Hazel the Witch

DGE@ECN.egmont.com DGE at ECN.egmont.com
Mon Jul 9 09:20:48 CEST 2001


	Hey Luca!

>"The Witch and Beelzebub, the Broom - Halloween Haunting", pages 5, it is
>the FIRST story introducing Hazel again (with her name changed, maybe
>because another Witch Hazel still existed, in the ACG comics, and one more
>even in the Harveys... Or maybe because Hazel was the name of Walt Disney
>nurse in the same period... I don't know...
>Maybe someone can help me to discover why her name was chenged.

	I think I know: your Witch Hazel round-up may have left one Hazel
out.
	It's the Witch Hazel of Little Lulu, who was introduced by Western
Publishing's John Stanley in 1952 (same year as Disney's Hazel)... and
*unlike* the Disney Hazel (who dropped from sight for a while), Lulu's witch
rather quickly became a continuing character and a star of her own stories.
Some time later Western Publishing bought the rights to Lulu from their
owner and creator, Marge Buell - so now Western actually owned Lulu's Witch
Hazel 100%, and stood to profit from her popularity.
	It was not, I suppose, in Western's interest to promote another
Witch Hazel whose name might invivte confusion with "their own" character.
So when they reused Disney's Witch Hazel later, they got around the issue of
her name - if that was really their goal - by merely calling her "The
Witch", or by giving her pseudonyms (like Witch Wanda, as I've seen in a
mid-1960s Scrooge story).
	Of course, most of this is speculation. Maybe it's a question I
should ask Chase Craig, whom I really ought to get back in touch with...

	Best wishes,
	David



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