Don & David

[Dwight Decker]

DON ROSA:
The German name for the city of Munich, Muenchen (or Munchen with the
two dots over the "u"), is pronounced something like "Meunchen," not
at all like Munich. I've sometimes wondered if L. Frank Baum got his
"Munchkins" from the German pronunciation of that city. It's hard to
convey the exact pronunciation in print, of course, but Munich is
miles away, pronunciation-wise. There was an issue of the DC WWII-era
superhero comic STEEL years ago in which writer Gerry Conway was
clearly convinced that Muenchen was the old spelling of the city's
name but the modern spelling is Munich, but that was an erroneous
impression on his part. 

DAVID GERSTEIN:
I just got the latest UNCLE SCROOGE with your latest Danish rescript
story (oh, there was something in that issue by that Rosa fellow,
but I'm too awestruck by it to say anything worthwhile). One comment
I could make is that I noticed you left in somebody saying "Phew!"
I've run into this myself so many times with translations and edit
jobs I've done for Gladstone and Egmont, even when the original
script was written in English to begin with. "Whew" is what's meant,
as far as I can tell, and that's how I render it. I'm not sure
anybody in English-speaking countries even says "Phew," and it kinda
looks like "pee-yuu," an expression of disgust rather than relief.
Just my two Kronor worth...

THE GUYS IN DENMARK:
I finished reading that Christmas Classics book I bought in Denmark
last November, the one called "Fra Alle Os Til Alle Jer" (from all
of us to all of you). For the rest of you, it's a small hardcover
book (actually a cheap form of hardcover, without dust jacket and
a kind of plastic-coated cardboard cover) reprinting a bunch of
Italian-produced Disney stories with Christmas themes. The best
story in the book was the last one, in which Black Pete's cute
little niece comes to visit and she makes friends with Morty and
Ferdie, the upshot being that Mickey and Pete declare a Christmas
truce so the kids can enjoy the holidays (the niece doesn't know
that her beloved Uncle Pete is really a desperate criminal, so
Mickey and his nephews agree not to tell her). This was actually
pretty well done: so much so that I'm tempted to recommend that
Gladstone pick it up and run it next Yuletide. The only thing is
that the story carries a lot of Italian-office baggage: Pete
being married and living in the same neighborhood as Mickey,
but apparently childless and not being consistent with the
Goof Troop set-up. Oh well, it's a cute story and it actually
sorta touched me, so I'm sure people here would enjoy it.

--Dwight Decker