Heymans and Van Horn

[David A Gerstein]

	Dear Folks,

	The way I always tell Heymans from Van Horn is twofold.

	A)  The pupils of the eyes in Heymans' ducks frequently leave
the outlines of the eyes -- that is, the rim of the eye "breaks" a bit
before the pupil.  It's like this:

                     XXXXXX
                   XXX    XXX
                XXXX        XXX
               XX             XX
              XX               XX
             XX                XX
             XX                XX
             XX                XX
             XX                XX
             XX                        <--- See the "Break"?
              XX            XXXX
              XX           XXXXXX
              XX           XXXXXX
               XX               X
                XX         XXXXXX
                 XX        XXXXXX
                  XX        XXX
                   XX               <--- And there's another
                     XX   XX
                       XXXX

	Get the idea?  What's more, Heymans gives the Ducks "pie-eyes"
(by that, I mean the slit in the pupil, as you see above), while Van
Horn hardly ever does (although he USED to do it all the time).
And...

	B)  Heymans' art maintains a "flowing" feeling to the
linework, while Van Horn's work is scratchier (if you're a fan of the
really old comic strips, compare "Mutt and Jeff" to "Krazy Kat" for a
similar example.  I'm sure you have those in Europe by the ton, while
they're as good as forgotten in THIS swell country....

	* * * * *

	On another tack, here's something I bet a lot of you are
astonished I haven't asked before:

	Are the comics of Norway, Sweden, and Finland all made by
divisions of Egmont?  And for the most part, are they almost the same
between one another from week to week with the exception of covers?
I'm puzzled, because I thought so -- until I realized how the various
countries are doing different things with Don's stories these days.
What's the story here? 

	Furthermore, how do the German ones fit in?  It seems to me
they use EVERYTHING Egmont produces, and, due to MM's larger
popularity there, they add a Murry reprint almost every week,
particularly when they don't have a new Egmont MM story to use.  Or
are ALL the countries listed above just wallowing in Murry as well?  I
don't get that impression...

	In any event, the German ones usually run about 40-48 pages,
although it varies from week to week (with no affect on price).  I
believe that this makes an overall larger comic than you get in
Finland, because I have a Finnish 45/1991 which is like a shorter
version of the German for that week.

	Yeeesh!  What's going ON?  I used to think that aside from
covers and the occasional "special supplement issues" (i. e. GotLL,
Vicar time-travel stories, Grandma Duck 50th, reprints of 1st issues,
"In Search of Jungle Treasure" reprint, etc.) that the various Egmont
countries were the same.  Or is one of these NOT an Egmont country?
What's up, Doc?

	And last...

	I think it was Harry who mentioned having actually seen Eli
Squinch show up in a recent Ferioli story -- this being the first sign
of changes in Egmont's MM stories.  Could you tell me, Harry, what
this story is like, how Squinch is drawn, and what the code and page
count is (if it's GOOD, that is)?

	Your friend,

	David Gerstein
	"I'm de Fuller Brush Man!  I'm givin' g'way free semple!"
	<David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu>