Meta-stories

[Olaf Solstrand]

Well, if Italian stories count... I sure remember a few. Though, my problem 
with Italian stories is that I never seem to remember storycodes and writers.

There's one quite famous, though: "Sarasenerens natt" by Marco Rota (sorry I 
only remember the Norwegian title, but if I tell you that "natt" means "night", 
the word "sarasener" is so special I assume you can figure out what story it 
is). I seem to remember Donald talking directly to the reader in the end.

Also, one of my favorite Italian stories has something similar to what we're 
talking about here. Pity I can't remember who wrote it (I found it in an 
old "Onkel Skrue"), but it starts with Donald trying to build a greenhouse in 
his garden. It all falls down over him, and we suddenly see a laugh from off. 
That is Mickey, which it turns out is READING this comic about Donald and the 
greenhouse. As Mickey lays the comic away, he is suddenly surprised by Black 
Pete and the Phantom Blot. They trap him in a corner, and a box says "How will 
Mickey come out of this mess? Pay attention next week!" Cut to Goofy in his 
bed, saying "argh, I hate these sequels!" That witch I can't remember the name 
of shows up, and says that she can use magic to get him that next magazine - 
but as Goofy doesn't believe in witches, this turns out to another story where 
she's actually trying to prove to Goofy that she IS a witch. Cut to Fethry, 
seeing this Goofy-movie on a cinema, and is inspired to go to the movies 
himself. He does, tears down some studios and make a mess, and we cut to Horace 
Horsecollar reading this Fethry story. Well, Horace gets into some mess 
himself, and we cut to Donald's livingroom, where this Horace cartoon is 
watched by HD&L on the TV. They do something I can't really remember, and hear 
a loud noise from outside. They run out to Donald, and notices the the 
greenhouse has fallen down over him. They ask him if his OK, and he says yes, 
but he had such a strange dream. "It was about Mickey... and Goofy... and 
Fethry... and YOU... and all were watching or reading about what the others 
were doing!" "How ridicolous," they laugh. "Yeah, that would be as if someone 
were reading about us right now!" "And that's impossible, right?"

OK, they were may not aware that they were comics characters... but close to. 
Louie even blinked to the reader while saying that last sentence. I may draw a 
parallel to "Sophie's world"? (By the way, "Solitaire Mystery" was written 
_before_ "Sophie's world". And IMO it was better too.)


I also seem to remember lots of stories where a sign or something says "The 
end", and someone tears this down and say "Hold on a minute, this story isn't 
over yet".



Olaf the Blue
My first comic now 18 days away