LOTS of things!

[DAVID.A.GERSTEIN]

      Hi, gang!  Glad to be back.

      I've just read all the recent Digests.  Remarkably, I don't 
have a whole lot of comments on them.  Great to read them, of course, 
but I don't have the urge to start adding things to many of the 
conversations which seem to be over.

      There WILL be a Disney discussion panel at the San Diego Con as 
of right now, titled "Disney Comics:  What's All The Quacking About?" 
I'll be moderating it, and Don, John Clark, Ron Fernandez, and Pat 
Block will be talking there.  I'd also like to get others, so please, 
any writers or historians who are interested (including folks with 
names like Rawson, Lustig, Ault, and Ingersoll) should report to me 
via E-Mail right away.

      While in Santa Barbara I did a LOT of Disney work.  I 
translated a few short Dutch stories for Gladstone, including Daan 
Jippes' first Donald tale (a 3-pager, "Banquet Behind Bars") and a 
7-page Jippes Li'l Bad Wolf tentatively planned for WDC&S 601 or 602. 
The story is titled "Musical Eggs" (you'll know which one that is, 
Harry!).  I think it's the BEST Wolf story since 1950.
      I also sold three stories to Egmont.  "Donald Duck's 
Double-Dealt Deal" involves insurance-salesman DD trying to convince 
Hard-Haid Moe that the forest is an extremely dangerous place to 
live.  To this end, DD stirs up the local fauna by a variety of 
mischievous means, only to have things backfire chaotically.
      "Reputation At Stake" was my first Br'er Rabbit story.  BR 
becomes a pariah when the settlement's elders decide his raffish 
manners, mischievous pranks and unsophistication offend them.
Of course, BR finds a way prove that "it's how you is on the inside, 
not bein' correct on th' outside, what counts."
      "A Mouse Against the World" is about how Mickey becomes a
famous author and then a public enemy, both by accident.  I think it 
emphasizes how I'm basically trying to adapt the Barks 10-pager 
format to Mickey's distinctive personality.  
      A medium-length article done for Egmont's in-house journal, 
analyzing Mickey's personality and tragic flaws and emphasizing the 
great potential inherent in the character, rounded out my workload.

      The Gladstone comics which will lose their letter columns and 
cover stock will be DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES, UNCLE SCROOGE, and DONALD 
AND MICKEY.  The first two are, I believe, Gladstone's most 
successful titles, so there seems to be no real logic to which series 
were chosen for the experiment.  Sadly, I think this move -- which 
will result in very dull colors, given the less-than-brilliant ink 
used by Gladstone's printers these days -- will severely hurt the 
comics.  And imagine -- no letters about the LO$ or about the 
upcoming Pat Block stories!  I'd rather pay $2 for a comic with a 
real cover on it, thanks.  Or $1.50 for a comic with 26 pages of 
comics and a lettercol, not 27 pages (as is usually the case now) and 
no lettercol.
      COLLECTERY will also have pulp covers, although I have no idea 
if there will be a letter column.  Sadly, I think that the "Northern 
lights" motif, Don, will be sorely hurt by the duller colors.

      JOHN LUSTIG:  To get Gladstone to publish your stories, you 
simply need to tell them to do so, over and over.  Time has shown me 
that.  Sadly, I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to my own stories 
being printed, because in 1993-94 I translated a whole slew of Egmont 
and Oberon stories which Gladstone lettered and colored right away
and then stockpiled for future use;  and now, Gladstone has to give 
'em priority over my ORIGINAL Egmont stories, because they've 
already done the production work on the translations.  My originals 
will appear in 1996, but not before.

      "Catman Vs. The Masked Marauder" (DDA 32) is not my original 
script, although Gladstone unaccountably said it was.  Actually, I'm 
not insulted that they thought this was my original creation, but no 
-- it wasn't, and in fact it dates from 1990, when I was still doing 
my own "Monk the Monkey" comics.  My own original stories will 
begin to appear from Gladstone a YEAR from now.  >Sigh<  The 
bimonthly schedule makes everything so ssssllllooooowwww....
      "Catman" is, however, my favorite among the earlier dialogue 
jobs I did.  Disney altered one panel in which a nephew shot another 
nephew with a slingshot;  now he just points his finger at him to 
mimic a gun.  But the villain's Cockney accent is intact.  Pat 
Block's cover made the package even better!
      Professor Pulpheart Clabberhead, by the way, was the 
child psychologist who "helped" Donald discipline HDL in WDC&S 
92's story "Spoil the Rod" (1948).

      The third story in DDA 32, "Nature Park Ranger", was scripted 
in English by Dwight Decker.  Good job, Dwight -- but did you know 
that this is the one you BEAT me to?  The one I forgot to ask 
Gladstone if they'd already had someone translate, and so had my 
finished version thrown back?  If anyone (including you, Dwight) 
wants to read my own very different version, just write to me and 
I'll send the text to them via E-Mail.  (It wasn't bought and does 
not contain the full name of any Disney character, so it's still 
mine.)  I called the story "By Hourglass Piqued," because in my 
version, the great balancing rock was called Hourglass Peak.  (And 
the lava spring was "Devil's Glue Pot.")

      "The Money-Counting Machine" story to be in USA 34 is another 
one of my translations/dialogues.  Disguised as "Bill U. Later & Co., 
Accountants," the Beagle Boys rig up a completely ingenious 
contraption which (unknown to Scrooge) sends money spurting out the 
bin's windows.  "Rapunzel!  Rapunzel!  Let down your cash!"  I 
actually did this rewrite as long ago as 1991.

      US 288 did NOT sell out at MY local comic shop.  They moved all 
the humor titles to a "children's" section now, and US -- which 
usually sells out -- just sat there.  Of course, the usual buyers 
are looking under "U" in the NORMAL part of the shop, and assuming 
it's sold out.  $%stlg&stlg$!
      Don't get your hopes up about the "value" of this and other recent 
issues.  No matter what the Comics Values Monthly may say, Overstreet 
lists no LO$ issue as being worth over $2 last time I checked.  And 
HERO did not list ANY UNCLE SCROOGE issues after 1990's #242 
in last month's "guide"!  That guide was a horrible mess.  It even listed 
Disney Comics' JWW title twice, under "Junior Woodchucks" and "Walt 
Disney's Junior Woodchucks", valuing the issues differently in each 
listing.  It left out a LOT of Rosa credits and didn't mention any 
other modern writers or artists anywhere.

      ANDERS:  The Beagle cousin with exceptional hearing was created 
by Vic Lockman and originally named Supersensitive-666 (I hate it 
when Beagles are given names...)  This became Supersensitive-176 in a 
recent story Lockman did for Gladstone, for obvious reasons.

      MATTIAS:  NAFSKurien?  HOORAY!  Send to this address:
      Masson House, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Park Rd., Edinburgh 
EH16 5AY Scotland.
      I'll be glad to see whatever the book is you're sending me, 
too.  (Don't feel bad about forgetting -- as you can see, even I have 
forgotten what book it is we're discussing!)

      DAVE:  No use keeping an eye out for my Red O' Ruckus story 
yet, since I haven't written it.  But I'm going to, probably this 
summer.  I need a 10-page Duck slot, and Egmont only wants 12-page 
Duck stories from me these days for some reason.

      Well, I'm off for now, folks.  As you can see, there's a lot 
going on, and I'm always glad to toss my two cents in (although it 
always comes to more than that ;-)

      David Gerstein
      <9475609 at arran.sms.ed.ac.uk>
      "The only way for anyone to get ahead of Mickey Mouse -- is to 
run in front of him!"