Ellsworth vs. Genius

[Thierry Fernand]

David:
>The French, perhaps not remembering this, did an alternative
>origin story for Ellsworth involving some Arab country and
>Professors Ecks and Doublex as the villains, but I
>can't help that.

In 1985, the original Gonzales sunday strips introducing 
Ellsworth (including the first one) were published in the 
Journal de Mickey as back cover gags (I think the pocket book 
was reprinting Scarpa stories with Ellsworth's nephew at the 
same time).
The journal de Mickey also published some Dutch Ellsworth 
gags, and then Hachette started to produce its own.
So the creators definitely knew Ellsworth's origin (as any 
Disney comics fan. In fact Jean-Luc Cochet - editor of the 
stories - has always been an amateur and fan of Disney 
comics).

I remember this first French story with Ellsworth very well. 
In fact, despite it was probably not "canonical" for a Disney 
comics purist (and I can understand that), I always liked the 
story. Though I admit the story did radically change 
Ellsworth's origin, it did not affect its original 
personality as a genius with popular (or sometimes very 
elegant) manners but with a good heart.

The later French stories *did* change his personality in a 
way that I disliked very much (pretentious & somehow stupid). 
I finally found the character boring (the weekly gags in fact 
are now abandoned).

Favio


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