And ugliness. It absolutely excels at ugliness.

[M.J. Prior]

Well, I guess we Dutch should consider ourselves lucky, shouldn't 
we? After all, with the publication of "The Crown of the Crusader 
Kings" in next week's "Donald Duck"-magazine, there are only 
three Don Rosa-stories left unpublished in Holland, and these are 
only the newest three (the last one probably not even finished yet) 
so they will appear very soon (within two years, at maximum).

Seems like "they" (the VNU-press, or whatever it's named 
nowadays) sure have an idea of the popularity of Don's stories, 
when they reprint them in the "Oom Dagobert"-album series.

Well, yes. They have, or may have, indeed an idea of the 
*popularity*, but not of *Don's stories*. Why do they publish an 
album containing "Hearts of the Yukon", with an *ugly rip-off cover*, 
based on Don's cover for "the Vigilante of Pizen Bluff"? When "the 
Vigilante" will be published in the next album, will they give it an 
ugly rip-off of Don's "Hearts"-cover?

What's wrong with Don's original covers? Why don't they use the 
originals? Not attractive enough? Not 'smooth' enough? 
(Michel Nadorp's covers for "Donald Duck Extra"-magazine are 
drawn in a 'smooth' style. I believe 'smooth' is the right word.)

Why should such a grand story like "The Crown of the Crusader 
Kings" be published on a weeny mini-album format? (And of course 
they'll use the three-part-version, and publish it in two parts. And 
redraw some of the balloons to make them bigger.)

I think I can understand why "The Three Caballeros ride again" 
wasn't pubished in the Donald Duck Extra: it featured Joe Carioca 
and Panchito, and DDEx is 'Ducks only' (no Mice allowed). 
(Nearly all Don Rosa-stories in Holland were published in DDEx.)
But "the Crown" is a perfect all-Ducks adventure and deserves to 
be published on a normal format. (Not that "The Three Caballeros" 
doesn't deserve that.)

Harry, thanks for mentioning the mini-album, otherwise I would 
have missed it. 

"The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut" was published in DDEx 2001-13 
and something went wrong with the printing, so now you can see 
*pixels*, no straight ink lines, but *pixeled* ink lines. Bother.
Some of the jokes went missing too (compared to the French 
version in Picsou Magazine). The remark about the canal workers 
earning thirty cents an hour was translated to "1 guilder per hour".
In the beginning, Scrooge doesn't reflect on his transaction in 
Panama as "the worst deal I ever made", so when it in the end 
turns out to be his "best deal", the clou of the story is less 
convincing. Bother.

They screwed up "The Guardians of the Lost Library" too, by 
changing the Junior Woodchuck-logo, so the whole point of the 
conversion from ibis to WJW got lost.

(Why "WJW"? Junior Woodcucks is JW, so why a second W?
Does a double W make a quadruple U?)

Why don't the editors and translators of our Dutch magazines pay 
proper respect to the stories that are presented to them?
If they write an "editorial page" for a "Oom Dagobert"-album, why 
don't they do some research? It's easy. Any fanboy, like me, can 
get a lot of information from the internet, just by irregularly 
checking the DCML Archives, the Duckhunt pages, Harry's 
Bolderbast site. If I can, why can't these professional editors?
It looks like they don't have any idea what they're printing.

Question to Harry (or any member who has bought the new "Oom 
Dagobert"-album): Which are the other two stories the album 
contains? (The album is sold in a plastic bag, so I couldn't take a 
look inside. And no, I won't buy it.)

Michiel Prior.

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"Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity."