San Diego Comic Con & my "Vacation in Disneyland"

[Fluks, H.W.]

Eric Chun wrote:

> A couple of photos from the San Diego Comic
> Con are below.
> http://mightyhero.homepage.com/dcml1.jpg
> http://mightyhero.homepage.com/dcml2.jpg

Thanks, Eric! I made some photos myself. I'll scan and upload them in a few
days.


As can be seen from these pictures, and from a previous posting by me, I
have been traveling through California and Oregon, the past weeks. I just
returned, and am now reading about 300 e-mails...

My trip started in San Diego (the Comic Con), where I met a lot of people
again, or for the first time (hi Michael, Barry, Todd, Don, Eric, Dana,
John, Michael T., Dave, Joe, Bob, Michel!). I got an interesting view on the
American comics world. It's very different from the European world. Almost
every time someone said "I'm sure you know the famous..." I had to reply
that I never heard of the person! On the other hand, very little European
comic material there.

I also got to read Don Rosa's new story with the Three Caballeros. To my
surprise, I liked the story very much! I didn't expect anything from a story
featuring Carioca and Panchito, but Don handled them very well.

Saturday evening was a special dinner celebrating a reunion of EC comic
creators. I had a glance of "the rich and/or famous" people like Bill Elder,
Bruce Hamilton, Russ Cochran. Don Rosa was there too, to explain to me who
all the people were. And also to connect the EC-evening to Disney comics.

I also attended a few panels. One about the history of USA comic fandom:
this was very educating for me, as a European. The other one was a
presentation by Scott Shaw, about the silliness of old American comic
covers. Recommended to me by Joe Torcivia. It was very funny indeed (thanks
Joe!).

After San Diego, I stayed a few days at Dave Rawson's house in Hollywood.
Then I went up North, to Grants Pass, Oregon, to meet Gerry Tank and his
family.

Gerry and I went to Barks' house, to visit him briefly. Barks can only have
visits of about 5 minutes. He then sits on a chair in his bedroom. When I
visited him, he had a remarkably good day. He was reading e-mail, in printed
form (large print so he could read it more easily).
Though he obviously was very ill, he still was the witty and clever person
that I imagined him to be, judging from reports from other people and from
video tapes. He was delighted when we told him that his name was on the
cover of a European comic now and then, and that it would make the comic
sell better.

One (more or less) interesting detail: Barks never listened to music when
working. Only recently, people bought him a CD player. He likes songs by
people like Bing Crosby.

After my visit to the Tanks, I went to Michael and Janet Gilbert, who live
only a few hours up North. Just like at the Rawson's and Barks' home, I got
a view on the office of real Disney comic writers. 8-)

I had a fun time with the people I mentioned above, and I've been to several
other places in California, Oregon, and Nevada. But talking about all that
would become too off-topic for a Disney comics mailing list.
Except maybe the fact that I drove through Merrill, Oregon, place of Barks'
younger years. But the only interesting thing about that is that there is
absolutely nothing of interest in Merrill!

Anyway, a big THANKS to Michael Naiman, Dave & Eileen Rawson, Gerry & Nancy
Tank, and Michael & Janet Gilbert, for providing parts of an unforgettable
holiday!

--Harry.