Disney-comics digest #480.

[DAVID.A.GERSTEIN]

      Dear Folks,

The accent business (again!)
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> [Dwight] recalled a '30s Porky Pig cartoon
> in which Porky's mother had a German accent
This is "Wholly Smoke" (1938).  Porky's mom calls him downstairs:  
"Porky PIIIIG --- Sooey!  Sooey!  Sooey!  Sooey!  Sooey!"  One of the 
great ones, all right.
> (The thought has also occurred to me maybe Porky's
> mother doesn't have a German accent but a Yiddish one, with the non-PC
> joke of course being a Jewish pig . . .
I don't think Porky's mom is Jewish.  But in the more recent Warners 
cartoons "Tiny Toon Adventures," Porky's young, distant relation 
Hamton J. Pig is indeed Jewish.  Seen celebrating Chanukah in one 
episode, and with grandparents (seen on several occasions) who are 
clearly New York Jews in their accents.  (I ought to know -- I'm 
Jewish, and many of my relatives have that same accent!)  I get a big 
kick out of the Jewish-pig joke.
But enough with the Looney Tunes.  I love them, but I don't think 
this is the place I ought to talk about them...

Gus and Jaq
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> > .... (I'd still like to know how two 16th Century French mice ended
> >up on Grandma Duck's farm -- ah, the mysteries of Disney comics!)
I believe that the 1950 issue of VACATION PARADE has a story about 
Gus and Jaq having left home and wandering through the city.  (They 
have a memorable encounter with soda-clerk Daisy Duck.)  Then a few 
months afterward, the GD feature began in WDC&S, and there it's 
explained in the very first one how Gus and Jaq came to live with 
Grandma.  There is a LOT of continuity within the first year of the 
GD feature -- references to previous stories, etc.  Also, the first 
few episodes of GD, to give them their whole titles, say:  "Grandma 
Duck, with Gus and Jaq: 'The Cinderella Mice.'"  So it was clearly 
intended as a publicity move, I believe.  Only the mice stayed long 
after the film left the theatres...

Inconsistencies in scheduling stories
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> In the first DD story Donald is a journalist [in DD&Co. 44/1994]
This was in the British #40/1994.  ???!  And I thought that the 
stories usually appeared within a week of each other, aside from some 
LO$ episodes...
Did my "Two in One" (D93138) ever appear in Germany?  My German 
friends tried to find it, but have looked in the German MM every week 
with no luck.  Surprising because the German MM is at least 48 pages 
each week, and I can't imagine they would have neglected this 
10-pager for lack of space.  It was in #39/1994 everywhere else, but 
not in Germany.  Do our German members want to help me?  This is a 
story in which Magica de Spell tries to steal Scrooge's dime by 
creating a duplicate of herself, which she's supposed to be able to 
control with her mind.  Unfortunately, she loses mental control of 
the double, and a riotous battle ensues.

U$A 30
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features the first part of "The Lentils of Babylon," as rewritten 
(from Italian) in English by yours truly.  Gladstone DID NOT PUT 
ENGLISH-TRANSLATION CREDITS in the issue, so I am not mentioned!  But 
it's my work, and I'm proud to claim responsibility for this.  (And 
if I can possibly get through to John Clark, my translator friend 
Micheal Thompson -- and myself -- will both be credited next issue.)

      That's all for today, folks.  I'll be back, though.

      David Gerstein
      <9475609 at arran.sms.ed.ac.uk>
      "If you'd been through the trouble I've seen, you wouldn't be 
singing Glory Hallelujah!"