DCML Digest Issue 59

[Don Rosa]

> From: Olaf Solstrand <olaf at andebyonline.com>
> Subject: Re: "Glorp"?
> A question for Don Rosa: In "The Pertwillaby Papers" (Vortex),
> Lance discovers
> that the Omnisolve is too dangerous to use, as it consumes
> EVERYTHING around
> it - including the air, and that it would suck up our entire
> atmosphere in  short time.  but it seems  to me it would
> still work the same way when it comes to air or not.
> So... Why isn't this
> armour standing in Scrooge's trophy room a major threat to
> humankind only for
> existing?

Yes, the Omnisolve(tm) suit *does* consume air. $crooge has had Gyro seal it
inside a giant block of Forbidium and there is a great suction caused when
they penetrate into the vacuum of the inner chamber to get at the armor. Why
do they want to do that? That's all I'll say.

> From: Kriton Kyrimis <kyrimis at cti.gr>
> Subject: Re: "Glorp"?
> Speaking of dictionaries, I wonder in how many languages the story's title
> will be translated as simply "The Black Knight Strikes Again",

Well, I am *always* thinking ahead to things like that. I am also always
thinking of how *poorly* the "GLORP" sound effects will be done in the
Egmont editions, and I look forward to all the lovely Italian and French and
Greek "GLORPS". I have been trained after 15 years to brace myself and
anticipate every possible way I will be disappointed by presentations.
(Even the Gladstone edition, which was excellent in all other ways, omitted
about half of the "GLORP" sounds for some reason, which spoiled each of the
panels where that omission occurred.)
I not only considered that many translators will not want to create a nice
sound effect to match "glorp" but also will not bother to use the sound as
an amusing verb in the story title. But then I am also faced with the fact
that about 50% of the story's humor comes from the fractured "Inspector
Clouseau" English that Arpin Lusene spouts constantly -- how many
translators will bother to write similar funny fracturing of their own
language?
But as for the story title, not only am I prepared to see it written as "The
Black Knight Strikes Again", but that *was* my own title for the story until
I was looking at the finished storyboard-script and the idea for the use of
"glorp" as a verb suddenly and belatedly struck me! So, if the story appears
some places as "The Black Knight Strikes Again", s'okay... that's actually
the original title.
By the way, speaking of lovely sound effects and lettering in general, just
yesterday Todd Klein sent me copies of the lettering job he's done for the
Gemstone Comics presentation of "The Dream of a Lifetime". Todd is a big
Duck fan (and Rosa fan, if I may say so since it explains this) and he has
volunteered to again letter my stories as he often did for Gladstone Comics.
Todd is the best comics letterer in America, the constant winner *every
year* ( for about 10+ years?) of the Eisner Award for lettering (the Eisners
are the equivalent of the Academy Awards for American comic books). I am as
proud as punch that my stories will appear in their native language with the
*best possible* lettering and sounds effects! I look forward to seeing a
Klein Glorp!