Disney-comics digest #271.

Don Rosa 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM
Thu Mar 17 06:03:09 CET 1994


MATTIAS:
	What am I doing after the Lo$? First I did that DD 60th Birthday
story. Then I did an adventure I've had in my notes for 8 years -- the
search for the treasury of Croesus, arguably the most famous treasure
that $crooge never found (but one that even Barks showed him longing for
'way back in "Back to Long Ago"); my result was a fairly good but not
spectacular story with LOTS of research and accuracy and that
needlessly complex art that makes me wonder more and more if it's all
WORTH it -- it took me 2 or 3 weeks longer than it should have! Anyway,
I sent that one in just a week ago. Right now I'm getting caught up on
some covers for Gladstone (Lo$ #4) and for that German "Rosa Library"
series (Lo$ #5 & 6) and even the cover for a Norwegian librarian
journal. Then I'm doing a story that I've had in my head even longer...
ever since 1959 when I saw "Journey to the Center of the Earth". I've
done versions of this adventure with my own characters as long ago as
1960 (with worldwide distribution being somewhat less than I enjoy
currently -- in those days it was distributed throughout my bedroom with
a total readership of one). In fact, tomorrow I hafta take a day off and
go to the University of Louisville to do research -- among other
scientific problems I need to find sensible solutions to are how the
Ducks can travel through the molten outer core, withstand the heat and
(more significantly) the air pressure which should squash them to
puree... and, also, why the #$&%* they want to be down there.
	Goldie's tale DID poke at the inside of her dress, but not when
she was wearing her full outfit. When she only had one petticoat left
after a month in the Wild, her tail shape was more distinct. But what I
still regret is not that I didn't have Duck tails poking through
dresses as in modern Duck fashions, but that I drew those dresses with
such needless and irritating wrinkles and shading. Ugh.
	And what's this "nosey-parker"? I wish you wouldn't use American
slang unless I'm familiar with it! It's bad enough meeting you Europeans
who have bigger English vocabularies than I do -- but now you're using
slang I've never heard.

SIGURDUR:
	I'm not sure what you mean by are we "standardizing" the Duck
comics. You mean are we all using the same expressions or something?
Personally, I pay no attention whatsoever to anything in any Duck
stories but Barks', and of course he has "standardized" the stuff as far
as I'm concerned. As for other writers, it's hard to say since (as you
suggest) what you see are the translators' words rather than usually the
writers -- who knows who's words are whose? I never noticed any other
story using the expression "monstrosity on Killmotor Hill" -- in fact, I
had never noticed the name "Killmotor Hill" ever used a second time
other than Barks' first mention of it in WDC&S in 1952 or so. As far as
I knew, when I mentioned it in "His Majesty McDuck"(was it?), that was
the second time it had ever been mentioned.
	And if you're making a valiant attempt to use American
expressions also, be careful. You mean "full FLEDGED", not full
FLETCHED". "Fletch" is a pseudonym for a very nasty verb which would
make your professing to be a completely fletched Duck fan suggest
something else altogether.

BUTCH:
	"Go Slowly Sands of Time" properly comes when it does... at the
end of the many years of Barks' U$ adventures. It's when U$ is getting
exTREMEly old... probably well over 100. Actually, it is fairly similar
in content to my story (in Lo$ #12, not 10) now that you mention it. But
it would happen MUCH later.
	There is a comment that is made in "Go Slowly..." that just
can't be true -- they say that $crooge was involved with the Comstock
Lode; this would mean that by the 1950s $crooge would be at LEAST 135
years old, whereas it's hard enough to see how he could be less than 90
by then.
	When was the "borsct belt era" of MAD? I think I called it the
"JUNIOR borscht belt". By that I meant when it degenerated into bad
humor for kids. MAD was originally aimed at adults and college-age
folks, more like NATIONAL LAMPOON was in the 70s. But as they realized
who most of MAD's buyers were, they started aiming it at a younger and
younger audience until they got to about "junior high" level. When? Oh,
I guess they got there by the late 60's and thereafter. The MAD comics
and magazines of c. 1952-62 would be, after Barks' Dells and old
movies, my biggest influence.

HELP, NORWAY!!!
	I did that "From Duckberg to Lillehammer" on special request
from the Norwegian editor -- but through a mix-up which they are
probably powerless to set to right, I NEVER received any copies of that
special issue!!! Can anyone please send me a copy or two of that week's
double-pack comic???

	THERE! Does that satisfy you, Mattias?




More information about the DCML mailing list