Another Big Sneeze (Gesundheit!)

[Larry J. Gerstein]

	Dear Folks,

	I won't quote people here to make my letter too long, but here's what
we know.

	1.  "The Big Sneeze" was done with Gutenberghus in mind in the '70s. 
When they wouldn't take it, Milton redrew it with Kalle Klodrik, his own
character (a goose!), and it was published as a 30-pager in 1976.

	2.  Milton did want to see the Donald version published, but no soap
from Western (1980).  They preferred Jack Manning, evidently, who was then
their major duck artist and as far as I'm concerned was about the worst one I
have EVER seen.

	3.  Finally Oberon bought some version of the story in 1980 with the
ducks in it.  It was published as a 31-pager in 1980.  Since that version was
31 pages long, it was at least partly reworked, and perhaps completely
different, from the mid-'70s 32-page version.

	4.  Around this same time Milton did a version of the story with
Woody Woodpecker.  According to Harry Fluks this may be more recent than the
31-page Duck version, as Milton's style is more mature.  Part two of this
four-part story (FM-11) was printed by Harvey Comics in 1992 as "Danger at
Sea," completely disregarding that it was part of a much longer story. 
Typical Harvey.  That story *seemed* unfinished to me.

	5.  NEW INFORMATION HERE!!!!!!!!  Someone indeed wrote in to
Gladstone about 1987 asking them to print the Oberon Duck version of "The Big
Sneeze."  Gladstone got it, asked Milton for his permission to use it (given
the chaos the story had gone through) and was DENIED permission, since Milton
was doing the Gnuff version at the time, and told them not to print the
earlier one.

	6.  The Gnuff version appeared in Critters from Fantagraphics, which
is now defunct.  I don't know when this was.

	SO:  In existence is one published Donald version and an earlier
unpublished one, one with Kalle Klodrik, one with Woody Woodpecker in 4 parts
at 36 pages (with part 2 in Harvey's WW Giant Size #1), and one with the
Gnuffs.

	Since the Gnuff version is now printed and over with, seems to me
that Milton could hardly mind one of the Duck versions appearing from
Gladstone.  I'll tell John Clark when I *can*... but he is hardly ever free
lately as he's been over deadline on a new Gladstone catalog for over 3
weeks, and then is travelling to Europe.  My guess is that Oberon will be a
stop on his list, and I'll do my darndest to get the information through to
Mr. Clark before that!

	Whew!  (Or should I say:  Ha-ha-ha-HAAAA-haaa!)

	Now for King Scrooge the First and Ulrich Schroder:  No one at Disney
knew about Ulrich Schroder's "King Scrooge" artwork until I asked Bob Foster
about it myself in 1991.  He contacted Gladstone who told him that Schroder
destroyed the story.  (Which must have been *finished*... as the four panels
in CBL 5 were the LAST four.)  So if any finagling was done to keep Disney
from owning the tangible artwork to the story, it was done completely during
the Gladstone period.  I assumed Disney must have known about it when I
contacted Bob about it in 1991, but I was dead wrong.

	Well, I'll sign off for now, but maybe you'll hear from me AGAIN
before the day is done.  There's just a goshawful lot of *stuff* going on in
the duck world these days!

	Your friend,

	David Gerstein
	"So Detective Donald saves the day... with a *little* help from his
nephews!"