Caballeros and Firebugs

Daniel van Eijmeren dve at kabelfoon.nl
Sun Jul 8 21:07:50 CEST 2001


DAVID GERSTEIN to me, 08-07-2001:

Hi David!

>> Before 1982, possibly somewhere between 1977 and 1981, the Dutch 
>> weekly reprinted a short Donald Duck story in which Joe Carioca 
>> and Panchito visited him. [...] Donald ends up in jail [snip]

> This story is W WDC 50-06, drawn by Carl Buettner.

Of this issue, Barks' tenpager (about Donald's rare dime) was 
submitted on June 22, 1944. The issue's cover date is November 1944.
The Caballeros story ends with Donald in jail.

"The Firebug" (OS 108) was submitted on July 19, 1945 and published 
in 1946. It ended with Donald in jail, but it was changed into a 
dream ending by the editor.
Barks has said that the new ending would have been done by one of the
staff artists, either Carl Buettner(!) or Tom McKimson.

If Barks' dime story of WDC 50 is more or less representable for the
submission date of the Caballeros jail story, then I'm wondering if 
there could have been a change of policy at Western between June 1944 
and July 1945. 

Have there been other stories with Disney characters ending up in jail
around this time? (Before and after WDC 50?)

I'm wondering if there could have been complaints from readers about
the Caballeros jail ending, resulting in the removal of Barks' jail 
ending one year later.

Or was Western's objection to Barks' story that Donald was put
into jail by being *guilty* of burning down the courthouse? 
(In the Caballeros story, Donald is innocent.)

> It's a depressing story, IMHO, as Jose and Panchito are shown as
> noisy Hispanic country bumpkins who don't even seem to understand 
> the modern (i. e. 1944 American) world. Heavily influenced by 
> stereotype; not really the way I like to see Jose or Panchito...

I read this story as a kid and I found Jose and Panchito very annoying,
even more because the well-behaving Donald gets all the blame.
Still, also because of the jail ending, I find this story very 
interesting. It was one of my first Disney stories and apparently 
those stories are always the best, no matter the quality. :-)

Nowadays I also find this story very interesting *because* of the 
stereotypes, because it shows how such matters have been handled 
through the years.

I remember that you once mentioned some 1940s Brer Rabbit stories
in which the dialect was removed before publication, something which
(as you pointed out here on 9 July 1997) also happened with Barks' 
"Lost in the Andes" (OS 223). This story was submitted on 
October 21, 1948, and published in (April) 1949.

Could Western's policy on stereotypes have been a matter of "try 
and error" in (at least) the 1940s? Could the Caballeros story 
of WDC 50 have been a case of going way too far, even at that time?

BTW. As far as I know, the Caballeros were created to built a market
     for Disney in South-America. So, I guess that this story must 
     have got at least some attention because of it's stereotypical 
     treatment of Jose and Panchito. Or is the Caballeros movie 
     itself also stereotypical in a similar way?

Is there a difference in Western's handling of stereotypes and jails
before and after the publication of the Caballeros jail story? 
For example, if Barks would have submitted "The Firebug" as story 
for WDC 49, would it have been accepted without any problems? 
Or was it Donald being guilty of burning down the courthouse enough 
reason for Western's objection, without thinking of the Caballeros story?

>> The Dutch Panchito stories might be based on a series of one page gags 
>> published on the back of Dutch weeklies in about 1980. I believe these 
>> one pagers had a foreign origin. Maybe they came from America?

> They did. These are the Panchito Silly Symphony Sunday strips from
> mid-1940s. Pretty good strips they are, too, IMHO.

Last year, a Panchito two-pager (H 20047) written by Frank Jonker was
published in Dutch weekly 2000-26. It's about people getting insane by
their attempts to decipher a mysterious message in a cave. I found this
story very funny. If you have access to it, I recommend you to read it.

- Daniel



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