DCML Diges Issue 50

[Olaf Solstrand]

Don:
> Which leads me to another question (though I guess I can read at least well
> enough to see this for myself as the issues arrive here): did the
> translators take me seriously when I used the "1910 Parker Aztec" as the
> most valuable pen in history? Or did they make up some silly name of their
> own? (I know our buddy Stefan used the Parker.)

So did Harald Dyrkorn in Norway. "An Aztek fountain pen model A-X from 1910!"

> that's why (in my script) I
> made it clear that a salesman left them *as free samples* to impress the
> tycoon, as $crooge would never have paid for anything but the cheapest.



> Nope. My implication in my original script was that the salesman left the
> ink *with* the pens. $crooge would have bought those Parker Aztecs circa
> 1910 when a salesman would have been selling them, not nearly a
> half-century later. Didn't the colorist (on my story) follow directions
> and make it clear that was the same box of pens that were the ones that
> turned out to be so valuable at the end of the tale?

Oh yes, he/she did. But for some bizarre reason I just assumed that a 1950 
salesman COULD be carrying around 40 year old pens without knowing their value.



> Besides, as I recall, that "Magic Ink"
> salesman only sold him bottles of ink, right?

Maybe he did. I don't have that story nearby and have no way to check it, I'm 
afraid, so let's say you're right about that. And yes, he was selling only the 
ink, but in this case, when the ink would be worth much more than the pen 
itself (unless it turns out to be an Aztec 1910), I assumed he could have been 
handing out pens so that people could test his ink. The text in Scrooge's 
bubble on page 2 in Norwegian is "I got them from a salesman" - no mention 
of "free samples" - so I thought "why would a salesman give Scrooge a box of 
pens? Either as a sample, OR to test them for e.g. ink."

Well, obviously I'm very wrong, but this old story was the first thing that 
popped into my mind when I saw this frame. Old habit, I suppose.



Olaf