Happy Days -- I'm here again!

Mattias Hallin Mattias.Hallin at jurenh.lu.se
Thu Apr 7 15:37:40 CEST 1994


HELLO, ALL!

           Vacation's done with, the back-log of work is basically worked
through, and my cat came back yesterday after seven days' abscence; so -- here
Ah am!

PER:

    Well, I kinda' figgered a question like "where have all the ftp-files gone"
might have general interest, and thought, too, that if I ASKED you through the
list, you might ANSWER there too.

Well, it obviously worked, though a bit slow; and you should know from past
experience that I usually direct such questions straight to you. And, yeah,
maybe I should have this time also. In the future, rest assured I'll hear and
obey, oh Master!

DAVID:

      Why does Gladstone Gander's name prove that Speedy shoulda been Donald?
Does Gladstone know no-one besides Donald? And would it not seem to be in
Gladstone's nature to awaken competitiveness in the brests of other people
beside Donald?

Now, of course I believe, too, that Barks originally intended to use Donald
where he DID use Speedy -- if for no other reason because of Speedy's size and
general build, and the looks of his car; and because it makes sense, too I
guess -- but I don't think there's any solid evidence within the story itself.

DON:

    I heard on the grapevine, too, that you would be invited to come to Sweden
this fall -- I hope you'll make it.

I was wondering, though -- what I heard on the selfsame grapevine (i.e. Stefan
Dios) was that it was the respective fairs (Bok & bibliotek /Book & Library/ in
Goteborg, through Sture Hegerfors, and Seriemassan /The Comic Fair/ in
Stockholm, through Daniel Atterbom that had asked/were going to ask you -- NOT
Egmont. Or did I get Stefan wrong?

It is indeed and alas a sad thing, the way Disney and it's licensees treat
their artists. I was a bit surprised, though, to hear that your colleagues in
other comic book branches are making THAT much money. Not that I doubt your
information -- it just surprises me, considering that their market is fairly
limited; or am I wrong there?

Marks suggestions were, I think, ...suggestive; but I've a hunch that your
reply was pretty much on the nail: although your work is a treasure of immense
(almost three cubic acres!) proportions to many Duck comic fans, I'm not sure
you've had THAT big a general, POPULAR breaktrough among those 5 to 12-year-old
kids at whom Egmont really aim their publications, that you could get the kind
of leverage that Mark envisages. Sadly. I beleive there are people, at least at
Serieforlaget here in Sweden that feel that your work is too sophisticated for
the kiddies -- which is exactly where they're wrong, of course! I've yet to
meet the kid who prefers being talked DOWN to, to being talked TO! And, also,
kids can be surprisingly adept at detecting the difference. Well, not all, of
course... there ARE those who persist in reading "X-men" and similar, poor
souls... Or at least poor. ("Comics about a talking MONKEY? Aw, that's kids'
stuff!") Yeah.

Well, all my best!

Mattias

!==============================================================================!
!* Mattias Hallin ** <Mattias.Hallin at Jurenh.lu.se> ** Phone: +46 46-14 84 43 **!
!* Trollebergsvagen 24 B ***** Work: Lund University, Box 117, S-221 00 Lund **!
!* S-222 29 Lund, SWEDEN **************************** Phone: +46 46-10 71 37 **!
!==============================================================================!
!***** "Oh, the villain onward stole... While a wicked smile he smole!"  ******!
!==============================================================================!



More information about the DCML mailing list