Return to Blaggard Castle

David A Gerstein David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu
Fri Apr 8 02:36:41 CEST 1994


	Dear Folks,

	Jas. Williams said, "David, you are our resident Mickey Mouse
expert.  What did you think of [Disney Adventures comic strip 'Return
to Blaggard Castle']?"

	"I had two major problems with the story.  First, Mickey seems
extremely out of character.  Mickey is a modest person, but in this 
story he doesn't feel all that odd going to a place which is little
more than a museum dedicated to his bravery.  Mickey is too humble to 
be involved in such a place."
	By "involved" you suggest involved in running or owning it.  I
never caught wind of this.  Meanwhile, he seemed plenty confused by
what was going on -- very UNcomfortable in the renovated Blaggard
Mansion.

	"Also, Mickey is to intelligent to fall for such an obvious 
plot."
	This was my major problem with the story's concept.  But then,
Mickey sure takes a long time to figure out the Gleam's plot in the
1941 FG "Gleam" story.  After about two weeks of pacing around his
room trying to figure it out -- "Inspector Casey says I acted like a
monkey and a kangaroo... and HE acted like a trained seal... and then
neither of us remember a THING about it!" -- it's Goofy who
figures out the scheme that time.  "I saw that in a vaudyville act
years ago, Mick!  It's called hyppnertism!"  The FG Mouse is not the
boring know-it-all that infests a lot of made-for-comics stories. 

	"Second, as usual the Phantom Blot was totally out of 
character.  The Phantom Blot's speciality is espionage.  Having him
spend a fortune to rebuild the castle made no sense."
	The Blot was a spy in the very first story made about him.
Romano Scarpa did the second one -- "The Blot's Double Mystery" in
1954 (first printed here, 1988).  In that excellent tale, the Blot's
main goal was to get revenge against Mickey.  Other Italian stories
may have followed the same tack (I don't know).
	The 1991 "Phantom Blot Bedtime Story" was supposed to come
after the Scarpa story.  Many of its concepts were the most
Gottfredsonian of anything to appear in MICKEY MOUSE ADVENTURES (note
that the story was NOT by Marv Wolfman), and it had the Blot trying to
steal a gem -- sorta like the Hope Diamond, something REALLY valuable
-- and when Mickey thwarted that, the next half of the story was about
his attempt to get revenge.  Revenge against Mickey is at least as
important for the Blot as is pulling off a scheme to get wealth,
through espionage or other means.

	I hope this satisfies you on the Blot's motivation.
	So how did the Blot rebuild that castle?  Simple -- just got away
with some minor crime, sold whatever he'd stolen for a wad of money,
then hired someone else to do the building!  The only thing he had
to do himself was draw those pictures which he had up on the wall,
then make a mere tape recording of some narration to go with them.
You can bet it was Ecks, Doublex, and Triplex who made the helmets
which Minnie and Horace wore.
	That explained, what did I think of the story?  I think it
should have been twice as long.  It just progressed at a chaotic pace
where more reflection and hesitation was needed.  But this is Disney
ADVENTURES.  The writer (David C. Weiss) was working under the
constraint that stories for that comic have to be 24 pages or under.
It was the best he could do.  I'd say it was a big improvement over
all the original stories in MMA, even the above-average Blot tale
mentioned before.

	(Not that I didn't have a problem with the MMA Blot story --
its major flaw was the Marvel-like way the story was laid out (and
the Marvel-like way MM acted at times).  Another flaw was in the art
-- I was really irritated that the artist put a hood on the Blot's
daughter (and, I believe, a stuffed animal this little girl was
holding), making the notion of the Blot's disguise into a goofy joke.
That I didn't go for...)

	With time I'll give Egmont a Blot story -- but I haven't
thought of one yet.  I will NOT use the daughter from the MMA story as
I view her as apocryphal, even if she worked there.  In the meantime,
I'm going to be doing some stories with Horace, Butch (from "Circus
Roustabout" -- did you read WDC&S 585?), Monty (from "Love Trouble"),
and a new character from Egmont, a Neighbor Jones-like antagonist for
Mickey named Muscles McGurk (depicted as a hog).  I can just imagine 
Mickey vs. this Neighbor Jones type!  Mickey doesn't exactly have a 
temper like Donald's, but you can bet he'll let this big dope have it 
when necessary...  (I think he ought to have a real name, too, though,
not just this nickname Muscles -- I like Malchisidec, as much as I'm
sure McGurk would hate it ;-) We'll see what Egmont thinks -- he isn't
my creation.)

	That's all for now, folks.  I'm sure I've overstayed my
welcome!

	Your friend,

	David
	<David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu>







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