Disney comics mailing list digest #5

Sat Apr 24 00:07:14 CEST 1993

Contents:
	Torsten Adair	Re: Digest
	Don Rosa	Comments
	Harry Fluks	Comments on Per's Comments on Don's comments
	Per Starback	Comments

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Date: Thu, 22 Apr 1993 19:12:23 -0500 (CDT)
From: Torsten Wesley Adair <torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu>
Subject: Re: Digest

On 22 Apr 1993, Don Rosa wrote:
> COMMENTS ON DIGEST -- 
> 	TORSTEN ADAIR asks me if I might someday draw Pegleg Pete. No can do. He does not exist in the Duck stories -- he's a Mouse villain. 
> Besides, Disney has abolished his pegleg because that made fun of cripples or some such. And he can't be called BLACK Pete either -- 
> guess why! The character that now exists in the Mouse stories is BAD Pete. (Yeeccch.)
> 	Thanks for liking that new UNCLE $CROOGE cover. Did you catch the symbolic meaning therein. The "MOUSE" is being exterminated from 
> the money bin/Duck comics. Yep.
> 	You're a recent Barks fan? The JW story that you think Barks' art looks strange on was drawn by Kay Wright, as stated in the album 
> credits. Barks only wrote it. And the other JW issue you refer to sounds like another not drawn (or written?) by Barks. You DO KNOW 
> that Barks didn't write/draw every Duck story ever, right!? ...And to rea	Oops.... better end now and see how much THIS will cost me! 
> 

Yesterday I bought a copy of The Comic Book Book, which contains an
excellent essay on Carl Barks.  I now know that he did not draw the JW
stories.  I knew he didn't write/draw every Duck story, just every good
duck story that I read as a child (1970s).

I started buying comic books in 1984.  I collected the early Gladstones,
but stopped when the price changed to $0.95 (!).  I started buying them on
a periodic basis last year.  I intend to purchase everything that
Gladstone prints.

I didn't want a Bad Pete story by Don Rosa, I just wanted to see a pin-up
or drawing of Pete done by Mr. Rosa.

Torsten Adair	torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu	Omaha, NE, USA
Michael Ei$ner is really Flintheart Glomgold!

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Date: 23 Apr 93 01:00:50 EDT
From: Don Rosa <72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Comments

COMMENTS ON DIGEST 4:
	Well, this can't go on much longer! Each time I glance at and answer even these digests, it's costing me about $4-$5 since I'm not 
using TAPCIS or anything (never needed it till now). 
	Anyway, I'm about to go away for the weekend to Ithaca, NY, to another comic convention. But here's a reply to some comments from Per 
(I think).
	I think I mentioned that I considered Barks' old privately done Family Tree, but changed parts and I think "improved" on it... all 
done with the help of other Duck fans and Mr. Barks himself. I'm using Della as the name of Donald's sister. That was the original, 
first used, even though it was in the newspaper strip which I regard as a different "Donald Duck" than the comic book version. Still, 
the name Thelma came from nowhere, and didn't go as well with "Duck".
	I show Jake McDuck all through the "Life of $crooge" series, but he just sorta disappears along the line. By the last chapter he would 
be dead, as would all the other McDucks except $crooge. Naturally I don't show or speak of ALL these deaths -- but I DO deal with the 
deaths of both $crooge's mother and father in scenes unlike ANYTHING that have ever been in a Disney funnybook. 
	And yes, Black Pete was in "Pirate Gold"... but again, that was far too early (the earliest!) a story to take seriously.

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Date: 23 Apr 1993 09:22:34 +0200
From: Harry Fluks <H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl>
Subject: Comments on Per's Comments on Don's comments

Don> But to redraw an entire STORY makes no sense -- are we sure they've
Don> done this?

Per> They have made many strange things in Scandinavia.  For a while they
Per> had someone shorten the long beaks of old Barks comics when reprinting
Per> them to make the ducks look more like later Barks which the readers
Per> were more used to.  They reprinted WDC 89 which takes place at winter
Per> in summertime, and then had someone change it to a summer setting,
Per> etc. etc.

As Per informed me a while ago, the Dutch editors once got a copy of a
Barks story from Denmark, with the beaks shortened. They then (re)lengthened
the beaks to let it look more like the 'old' Barks!

Don> The only thing I can think of is maybe some freelance writer is
Don> passing off these stories as their own new work since they can't be
Don> sued for plegarism, but only cussed by the editor in the unlikely
Don> event their copying is noticed (and that's not likely with tens of
Don> thousands of Duck stories out there and editors who don't know much).

I remember a Danish (Vicar) story where Donald wants to grow tomato(e)s in
a village called 'Happy village'. During the story, all kinds of disasters
happen to the village, and it ends up being all red. Sounds familiar?

Another Danish (again: Vicar) story shows Donald as a hotel employee,
carrying bags. There is only one job 'below': a help in the kitchen.
You can guess which job Donald has at the end of the story...

Don> TORSTEN ADAIR asks me if I might someday draw Pegleg Pete. No can
Don> do. He does not exist in the Duck stories -- he's a Mouse villain.

Per> Except in "Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold" of course, as "Black Pete".
Per> (Sorry for being so nitpicky. I know you know, but I just want to set
Per> it straight.)

And in a few other stories there is a person that looks a lot like Pete
(WDC 45, where he hires a boat from the nephews, and some later WDC about
transporting wood). It's OK to say that these are not Black Pete, but
there is a similarity (and maybe Don can draw one of these characters
some day, so both Don and Torsten are happy 8-)

Don> Besides, Disney has abolished his pegleg because that made fun of
Don> cripples or some such.

Per> I think I've read a Gottfredson story where Pete explains that he's
Per> now got a modern artificial leg instead of the old peg leg.

I think you've read a reference to that story in Gladstone's book
"Mickey Mouse in color". They show a panel there with Pete's explanation.

--Harry.

Harry Fluks                    ()_()     Dutch Disney comics freak
PTT Research, Leidschendam      (_)      H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl 
"Yeah... I've _heard_ of coral barques!"

(I hope this mail will travel faster than my previous one: it took almost 2
days to arrive!)

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Date: Fri, 23 Apr 93 10:30:43 +0200
From: Per Starback  <starback at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE>
Subject: Comments

Don Rosa wrote:

> Well, this can't go on much longer! Each time I glance at and answer
> even these digests, it's costing me about $4-$5 since I'm not using
> TAPCIS or anything (never needed it till now).

What is TAPCIS?  I really hope you won't leave us.  What do you all
say?  Should we create a D.O.N. fund (= Don On the Net) to keep him
here if we D.O.N.-ate enough?

> I think I mentioned that I considered Barks' old privately done
> Family Tree, but changed parts and I think "improved" on it...
> (...) I'm using Della as the name of Donald's sister.

Great, that was what I was hoping for, even though I thought that you
would use "Thelma" instead.  There's another question on canon: should
only published stories count?  I think that private notes like Barks's
family tree don't carry the same weight as published stories, and I
guess you agree then.  (Then whatabout censored stories?  Are they
canon?  And when the editor changed something, is it the original
unpublished version that is canon?)

> I show Jake McDuck all through the "Life of $crooge" series, but he
> just sorta disappears along the line. By the last chapter he would be
> dead, as would all the other McDucks except $crooge.

Then it's strange that Donald dresses up as Jake in "Christmas for
Shacktown" to fool Scrooge and that he falls for it, isn't it?

> Naturally I don't show or speak of ALL these deaths -- but I DO deal
> with the deaths of both $crooge's mother and father in scenes unlike
> ANYTHING that have ever been in a Disney funnybook.

I'm looking forward to that!
--       "
Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden.  email: starback at student.docs.uu.se
 "Life is but a gamble!  Let flipism chart your ramble!"

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(End of digest.)