digest #343

[Don Rosa]

From: "Rodney w bowcock jr."
From: "Fernando Ventura"
Subject: Disney Censorship..Again!

I probably fueled these reactions by my own misuse of the generally
accepted meaning of the word "censorship". Disney can *never* censor its
own wholly owned material (and, even though they have nothing whatsoever to
do with the creation of my stories, the fact is they DO own it lock, stock
and barrel)(sorry, that's a gun reference, Disney will censor that). All
kidding aside (I'll try!), censorship is generally termed the banning of
content from public view by some agency other than the owner, such as a
government, a bookstore or video studio, or some pin-headed local
Republican politicians. Disney *edits* its own material, and they have
every right to do so for whatever reason they deem necessary. Now, I might
think they're being idiotic when they edit a prune-in-a-pocket out of my
story, and film buffs might think they're jerks when they screw around with
animation history (and we'd all be right) but I certainly support their
right to do it, and our only option is to ask them to reconsider.
As for Rodney's comment that I'm probably used to "censorship" (by whatever
definition) by now, well, I've really rarely experienced it. In fact, it's
only happened a few times in the Gladstone editions. What I might get used
to is careless screw-ups. Gladstone would frequently be forced to censor,
but they hardly ever screwed-up. Foreign publishers have *never* censored
my stories, but some of them frequently screw-up.
Heh... that just makes me think of the latest one. The "Three Caballeros
Ride Again!" story was sent out to publishers with an error in the song
sequence. Probably a computer-placement error since (as they say in
"Ghostbusters") NO HUMAN BEING would make such a dumb mistake. But in one
panel the sound effect of shattering pottery was numbered to appear in the
word balloon, and the song lyric was numbered as the sound of shattering
pottery. Huh? Oh, no, *that's* not the error I refer to, no, no! I sent out
an emergency e-mail to all the translators I regularly communicate with
(and am happy to do so) to alert them to the error, even though I thought
it might be an insulting comment on my part to seemingly believe anyone,
anywhere would not immediately spot such an obvious blunder and correct it
without being prodded. Especially since the editor would read it and give
it to the translator who would read it and give his translation to the
computer operator who would read it, so *at least* three people would see
this obvious fubar to prevent it from having any chance to possibly slip
through into print. And besides that, Egmont also sent out a script error
warning and correction. But... do we have any ML members here from Iceland?
Did you wonder why in your edition of that story in ONDRES OND Jose Carioca
suddenly burst forth with the lyrics "CRASH!!! Shatter!" and the shattering
pottery was going "What means 'aye, caramba'? Oh, yes, I don't know!" ?
And you other Scandinavians who recently saw my 24 illustrated Christmas
Calendar "baggies" that were included in the weekly, with the week's cover
featuring my drawing of $crooge opening a box of $$ with a huge,
poster-sized gift tag on it that says "TO $CROOGE - FROM $CROOGE"..... the
tag had to be gigantic because the art was taken from the tiny illustration
on the "baggie". They chose not to do the "baggies" in Iceland, but still
used the cover since it was still a self-contained gag in itself... of
$crooge opening a box with a huge, poster-sized, utterly BLANK sign
dangling from it. Perhaps they thought the gift was a solar panel?
Do I ever get used to such screw-ups, Rodney? Strangely........... no.