A matter of covers

[David A Gerstein]

	Dear Folks,

	I just ftp-ed the new version of van-horn from the ftp
archive.  Thank you, Harry, for sorting out the mistakes in my work
and getting everything straightened out!

	The following cover appeared on a German Donald Duck
Sonderheft sometime in 1992:

	KS 70-90 WDC 560                        The April Foolers

	I don't know which issue, but might it have been used on
another such "special" in Denmark, Norway, etc.?

	By the way, Ehapa in Germany has been using original covers
about 75% of the time since mid-1991 at least.  In many cases, they've
just taken Branca and Santanach Duck covers and redrawn them in the
DuckTales style (pie-eyes are removed, huge thatches of feathers added
to heads, etc) which of course wrecks them.  Once in a great while
they also redraw an old Kelly cover (WDC 69, 113)  But in other cases,
they've rejected Duck covers just to put MM on the cover, because he's
more popular there than in Denmark since the release of a low-priced
hardback Gottfredson reprint series about six years ago.

	Unfortunately, as much as I support wild promotion of MM, 
Ehapa's artists don't draw a better version of MM than they do of DD 
or the nephews.  (No attempt to do a Gottfredsonesque MM either!)

	Before 1991 the covers were definitely Egmont ones.  Pie-eyes,
fluid poses, the works.  (I like Daniel Branca's covers a lot!)

	Ehapa keeps its old DD Sonderhefts in print, reprinting
each one every five years.  Many of those had Barks covers, and in
some cases they've even replaced *these* with very similarly-staged
redraws as well.  I've even seen one or two redraws of old Kelly
covers.

	Whenever an Egmont cover is used new or as a reprint *without*
a redraw, Ehapa nearly always eliminates the pie-eyes.  (Some Branca
cover of Donald accidentally brushing his teeth with paint appeared in
Norway with pie-eyes, in Germany without, in 1991, for example.)  They
seem very anxious to do this... the back cover of each issue shows the
upcoming one, and many times I've seen pie-eyes on the "previewed"
cover, then the final version has them blacked-in.

	There *is* an exception to every rule... once every couple of
months they do print something unchanged from its contemporary-Danish
or past appearance.  I won't try to understand...

	What is the case with covers for other Egmont affiliates?  Do
their covers usually match from week to week?  Do some affiliates now
and then use covers that seem "local" (i. e. bear no resemblance to
the work of a known Egmont artist)?

	Also:  There is a Jippes cover on WDC&S 589, for those who
haven't seen it in Gladstone "preview catalog" advertisements over the
summer.  I'm pleased to have it heading off my first published dialog!

	That's all, folks.

	David Gerstein