Various replies

Harry Fluks H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl
Mon Jul 12 15:23:04 CEST 1993


I've been away for a week, so here are my
COMMENTS ON DIGEST #WHATSIT 8-)

Rota's Viking stories
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Andy Krieg:
> "Donald Duck Adventures" #23 features a Donald Duck vs. Vikings tale by
> Marco Rota.  Can anyone recommend or not recommend this tale?

Don Rosa:
> The Donald vs. Vikings story that Gladstone is reprinting is actually a
> dream sequence of DD imagining the adventures of some other duck... NOT
> himself.

I Holland, two Viking stories have been reprinted: they are both dream
sequences, both by Rota and both concerning "MacDonald and Little Crack".

Don:
> Anyway, the Viking story has great artwork and one GREAT slapstick gag near
> the beginning that seems to have come from some other writer and story...
> but the rest of the story is meandering and pointless. In fact, they plan
> to slice a number of pages out of it to try to improve it. I don't really
> bother to read many of those old Egmont reprints but are thay all like this
> one? Beautiful art and a story not worth bothering about?

Are you sure it was an Egmont story? The stories in Holland are coded
I 228-A (45 pg) and I 277-A (36 pg), the I standing for Italy.

As goes for most Italian stories, the story is very long and could easily be
shortened to improve it. But this is not representative for Egmont stories...


Writer's credits
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Per:
> But lately credits in the American Disney books have started to have
> writer credits for old stories quite often.  I think they have found
> some book-keeping from Western that shows exactly who got paid for
> what story.  Anyone knows anything about that?

The only thing I know is that the Gladstone people used the newspaper strips
index by Becattini for their credits. I guess fans like Becattini put a lot
of effort in getting all the credits (from wherever), and today's publishers
are just using their data.


Go slowly, sands of time
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Per:
> There's also (published for the first time and not published
> anywhere else(?)) the "illustrated story version" of Go Slowly Sands
> of Time.

A b/w copy is also published in the Carl Barks Library.

> This is a story that Barks wrote in the late sixties and
> that didn't become a comic until much later when Egmont had Vicar do
> art for it (the result is published in US 216).

Didn't Barks submit the story in 1973 or 1974?

> But this is not that,
> but some illustrations for the story made by Barks in 1980.

In fact, there are 12 illustrations, oil painted.


Uncle Scrooge, His Life and Times
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Per:
> Yeah, it isn't as interesting now as it was then.  The book also has some
> before that unpublished pages for some comics etc., but most of those
> have been published now anyway.

The 'unpublished' pages include 4 1/2 page of 'Back to the Klondike', plus
1/2 page of NEW Barks pencils for the final missing half page of the story.
Furthermore, all existing 'unpublished' pages of 'Land beneath the ground'
are included.
All of this has been reprinted in the Carl Barks Library. And also in
the Gladstone Albums, except 2 panels of 'Land beneath the ground'.

Don Rosa:
> The whole point of the book was to have some artsy-fartsy artist color the
> old Dell photostats and make them look "special". Many of us think it was
> an interesting idea, but the stories looked weird and murky; I much prefer
> the color as it was meant to be, as it was done by Dell.

I fully agree!


Scrooge and Mickey by Murry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Torsten:
> The Beagle Boys have joined forces with the Phantom Blot!  Donald and
> Mickey can't find Uncle Scrooge! (...) Full-scale "crossover" stories like
> this have always been rare in Disney comics, especially ones featuring
> such a stellar cast!  Not only that, but this tale, originally published
> nearly twenty-eight years ago, contains among the very few face-to-face
> encounters in comics between Mickey Mouse and Uncle Scrooge McDuck!  It's
> a special treat no Disney fan will want to miss!

I have seen a Murry story with Mickey and Scrooge in it, reprinted in
Holland. I don't like the story, and I don't like Murry's Ducks.
I wouldn't buy the comic myself.
BTW: Murry drew a few other Mickey stories featuring Grandma Duck, Gyro
Gearloose, and Donald Duck. And what about "A lad 'n' his lamp", recently
reprinted? It features Scrooge and Goofy.

That all for now...

--Harry.



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