar story that Egmont published circa early 1992. Donald cheats on Daisy, joining an ecological movement and falling in love with a politically correct duck. He invites her to dinner -- making a vegetarian dinner to butter her up, he notes -- but forgets he also invited Daisy to dinner, and *both* romances fizzle. I won't be translating that one... it just isn't *good* enough, aside from the one scene of Donald fixing dinner. As for other info... I'm actually getting into some Mickey stories for Egmont now, and we'll see what the reaction is when they're published. I'm using some characters who've been underused in recent years. My first one pairs Mickey with Horace, and the second pits Mickey and Minnie against Sylvester Shyster. They've already brought back Eli Squinch and will be using him regularly from now on. Mickey is getting a facelift in Denmark. He's also going to be returning to wearing his old short pants in the stories being done there (although it's being done in stages, as the Disney foreign office much prefers Murry's Mouse). I've had a nutty idea to adapt a story I once did with my own characters for Mickey... as a Mouse story, it would involve Mickey traveling to Europe with Goofy and *Butch*, his early pal from "Circus Roustabout" and a few others from that time. I have also gained permission to use Mickey's rival Mortimer and/or Minnie's lazy cousin Ruffhouse Rat as Gladstone-like foils for Mickey. What do you think? No such stories are as yet in the works. (Although an idea has *just now* sprung into my head....!) Your friend, David Gerstein From Anders.Engwall at eua.ericsson.se Tue Sep 28 07:44:53 1993 From: Anders.Engwall at eua.ericsson.se (Anders Engwall) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 07:44:53 +0100 Subject: more political correctness Message-ID: <9309280644.AA25785@euax1i4c12.eua.ericsson.se> rivers at seismo.CSS.GOV (Wilmer Rivers) writes: > Who at Disney Comics made such a dumb substitution of > "quail" in place of "eagle"? The punchline to the whole story was > thereby rendered completely meaningless (unless you were familiar > with the original). If they felt compelled to come up with a substitute > for "eagle", why didn't they use "buzzard" or some such? (3) When this > story is reprinted in Europe, is it still an "eagle" there or does > Disney require it to be edited? Dunno about how it was done in the first Swedish publication, but when it was reprinted in 1968 they used "vulture". I like that -- it sounds even less eatable than "eagle". More interesting is perhaps the fact that the main story in US64 (July 1966) has *never* been printed here, presumably for political reasons. I haven't read it myself, but I've been told that the plot takes place in some part of the world with a rather striking resemblance to Vietnam... Anders Engwall Email: Anders.Engwall at eua.ericsson.se ELLEMTEL Utvecklings AB Voice: +46 8 727 3893 [lvsj|, Sweden Fax: +46 8 727 42 20 UT MED JORDINGARNA! - Gr|nt Marsianskt Motst}nd From Anders.Engwall at eua.ericsson.se Tue Sep 28 07:57:06 1993 From: Anders.Engwall at eua.ericsson.se (Anders Engwall) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 07:57:06 +0100 Subject: Accents in word balloons (was: Voices) Message-ID: <9309280657.AA25796@euax1i4c12.eua.ericsson.se> Per Starback writes: > Torsten: > > The easiest way to denote an accent in writing is to change da spellin' uv > > da letturz so dat da readurz kin undahstands dat chur writin' in, uh, > > di-uh-lekt, and not Uhmurican. > > Such comic book spellings are not common at all in Sweden (I guess > they are afraid the kids won't learn to spell properly if they read > too much of it), but I think they add colour to the dialogues. Brer Bear used to speak with some Swedish equivalent of hillbilly accent (V{sterg|tland? Sm}land?) in the fifties. Oddly enough, I think he was the only one in those Li'l Bad Wolf stories who spoke like that. Anyway, it did add colour and it's a pity they changed it. Anders Engwall Email: Anders.Engwall at eua.ericsson.se ELLEMTEL Utvecklings AB Voice: +46 8 727 3893 [lvsj|, Sweden Fax: +46 8 727 42 20 K\R UT JORDINGARNA! - Gr|nt Marsianskt Motst}nd From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Tue Sep 28 08:48:47 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 08:48:47 +0100 Subject: Vietnam; Dutch subscriptions Message-ID: <199309280748.AA17185@athena.research.ptt.nl> Vietnam ~~~~~~~ Anders E.: > More interesting is perhaps the fact that the main story in US64 (July > 1966) has *never* been printed here, presumably for political reasons. > I haven't read it myself, but I've been told that the plot takes place > in some part of the world with a rather striking resemblance to Vietnam... That same story ("Treasure of Marco Polo") was never printed in Holland, *until* 1992. Last year, they managed to reprint it in the Dutch "all Barks stories" series. It is the ONLY story that has not been printed in the _regular_ Disney issues. The story leads the Ducks to Unsteadystan, where a civil war is going on. Scrooge helps the "rightful" person (prince Char Ming) to regain the throne. It is not explained why the revolutionaries are in war, they're just BAD. And the prince is just GOOD, because he is the traditional (hence rightful?) leader of the country. Dorfman and Mattelart criticized this story a lot in their book "How to read Donald Duck" (a socialist view on Disney comics). Dutch subscriptions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ROC: if you want a subscription to the Dutch DD Weekly, write to Klantenservice Donald Duck Postbus 299 2000 AG Haarlem Holland (BTW: ROC, would you turn into a witch if someone throws a magic stone at you?) --Harry. From starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE Tue Sep 28 12:33:20 1993 From: starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per Starback) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 12:33:20 +0100 Subject: We'll get richer faster crackin' eggs! Message-ID: <9309281133.AA02208@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE> The computer I run this mailing list from has been attacked by crackers and in the aftermath of that it has been inaccessible from the outside. That is why I haven't been here for awhile, but I'm happy to see that the list seems to have been working as usual. So that's the reason why I haven't answered any mail or made archive updates that I had planned to do during the weekend. If I owe you mail, just keep waiting! :) One thing about the archive that I already *did* fix, but forgot to mention: The files with the old messages were compress with gzip 1.2.4, but at lysator they only had 1.2.3 which couldn't always unzip them, so the automatic unzipping of those files didn't work. The bottom line of that is just that if you tried to fetch those files before and some of them turned out to be garbage, the problem is probably fixed now. Thanks to Fredrik for telling me about the problem. -- Per From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Wed Sep 29 01:27:34 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 20:27:34 -0400 Subject: Disney-comics digest #112. In-Reply-To: Your message of Wed, 29 Sep 93 01:15:45 BST Message-ID: <9309290027.AA00515@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Folks, Only a few comments today. 1. Harry: How much does a subscription to that Dutch weekly *cost*?? I would love to get it! Just what I need... 2. The story "Treasure of Marco Polo" was reprinted *once* here, by Whitman in about 1976, I think. It's the violence of the story, not the politics, apparently, that did it in after that. Gladstone had planned to print it at the very end of their initial run, but it didn't see the light of day (whether that's because too many changes were requested or simply that they couldn't print everything before the license ran out, I don't know). We will eventually see it in the CBL album series, of course. As for why the revolutionaries are at war, it's apparently pure greed; Barks refers to "Unsteadystan, where every thug wants to be ruler!" I think this story, which has genuine suspense -- rare in 1960s Barks -- would have been a classic if he'd done something like it circa 1952. It also wouldn't have been as arch-conservative politically, as Barks became later on. Good night, folks. David Gerstein "The only way to get ahead of Mickey Mouse is to *run* in *front* of him!" From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Wed Sep 29 01:31:17 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 20:31:17 -0400 Subject: Diuhleckt Message-ID: <9309290031.AA00801@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> One other thing: In England, Goofy speaks like a perfectly normal person! What a shock... David Gerstein "The only way to get ahead of Mickey Mouse is to *run* in *front* of him!" From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Wed Sep 29 09:19:21 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 09:19:21 +0100 Subject: Dutch DD Message-ID: <199309290819.AA14307@athena.research.ptt.nl> David: > 1. Harry: How much does a subscription to that Dutch weekly > *cost*?? I would love to get it! Just what I need... I think it's 1.75 guilders a week. Would that be one dollar? I don't know the guilder/dollar rate... Dutch Donald Duck weekly has not much interesting, these days... Almost all Barks material has been reprinted (they're re-reprinting some of it). Most issues have a Danish opening story (usually Vicar), and uninteresting Dutch fillers. One in a while there's a Dutch opening story, and sometimes it's a good one. But I haven't seen Jippes in ages. And there NEVER is a Rosa story in the DD weekly (they are in the monthly DD Extra; you can't subscribe to that). There is one thing to look forward to every week: the (Dutch) back cover gag. They are actually very good, IMHO. (Do other Dutch members agree?) --Harry. From trhera at uta.fi Wed Sep 29 12:32:08 1993 From: trhera at uta.fi (Henri Rantanen) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 13:32:08 +0200 (EET) Subject: Don Rosa art Message-ID: <9309291132.AA01288@uta.fi> Hello folks! I am new to the list, and thus I do not know if this question is against the rules... But... Does any of you know where I could order Don Rosa posters or such stuff? I am very fond of his style! Also if anyone knows a good place for ordering old Disney comics, I'd be very grateful... We in Finland get quite a lot of Don Rosas masterpieces these days in our local Donald Duck magazine. *happy* -Henri -- 'I got ran over by truth one day, I did not see the red light Since the accident I've walked this way, I only did what felt right' E-mail : trhera at uta.fi tel : 931-2224950 From H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl Wed Sep 29 18:27:45 1993 From: H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl (Harry Fluks) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 18:27:45 +0100 Subject: Don Rosa art Message-ID: <199309291727.AA03199@athena.research.ptt.nl> Henri: > I am new to the list, and thus I do not know if this question is against > the rules... Rules? Do we have rules? Dewey, make some rules! Quick! 8-) --Harry. From torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Wed Sep 29 23:14:24 1993 From: torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 17:14:24 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Don Rosa art In-Reply-To: <199309291727.AA03199@athena.research.ptt.nl> Message-ID: On Wed, 29 September 1993, Harry Fluks wrote: > Henri: > > I am new to the list, and thus I do not know if this question is against > > the rules... > Rules? Do we have rules? Dewey, make some rules! Quick! We don't need no steenking rules! (Mexican accent) We dan need na stinkin rules! (Scottish accent) Rule #1 There are no rules. Rule #2 Since there are no rules, there are no prescribed punishments. Rule #3 Since there are no prescribed punishments, use whatever methods you feel will be most effective. Rule #4 Do unto others as they do unto you. In other words, watch your punishments, as you may be punished tomorrow. I think the most effective punishment, and the best deterrent, would be to have the wrong-do-er read bad Disney stories, selected by the membership of this group. Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA (My house is made of plexiglass.) From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Thu Sep 30 03:09:15 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 93 22:09:15 -0400 Subject: Disney-comics digest #113. In-Reply-To: Your message of Thu, 30 Sep 93 01:15:33 BST Message-ID: <9309300209.AA01435@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Folks, Torsten calls for *bad* Disney stories: We've had our lists of our favorites, now here are a few of my _least_ favorites: [Old stories] 1. Mickey Mouse in "Tom-Tom Island" (1950). Drawn by Stan Walsh, I think. This attempted sequel to "An Education for Thursday" is not only about three times as prejudiced (quite a feat), but is just so unbelievably *bad* it's hard to believe it was accepted. 2. Donald Duck in "The Spirit of '76" (1951). This God-awful piece of tripe appeared in the back of some Barks one-shot. The artist draws Donald like an albino Daffy, and the idea of the ducks becoming obsessed with reliving the lives of the pioneers is out-of-character and unconvincing given all that they suffer. 3. Mickey Mouse in "The Mystery of the Robot Army" (1952). Drawn (again!) by Stan Walsh. This awful idea tries to meld "Blaggard Castle" with "The World of Tomorrow" and goes *nowwhere*, as well as featuring the unforgivable business about making robot hearts out of old tin cans. Surprisingly, it actually was demanded by letter-writers for reprint! 4. Donald Duck in "Have Gun, Will Dance" (1964). The only Barks story to make this list is here due to its improbabilities and awful pacing. Why, if the gun that the nephews find in their cereal box actually shoots a ray due to the cereal company following the blueprint too closely, doesn't the ray work like the *genuine* ray? 5. Uncle Scrooge (title unknown, circa 1966). Scrooge is shown as having been born in the United States and having an old high school friend who's actually a crook, named Starfish Fred. What an utter travesty! [New stories] 1. Mickey Mouse in "The Lost Palace of Kashi" (1991). Under a superb Rick Hoover cover (MMA 15) we find a story that seems like a pastiche of Paul Murry's worst stories, weasel helper for Pete and all It also reminds me of one Jaime Diaz design feature I find curiously off-putting: drawing characters without eyes! Every second character's eyes are covered by hair or a low hat, leaving them blank and expressionless. 2. Uncle Scrooge in "Coffee, Louie or Me?" (1991). Once again villains disguise themselves as mythical beasties to scare folks away from the land -- this time, a coffee plantation -- that they desire. It was a draw between this and US 245 ("The Phantom Lighthouse") until I remembered that in this one, the writers actually wrote out Scrooge's "Duck Tales"-style accent phonetically, so his dialect is much like Popeye's. (Fine for Popeye, but not for Uncle Scrooge.) 3. Bambi in "Big Bird, Beware!" (1991). After Mo Gollub and Ken Hultgren did such fine Bambi comic strips, this clumsy episode involving Bambi in the Duckburg Black Forest alongside typical dogfaced kids seems doomed to failure. (Spring Fever 1) 4. Duck Tales: "Witch Way Did She Go?" (1990). Magica de Spell lives in a *castle*, nowwhere *near* Mt. Vesuvius, eventually gets Old Number One in her clutches and, apparently not remembering her amulet formula, wonders now that she has it, why did she ever want it and what is she going to do with it? A very ugly version of Magica, too. No wonder Scrooge refers to the formerly-attractive sorceress as "foul hag" here. (Disney Comics' Duck Tales 6) 5. Donald Duck in "The Day Gladstone's Luck Ran Out" (1991). The bizarre panel borders here are one fault, and the script -- okay, I guess -- is harmed by ex-Whitman artists who in the most dire moments, drew the characters smiling happily at every opportunity. The idea of Gladstone's luck turning on him has been done many, better, times before. (Disney Comics' DDA 14) [End of list] Does anyone else have any least-favorites? I'd enjoy hearing what they were. Sounds like Jim Fletcher isn't very well-liked around here, although I haven't seen one of his stories. Is his art much like Stan Walsh's? Your friend, David Gerstein "The only way to get ahead of Mickey Mouse is to *run* in *front* of him!" From mas at cs.bu.edu Thu Sep 30 04:27:20 1993 From: mas at cs.bu.edu (Mark Semich) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 93 23:27:20 -0400 Subject: Rosa on the Gladstone horizon... Message-ID: <9309300327.AA23564@csa.bu.edu> According to the latest Advance Comics, Donald Duck #283 (shipping in December) will contain Don Rosa's olympics story: "Set in the site of the 1994 Winter Olympics, Don Rosa's tale of misadventure highlights Rosa's distinctive style of dealing with Donald and his clan. Also featured are 14 pages of Donald Duck newspaper strips from the 1930s by Al Taliaferro. Recommended." No word on the Life of Scrooge, though... =========================================================================== "I am Scrooge McDuck of the clan McDuck. There can be only one!" -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- mark a. semich mas at csa.bu.edu =========================================================================== From mas at cs.bu.edu Thu Sep 30 05:37:54 1993 From: mas at cs.bu.edu (Mark Semich) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 00:37:54 -0400 Subject: Spotless Don Message-ID: <9309300437.AA27941@csa.bu.edu> I just read William Van Horn's "Spotless Don" in WDC&S 588. Although I love the duck stories, I must confess that I'm not extremely well read in them. Has Donald ever been referred to as "Don" in any published stories before? It certainly struck me as different. From f1toyl at uta.fi Thu Sep 30 07:51:16 1993 From: f1toyl at uta.fi (Topi Ylinen) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 08:51:16 +0200 (EET) Subject: Worst Disney Stories Message-ID: <9309300651.AA28415@vuokko.uta.fi> Anything by Cavazzano. (There! No longer a lurker :-) ************************************************************** * One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, * * One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. * ************************************************************** From ANNAS at castor.ldc.lu.se Thu Sep 30 09:50:10 1993 From: ANNAS at castor.ldc.lu.se (Mattias Hallin ) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 09:50:10 +0100 Subject: Life-of-$crooge - ain't it grand?! Message-ID: <01H3K0E92CDG985SA8@castor.ldc.lu.se> Quack! and hi there, folks! (he said, almost overbearingly heartily) These days, one of the major advantages of a knowledge in Nordic languages is the opportunity/ability of getting at Don Rosa's "Life-of-$crooge" well ahead of the rest of the world - an' lemme jes tell ya'll: It's grand! From a somewhat hesitating start back in Scotland in the 1870's it picks up momentum, installment by installment, and once it get's to Dawson in 1898 - oh boy!!! In my opinion this series has three major strenghts: a) it adheres (almost perfectly) to the Barks canon and to real historical places and events without too much intrusion on the storytelling b) it is a marvellous feat as regards the building of $crooge's personality throughout the series - not least by realising that of course $crooge warn't born a miser; that the $rooge we know from Barks's stories became like that through his experiences in life c) it's darn funny!!! and it's written (yeah, I've seen some of the English scripts as well) in an enormously funny, witty and sensitively idiomatic English. To sum it up: It's great, it's a must and I can hardly wait myself for a real publication of it in English (might one even hope for an album?!) All my best to all of you out there on the ether; I'll remain, Quackly Yours Mattias Hallin Lund, Sweden From 72260.2635 at compuserve.com Thu Sep 30 14:39:23 1993 From: 72260.2635 at compuserve.com (Don Rosa) Date: 30 Sep 93 09:39:23 EDT Subject: +Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #113. Message-ID: <930930133922_72260.2635_EHK31-4@CompuServe.COM> COMMENTS ON THE LAST UMPTEEN DIGESTS: I have returned from Norway where I got so much attention and publicity that people were actually recognizing me in the streets. What a world. I am totally ignored in America since I do such totally unpopular comics, and I'm treated like a national hero in Europe because I do such universally popular comics! Both extremes make me uncomfortable. I think I need to visit a cruise ship in Mid-Atlantic Ocean -- that should be just right. I read over all those Digests and made some scratchy notes, not necessarilly the most important matters discussed, but it's what's on my note pad. This whole matter of censoring this story about Donald shooting an eagle: times and thinking and reality has changed a lot since some of those stories were done... and we MUST all know, regardless of who likes them, Donald Duck comics are mainly for CHILDREN who don't understand that these stories are reprints from ancient times. As a lover of animals and member of every wildlife/habitat group I can glom into, I would be HIGHLY offended to see that old DD story reprinted AT ALL, even WITH changes. It SHOULD be banned, forevermore, from the popular editions. This isn't any more "censorship" than is the fact that DD comics don't show pornography or squashed possums. It's just common sense. The story should be printed ONLY in more expensive editions, for collectors, with a disclaimer to make CERTAIN readers know it is a "classic reprint", and there it should be printed just as it first appeared. Disney in America won't allow that since, regardless of what they like to say these days, they are NOT a company that honors art or artists or writers... they are a company which seeks to profit off the public thirst for pablum, and do so with NO controversy over matters which are 100% unimportant to them. (And while in Oslo I found the 1992 Dutch printing of the uncensored "Voodoo Hoodoo" story in a "classics" album... and even brought one home). The Disneyana Show in DisneyLand: Just a last comment to indicate that nothing changes my lack of respect for the core of that group -- a friend who attended tells me that over half of those there were middle-aged women. I'll be extremely arrogant and say that I think I can guess how deep an intellectual interest lots of middle-aged woman have in Disney. (How many more of the attendees were their bored-to-tears husbands?) And a sentimental interest in old DD comics is STILL an intellectual interest (someone asked me about that)... you had to READ those comics. Those middle-aged women are only interested in the visual appeal of cute Mickey Mouse and Bambi figurines for their mantle. People were searching for some of my hidden "D.U.C.K."s... but it looks like they were helping each other fine. Where was the dedication in that new DDA #23 -- was that the Viking cover? I don't have the comic or the art or a copy of the art. I dunno. It's POSSIBLE that I forgot to include it. I have trouble these days in light of recent developments to get myself to remember to dedicate anything to Barks; something in me says I've already done it too long. I DID forget to include it in the cover of the special $crooge issue that was just published this week (this much hoopla) in Norway. And yes, the dedication was in the LAST panel of "Nobody's Business" -- in the first two stories I ever did I put it in the last, rather than first, panel... and it was left in that story since it looked like the title on a comic book on the floor. Any other "D.U.C.K."s you can't find, just ask. I still want to hear from Fredrik about the art in "War of the Wendigo" that wasn't so good. I NEED to know this stuff! As for the bad or odd art in "The Money Pit", it was Disney's very FIRST comic, and their printing was pretty bad -- it wasn't as bad as their lousy photocopying, and as a result, the use of it in foreign editions is even MUDDIER than in DDA#1 due to their fault. If the art looked odd regardless of the printing, perhaps that because that was the first story I'd drawn in about a year -- that was the first thing I'd done since Disney had effectively forced me to quit doing comics for Gladstone in early '89. And if the faces had more "angst"... perhaps it was because the theme of that story (concerning the mentality of "collectibles profiteers") was a rather sour and serious matter with me. I must say that I know for a fact who the very worst Disney artist(s) of all time are! It's Ed Murrieta and Ian Akin who did the cover of Disney's one-shot COMICS IN 3D. I don't like my own art much, but I was ashamed for Disney fans the world-over when I saw that monstosity! It even overshadowed the irritation of seeing Disney taking one of my old stories and twisting it into 3D without needing to get my permission or pay me a cent... and then giving Ray Zone a copyright on MY work so that whenever the story is used in 3D somewhere in the world from now on, Ray Zone gets a royalty but I don't. (It's when Disney does that kind of stuff that I want to go to those Disneyana conventions and kick all the Disney-zombies in their wide fannies.) Oh, to Harry Fluks: I have not received any package of Dutch comics from you yet. Should they be here by now??? Somebody wanted to buy my art? As the rest oif you know or should know, it's a miracle that I get my art BACK... I'm the first artist to be granted that right in writing. (Even BARKS doesn't have it in writing -- they just let him do whatever he wants.) But Disney compels me by illegal contracts NOT to sell or give away my own property, "or else". So I must keep it. And my heirs must keep it forever. (And again I want to kick some Disney-zombies where their brains seem to be.)(Can't kick Disney because they kick back -- and hard. I just have to live with being the only comic artist in America who can't sell his own art.) That ignores lots of topics of the past week, but I need to get back to work on the concluding pages of "The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck". From James_Williams at ess.niaid.pc.niaid.nih.gov Thu Sep 30 16:40:20 1993 From: James_Williams at ess.niaid.pc.niaid.nih.gov (James Williams) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 10:40:20 EST Subject: Don's Viking Cover Message-ID: <2caaefd4@ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov> Don, >Where was the dedication in that new DDA #23 -- was that the Viking >cover? I don't have the comic or the art or a copy of the art. You are fortunate to have not seen DDA #23. They ruined the cover by placing the logon over top of the Viking's face. In the original artwork, did you leave space at the top for the logo? If not, why? Thanks for being on this list. -------------------------------------------- | James Williams | | Bitnet: JWW%ESS%NIAID at NIH3PLUS.BITNET | | Internet: JWW at ESS.NIAID.PC.NIAID.NIH.GOV | | CompuServ: 70304,2462 | -------------------------------------------- From scrooks at hsv10.pcmail.ingr.com Thu Sep 30 18:03:00 1993 From: scrooks at hsv10.pcmail.ingr.com (Crooks, Steve) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 10:03:00 PDT Subject: Don's Viking Cover Message-ID: <2CAB116E@hubsmp1.pcmail.ingr.com> >From: James Williams > >You are fortunate to have not seen DDA #23. They ruined the cover by >placing the logon over top of the Viking's face. In the original >artwork, did you leave space at the top for the logo? If not, why? Strangely enough, I disagree. I thought that putting the logo over his face made him seem to loom even larger over Donald. I liked the effect. I can see your point, though, and why you didn't like it. -- -- Steve Crooks scrooks at ingr.com "Consequences, shmonsequences, as long as I'm rich." -- D. Duck From David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu Thu Sep 30 23:33:26 1993 From: David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu (David A Gerstein) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 18:33:26 -0400 Subject: Van Horn revisions Message-ID: <9309302233.AA13635@bigbird.cc.williams.edu> Dear Folks, I don't have my issues with me now, but I can offer a bit of help with that Van Horn list nonetheless. Here's a whole section of it complete with many additions. It seems that the K-codes for "Kid Stuff" and "The Not-So-Silent Service" were switched when they were printed in Europe, either that or Disney blew it in their *own* comics (which actually seems more likely). I may have made a mistake when installing that information however... so please note, "Kid Stuff" is the one that was listed as "A child's game" and "Service" was listed as the one about water and treasure, I forget what it was called. During the course of my revisions I bungled what issues the stories for DDAD 7 and 8 appeared in in Scandinavia. Those are *both* Halloween stories, the second being a direct sequel to the first. I have installed information about several issues that you didn't list at all, those being WDC&S 545 and 574, and DDAD 27. The cover that Gladstone's back-issue page credits now to Van Horn for WDC&S 584 is actually by Jim Franzen and Bruce Patterson. I got most of the code information from my own Disney Comics Code Index. I never dreamed you guys would want something that specific, but if you do, tell me and you can have it (I'll take vanilla!). Note: KU 30-90 is a code for both cover *and* story to "No Room for Human Error". Code USA NL Scan Title [+ remarks] =========================================================================== KD 02-90 DDAD 2 X91-01 K93-39 12 DD Rootin' Tootin' Duck [script JLu] KD 22-90 DDAD 3 X92-06 12 DD Beachhead Bathos KD 07-90 DDAD 4 K92-41 12 DD The Bees Have It KD 08-90 DDAD 5 X91-12 M92-11,12 12 DD Snore Losers KD 09-90 DDAD 6 X91-08 14 DD It's Bats, Man! [script JLu] KD 28-90 DDAD 7 X93-02? 12 DD It's In the Bag! (Halloween) KD 35-90 DDAD 8 X93-02? 12 DD Public Ugly #1 (Halloween) KD 21-90 DDAD 10 X92-03 12 DD Run-Down Runner KD 36-90 DDAD 13 X92-04 K92-45 12 DD Just a Humble, Bumbling Duck! KJD005-1 DDAD 15 X92-10 12 DD A Tuft Luck Tale KJD003-1 DDAD 16 X92-07 12 DD Kid Stuff KD5590-1 DDAD 18 X92-11 14 DD That Ol' Soft Soap [script MGi] KJD004-1 DDAD 19 X92-05 19 DD The Not-So-Silent Service KJD002-1 DDAD 20 X92-12 12 DD The Ghost of Kamikaze Ridge KJD006-1 DDAD 27 2 DD Nap in Nature KJD007-1 WDC 574 2 DD Magic Trick KU 05-90 US 243 X92-01 K93-36 14 US Pie in the Sky [script BR] KU 30-90 US 252 WB.92 26 US No Room for Human Error KJS001-1 WDC 561 2 LBW Blow Me Down! D 91341 WDC 588 K93-30 10 DD Spotless Don D 91378 WDC 587 K93-23 10 DD Out of Harmony's Way D 91379 DDAD 38 K93-10 10 DD A Small Matter D 92144 DDAD 37 K93-08 10 DD in Balms Away D 92145 M93-07,08 10 DD ?? (Promising sleeping) D 92172 K93-16 10 DD ?? (Lot of happiness) D 92205 K93-19,20 10 DD Magica's Missin' Magic [rejected by Disney; was to have been in DDAD #16 and was so advertised] D 92207 DDA 24 M93-09,10 21 DD The Black Moon COVERS: Code USA NL Scan Title [+ remarks] =========================================================================== DDA 15 The Mad Chemist DDA 17 Curse of the Lost Empress DDAD 2 Rootin' Tootin' Duck DDAD 4 The Bees Have It! KD 37-90 DDAD 6 It's Bats, Man! KD 39-90 DDAD 7 It's in the Bag! KD 40-90 DDAD 8 Public Ugly #1 KD 58-90 DDAD 10 Run-down Runner KD 43-90 DDAD 13 Just a Humble, Bumbling Duck KJD011-1 DDAD 15 A Tuft Luck Tale KJD022-1 DDAD 18 That Ol' Soft Soap! KJD025-1 DDAD 19 The Not-So-Silent Service JD 033-1 DDAD 20 The Ghost of Kamikaze Ridge KJD121-1 DDAD 38 A Small Matter [Layout BF] DM 19 Donald sculpting Mickey KU 05-90 US 243 Pie In The Sky KU 31-90 US 250 Money bin as swimming pool KU 30-90 US 252 No Room for Human Error KJU066-1 US 270 Ten-Cent Marathon WDC 545 HDL have the bigger sandwich WDC 547 DD gets snow on his head KS ... WDC 551 The Hard Loser KS 56-90 WDC 558 Donald's Fix-It Shop KS 71-90 WDC 559 Don't Bug Me! KS 70-90 WDC 560 The April Foolers KS 81-90 WDC 561 Flipsim! !msipilF KJS031-1 WDC 565 Truant Officer KJS034-1 WDC 566 Will O' the Wisp KJS036-1 WDC 567 Turkey Trouble KJS042-1 WDC 568 Submarine Santa KJS057-1 WDC 570 Postman Duck [Inker JuM] KJS139-1 WDC 585 Gladstone's Secret WDC 586 Gull on DD's straw hat WDC 587 Out of Harmony's Way [END OF LIST ADDITIONS] You see that Van Horn sold stories completely out of order to Disney... also far in advance of when they would be printed. When "Magica's Missin' Magic" was rejected (Disney had reached their annual budget on buying new stories for DDAD) and "Kid Stuff" was substituted in DDAD 16, no one notified the advertising department, and the "Between the Lines" page for that month actually lists the unprinted story. "Magica's Missin' Magic" was reworked from 6-panel pages to 8-panel ones, has recently appeared in Europe as you noted, and should show up here sooner or later, I guess. I've included the publication numbers for two stories -- "Spotless Don" and "The Black Moon" (that's the U. S. title) -- which I knew them for, despite the fact that the second one won't be published for 2 months. That's all for now. *Phew* what a lot of work! I never dreamed this would be such a *big* project when I started it an hour ago... Your friend, David Gerstein "Phooey on Sir Quincy Quack! Double phooey! And yuck!" From d91fe at hkr01.ide.hk-r.se Thu Sep 30 23:17:18 1993 From: d91fe at hkr01.ide.hk-r.se (Fredrik Ekman) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 23:17:18 0100 Subject: Reply to Don and WVH index announcement Message-ID: <930930231718.000014a5.d91fe@hkr01.ide.hk-r.se> Don Rosa wrote: >I have returned from Norway Welcome back! If you will; tell us more about it. Where did you go? What did you do? Who did you meet? >I still want to hear from Fredrik about the art in "War of the >Wendigo" that wasn't so good. I NEED to know this stuff! Who? Me? *picture one very confused student here* I can't remember ever writing something like that. Then, of course, I may have forgotten all about it. Actually, I just went home and re-read the story to be able to answer that and if I indeed DID write that, I must have had a change of mind since. I could unfortunately only find parts one and three in my somewhat unordered collection, but in those two, I could only find two pictures that I didn't like. Part one, page four, panel four: Donald tries to sneak away from Scrooge. Now, I don't know quite what a sneaking duck should look like, but this certainly is *not* it! Donald's legs even appear to be of different length... Part three, the very last panel: The animals saluting Scrooge look, well, just a little silly. Merely details of course. On the other hand, many of the forest scenes are very beautiful and the climactic ending is nothing short of brilliant. Especially, I like the picture where Scrooge says "I'll do it myself!". There'll be no spoilers here, I just hope that all of you will eventually get the chance to read this one. On the other hand, I MAY have said that I didn't think the art quite as good as some of your other stories and that is certainly true! Compared to my favourite, "Son of the Sun", "Wendigo" is a lot more polished, but it doesn't have the same vitality. Please don't ask me what I mean by that, I'm not even quite sure myself. And now; time for an abrupt change of subject. Harry and I recently joined forces to produce a American-Dutch-Scandi- navian William Van Horn index, similar to the Rosa index. I have sent this to Per and he has just added it to the FTP archive. Therefore, it won't be necessary to post the entire index here, but I will include the final part about what is yet to be done. I hope that some other members out there will have some of this information and is willing to provide it. There is yet no official "maintainer" of this index, but send any info along to either me or Harry and we'll make sure it is in- cluded in due time. Of course, any information about publication in other countries is more than welcome, but will currently have to be put in a separate list, as the format currently does not allow for any such additions. >Left to do: > >The American info is NOT complete. Publishing of the D-codes and any >K-codes not on this list, covers, titles, etc. still need to be done. > >Scripters, where not WVH himself, may be missing for some stories. > >Is the Scandinavian information complete and correct? What about Norway >and Denmark? > >What is the Norwegian/Danish title for "Disney's TV-serier"? And about Van Horn; did someone post a file with some info on him recently? Or is that just my imagination? I have some faint recollection of reading something about when he is born, where he lives, et c. Anyway, I would be very interested in any such information. Also; has he done any comics before starting to work for Gladstone? /Fredrik