Credits

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

HARRY FLUKS to MICHAEL LAVIGNE, 11-06-2004:

> Anyone who asks the Dutch editors about credits, gets an accurate answer. [...]
> But to the question why they don't print credits in the comics themselves, 
> I have no satisfying answer.

I think it's because credits devide the entirey and the believability of the 
characters' "real" existance. In the Dutch comic, Donald Duck and the others 
are as real as Sinterklaas (Dutch December tradition) and Santa Claus. That's 
part of the atmosphere.

The main target (Dutch children) writes letters to Uncle Donald as an existant 
character. Or to other Disney characters, but also as existant characters. 

Only grown-ups would write letters to "the editor". Collectors and completists, 
for example. But they're not the main target of the (Dutch) Disney comics. 
So, that's why I'm thinking of the (retorical) question: Why ruin the warm 
all-age escapist entertainment of a real existant Uncle Donald, in exchange 
for some credits under each adventure, telling on which drawing-board the 
particular character's adventure in fact was created, and when?

In my opinion, credits are suitable in Dutch book comic albums, which are 
intended for the more interested kids and grown-ups. (Fans, for example.) 
In the Dutch Duck albums, credits ARE given. It began with Carl Barks in 
the "Beste Verhalen" series, which started in the mid-1970s. And now, more 
recently, it happens with Daan Jippes, Bas en Mau Heymans, Sander Gulien, 
Jan Kruse, Frank Fronker, etc.

I think it's nice already, that editors have become open about credits. 
People who want to know more about them, can now go to internet archives, 
where the information can be explored and listed.

Maybe it would be nice to mention an (Inducks?) internet URL in the Dutch 
comics, which the average readers just can ignore, like all the other 
editorial stuff at the bottom of the letters page. 

Additionally, a shortlist of creators could be given, as part of all the 
editorial information. This way, creators do get credited, but without 
taking away attention with who did exactly what. That's where internet,  
fanzines, and magazines are for.

These thoughts are only based on Dutch comics. I don't know the situation 
in much other countries. I believe countries like Denmark and Sweden do give 
credits, just a small line under the first page of each story, but still I 
think it creates a distance between the main target (children) and the story 
characters. But in the USA, with editors like Gladstone and Gemstone, the 
Disney comics have become adult-oriented, and the letter page contains 
complain about Don Rosa story this-or-that not being (re-)printed, or a 
forgotten classic by Floyd Gottfredson. It works, but it's a whole different 
approach than in The Netherlands.

In a Dutch comic it has never happened. On the letter page, readers ask 
for stories with a certain character doing this-or-that, or at most a 
story identified as "the one you once had with the square eggs". Artists 
have never been mentioned, or only indirectly. (As far as I know.)

I like that approach. As a Disney comics reader, I want to believe in a 
"real" Duckburg, existing in a unknown place somewhere on this planet. 
No matter how much Duckburg changes in every other story.

Children don't really want to know why Santa Claus suddenly looks different 
than last time. As long as Santa Claus acts like a good Santa Claus, he 
really IS Santa Claus. That's the whole point of his existance.

When people look through it, it's just Uncle Ernie with a hired suit, giving 
away a present payed with the group's yearly budget, the magic is gone. And 
I think it would be the same with the Dutch Disney comics.

As a guess, I doubt the Dutch policy will change, because the Dutch editors 
are insistent in being a traditionial family comic. This formula makes it 
attactive for parents to give their kids the same experience as in their 
own youth, anxious waiting at the door every week, for new adventures of 
"their" great flawsy Uncle Donald Duck.

That's the feeling I still get when receiving the comic. But as a freak, I 
already recognize a lot of creators at first sight, even without any credits. 
That's a price I've paid for looking behind the curtains of the comic book 
show. I've learned a lot by reading about backstage activities. But as a 
result, Uncle Donald will never be the same for me. At such times I wish 
I could just "switch off" the credits knowlegde I have of the different 
creators of the stories. 

But I have to carry it around with me, as some kind of comic book curse, 
having eaten forbidden comic book fruit. :-)

--- Daniël

"For goodness, sake! Who's that guy - the PIED PIPER?"
(Which Barks story?) :-)

hint #1: It's NOT the unfinished Gyro story 'The Pied Piper of Duckburg'.
hint #2: "Hold on, boys! I had no idea it was THAT tasty!"
hint #3: "Look at the mice go for that cheese!"
hint #4: "Into the toolbox with you, young fellow! You cause too much 
         MISCHIEF!"