Disney-comics digest #124.

[David A Gerstein]

	Hi, Folks!

	Mark presents his commentary "On a Silver Platter"
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	"...I agree it's a very good story, but the basic idea looks 
a lot like Barks' "Stranger than fiction"..."

	When Rosa takes a plot that Barks, in his 1960s years of
decline, could have taken far better advantage of, and *takes* far
better advantage of it, we're supposed to support him!  :-)  Same goes
for Van Horn and "A Small Matter" (practically an insult to VH that
David Seidman paired it with the far worse "Have Gun, Will Dance" to 
flaunt its similarity...).

	Although maybe "Stranger than Fiction" would be a lot better
if those schmucks at Dell didn't cut out the story's ninth page to
make room for an advertisement!

	And "Stranger than Fiction" was Barks' *own* attempt at
revising his earlier "Super Snooper" story, which brings this whole
conversation full circle.


	Don on his work in Germany:
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	"...[I'm in] touch with the German translation editor and I
think I just need to tell him what old copies I need. But if YOU have
this access to all the current issues, I sure would like it if you
bought an extra one for me whenever they use my stories -- and their
uses of this "Life of $" series should be coming fast as they catch up
to the other countries."

	Now that summer is gone I again have no access to the German
issues without subscribing to them for a full year, something I'm
hesitant to do since Byron insists he'll be sending me Danish versions
of everything beginning soon.  But if he doesn't send 'em I may just
do that.

	Even if I did have access to the German issues as at home, I
couldn't buy second copies only of those with your stories.  Werner's
Delicatessen and Imports only gets *one* German MICKY MAUS per week,
and I'm *required* to buy it because it is I who put in the standing
weekly order for it.  I could put in an order for a second
subscription to get you the issues you want, Don, but you'd have to
get them *all*, not just those with your stories.

	(Why, you are all asking, do I buy from Werner when at home
instead of subscribing, myself, when it nets the same results -- i. e.
that I have to purchase EVERYTHING??  Simple:  Werner is a friend of
mine and I like to support his business any way I can... Santa Barbara
is *reeling* from the recession.  Imagine a tourist-trap town with
very high rent suddenly suffering from low amounts of business.
Imagine the twerps who rent out the buildings refusing to lower the
rent because it's a *privilege* to do business in beautiful Santa
Barbara.  You get the idea.)


	Per on the Scrooge color scheme:
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	"...Here are some data on the colour of Scrooge's coat
in some US's, in case anybody cares.  :-)

Dell    US 15, 16, 27: purple
        US 28, 57: red..."

	Thanks Per!  Scrooge's coat is also purple in US 17 (and in
the reprint of that in Gladstone Album #1 which repeats the US 17
colors *exactly*, including errors).

	It's green in the original printing of USOS 456.

	So now we have a few stories where the coat is red... does he
have grey cuffs on the coat in any of those?  In Europe the coat is
always red, too, but never with the Gladstone/Disney-style grey cuffs,
you'll notice.


	Harry's own letter to me about MM
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	[I'm answering this here just to avoid writing a second
letter]

	Sure I don't care if issues of Mickey Maandblad are used and
in slightly battered condition!  I'd be DELIGHTED if used Gottfredson
comics other than Gladstone MMs were easy to find in this country!
The prices on Dells have gone through the roof.

	I may have misstated the stories I needed:  these being
Robinson Crusoe, MM Sails for Treasure Island, In Search of Jungle
Treasure and The Plumber's Helper.  I think I left one of those out of
my list that I sent to you.

	Looking *very much* forward to that package of albums from
you!  Should reach me any day now!  I approach the mailbox with such
great expectations... but alas, not yet.  Thank you so much!  BTW:
Are you interested in one of the items-to-be-traded being one of my
own comics?  The most recent issue features:

	DAVIDE in Horse Sense (A character a bit like a humanized
Donald Duck, with two nephews, is on a ranch trying to prove himself
an expert cowboy.  Attempt at an early-Barks style)

	MONK THE MONKEY AND FLATYPUS THE PLATYPUS (kinda like Mickey
and Goofy, an attempt at doing Gottfredson style circa 1936, and the
two are at the Olympics working as janitors)

	PHINEAS T. BUTTERFLY (an attempt at a Walt Kelly type of
thing, an old rapscallion of a butterfly with a derby hat, cigar,
spats, and hick dialect, passing himself off as a kid to enter a
school competition).

	Actually the stories aren't as derivative as I made them
sound... the characters are definitely individuals, but the *plots*
were purposely done as practice on Disney style plots.  The book also
has two half-page strips in it, and a "Muddled Mother Goose" page
which is sort of my own continuation of the Disney Good Housekeeping
pages.

	If anyone is interested in copies of this, I'm glad to trade
'em for things.  The comic is 32 pages long.
	
	That's all for now, folks.

	David

	"I know the croaking chorus of the FROGS of Aristophanes..."
	<David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu>