Disney-comics digest #521.

[DAVID.A.GERSTEIN]

      Hi, folks.  Unexpectedly had a chance to write one final 
message today.  Luckily the Digest had a lot to respond to!

TRYG:  "... as a child in the '50s one of the Little Golden Books I had 
was the story of "Little Black Sambo."  At the  time, it didn't seem 
racist..."  I don't really think it IS.  Or at least, it wasn't 
intended to be so by the author, even if the same author did agree to 
illustrations which were kind of grotesque (if no more so than the 
white kids in Hoffman's "Struwwelpeter," which they closely resemble 
aside from skin tone).  Unfortunately, aside from this one book -- 
which WAS meant to be set in India, BTW, and is in fact based on an 
earlier Indian folktale -- the term "Sambo" has always been used 
derogatorily, and thus dragged this completely well-meaning 
children's book down with it.
      The Sambo's restaurants became Friendly's, not Denny's.  And 
friendly they aren't -- the service there is terrible.  The original 
Sambo restaurant is in (!!!) Santa Barbara, and it alone still goes 
by the original name (and shows Sambo in a TURBAN on its shopfront 
sign).  Years ago, they used to have a guy dressed as a tiger 
standing outside to lure in little kids.  Me, I ran from him.
      Was the line about union workers deleted from Gladstone's 1989 
reprint of "Lost Beneath the Sea", or from an earlier one (Whitman)?  
It sounded like the latter instance from what I read, and I don't have 
the issue near to check (it's only 8,000 miles away).

HARRY:  Ye cats!  MM Mystery #5 contains Scarpa's necklace story?  
That's supposed to be his BEST Mickey story!  I 231-A, BTW, = "MM 
and the Chirikawa Necklace."  If it fits in a Mickey Mystery along 
with another story, just MAYBE it can appear in DM.  I'll snap up a 
copy in Germany, and we'll see.  I've never read this tale.
      But Atomino's in the story, which I guess means we've got to 
see his origin story first ("MM in the Fourth Dimension," from 1959 I 
think).  That's 72 pages.  Oh, well.  >Sigh<  Otherwise people might 
mistake Atomino for Eega Beeva, as the appearance isn't so 
dissimilar!  (Or Atomino could be REDRAWN as Eega, but I don't think 
anyone would really want to do that to a perfectly good story.)

RoC:  Thanks for the praise about my Magica story.  I've now got 
British, Danish, and German copies of the story.  I wouldn't mind 
making a deal to get some of those other editions (I'll discuss that, 
in a few weeks on my return).
      Sorry, but I'm not going to retitle the story for its American 
publication.  I still like the title I originally gave it, "Two in 
One."  Wait 'til you see it from Gladstone, with all the puns in 
there which Egmont deleted... (to be published around November 1995, 
I think -- maybe in USA 35).

HARRY:  If you think that most comic strips confuse Dutch with 
Germans, you ought to see Otto Messmer's old "Felix the Cat" strip.  
About 50% of all people in the strip (a lot, because Felix is often 
off to seek his fortune, and the place he lives has very few other 
funny-animals) are given Dutch names, yet look and talk like 
stereotypical Bavarians.
      The film title "Alice In Dutch" means 'Alice in trouble.'  A 
later Pluto cartoon, set in Holland, was also called "In Dutch."  
(One of the best solo Pluto cartoons, I think -- save the two that 
Barks worked on.)

FABIO:  In Italy, what has been done to the stereotypical Italian 
pet-shop owner, Tony Dinero, from FG's "Oscar the Ostrich"?  When it 
was last reprinted here, Disney made Gladstone "Americanize" his 
dialect and alter the text so that his last name was never mentioned, 
and his first one only minimally.  I'll find out tomorrow when I meet 
you, but you might want to tell the list.

      Best holiday wishes to all of you, folks.  (Per:  Maybe you can 
repost the Scrooge McDuck Christmas "greeting" I sent out over the 
wires last year.  I no longer have it.)

      David Gerstein
      <9475609 at arran.sms.ed.ac.uk>