favourite artists

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

SIGVALD GROSFJELD to me, 16-08-2003:

What an enjoyable email, Sigvald!

> - Gottfredson: "The Monarch of Medioca"
> - Murry: "Return of the Phantom Blot"

Interesting! I don't know these stories. What are they about?

> [Rosa's] "Gyro's First Invention" [D 2001-143] is off course 
> special to me because I gave some inspiration to it.

Can you describe what exactly you contributed to this story?

>> - What are your favourite scenes?
> Not sure, but Little Helper walking in the badger's hole in 
> "Gyro's First Invention" is indeed very special for me for 
> reasons mentioned above.

I've seen the Little Helper fan-drawing on your website, and I like 
it very much. That must be a great souvenir, together with the story 
itself!

I supplied the basic idea of showing Rosa's Eisner Award as a 
background detail in one of his stories, in order to show the fans 
how it looks like. I didn't expect that Rosa would use it, in the 
expanded Lo$ 12 (ARC US 296) as it turned out. So, that was quite 
a surprise. (Please note that the funny way in which Rosa showed 
the Award, was completely his own idea!)

>> - Which jokes did you like the most?

> Not sure, but both Rosa and Barks have many funny jokes.

I myself laughed out loud for quite a while, when reading the funny 
ending of Barks's "The Mines of King Solomon" (US 19), which I really 
didn't expect. (Am I the only one who didn't see that ending coming?) 

The same for the great joke in the final half page of Rosa's "The 
Son of the Sun" (AR 102), and the final joke of "The Treasure of 
the Ten Avatars" (D 95153). They were just too funny to be true!

>> - Are there situations in life which remind you of things you've 
>> read in comics?

> At least situations in real life do give me associations to Disney 
> Comics, like when I eat cabbages as a part of my dinner or prunes 
> as a part of the dessert.

This reminds me of a D-coded(?) story in which Donald buys a recipe 
book about eating food that comes directly from nature. But when his 
vegetarian meatballs fall off his plate, they bounce away like rubber 
balls. One of them even breaks a window.

I'm often reminded of that scene when I try to cook myself, and it 
has gone wrong.

Does someone recognize the story, by the way? It has been published 
in The Netherlands, I think about twenty years ago. Maybe it's made 
by Vicar.

<SPOILER>
At the end of the story, Donald finds out that even the book's writer 
doesn't eat the results of his own recipies, prefering a restaurant 
instead. An expensive one, because he can afford it because of the 
success of his book. Very funny!
</SPOILER>

>> - What's the first story you ever read?

> Can't remember exactly. But I think that "Land Beneath the Ground" 
> was one of the very first long Barks tales that I ever read.

One of the very first stories I remember is the Gyro Gearloose story 
"The Great Pop Up" (US 37). I was about five, I think. It was at the 
time when it was published in the Dutch weekly. I didn't fully 
understand the story-line, but it interested me very much.

Another early story was "The Doom Diamond" (US 70). As a kid, I found 
the two huge submarines very exciting. In fact, I *still* find them 
exciting!

--- Daniël