Barney Bear

[Larry J. Gerstein]

	Dear Harry (and everyone),

	I'm not sure if you know this, but there are ENGLISH reprints
available of ALL of Barks' non-Disney work.

	"The Barks Bear Book" was published about twelve years ago.  It's a
paperback with a cover price of $40.  I have never seen it going for more
than that;  frequently, I've seen comic shops selling it for less!  The
stories inside seem to be Xeroxed from the original comics;  they aren't
black-and-white.  However, for Xeroxes of that kind, they are superb, because
the colors have picked up as unblemished (for the most part) gray tones and
so the pages resulting do look pretty good.  Only one story (Our Gang #18) is
light and washed-out.  But everything is there;  ALL the Our Gang Comics
work, as well as Barks' only Porky Pig and Andy Panda stories (from 1944 and
1943, respectively).  It was published by Editions Enfin in Europe (because
only in Europe would representatives of WB, MGM and Lantz give the license
for their characters to all appear in the same book!), but made for the US
market.

	If you just want to see one or two of Barks' non-Disney stories,
Harvey Comics got the Tom and Jerry license two years ago, and right at the
start released a scant few Barks stories (with Barks' name advertised on the
covers!).  A few were released in reprints, it seemed, from the original
1940s proofs.  Then a few were released RE-TRANSLATED from FRENCH proofs
(!!!!!), and the translations, using the word "nerd" frequently and misnaming
characters, are terrible.  They must have only had French proofs for all the
others, because they suddenly stopped using any Barks material.  I think this
must have been because fans wrote in demanding that no more "retranslated"
stories be used.

	Here's what Harvey printed:

	TOM AND JERRY 1.  Has Barney Bear and Benny Burro moose hunt story
from OG #12, in its original form.
	TOM AND JERRY 50TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL 1.  Has Barney/Benny wild
horse story from OG #13, in its original form, and Benny mountain goat story
from OG 9, also in its original form.
	TOM AND JERRY AND FRIENDS 1.  (Look for the cover of Tom in
hell.....!)  Has Happy Hound (Droopy) story from OG 9, in its original form. 
A superb story in the spirit of Tex Avery!
	T&J 2 and 4, as well as T&JF 2, have Barks stories as well, but these
are the rewritten ones, referring to HUGO Hound and Benny DONKEY.  Nuts!

	Anyway, that's all for now.  I'll have some info on the German Rosas
for you guys soon!

	And what did you think of my modest proposal re: "War of the
Wendigo"?

	Your friend,


	David Gerstein