DCML digest #1248

[Don Rosa]

From: olaf at andebyonline.com
>>>This is not a (an?) unique French phenomenon. Happens all the time in
Norway. In "Gyro's first invention", they did actually not say that his shop
were 50 years old - but they didn't say that it was _one_ year old either. A
nephew says "it's his anniversary today" or something like that, but that is
all. No number of years is mentioned.

But that would be okay! If the Nephew is making an indefinite comment,
simply that "today is the anniversary", the reader can assume for himself
whether it's the first or third or fifth. That is implied. But for a
translator to be so careless of his job as to add "it's the 51st
anniversary" into the characters' dialogue just shows someone wasn't
bothering to think. The footnote was intended to give the historical
publication-date showing the anniversary which is being marked by the
appearance of the story.

>>>Still, blunders like the one mentioned above have been done alot here. I
remember that for Easter 2001, Donald Duck & Co made a magazine containing
"Land of the Pygmy Indians" and "War of the Wendigo". It also had an
additional article (by Erik Hørthe), and after explaining the excitement of
the Barks story, the article continues with "40 years later, Scrooge and his
nephews return to..." Same problem.

No, I again disagree. Erik (who is a Duck scholar and fan and friend) would
never make that blunder. I think he is clearly implying in an accompanying
text that a *story* appears "40 years later" in which the characters return,
not that the characters are returning 40 years later in their own
time-reality. Now, if the translator had placed into a Nephew's word balloon
"we were here 40 years ago", that would be a blunder akin to the one in that
French translation that made the Nephews at least 60-62 years old.

>>>However, the most moronic translation I have seen was a Dutch story
printed in Donald Duck & Co in 2001 or 2002. Unfortunately I don't remember
who wrote it, but in the story Scrooge tells Huey, Dewey and Louie stories
from his youth. In the first frame he shows them a coin, telling that "I
made this coin when I was digging for gold in Klondike". The nephews are
amazed: "Then it must be more than a hundred years old!"

Well, yeah, this is how I definitely am puzzled by anyone who dislikes my
idea of these stories taking place in the past. I don't mean that they
should prefer it themselves, but that they think it's not reasonable (since
it's the only reasonable idea that can include all old stories). There seems
to be only three options -- 1) My idea of using Barks' stories as a
foundation and having $crooge's history adhere to the fact that he was in
cattle wars in the 1880's and the Yukon Gold Rush in the late 1890's, etc.,
then saying that "current" stories are taking place in an indefinite "swirl"
of 1950's. This does not have to be stated in the story, but it can be
implied by circumstances for perceptive long-time readers, and still not get
in the way of the kiddies' enjoyment of the same story. 2) The equally
acceptable idea that current stories are taking place in 2003, but can then
*never* make any references to $crooge in the Yukon Gold Rush and so forth.
But the #3 idea is to have current stories that take place in 2003 and still
have $crooge refer to his adventures in the 19th Century -- this forces the
reader to put the stories into a fairy-tale Never-Never Land, and that takes
the power out of the characters... they are apparently immune to misfortune
or aging or injury... they would then have no more dramatic potential than
Daffy Duck or Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I would guess there are
readers who don't mind this because they don't want to think very hard about
what they are reading, and that's their right... I just don't think that
does Barks' characters much justice.

Reply-To: "Olivier" <mouse-ducks at wanadoo.fr>
>>>Here's what Huey (or is it Dewey? or Louie?) says:
"He's been an inventor for 51 years! I had almost forgotten!"

Yes, it's reckless for me to comment on people's reporting of dialogue that
I can't read myself. To have a Nephew say that Gyro has been an inventor for
51 years is not *quite* as bad as saying that he opened his shop 51 years
ago and then move on to the tale of how the Nephews witnessed the event when
they looked the same age as they do 51 years later. Perhaps Gyro started
inventing when he was born and he's 51 years old. I don't see him as so old
(as me!), but that's at least not absurd.

>>>I love the way (the Rosa way) everything ties in & fits together
perfectly and the logic of  it all:
how Scrooge's money was salvaged, the creation of  Helper (in several
stages), and the
side-references-- which this time are more than in-jokes and play an
important part. Lots of  fun
too.

This story served as a 50th anniversary fest for not only Gyro, but also the
classic stories of "Shacktown" and the "Giant Coot Statue" and tie them all
together. But note (that is note it if the translation is done properly), I
could not give an exact footnote date for the story of the Coot statue,
because it did not originally appear in the chronological order with the
other original tales that I needed it to. So, as with my own tales, I
personally must consider that these stories were not originally published in
the correct chronological order. Just one of the little mental games I have
to make the stories fun to play with.

>>>So Gyro's full first name would be "Gregory", right? I had never thought
of  it.

Neither had I. What are you talking about? Something else has been added in
translation?


From: <sigvald at duckburg.dk>
Subject: Picsoum Magazine su...
>>>>It's abviously true that less bright
people now has taken over the Picsou Magazine.

No, it's still the same editor who has done it for many years. He is trying
a new format, perhaps dictated by the Boss. You jump to such assumptions!

>>>The scan I just recieved of the upper half of
page 11 of "Gyro's First Invention" belongs
to the serial version of this story and not
the singe-part version as it normally would
have! The French readers and other Rosa-fans
are thus being cheated by these #¤%& id*****

Cripes -- don't fly off the handle without knowing the facts! I am currently
trying to ascertain whether the fault is PICSOU's or Egmont's. PICSOU
requests the story and Egmont is *supposed* to send them BOTH versions. I
have been constantly guaranteed this is what Egmont does. But it would then
baffle science as to why editors constantly use the incorrect art if they
have both versions right in their mitts. It's happened in the last TWO
stories of mine published outside of Egmont -- this Gyro story in both
France and Italy, and my "Crown of the Crusader Kings" story in Italy. I'm
trying right now to find out whether or not Egmont supplied the proper art.

>>>So you're completely right Don, when you
complains that many publishers don't care a
damn about your work and about your fans!

Well... their first duty is to care about their OWN fans, not mine, but they
should therefore strive even harder to do a good job. But *again* don't make
it sound like I'm making the same sweeping condemnations as you imply. There
are individuals in certain publishers who fail at their job and spoil
various presentations, but their failure should not necessarily be blamed
on the entire company.