Some old DCML mails and Giro d'Italia

[Fluks, H.W.]

Cleaning up my "to be replied to" e-mail directory... here are some old
subjects.

> From: Anders Christian Siveb3/4k
> Sent: 29 april 2002 12:23
> Subject: We're out!

> I believe I told here about the Danish Donaldist Society? 
> We're above 20 members now and we would like more

Do you have any relation with the people of Carl Barks & Co (Benni Boedker
and/or Freddy Milton)? If not, isn't it better to join forces?

> From: Sue and Gary Leach
> Sent: 19 april 2002 4:29

> > So my theory is that
> > Hamilton asked Jippes to finish the Piper story. Jippes 
> > started doing that, but never finished it...
> 
> I began working for Another Rainbow/Gladstone in mid-July of 
> 1986, so I
> couldn't say whether your theory is valid or not, but it 
> would have been
> rather early in the Gladstone game for Bruce to have 
> approached Jippes about a project like this.

Jippes also inked half a page (from Barks sketches) of the Klondike story.
That was for one of the first Gladstone albums, so maybe that's about the
same time? Then it would not be strange for Jippes to do the Gyro Piper
story too.

> From: jgarvin
> Sent: 24 april 2002 17:07
> Subject: duckburg continuity

> Rob wrote:
> --I believe there is room for many artists changing Duckburg 
> from story to story, as needed for innovation--
> 
> I wonder how many on the list *really* believe this?

I do.

> Take recognised
> landmarks, for instance, like Scrooge's moneybin.  If I wrote a story
> that had it placed in the middle of Duckburg Swamp (instead 
> of on top of
> Killmotar hill) because Scrooge built it there in 1918 to 
> save money, do
> you really think that readers would just accept this?

Yes. There are many Barks stories where the bin is *not* on a hill. There
are in fact stories by Barks where Scrooge's money bin is on the corner of a
street. There is a certain level of inconsistency that is accepted by
readers.

> What if my next
> story placed it in the middle of the Duckburg Desert?

Maybe *that* is crossing the border. Unless Duckburg was hit by a big
bomb... 8-)

> From: Francois Willot
> Sent: 7 mei 2002 12:15
> Subject: Euro symbol, Picsou translations

> In France, they switched from the Franc to the dollar
> when the euro came. I am not a fanatic of consistency
> in the Duck universe, but in this case, IMO, it was
> the best solution. It respects Barks' original
> intentions (and even the whole production of Italian
> comics which always used the $).

Barks' original intentions were that the comic stories were published in an
American comic, read once, and then destroyed.

One can have two viewpoints:
1. Barks intended the Ducks to be in the USA;
2. Barks intended the Ducks to be in the country of the reader.

For Barks himself, 1 and 2 were the same. So in a foreign translation,
either viewpoint can be defended.

> I am more and more used to the fact that
> most of Barks' stories happened in the late 40s and
> 50s, so the euro could not be in the duck universe.

That's personal, of course. I have been reading Disney comics for 25 years
with the idea that they should happen at (or near) the moment I am reading
them. Only in the 1990s, Don gave a different viewpoint.

And now it seems the French Picsou editors are changing the Barks stories so
they look more like Rosa's stories. This is something I would object to (if
I were French). Don often said "if you don't like my stories, just skip
them. They don't change anything in the Barks stories", but now this is not
true anymore in France!

BTW, about the money sign: it *is* weird to see a euro sign on a drawing
that is supposed to be made in 1902 (as they did in Holland). But I can
understand the reasoning of the editors: there is no place in this story to
explain how Scrooge changed the F-sign to an E-sign. Such an explanation
would not serve the flow of the story. Leaving an F-sign without explanation
would only confuse the readers.
So: in Duckstad, they had the euro currency almost a century before the
European Union has it.

--Harry.

Off-topic remark:

For Italians (and other people) who want to see the place in Holland where I
was born (and where I lived for 23 years), watch the opening of the Giro
d'Italia this weekend, in Groningen!