Garvey Gull vs. Sonny Seagull

[David Gerstein]

	Hey Rich (and others),

> I am probably wrong, but I *thought* Sonny Seagull had debuted some 
> time back in the USA and his name was given as "Sonny Seagull" at 
> the time.

	Um... (gulp!) I'm afraid I can't get around saying this: you ARE wrong. Please check the COA to avoid this kind of confusion... you'll see that no stories with the seagull character have yet been published here, aside from the newly released "Healthy Choice" (which hasn't yet been indexed for Inducks).

> Why would Gemstone rename such a character when [he] already had a 
> clearly "English" name? Americans are well acquainted with the name "Sonny" and 
> the word "Seagull." Why the change to Garvey Gull? It would seem logical to just 
> retain a name that is already in use...

	First of all, it's not already in use. So we didn't need to worry about contradicting anything we'd already published by renaming him. That said, we felt the name "Sonny Seagull" should be changed in the American comics for a couple of reasons.
	As a name read aloud, Sonny sounds like "Sunny," suggesting a sweet Care Bear/Get Along Gang-like character, Sunny Seagull, rather than the fresh little rascal that this character actually is.
	There's also the fact that "Sonny" is better known in North America not as a name, but as a generic old-time slang term for a kid: "Whatcha doin' there, Sonny?" It's a term one uses to start a conversation with a child one doesn't know. When a given story introduces the seagull character by having one of the Ducks address him by his first name (as is only natural), will new readers immediately understand that the two parties know one another? Maybe not!
	By contrast, "Garvey Gull" is a tougher-sounding, somewhat shorter name that can't be mistaken for anything but a name.

	So while Gemstone and Egmont more typically share English character names back and forth, we don't do it ALL the time. You can add Garvey/Sonny to the ranks of Miss Quackfaster/Typefast and Duck Avenger/Superduck.

	Best, David

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://nafsk.se/pipermail/dcml/attachments/20060714/56dae3be/attachment.html