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<p class=MsoNormal>Ole, I enjoy your postings, and certainly take no umbrage at
your comments in this one. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>I could refine my comments: my happiness at seeing Barks and
Rosa mock-up covers was not a sign that I want BOOM! to publish lots of Barks
reprints—though I think that throwing in a few of the Barks stories that are
not too dated is a fine thing. I just took those covers as a cue that they might
take U$ in a different direction from the proposed initial stories for DD, MM
and WDC, to which I do not look forward. I have no chauvinistic reaction
against European stories in general; I like lots of stories written or drawn by
Marco Rota, Daan Jippes, Evert Geradts, Jan Kruse, Ben Verhagen, Kari Korhonen,
Gorm Transgaard, etc. What I don’t like are: (1) stories that are not
well written, no matter what the set-up; and (2) stories that turn the ducks/mice
into entirely different sorts of characters in a fantastical setting. I don’t
need Duckburg as an idealized 1950’s town, though I respect Rosa’s
decision to stick with the original Barksian time frame. But I want the ducks
(who, as Rosa says, are humans who just happen to look like ducks) to be
recognizable “people” who stay in character. They may encounter the
occasional ghost or sea monster or person with magical powers, but they have no
magical powers or superpowers themselves, and deal with such encounters with
the same options and limitations you or I would have. (Well, with the exception
that you and I do not have a Junior Woodchucks Guidebook.) Of course they
shouldn’t be limited to Duckburg; that’s the whole point of Scrooge’s
money, from the plot-writer’s POV--that it can take them all over the
world in many sorts of adventures. But wherever they go, I prefer them to be mortals
like me, and recognizable as the personalities I know and love, people who do
have “everyday” lives back home in Duckburg, going to school,
struggling to make a living. If I want superheroes, I’ll read superhero
comics. If I want Tolkienian fantasy, I’ll read Bone. If I want a secret spy
agency, I’ll watch James Bond or Spy Kids. I don’t think the ducks are
suited to such story-lines. They seem like they have been lifted out of their “real
life” into a story where they don’t belong.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Tom Hanks isn’t always Tom Hanks in his movies; he’s
quite different characters who all happen to resemble Tom Hanks. (Only a bad
actor or a typecast actor is the same character in every movie.) In some of the
fantasy or superhero stories, it seems to me that the characters are different
characters who just happen to look like Donald & Co. As if, indeed, they
were being “played by” Donald & Co., who are the actors, and
who are not present in the stories as themselves. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Elaine<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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