Donald's German name(s), etc.

[DAVID.A.GERSTEIN]

      Dear Folks,

      First thing to discuss today are the foreign names of some 
characters.  I have learnt that before the Nazis banned Disney 
characters, Donald had the name Schnatterich.  I mentioned that a few 
months ago.  What I DIDN'T know, was that this was only his name in 
COMICS.  In a storybook based on "The Wise Little Hen," Donald was 
named Emmerich, and the name was used in a few other places too.  
What a mess.  So Donald had TWO names in Germany before World War II.
      A similar situation seems to be behind the use of the name 
Pferdinand for Horace.  In a letter to me, Dwight confirmed that this 
was his name in a STORYBOOK, suggesting that once again, it was a 
case of a translator who knew nothing about comics working with the 
characters in a different medium... Groan.

How characters work together
=== ========== ==== ========
      As far as I'm concerned, Horace and Goofy would be great 
together if used right.  They would work very much like Laurel 
and Hardy, in fact.  Like Oliver Hardy, Horace thinks he knows how to 
do absolutely everything (referring to his "Horsecollar Touch" in a 
few of the 1930s stories!), and is good at bossing others around, but 
in fact causes himself lots of accidents.  You don't see Horace 
bossing Mickey around, but he sure gives it to Goofy and Clarabelle 
both in the mid-'30s.  And Clarabelle never listens to him, 
naturally.  Why doesn't Horace boss Mickey around?  Because Mickey's 
the one guy who (to Horace) seems to know how to do everything.  
Of course, Mickey DOESN'T know how to do everything (something some 
writers forget), and his real tragic flaw is his eternal enthusiasm and 
curiosity.

Mau Heymans goes to the dogs (and cats)
=== ======= ==== == === ==== ==== =====
      A few weeks ago there was a really WEIRD Dutch story in the 
Danish AA & Co.  There was a radio contest for people to do 
the best animal imitations, and Donald and Jones both decided to 
enter.  It just looked too weird to see Donald up on stage imitating 
a cat, I'm sorry.  And then there were the scenes of Donald and Jones 
up late at night on the back fence, yowling and barking at one 
another.  I just couldn't really believe that they would take their 
animal imitations so seriously.  And while the pair did this, we cut 
briefly to Bolivar and a cat complaining about the noise.  I imagine 
Bolivar should have had a thought-balloon, but instead he was just 
talking with a word balloon -- what a shock!

Dialect and Magica De Spell
======= === ====== == =====
      On the subject of DIALECT, Zeke Wolf also speaks in it.  
Definitely an "uneducated" type of dialect, although not quite as 
backwoods-sounding as Br'er Rabbit's speech.  And some people write 
Magica de Spell talking in dialect, too -- they drop every "the" from 
her speech (i. e. "Give me dime, Scrooge!") as if she doesn't know 
English that well.  I think that this stems from DuckTales, where 
Magica spoke with a very thick accent that sounded both Italian and 
sort of Slavic, too.  What bothers me, though, is that I have 
also seen a few stories in which SCROOGE was written in dialect -- I 
really don't go for that.  They tried to make him sound Scottish.  
The best example is the story in US 257, "Coffee, Louie, or Me?"  The 
dialect sounds as piratical as it does Scottish, and besides, I never 
thought Scrooge's dialect was supposed to be strong enough that it 
affected his speech, save an occasional use of "lads".

Upcoming Gladstones in January
======== ========== == =======
      From Diamond Previews for this month:
      DDA 31 has as its cover Carl Barks' JW adventure "Traitor in 
the Ranks" as redrawn by Daan Jippes, with a MAGNIFICENT cover 
(perhaps by Pat Block).  Backup feature is Ben Verhagen's "A Car-Gone 
Conclusion".  Donald has taken up work at a used-car shop in deserted 
Pizen Bluff;  he would like to impress Uncle Scrooge by making good 
at this miserable job, and ultimately does (only I'm not telling you 
how).  I wrote the English for this Dutch story.
      WDC&S 596 has William Van Horn's "The Terror of Duckburg" and 
part four of "Monarch of Medioka."  Just what is "The Terror of 
Duckburg" about?
      US 291 has Rosa's "Dreamtime Duck of the Never Never," a truly 
great story of Scrooge in Australia, if the German version's anything 
to go by.  Some absolutely great scenes as Scrooge deals with (it 
looks like) another McViper, as well as an aboriginal seer who looks 
deep into his future.  And (although Previews didn't note it) I've been 
told that the backup is Vicar's "A Case of Too Much Money," another 
for which I wrote the English.  Scrooge is trying to rid himself of 
valueless Castrovian Rubleniks, but the elements seem to conspire 
against him.
      You'll notice that my dialogs are beginning to appear in 
greater numbers now.  This should continue through mid-'96!  After they 
print these two, there are at least eleven of my foreign dialogs 
Gladstone has yet to print -- and that doesn't count parts 2-3 of 
the Scarpa lentil story in USA 31-32, or an original Egmont story of 
mine which should appear in USA 34.  Some of these dialogs were done 
as early as 1990, so the quality may fluctuate a bit, as I like to 
think that I've gained experience and quality with time!  (Boy, I 
HOPE so.)  I still kick myself when I look at some of my earlier work 
-- I ALWAYS see something I coulda done a LOT better.

      I'll be back sooner or later, folks.  All the best,

      David Gerstein
     <9475609 at arran.sms.ed.ac.uk>