Komix #139--2000 special

[Kriton Kyrimis]

I suspect that starting next month I will be replacing Archontis in this
"column", so I thought I'd start this month, to see if I get it right!

KOMIX #139, dated January 200, contains:

1. The wrap-around cover from Uncle $crooge 250 by William Van Horn. You can
   see a scan of the KOMIX version of the cover at
   http://dias.cti.gr/~kyrimis/pics/komix139.jpg
   (Note the coin under the KOMIX logo, which was left over from the original
   Uncle $crooge logo!)
2. A two-page article titled "Three Top Creators" and subtitled "from
   America to Italy and back again", followed by a single-page article,
   titled "Three Generations, One Art, One Century", and subtitled "the
   evolution of an art through the work of Disney's best". Both articles
   are about Barks, Scarpa, and Rosa.
3. Don Rosa's "A Little Something Special".
4. An article titled "Especially Dedicated" (which is also the greek title of
   "A Little Something Special"), and subtitled "Don Rosa talks to _KOMIX_
   about his story's back stage".
5. Carl Barks' "Christmas Eve Story" from WDC&S #172.
6. A three-page article titled "Romano Scarpa's Lentils" and subtitled
   "Money, Adventure and Cooking from Ancient Mesopotamia", including
   a recipe for "Duck with Babylonian Lentils". (Supposedly they asked
   a chef to read the story and give them a recipe for how Babylonian
   lentils might have been cooked, and he couldn't come up with anything,
   so he gave them a modern recipe, instead. This is suprpising, as lentil
   soup is still a very popular greek dish, and if you omit tomatoes,
   the recipe is probably the same they used back in Hamurabbi's time. If
   you're interested, let me know, and I'll send it to you.)
7. A three-page article, titled "they may seem few, but *100+4 Years of
   Comics* have gone by..."

Regarding the greek title of "A Little Something Special", we have to
go back into the past, at a time where radio and television were state
monopolies in Greece. Greeks being greeks, where breaking the law is
the national pastime, this did not prevent people from operating pirate
radio stations, and there were literally dozens of them. As the state's
main concern was to have a monopoly on news broadcasts, radio pirates
focused mainly on broadcasting songs. People would call in at the station
and dedicate songs to their friends. Thus, each song would be preceded
by a preamble of the type: dedicated from John to Mary and her sister,
from George to the gang, especially dedicated from Nick to Helen. The
latter would mean that Helen was that special someone in Nick's life,
and he was sort of making a public declaration of it; sort of, because
only first names was given. Titling the story "especially dedicated",
therefore, would suggest that this is a dedication from someone to whom
Scrooge is that special someone. Given that "A Little Something Special"
does not translate very well into Greek, I believe that KOMIX' editors
put a lot of consideration about what title to use for this special story.

        Kriton  (e-mail: kyrimis at cti.gr)
                (WWW:    http://dias.cti.gr/~kyrimis
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"Ask not for whom the pipe clangs."
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