From Daniel van Eijmeren

[Harry Fluks]

[Remember I mailed a while ago about Daniel? I sent him a lot of digests
by snail-mail, in printed form. He read them all, and gave me an answer
by snail-mail to post on the list. So I'm being the Lasse for him
this time. --Harry]

Hi everybody,

My name is Daniel van Eijmeren. I'm 20 years old, student, and I'm living
in Maassluis (nearby Rotterdam) in Holland. I'm a devoted fan of Carl
Barks and Don Rosa. I'm very pleased with the fact that Rosa is a member
of this list. I own the Carl Barks Library and a lot of Dutch weeklies,
etc. The Rosa-stories I read are all in Dutch, so I just can't wait for a
[English] Don Rosa Library.

Thanks to Harry (who sent me digests via regular post for about two years)
I'm able to read all your comments. Again thanks to Harry it is now
possible for me to comment on this list. I have to say that my comments
are not quite recent because I have to read all those digests first and
then send my comments on a diskette via regular post to Harry. (The
comments I have now are from digests of 28 August 1993 to 10 March 1994.)
I hope it doesn't bother you.

Harry Gladstone's "Birthday Bugaboo":
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harry Gladstone didn't actually use the [Barks] half page itself, but
it gave him an impression to work with. So the story might be Barks-like.
(I haven't seen the story.) It was me who told Harry that the Barks-page
was used in the story, but I had misread the article in the CBL. This has
caused much rumours on this list, so I'm very sorry about that.

Don Rosa (or should I say: Mr. Rosa?):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I want to thank you first for the Kentuckies I recieved from you via Harry.
Although it is difficult to understand the gags related to Louisville
itself, I like the stories very much. It's a pity that Barks is so negative
about your duck-stories, I could only think of two reasons why he is. The
first one being that Barks probably doesn't like people who put too much
depth to his stories and maybe he feels like he's been stolen when people
put facts and situations from *his* stories into *their* stories. The
second reason why Barks might be so negative in the media now is that he
recently came up with a new story and it's quite possible that people now
will prefer *your* stories over *his* new story. For Barks, being a comic
writer again, you are a real competitor. And the fact that you use much of
his stories, also can give him the impression that he is fighting with
*himself*. Without your stories it would already be a difficult task to
compete with his own old stories. What do you think about these theories?
For me, the only thing I can say is: Keep up doing your stories like you
want to do them. I like them *very much*, you are one of the very few
writers who makes me read their stories again and again. And every time
I find new gags.

In my very long comment to you I have some questions as well:

[**** **** SPOILERS for American readers! Lo$ parts 5 & 6 **** ****]

- In the half-page panel in Lo$ 6 is an elephant which hides a drawing of
Mickey Mouse under its paw. Is this your answer to the question on the
list: Please, use Mickey at least once in your stories and I'll never
ask for it again?

- In Lo$ 5, in the interior of the castle of the McDucks,
there is much lying around and there are also chairs and tables. Scrooge
becomes angry when a Whiskerville carves a chair and he says that he
wanted to sell the furniture. In Barks's "Old castle's secret" the
castle is almost empty inside. Is this because Scrooge had indeed sold
the furniture? Did you intend this that way?

[**** **** END OF SPOILERS **** ****]

Banned cartoons (David):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In January this year, David mentioned cartoons which are now banned by Disney.
Two years ago I spent a lot of time copying hired Disney-videotapes on my
own tapes. Those tapes were made in 1985 or so, and not meant for sale.
So I couldn't buy them. (The recent Disney-videotapes in Holland are meant
for sale, but they are Dutch synchronized. I don't like that.) Anyway, among
those tapes are cartoons which are now banned. For example: "Commando Duck",
"Mother Goose goes to Hollywood", "Broken Toys", "Uncle Donald's Ants" and
"Spare the Rod". I still haven't made an index of the cartoons, so I don't
know if I have more. These cartoons are (as far as I know) uncut. "Commando
Duck" might be because it seems somewhat shorter, but it shows Japanese.
I also have the (banned?) cartoon "Spirit of '43" with a Scrooge-like
character in it.
David, if you want them copied on tape, I am willing to do that. (My
VHS-videorecorder uses the systems Pal, Secam and NTSC4.45.) But then, I
hope you are willing to copy your laserdisc with the Mouse-cartoons. (I have
no laserdisc system.)
I WANT TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT I DON'T *WANT* TO VIOLATE COPYRIGHT-LAWS.
But the way how Disney distributes their cartoons makes me do it. Because
I *want* those cartoons, but they are not available here with original
soundtrack otherwise than copying them from hired old tapes. If the Mouse-
laserdisc was on videotape, I sure would have bought it. So, I am willing
to *buy* all that stuff, but it's not for sale! That's the way Disney
treats their appreciators.

The lost but not least giveaways:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I bought the CBL complete I was sure that I had every story of Barks
in original state. But very soon it was clear to me that it was far from
that. A lot of stories (mostly giveaways) have been redrawn. I had no other
idea than that these stories were lost. But reading this list I learned
that all these stories still exist and the places where they exist
are known. Why didn't the CBL use them? Is there a way to get these original
stories? Does anyone of you have one or more?
Will the "CBL in color" include some of them (not reprinted in CBL)? I would
be very grateful if anyone would help me getting them. (Another example of
willing to buy, but not for sale...)
A few years ago I had a chance to speak with Jippes himself and he told me
that he had to draw a lot of art himself for "Race to the South Seas" because
he had to work with very bad xeroxes in different standard colours. He said
that only the ducks were somewhat clear to be seen, but he had to draw the
sea and the natives himself. Now my opinion is that "South seas" is a
*Jippes-story*, written by Carl Barks.

The censored CBL:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In november 1993, David gave an updated list of changes in the CBL. It
included some stories of which he didn't know what the status in the CBL
was. Here are my conclusions:

*    Land of the totempoles: CBL unchanged.

*    Land beneath the ground: Changes due to restoration in CBL. Original
     panel without added caption is printed apart from the story.

*    Island in the sky: I *think* the dialogue is partly censored in the CBL.
     Original dialogue of Columbus is shown.

*    How green was my lettuce: (Silhouette of Scrooge is *deleted* not added.)
     Balloons are added, changed and deleted to fill in the original art.
     The "original" pasted art is also shown in CBL. I think the CBL did the
     restoration very good.

*    <Submarine Santa>: In the CBL is also a sign, which says "toys". It this
     what you mean? Is this sign added? Why?

*    <Olympic Team Try-Outs>: CBL unchanged.

*    Darkest Africa, Atom bomb, Stormy visit, Kites, Pets: Status in CBL is
     the same.

*    <Steamboat race> (USGTD 1): Logo "Uncle Scrooge" added on first page in
     CBL.

Not mentioned before:

*    A Cold Bargain: CBL has changed heads of Brutopians? I heard something
     was censored.

*    Peaceful Hills: Original art in CBL?

*    Balloonatics (WDC): In CBL page 7 is the only one restored, or are there
     more?

*    Treasure of Marco Polo: Dialogue censored, but I think parts of it are
     mentioned somewhere else in CBL.

*    The golden river: Page deleted by Barks is added in the story in CBL,
     the panel he drew to replace the page is shown somewhere else. No art
     itself is changed.

*    Trick or treat: On page one a caption is shortened due to restoration of
     the original art.

*    <Lost Dollar Bill> (WDC 63): The "rings" shown above the heads of the
     ducks (last panel) are deleted in CBL. They were supposedly added by
     the editor before first publication. Did the CBL have an evidence for
     that?

*    Captain Blight's Mystery Ship: Uncensored in CBL

The bird Gyro:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Dutch] Donald Duck Weekly says Gyro Gearloose is a *crane*. I can't imagine
that Barks intended Gyro to be chicken, he drew "human-chickens" very
differently. Did anyone notice that Gyro has *human* feet?

Ulp! I realize that I have just written a sort of digest myself. Does my
very long comment anger anyone? It's very long because I have to
comment on lots of digests at once. I heard that some people here have to
pay per byte, and I just don't want them selling their houses or cancel
their vacations due to the costs they have to make for this.
I hope you all will accept me on this list, if you don't... let me know.
But if you do... see you next time! (About a couple of weeks.)

Best wishes to all of you.

(Harry, thanks!)

--- Daniel.

Date: 8 May 1994.


"They didn't have stones there!"

(The very bad Dutch translation of Harry's quote.)


Harry         PTT Research       ()_()     Dutch Disney comics freak
Fluks         Leidschendam        (_)      H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl

              "Yeah... I've _heard_ of coral barques!"