> 
Apparently I can't access Edinburgh even though Edinburgh can get through 
to me.  Let's try this again, but this time I'll CC the entire disney-comics
group. Fortunately, it's of general interest. David Gerstein wrote to ask
me about a 39-page Italian Mickey Mouse "which-way" story I translated for
Gladstone's editor John Clark...
> > 
> >       I can't contain my curiosity any longer!  What is the Mickey 
> > Mouse "which-way" story about, and what's it like, in general?  Also, 
> > has John talked to you lately about DM and mentioned what direction 
> > it's going to be taking?  I have to admit I don't know anyone who 
> > wouldn't rather see Egmont stories to Diaz ones, no matter how they 
> > might like the latter.  But I can't talk to John about it, because I 
> > can't afford to phone him for any decent length of time... just 
> > enough time to discuss, briefly, what I'm doing for him at 
> > time-of-call.
> 
> Gladstone is a local call for me, but John always seems to be pretty busy,
> so I can't just call and chat about the general direction of the books and
> so on. I honestly don't know what they're planning with the Mickey Mouse
> story. It's a 39-page digest-sized story that John told me they'll run
> at full comic-book page size (if only so they don't have to cut and paste
> three-tier pages to four-tier pages -- the story is intricately keyed to
> page numbers, and if they mess with the format, proofreading would be a
> nightmare). If that means they're doing a giant-sized Donald and Mickey
> issue, I don't know. Actually, it's more like 38 pages: the 39th page is
> a complete waste with Mickey and Goofy addressing the reader and crowing
> about what an innovation the story you just read was -- I have to translate
> it so John knows what it is, but I doubt if Gladstone would run it.
> Basically, the story is Mickey and Goofy exploring a supposedly haunted
> castle, with something like six different alternative plotlines and endings.
> Every few pages there's a decision point where the reader can decide how
> he wants the story to go: "If you believe in ghosts, turn to page 14!
> If you're skeptical about the supernatural, go to page 20!" In the ghost
> plotline, Mickey and Goofy encounter a real spook: the ghost of the long
> dead nobleman who once inhabited the castle. When he was alive, Lord Prank
> was a hopeless practical joker who delighted in tormenting his subjects
> with nasty jokes, but because he was so powerful and important, nobody
> dared stand up to him. As a ghost, he has been condemned to haunting the
> castle and playing tricks on visitors until somebody finally gets fed up
> and tells him off. After four centuries, Mickey and Goofy are the first
> ones to do so, and Lord Prank is now free to go on to eternal rest. In
> the skeptical plotline, the strange noises heard about the castle at 
> night are found to have a rational explanation (such as a film crew
> shooting a movie).
> > 
> >       Well, I must be off -- now that I think about it, do you have 
> > knowledge of when John's going to print the other stories you've 
> > worked on, that you told me about?  (The Duck ones, I mean)
> > 
> John hasn't told me much of anything. I did two 25-page Dutch stories
> this summer: "The Lost Treasure of Khaos" and "The Treasure of Ringtail
> van Dukke" (provisional titles -- lots of treasures, I admit). These will
> be in Uncle Scrooge Adventures and Donald Duck Adventures respectively
> sometime next year. 
> 	There's a 21-page Dutch story set in Scotland in the works. Don Rosa
> warned me that Gladstone had trouble with Disney over the use of Scottish
> accents in his Life of Scrooge stories, so I called John to find out what
> the policy was. The reply was basically go easy on the phonetic spelling.
> Suggest the Scottish accent with an occasional "aye" or "laddie," but 
> don't spell every word phonetically. It sounded like Disney wasn't so much
> concerned with political correctness as just not overdoing the accent and
> making it seem like Scottish people talk weird, especially to American
> children who have little idea of what an actual Scottish accent sounds 
> like and less idea exactly what Rosa was trying to convey. Readability
> is the first concern.
>     Hope this answers your questions--
> 
> --Dwight Decker
> 
I hope this goes through -- anything to avoid having to retype it!
--DD

