Don: Blueberry (RE: Articles from Komix #160)

Fluks, H.W. H.W.Fluks at kpn.com
Thu Nov 8 18:34:59 CET 2001


Don "wrote" (through Kriton), in Komix:

> And so, when an immigrant would
> say that he came from "Deut[s]chland", we dumb Americans thought he
> meant the country where Dutchmen live, i.e., Holland!

The opposite happened to me when I was in Washington. A waiter asked our
nationality. When we said "Dutch", he thought we meant "Deutsch", so he
assumed we were German...

(Blame the English for these confusing terms...)

> Another thing that I could never understand is why the hero is
> named Blueberry. Is it supposed to be a funny nick-name in 
> the original?
> 
> KOMIX: American names sound so exotic in the ears of Europeans,
> you know...
> 
> ROSA: Ha!
> 
> KOMIX: Anyway, this is not a nickname, even though there is world-play
> involving his name, which in Greek means "myrtilo", a kind of berry.
> 
> ROSA: To American ears, at least, this name is too girlish for a
> cowboy. It would be more appropriate for his girlfriend...

I think "Blueberry" was just chosen because it sounds American. (Note that
his name was Blueberry in the French original, and also in [at least] the
Dutch translation.)

Some years after the start of the Blueberry series, they made an "origin"
story of the character. Blueberry fleed from the American South, because of
problems involving slavery. When joining the Northern army, he took himself
the name Blueberry, because he happened to see a blueberry bush when he was
asked for his name.

This "origin" story is, by coincidence, the only Blueberry story that I have
ever read.

--Harry.



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