SV: Re: 17th of May

[Sigvald Grøsfjeld jr.]

Olaf Solstrand <olaf at andebyonline.com> wrote:

As your reply to may posting is in English, not in our common mother tongue
Norwegian, and as you don't say that it was personal, I have to assume it
was meant for DCML!

>> Do anyone here know if Egmont have any plans
>> to have special story done for these 2005
>> Norwegian 100th year anniversaries - such as
>> a Don Rosa Lo$ part 10a (taking place in
>> Scandinavia in 1905)? If not - would you
>> consider writing a story for this occasion
>> - Olaf?
>
> You seem to forget a few things here...
>
> 1 - I'm a newbie. Newbies aren't allowed to
> write great stories.

This is for now, you may no longer be seen as a newbie in 2005...


> 2 - Disney stories take place in 2003.
> (OK, you may disagree, but that is what Byron
> Erickson has told me. Thus, the truth.) That
> means Scrooge was probably not alive in 1905.
> Yes, I _know_ Don Rosa just wrote a story that
> found place in 1906, but that is only because
> he's Don Rosa. We normal writers aren't allowed
> to do such things.

Who says that such a story *must* happen in 1905? You could let it happen in
2005 and let our Duckburgian friends go to Norway then for some reason. What
if the guidebook has a notion about a treasure hidden away somewhere along
the Norwegian/Swedish border in 1905 due to the threat of war?


> 3 - OK, this is a great Norwegian event - but I
> don't see why it should be of interest for the
> rest of the world.

Maybe not, *but* it could be written to be of great interest for the rest of
Scandinavia.


> It would just turn into a very internal story
> that Norwegians would appreciate and everybody
> else would scratch their heads to. Wouldn't one
> also in such a story have to picture Swedes as
> bad guys?

Not necessarily. I bet a good writer, as I know that you are, could easily
do a story without doing that. Besides who says it have to be published
everywhere? There are even some stories by Don Rosa which are published in
Norway and not in Sweden.


> How would the Swedish readers respond to that?

I guess our Swedish friends here can tell you more about that than I can.
What I do think is that our Danish friends would expect that Denmark and the
Danish would have a part in such a story also - since our King Haakon was
Danish.


> 4- What makes this event bigger than national
> anniversaries other places?

Disney comics are great here! Besides the Italians have during the years
produced an enormous amount of stories connected to their own history. And I
wouldn't be surprised if our French friends can tell us about a similar
story published in Picsou Magazine in 1989 to celebrate the 200th
anniversary for the French revolution.


> Example given: Five years ago, the state of
> Israel had its fiftieth anniversary. I saw no
> Disney Comics about that.

No wonder! Israel is a very controversial state. Anti-Israeli attitudes are
wide spread in Europe, especially among left-wings. And as a Norwegian you
will know that Norwegian media and most left wing politicians in Norway,
including the LO-boss, are pretty silent when Palestine suicide-bombers are
killing innocent Israeli civilians, while they are very quick to condemn it
whenever the Israelis strike back. I guess that the situation is the same in
the rest of Scandinavia and other places in Europe. And one more thing. Very
recently I read in a book ("Asterix Samlede Verk – IX") that René Goscinny
(being of Jewish descendense himself)  refused to do an Asterix story going
on in Israel (even when he and Uderzo actually was invited by the Israelis
to do so) as long as he lived because he was afraid for the consequences.
After his death his friend Uderzo finally did such a story. So when Goscinny
feared the consequences if doing such a story there is no reason to wonder
why Disney/Egmont would keep away from that topic.


> Sorry, Sigvald, but the only thing that could
> make me consider writing such a story is Byron
> Erickson asking me to do it. Which I frankly
> doubt_ will happen, but that is not a
> discussion you should take with me.

Well, if he doesn't ask Don Rosa, I certainly hope that he will ask you to
do this.

Sigvald :-)