sloppy Egmontians: let the heads roll (II)

[Nils Lid Hjort]

One recurring theme here is that of "are Disney comics 
presented as being only for kids?". In Norway, Egmont 
produce some quite exquisite hardcover books, consisting
of full years' runs, completto & in extenso, qua facsimile. 
We have come as far as ... 1956?, I think, starting with 
1948-1949 in Volume 1, 1950 as Volume 2, etc. *These* 
are serious books bought by (tens of thousands of rich enough) 
adults, certainly, and are presented and "styled" for this 
segment of buyers. They even have a "learned" type preface, 
written by suitable "serious grown-ups", one for each book. 

The reason for mentioning this now is that I read
through the latest of these recently, with a decent
preface by Helge Rønning, professor of "media and communication".
And the number of typos & mistakes (small, admittedly)
was depressively high. In the ten or so pages for Professor
Rønning's essay there were more mistakes (typos, lay-out
mistakes, ugly word-breaks, wrong lengths of hyphens, all 
these violently important details on which our civilisation 
rests(!)) than in an average 400-page novel. Which shows that
Egmont doesn't care enough. They even (horror!) wrote
" Bark's " somewhere. Not everyone has a talent for
being seriously bothered by such things ... but most
would count the correct writing of "Barks" among
the minimum requirements for book editors of Disney comics.

Shame; shocking; tsk tsk; public exposure; laughing stocks;
write their parents; let the heads roll. 

Apart from firing those at Egmont who are responsible
for not correcting these mistakes in these expensive
high-profile books we should also _discuss_ these 
essays (or aspects thereof) here at the DCML. A little 
bit difficult, of course, since these are only published
in Norwegian. (Are there similar editions in Denmark
and Sweden? I believe so. Please educate us.) 

But these prefaces are "(high-quality) DCML's" in miniature.
They are written by people who have a serious interest
in Disney Comics, who (presumably) can write, who enjoy
a minimum amount of "fame" (since Egmont asks them),
and they have complete freedom when writing their 
ten page essay. (A good exercise, actually; recommended
for anyone here.) They can also choose whatever they wish
to illustrate their opinions, or reflections. Some essays
have touched American politics and aspects of "cultural 
imperialism", some tell about personal memories related 
to reading Ducks when young, and some reflect on culture
and art more broadly, etc.  

Nils Lid Hjort