Rosa on... + A Modest Proposal

[David A Gerstein]

	Dear Mark (and everybody),

	Glad to read your listing of what's gonna be in DD 283...
particularly "From Duckburg to Lillehammer" (spelling?).  Might you be
so kind as to tell us what "ADVANCE COMICS" said was to appear in USA
25 and D&M 22?

	In my froth-filled list of my least favorite Duck stories I
forgot the worst of the worst:

	Donald Duck in "Southern Hospitality" (1952).  Not only is
this a "travel tale" without the least bit of realistic business in
it, but Scrooge has bought himself a cotton plantation, dresses like
Simon Legree and sports a hick-style Southern accent!  What's more,
his workers have left him because he tried to feed them cotton as
opposed to let them go on lunch breaks, and even Scrooge wouldn't
poison someone to save money.  The art is pretty bad, too (although
not impossibly bad).  For dragging a Barks character into such a
childish story, the unknown scripter gets one raspberry, and for so
shamelessly misinterpreting that Barks character, he gets a truckload
of them.  Better, he should eat a truckload of *cotton!*  ;-)

	The above is, I believe, also the first long adventure to use
Scrooge that wasn't done by Barks, thus setting the stage for a lot of
pretty tepid such stories.

	Per, could you please start sending me the letters as
individual postings rather than digest form?  That way I can save only
the most important for my research (no offense... honest!).  No,
really, I have gotten a lot of great information from all of you, and
hope that I've paid you back with my own obscure duck information.

	Don, do you know when "Guardians of the Lost Library" will see
print here?  Now that it's been printed in Europe...  I'm excited to
read your origin of the Woodchucks.
	Also a piece of criticism for one bit of your work.  The
centerfold for Uncle Scrooge #275 (I think that's the one) has ducks
who look rather stiff and inert.  Was it the size you had to draw them
at?  On the flip side of the number one dime, however, I still get a
kick out of that Beagle Boy about to get a little *something* under
the mistletoe!

	Also:  The story "The Hoard at the Rainbow's End" (H84133, I
think) has been pushed ahead!  Instead of being in DDA 26 as I
thought, it's actually going to be in DDA 25.  (The first long story
I've dialogued up to this point.)


	And for all of you:  I'm meant to do some "fieldwork" for my
Anthropology course later this year.  I'm supposed to analyze some
group in society and to sorta learn what makes them tick.
Would any of you mind answering a posted questionaire which I
would use to analyze the lives of Disney comic collectors... to see
what we all have in common, that sort of thing, including what
differentiates us from the "mutant" crowd here in the U. S. -- and
what in Europe might make the comics more popular in the mainstream.
This might require a lot of dumb-sounding questions, perhaps followed
by individual letters to a few of you.

	Don't be offended by this, please, folks... I'm not trying to
say we're typical comic-shop weirdos, I want to find out why we
*aren't* and what makes a Disney comic aficionado... this really interests me
and might meet the qualifications for the project!!  If I get a lot of
positive responses to this concept, I can pitch it to my teacher on
Tuesday and if it's a success, maybe I will actually make the
questionnaire in the next coupla weeks.

	The most interesting thing would be looking at my own life and
seeing if I can notice real differences between it and those of Marvel
fans;  what their family situations are like, what drove them to the
comics, etc.  (I'll presumably run a poll sheet through my local comic
shop back home, which will be glad to distribute, then collect them.
They know me there.)  What's different about this country?

	(I know *your* response, Don, but I'm wondering what *makes*
it that way... for this thing, I'll have to dig deeper than just the
kind of criticism I enjoy joining with you in heaping on U. S. comic
"fandom," speculation-style.  Your views, of course, would be *very
much* appreciated.)

	If the response to this idea is tepid, I'll see if Foola
Zoola's village will let me do some analyses of its populace!  :-)

	Thanks, folks.

	David Gerstein

	P. S.  Don, do you think that other stories besides WDC&S 89
should be banned from the regular monthly titles here?  If so, why?
(This is no relation to the project above)