Horace in Germany (and other things)

[9475609@arran.sms.edinburgh.ac.uk]

      Dear Folks,

      A few things to comment on, today.

      First, Dwight Decker said that Horace's name in German was 
Pferdinand.  Where have you seen this?  His name in German COMICS is 
Rudi Ross, and if the PVC figurine said "Pferdinand" it's because 
whoever wrote the name on it didn't know who this character was!  (I 
think Pferdinand is a better name for him, but like it or not, I've 
never seen it.)

      I have also never seen any material in which Pete was named 
"Sneaky Pete," but I'll take your word for it.  As a young boy, I loved 
the Mickey stories in the "big white books" which were then on sale, but 
I *hated* the Mickey stories I was then finding in Whitman comics.  I 
couldn't understand why Whitman didn't make Mickey stories that were as 
good as Donald stories, like the ones in the big white books were...

      Pete also appeared in the Alice and Oswald cartoons before 
settling down as Mickey's nemesis.  In those, he was sometimes called 
Pegleg Pete, but more often Putrid Pete.  According to a source at 
Disney, when it was time to come up with a new name to replace Black 
Pete, they almost went for Putrid Pete again, but then decided that 
little kids wouldn't understand the word 'putrid.'  Feh.  I thought 
Disney comics were *supposed* to teach kids things -- I learned the word 
"bouillabaisse" from a Barks story.  (Although I may still not have 
learnt how to SPELL it from memory...)

      MARK:  Egmont has been publishing a mixture of Mickey stories for 
years and years;  some VERY bad, some a little better, and only once in 
a blue moon (as far as I can figure) one that's pretty darned good.  The 
artist chosen never seems to have any relation to what the editors think 
of the script, until recently, when the better scripts seem to 
consistently go to Ferioli and -- although we've only seen the hypnotism 
story as yet -- Noel Van Horn.
      About a year ago a drive began to revitalize Mickey.  Model sheets 
and character analyses were prepared for many old Gottfredson 
characters, and writers were encouraged to recapture Mickey's 
personality c. 1936.  We're now seeing the results of that -- I've seen 
some pretty darned good Mickey stories of late, even though there have 
been some clinkers as well.
      Egmont has been trying to get the complete FG strip in English (as 
you know, Geir -- if you're reading this that is!).  When they do, a 
more complete "Mickey bible" will be compiled, the goal being to bring 
Mickey's world back to how it should be once and for all!

      I'd like to have my stories illustrated by Ferioli, but I'll wait 
til I get to do an adventure story (and I'm going to do one next year, 
with Sylvester Shyster).  For now, my Mickey gag stories are planned to 
be drawn by Noel Van Horn, and I'm pleased as punch.

      JOEL:  Glad to hear from you!  You'll be glad to know that when 
the "Mickey bible" is compiled, Horace will return to his mid-'30s 
position as one of Mickey's closest chums.  As it is, I've only seen a 
very small handful of foreign stories that give poor Horace much to do 
at all.  But that is going to change.  My first MM story for Egmont 
involves Mickey and Horace travelling to Mount Fishflake to prospect for 
a rare mineral which I named "amaturnite".  I like to use Horace with 
Mickey because he's smarter than Goofy, and the two can trade 
good-natured barbs and are more on a level with one another mentally.

      MM:  "Just think o' the swell view of that canyon we had, Horace!"
      Horace:  "I don't *wanna* think about it!  I nearly got a *closer* 
view than I wanted!"
      MM:  "Yeah, a shame, ain't it?  Y' gotta learn how to climb 
*before* ya tackle a mountain!"
      Horace:  ">Snort<  Aw, dry up!  I just shoulda watched where I put 
my left foot, y' see?"
      MM:  "Sure thing!  Only it's hard to keep track of *one* left foot 
when y' got *two* of 'em!"

      ... And so forth.

      This week's British MM contains the first part of the Prof. 
Dustibones MM story "Fossil Hunters" (D93323), and it sure is great.  
Really Gottfredsonian -- and Marx Bros. fans will get a thrill as 
Dustibones' rival is named Prof. Wagstaff of Huxley College...  The 
issue also has two Madam Mim one-pagers (D90238 and D93092), a 
Scalabroni Scrooge two-pager (H89139), and a Donald one-pager (D93117).  
And of course, Van Horn's meteor story (D93490), with Donald vs. Pegleg 
Pete.  Pete, as usual in DD stories, uses a silly alias -- in this case, 
Woimly Filcher.  But his dialect, personality and (of course) appearance 
are obvious as always.

      I'll be back, folks!

      David Gerstein