From RoC

Lasse Reichstein Nielsen lrn at daimi.aau.dk
Mon Apr 18 13:41:43 CEST 1994


WARNING: highly inflammable material:
=====================================
  Jan Lund Thomsen, who may still be lurking out there, has elevated a
phrase of mine to A Quote. It goes "Nobody likes Tony Strobl!"
  Not one to speak ill of the dead, or even the mortal, I'd like to
elaborate on that: The recent tribute to Tony Strobl in WDC&S #592 and
D&M #25, both of which I have yet to see, perpetuates the American
publishers' obvious preference to old and tried material.
  I would rather have seen some of the numerous Studio stories from ca.
1970 with Scrooge as a newspaper editor, Donald and Feathry as his un-
enthusiastic bullpen, and Daisy as a meter maid. Just as fictive as the
Duck Tales show, these stories are, with no quality judgment implied,
simplistic and trivial; a comic book version of the TV sit-com usually
dismissed offhand as typical bad, or complete lack of, taste.
  They do, however, within the limits of the set-up, excell in stringent
plots, ironic comments, and absurd events, otherwise unknown to Disney
comics. Without dismissing the role of the (unknown?) scripter, this is
IMHO Strobl's most original contribution to disneydom.
("Engage flame shield, Lieutenant!" "Aye-aye, Commander!")

Don asked:
==========
>        Anyone here from Denmark? I also just received a ANDERS AND &
>CO. #13 (1994), and on page 14/15 there seems to be a large text piece
>explaining my Duck Family Tree they just finished serializing (with
>stickers). What is this all about? I sure get curious when I see text
>sections in these foreign comics that say "blah blah blah blah DON ROSA
>blah blah blah".

  Yes, an explanation is what it is. It simply recapitulates who is what
to whom, if you can't figure out the tree, and relates some trivia and
token characterizations, if you haven't read the stories.
  The bold type tells that there are conflicting ideas of the relations,
and this version "has been done by Don Rosa based on ideas and sketches
by the famous Disney artist Carl Barks." (Yes, you're just a talented
assistant of Barks' to Egmont/Denmark.)
  The Norwegian Donald Duck must tickle your curiosity a lot. They seem
to be dropping your name all over the place, like mentioning your 7th
anniversary on april 7th. Congratulations.
  Re: Lo$, chapter 11, part 2, 'Return of Bombie the Lost Zombie'.
Not wanting to *SPOIL* too much, I'll just say I enjoyed this part even
more than the recent ones, not only because of Bombie and the big ship;
Recent chapters have been, like, glorifying Scrooge to the point of
apotheosis, and Scrooge's actions here reminds us that he is, after all,
human. Will the final chapter reveal that it is in fact an autobiography
by Scrooge, or are you yourself, Don, so biased in his favor?
(Sorry, do I sound like I'm using the keyboard as a blunt instrument?=)
  Oh, and another idea on how to make big bucks on ducks: would it be
possible to get a cut from limited and signed editions of posters, you
know, the ones on expensive paper in monstrous sizes, that sell for
hundreds of dollars? All the others do it. And if you skip the ducks(TM)
from them, you could probably avoid (legal) problems with Disney Corp.

Harry's data base:
==================
  Totally overwhelmed by your description of the data base format, I was
hoping to see an example. Just to get an impression, and to know if it
would work at all. On a need to know basis, I can tell you that I'd
really hate to see the issue lists stripped of information, they should
remain as they are. A story index must however, if it is to have any
value, contain information on all publishings of a story worldwide.
Some stories, like OS 456, will require space for dozens of entries,
with all the additional information we have. Other stories will just
be a number to the left. Not to mention the old uncoded Dell stories.
I'll quote myself from an unfinished letter:
>>>
On indexes: I think we can do with two types of lists; those by issue
and the specials. The Dutch, Danish, and USA lists are fine as they
are, and in time a complete American index will hopefully be compiled.
Maybe other foreign nationals will feel obliged to chart their local
Disney publications. Ideally we should have lists of all Disney books
ever published (and zen ve vill take over ze vorld!:)
>From these it would be simple to extract lists at the drop of a hat of,
for instance, "all Don's stories for Gladstone over 2 pages in American,
German, or French" or "Ludwig von Drake by Tom Yakutis since 1992 in
Uncle $crooge."
It won't even be necessary to re-arrange the indexes we have; a program
could hold the parameters for each list (at which position what data is
located, and date format). Actually stripping information from one
list and making room for non-existing data in another, and place the most
at some central list would leave the other indexes worthless without THE
list and THE program. I prefer them to be of use also as separate files.
I also like to have information twice.
Of course, I can't expect you to agree, Harry:
>I myself also archive everything from this list (My archive is about
>3 1/2 floppy disks by now) and I always edit out the unnecessary
>texts manually.
So is mine, and I don't!?
(How about a program that deletes lines starting with a '>', wouldn't
that save you some work? Or do you mean texts that say 'From RoC'?;)
<<<
  So, the point I was trying to make above, is that what we need is not
another index, that requires a program to read, but a program that can
read what we want from the old indexes. No, I don't know C from Z:)

  If anybody cares, my project with Danish comics is now making headway
with my recent purchase of CB&Co. #17 with a lot of Italian names, and
a future parcel from Fabio with heavy data density.
  Thanks, Fabio, I'm looking forward to it like a kid to christmas eve!

Please, please:
===============
  Due to the 'interesting' ways of mail handling favored by my brother,
(he also reads my mail before he sends it: Hi, Spot!) some of this list's
digests never reached me.
  Would someone please dig out #s 98, 178, 228 and 284, and mail them to me?
I know lysator have them as individual letters, but I prefer Per's hardcover
collectors edition:) I'm can also use good copies of #1-77.

...

Appendicitis
============
  One week later, this letter appears not to have been mailed, so I'll
append another description of a 2000th issue; Norway, take it away:
56 pages instead of the usual 48, it features a great 16 paged Mau
Heymans special (H 90164) for (Dutch) Donald Duck's 2000th(?) issue.
It has three full page panels: one of them with about 50 people around
the banquet table. Included are Bombie the Zombie and Smorgasbord.
  The next 4 pages are also Mau Heymans, they were also in Danish and
Swedish editions, if I remember correctly, like the Vicar story next.
  The rest is a Barks one pager (US 13c), a Taliaferro sunday, and the
first part of Lo$ chapter 11. The editorial stuff consists of a 4 page
history of the Norwegian magazine, a date-the-cover competition and a
competition about how many characters you can name from the previously
mentioned Heymans page.
  A very good issue, but the Norwegian ones usually are. As a Dane I
can only be ashamed that Anders And & Co. has missed the opportunity to
celebrate the same event in Denmark (according to my count).
  The frequency of supplementary issues has also been limited to 1 in 6
instead of the usual 1 in 4, still done in Norway. Evidence of impeding
poverty is also a recent inlay with two of Murry's Phantom Blot stories
that was printed on what you call parchment paper/greaseproof paper.
Not exactly what I'd consider a quality edition.

<oLe 'RoC' Reichstein Nielsen, c/o Lasse 'Spot' R.N. (lrn at daimi.aau.dk)>



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