Various comments to Don

[Mattias Hallin]

DON!

    I hope Arizona was good for walking, if not for stalking, and that 
you and your wife has had a great time! I don't think I need to tell 
you in any detail what I think of dear Mr Grandey (don't wanna give 
HIM cause for any lawsuit against ME); and I'm equally sure you know 
I'll be cheering you all the way, if and when you take that McViper 
fella to the cleaners!!!

But for now, lets rather talk about that of your work which I've 
lately come across, but as yet not commented upon. And this time, It 
seems to me I might concentrate more on critique, than on praise -- 
though I hope it is what someone recently called TCC (Thoughtful 
Constructive Critique); 'cause I certainly did enjoy these stories 
through and through, believe me!

Guardians of the Lost Library
=============================

This'n is a beaut! and my main point of criticism is more of a 
philosophical one, than directed against the story, which is indeed 
marvelous. My quarrel, though, is with the Junior Woodchucks' "highest 
ideal", that of "preservation of knowledge". Preservation is just the 
right word, though -- as in e.g. preserved rutabagas! What they seem 
to mean by preservation is to bottle knowledge up real tight, and then 
limit access to Junior Woodchucks ONLY! This might seem OK, as long as 
their aim is to "protect the guidebook /which, as your story goes to 
show, is more or less the condensed libraries of all mankind/ from 
being exploited to make a profit". Sure -- but who'd profit by the 
lost works of Aristotle, f'rinstance, or all the rest of what must be 
the bulk of the guidebook? Except mankind, of course -- to whom that 
knowledge truly would belong, did that guidebook actually exist. I 
mean, I'm well aware that we're discussin' a work of fiction (and a 
COMIC BOOK ditto, to boot! /Sorry -- jes' kiddin'/) here, but as long 
as the guidebook was "just" the guidebook, and the wellspring of its 
fountain of knowledge remained mysterious, the Woodchuck attitude 
towards the guidebook was tenable, but with your story added, that 
attitude becomes IMHO downright immoral. What right have they to 
deprive their fellow beings of all that historical and other 
knowledge? -- and wouldn't museums all over the world benefit, for no 
reason of profit, from finding all those "lost treasures", that 
$crooge is after?!

Well, I got meself a bit carried away there -- but I AM an historian 
myself, after all, with that profession's attitude towards sources and 
sourcematerial, and the historians access to it..

The Duck Who Never Was (Norwegian edition)
==========================================

I've nothing but praise for this'n -- and I really can't see why the 
Swedish editors wouldn't use it (BTW: Knut -- I haven't forgotten that 
I still owe you for that'n; I'm just a little low on funds, and 
waiting for payday!). A very nicely twist of a story, and full of 
little details; like f'rinstance how you use your own version of the 
family tree, when Gus explains how he is related to $crooge, and where 
$crooge's sister only has had one child; who in her turn is the mother 
of three children (no Donald there...) -- or the graffitti outside the 
museum, one tag by a certain "Don", and a caricature on the wall of 
someone called "Byron"... And the Beagle Boys make marvelous crooked 
cops! What I liked best, though, was perhaps the two panels on the 
last but one page, where $crooge gives Donald a present of soda-pop 
(or whatever you called it English), and really means it too, but 
keeps the bottles to get his deposit back...

Life of $crooge #12
===================

First I have to agree with what you and others have said about the 
story needing another four or five pages: I agree that it is a bit too 
compressed; not only in the chase-sequence, I think, but also while 
developing the emotions as $crooge slowly thaws to his relatives. Also 
I think your portrayal of Donald shows him a little too dull and 
uninterested -- as a matter of fact a bit like in GotLL, where his 
only interest seems to be the TV. In, f'rindtance, "Return to Xanadu" 
your portrayal of Donald seems to me to be more subtle and complex, 
more like Barks does Donald in what is perhaps my two favourite 
stories: "Old California" and "Vacation Time". Thats a minor point, 
though. One more thing concerning Donald in Lo$ #12: In the newsreel 
sequence Donald says to the camera (at least in the Norwegian 
translation) that if someone mentions "tougher than the toughies" and 
"made it square" once more he'll get furious. Why is this so, when he 
has as yet only met his Uncle once, and the only to kick his hiney?!? 
Actually Donald tells HD&L that very thing: that he only met his Uncle 
once, and that he was then younger than they are in 1947 (when they 
are seven) -- but that was (or am I mistaken?) in 1930, when Donald 
was ten! Huccome?

Howsomever, I have to grant you, at last, after having seen your 
entire Lo$ that, YES! it makes sense to have $crooge build his 
moneybin already in 1902 (or thereabouts). I guess. OK.

All in all I found #12 a worthy final to a great achievment! 
Congatulations are, I think, in order!!!

Well -- as always, my best to one'n'all!

Mattias

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!* Mattias Hallin ** <Mattias.Hallin at Jurenh.lu.se> ** Phone: +46 46-14 84 43 **!
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