Beakfuls of news!

Larry Gerstein gerstein at math.ucsb.edu
Sun Jul 16 23:57:16 CEST 1995


        First up, THIS IS NOT LARRY -- IT'S DAVID!  As usual I'm using my
family E-Mail address over the summer, which is registered under my dad's
name, and now I see Dad listed as the "author" of my letters when they
appear in the Digest.  I know why this is, but I guess Per can't change it.
 There's no justice...

        PER AND OTHERS:
        THE SAN DIEGO CONVENTION PANEL
        "Disney Comics:  What's All The Quacking About?" will be on FRIDAY,
JULY 28, AT 4:30 PM.  As a moderator, I want and need to be completely
neutral in the relationships between Disney licensees, so representatives
from Gladstone, Egmont, and Grandey's Carl Barks Studio (if he accepts my
invitation) will all be there.  The roster as of now is Pat Block, John
Clark, Byron Erickson, John Lustig, Don Markstein, Pat McGreal, Dave
Rawson, and Don Rosa.  Dwight Decker and Bill Grandey both have yet to
confirm.  Pat and I will be showing around some of our upcoming stories, so
maybe other attendees reading this would like to bring theirs as well.
        ALL further comments about my Convention panel should go to my
personal address, not to the list (I have my Dad bring home messages sent
to me, but I can't have him print out the often-lengthy Digests).

        DON:
        I had no idea that there was supposed to be a setting sun in your
cover to WALT DISNEY GIANT #1!!  I thought the only special effect was
supposed to be the Northern Lights!!  Well, in that case, the newsprint
cover really ruined things.  I seem to be the sole person who thought that
even given that newsprint cover, it still looked good...

        EVERYONE:
        I'll gather up some of the recent comments about newsprint covers
and send them off to John at Gladstone soon.  Remember, the future of these
covers relies on what sells, regardless of what we think.  But I have a
hunch our thoughts can't be far from the thoughts of most readers...

        BEAGLE BOYS' PERSONALITIES:
        According to Egmont, the three leading BBs have personalities.
        176-167 is the leader of the trio.
        176-761 is the greedy one who likes prunes the most.
        176-671 is the dumb one.
        But I consider these personalities a little too cliched, so when I
use them, I also change them a little.  176-167, for me, is more
tough-minded than the others, a bit short-fused, and also conscious of his
image as the leader, so is particularly sore with himself when he blows a
plan.  761 is not only greedy, but a gourmet, believing strongly that
there's an art to eating well.  176-671 is not just dumb, but gullible; 
he's also eccentric and devoted to his eccentricities.  I remember a story
where the trio were disguised as artists ("Perilous Portrait," in one of
the older Gladstones) and 176-671 was determined to get his painting
finished, because he really wanted to LIVE his role.  He has a funny kind
of pride.
        But -- importantly -- these three Beagles STILL look identical to
each other!  I don't like the way some creators, like Vic Lockman and (of
course) DuckTales' development team make them look different from one
another or give them nicknames.  But then, this is just my own view.
        In two of my upcoming stories, "Rolling in Dough" and "A Fouled-Up
Fairy Tale", you'll get to see my versions of the Beagle Boys.

        FATTER WDC&S STARTING WITH #601
        will be a 68-page album in comic-book size.  If it doesn't sell
this way at $6, it will probably go to a normal 68-page comic at $4 before
they decide to go back to the current format.  Gladstone REALLY wants to
make this comic the way readers want it, so in the new extra "half" of the
comic we'll be seeing -- besides the Rosa serial -- wolf and bug stories,
including the Li'l Wolf I translated from Dutch recently!
        Rosa stories are being used there for economic reasons, because
they know it will help a more expensive WDC&S sell well.  I can't argue
with that at all.  Of course, only two Rosa stories can be presented
annually as WDC&S serials, so the rest of them will go into USA, US, and
DDA.  And, to quote John, "I'll only use the Rosas in WDC&S that work well
in serial form -- for example, "The Universal Solvent" will be presented
elsewhere, in one part."
        So that's settled.  Looks like WDC&S is going to really be great
again.  I'm basically counting the days until it comes out.

        CENSORED BARKS STORIES (Attn. DANIEL)
        In "A Cold Bargain," the Brutopian Consul's cheekbones were removed.
        In "Treasure of Marco Polo," the art change was that when Prince
Char Ming attacks a rebel guard in one panel, he grabs him by the neck with
his hands in the CBL version, but chokes him with a wire in the original. 
(Despite how different these acts sound, the change was accomplished very
neatly by simply obliterating the wire from the art.)
        No one mentioned "Luck of the North," in which an Eskimo's dialogue
is changed in three panels to become slightly more grammatical (words have
been reordered in the sentence).  This may not be the case in CBL set II,
but it is the case in CBLDD in Color album.
        Stories censored in comics, but not in albums or CBL:
        OS 29:  "The Hard Loser" ("Queer" changed to "Weird")
        OS 159:  "Adventure Down Under" (dialogue and faces of natives altered)
        OS 26x:  "Land of the Totem Poles" (lots of dialogue altered)
        US 29:  "Island in the Sky" ("Apache" --> "Alien", "Mohawk" -->
"Savage", "American" --> "ancient", "Columbus" --> "Explorer", other Indian
references left as they were)
        MOC 41:  "Race to the South Seas" (The word "Massa" deleted)
        WDC 159:  "Wispy Willie" (title added to book)
        WDC 17x:  "The Olympic Hopeful" (extensive changes in WDC 575 version)
        WDC 196:  "Smoke Writer in the Sky" ("Chinaman" reference changed)

        THAT'S NEWS
        for now, gang.  I'll be back hopefully before the San Diego Con,

gerstein at math.ucsb.edu





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