DCML Digest Issue 17

[Don Rosa]

 From: "Mickey" <mickey at iol.it>
Subject: Re: DCML Digest  Issue 16
> To repeat this for newcomers
>>>>>I think it could be useful to write a FAQ about these aspects,
especially about the family tree and its characters. To save your energies!

It would be nice if I could write up a list of FAQs so that I could save
time in answering them again, but I already don't have enough time to save
time.
Maybe somebody will do it for me...?
Actually, many years ago (gad, nearly 10?) somebody or several bodies wrote
up a list of my responses to numerous questions and it was part of the DCML
website, but it hasn't been updated since then (and may have even
evaporated, I'm not sure). But those nice people probably no longer have the
time to help me save the time I don't have time to save.
Huh?

From: ZeldasTriforce at aol.com
Subject: Dead Characters
>>>>>How/why are certain characters declared dead/offlimits? Is there some 
creative/artistic reason for doing so, or is it some corporate decision?

Wish I had a FAQ on this'n, too.
The editors decided that LvD and Fethry Duck were "officially dead"
because... I dunno... they simply personally didn't like those characters.
And as the presiding editors, that's their job, to decide what these stories
are supposed to be like.
As for characters like HD&L's parents and $crooge's sister/Donald's mother
Hortense, the decision was made because there is no possible reasonable
explanation as to where these characters have been for all these decades. If
they were alive, they would have been present or at least occasionally
visiting. If they were lost or missing, somebody would have mentioned them.
And no, (since somebody always suggests this) it can't be said that they
were in Duckburg all along and present at all times, but they just didn't
happen to be featured in a story... that would be cheating!
So, even though fans have asked me for nearly 20 years to tell a tale of
HD&L's search for their parents or the return of Donald's mother, I have
never figured out how to do it, and the editors' decree of "official
dead-dom" gives me the coward's way out.

From: "Cord Wiljes" <cord at wiljes.de>
Subject: Carl Barks Collection
>>>>>Ehapa/Germany will release a new edition of the Barks Library in ten
sets of three HC books each. 
According to Ehapa this is a joined effort of several countries. In
which other countries will similar projects be released?

This is actually a book set put together by the Egmont branch in Norway, and
made available to other Egmont branches like Ehapa. Ehapa has the ability to
make tweaks on the lay-out and design, and perhaps the texts, but it's
pretty much a Norway project, not a "joint effort". I was a "special guest
star" at the press conference of the official launch of the Norwegian set
(to make it "officially alive") in Oslo back in June.

>>>>>Will it feature a completely new coloring? Or the coloring of the Barks
Library in Color? Which versions of the Fuchs-translation will be used? The
first ones
(like in the German Carl Barks Library in Color) or later ones?

The texts and coloring is all handled (has already been done) back in Oslo,
all fresh and new, but the decision as whether to use Fuchs' famous old
translations/rewrites or to stick more closely to Barks' original texts
would be the sort of tweaking done at Ehapa.
As if it was any of my business (which it's not), when they publish a
collection of facsimile reprints of the old MICKY MAUS issues, they should
retain Fuchs' original texts. But if this is a *BARKS* Library, obviously
they should start from scratch and retranslate the books to match Barks'
original intentions. Then you could have both versions for fans -- the
beloved Fuchs version in the original comic book issue facsimiles, and
Barks' true and equally beloved original dialogue in the Barks Library
editions.