What if...

[Ari Seppi]

Christopher:                                                          
                                                                      
An interesting (if somewhat theoretical :-) ) question.               
                                                                      
> how would you as                                                    
> a Disney comics fan or creator feel if the Walt Disney Company,     
> in an attempt to create a more cohesive and "logical" universe,     
> [...] came up with guidelines that standardized some (or all!)      
> of the very things that have been discussed and required the        
> licensees to follow them?                                           
                                                                      
Hmm... that naturally depends.                                        
                                                                      
I like different kinds of stories, and there are only few             
stories I really dislike. Standardized guidelines might               
(depending on the scale of the chages and how near or far the         
guidelines were from today's producers' guidelines) mean the          
end of some of the story types I like.                                
                                                                      
> What if they officially                                             
> established Duckburg's location? What if they defined the color,    
> nature and origin of the money in Scrooge's bin? What if they       
> established an official historical chronology? What if this was     
> all based on the works of Carl Barks and, by extension, Don Rosa?   
                                                                      
All based on the works on Carl Barks meaning that there are,          
for example, no Italian characters? Or just some historical           
detail and coloring reform? The first would be a catastrophe,         
the latter wouldn't mean that much since only a small                 
portion of today's good story types rely heavily on geographical      
location or anti-Barksistic history. (There might be some good        
stories I forgot.)                                                    
                                                                      
> What if they began an extensive effort to retell all previously     
> published stories, revising them so that they adhere to this new    
> Disney Comics Bible?                                                
                                                                      
So not just new guidelines, but also revision of earlier              
stories?                                                              
                                                                      
By the time they started to revise inconsistent Barks stories         
they'd have so many enraged fans hunting for them with axes           
that they had to stop.                                                
                                                                      
> Do you think the average Disney                                     
> comics reader would notice any difference and, if they did, would   
> they care?                                                          
                                                                      
Probably not very fast (except for the changes in coloring).          
After some time some people might notice the lack of some             
type of stories they liked (if the reform was that strict).           
                                                                      
--                                                                    
Ari Seppi (mani at iki.fi)                                               
http://www.iki.fi/mani/                                               
Erittäin fanaattinen Potter-kirjojen ja Disney-sarjakuvien palvoja