Keskustelujen arkisto

Don Rosa has sent two pieces of mail to me that evidently were meant
for the list. Here they are:

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Date: 20 Jul 93 00:42:55 EDT
From: Don Rosa <72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM>
Subject: +Postage Due+Digest #58

Yes, thanks to several people, I now have Harry's Clerk List on
hard copy. And I'm starting to remember not to hit the ENTER key when I
useta be s'posed to but now ain't.
To Harry: Where was Miss Quackfaster named and why is she so
popular if Barks only used her twice. As you noted, she was only used in
the American UNCLE $CROOGE #36 & 39 (IF that's her in #36), and she was
only named in #39. As to why she is popular -- it's only because
somebody at Egmont or Oberon decided to start using her as $crooge's
one-and-only secretary many years back, so she became a fixture in the
European stories, and therefore NOW in American reprints. If it hadn't
been for Europe, she would be as obscure/unknown as all those other
Barks office clerks. It seems pretty obvious to me that Barks never
intended for there to be anything permanent in or about the bin building
except $crooge himself. The look and location of the bin and all its
contents and employees changed from story to story. I try to keep most
of it all very consistant since, unlike Barks, I know there are people
reading these stories carefully with an eye to detail and saving them to
reread again and check on accuracy.

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Date: 20 Jul 93 08:38:08 EDT
From: Don Rosa <72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM>
Subject: +Postage Due++Postage Due+Digest #58

Well, here's a lil' notice for the next digest that I've been
forgetting to mention. My usual thinking is that I shouldn't pop off
about stuff like this, but since someone was expressing interest in that
PRO-FILES interview that I had also NOT mentioned, I think I should
mention this. Don't mention it.
A Norwegian reporter and photographer from the biggest paper in
Scandanavia (said they, based on percentage of the local population that
reads it), "VG" (whatever that's short for), flew here for less than 2
hours a last month and interviewed me. The 4 tabloid page article
appeared July 3; the first 2 pages were about me, with one nice photo
and one fairly insulting "goofy" photo (which such people always insist
on), and the second 2 pages were the issue's centerspread which featured
the world's first appearance of my "official" (?) Donald Duck Family
Tree in excellent large size and full color suitable (I'd say) for
framing! I know I'd frame it if I could READ it. I haven't the slightest
idea how the article came out or how the reporter used my comments... I
tried to read it but all it said was "blah blah blah blah Don Rosa blah
blah blah". I wish someone could send me a translation of things like
this, but I understand what a tedious process such things are.
Last week a reporter/photographer from yet another "biggest
newspaper in Scandanavia" (based on total circulation?), EXPRESSEN, came
here for their two hours before flying right back like the other team. I
gave them pretty much the same interview subject to their particular
method of interpretation and posed for several more photographs, half of
which were fairly humiliating. (Anytime a photographer insists I pose
wearing a Donald Duck head hat, I insist that he takes the picture and
delivers it to his paper while not wearing any pants. A turnabout is
fair play, says I.) Anyway, this article of "blah blah blah etc." won't
appear for a little while (I suspect?) so as not to look like the VG
article gave the reporter the idea for it. I didn't mention it, but as
you Swedish folks know, EXPRESSEN is a Swedish paper. What you can tell
me is what sort of paper are these VG and EXPRESSEN? Nice newspapers? Or
fairly tacky stuff like USA TODAY? (I suspect the latter.)
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I'll have to check out the VG article, and may post a translation, or
at least send one to Don, if no one beats me to it :-)

"VG" stands for "Verdens Gang" (meaning something like "the changes of
the World"). It's a true tabloid with large fonts, large pictures,
little content and taste for sex/violence scandals/tragedies. I don't
buy it on principle, but this may call for an exception from that.

Actually, the "largest newspaper" thing is disputable. "Aftenposten"
("the Evening Post") is larger if you count their evening edition, and
is IMO a much better newspaper. You may remember they had a 4-6 page
feature (with no goofy shots ;-) on Disney in their weekend supplement
A-magasinet a year ago or so, with a specially drawn front page of
young Scrooge with his first dime (? 10 |re in Norwegian ;-)

Oh, VG has a Donald strip, Aftenposten has Scamp. Don't know if that's
saying anything about the editorial policy, though :-)

Kjetil T.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, a phonecard is a debit card.
That is, you buy a card for a specific amount, and that amount is what is
on the card. As you use the card, the cost of the phone call is
subtracted from your card. These cards are very common in Germany, and
many cards come with designs printed on them. As with anything printed
with a popular design (ask me about pogs), these cards have become
collectibles.

What I would like to know from the European members of this list is:
Are there any phonecards with Disney characters, and if so, how much are
they selling for?

Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA

Hi again,

> Date: 09 Jul 93 09:16:11 EDT
> From: Don Rosa <72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM>
> Subject: Re: Digest #54

> Gil: fergit it. Wasn't THAT big a deal. I just got kinda
> stunned at the moment.

(* "Sshhheeww!.. " BIG sigh of relief! *)

THANKS DON!!!

Gil



Can anyone see this? Did my other stuff make it? The titles
where: Odds and Ends, A belated thanks to Don and More on Unca Walt.

Just checking,

Gil

P.S. Okay, I know that was more that just ONE question...

Kjetil T.:
> You may remember they [Norwegian Aftenposten /Per] had a 4-6 page
> feature (with no goofy shots ;-) on Disney in their weekend supplement
> A-magasinet a year ago or so, with a specially drawn front page of
> young Scrooge with his first dime (? 10 |re in Norwegian ;-)

Yes, it's a dime in English. In Swedish it is a krona btw, i.e., about
ten times more than it is in Norway!

Don himself wrote more about Aftenposten:
> [...] all about me and my "life of $crooge" series. The cover was a
> special one I did on the theme of "what if $crooge had grown up in
> Norway" and it showed a scene from the series of 10-year-old $crooge
> earning his first dime and dreaming of his Norwegian-style money bin.

I wonder how a Norwegian-style money bin looks. Like a big cheese? :-)
What date was this, by the way? Maybe I can find it somehow.

> And you [Kjetil] make VG sound pretty sleazy! It's not that bad, is it?!
> What about EXPRESSEN???

Well, I wouldn't buy it (except for special occasions, like the coming
thing on you or other Disney stuff), but it's probably not as sleazy
as you fear.

Don:
> Can't you see what Hamilton is doing with ALL the Barks stories? First
> in the expensive Library, then in albums/digests, then in comics, then
> in color Library Albums... he's not stupid! There is a finite amount
> of material and he must milk it for all it's worth!

I still wonder if it's the correct order to publish stuff in albums
before the comic books. It's nicer to have the stories in albums, so
I'd be hesitant to buy a comic book with stuff I mostly have, but I
could probably persuade myself to buy an album with stuff I just have
in comic books before.

Don again:
> My story about books, "The Guardians of the Lost Library", will
> be printed sometime around September 20. At least that's when I'm
> supposed to make another promotional tour through Scandanavia
> publicizing same.

Do you know any details of that tour yet? There's a big book and
library fair in Sweden September 9--12, so I wonder why your
publishers didn't use that.

Then off to Unca Walt:
Gilbert, I don't see what your point is. First you are angry because
Marc Eliot's book mentions that Walt was an FBI informant etc., and
when Torsten then pointed out that it is true, after all, you reply
that

> Today it seems unethical and vicious to toss people to
> the Commie-hunters, but at the time it seemed like patriotism to
> many more Americans than just Walt Disney.

Of course that's true, but does that mean that such things ought not
to be mentioned? I liked that Rorschach quote on Walt by the way, but
still I think it is possible to get some kind of coherent picture of
him from reading what his employees have written.

That's all I have to say on the book as I haven't read it (yet), and
it's off topic anyway. Walt doesn't have very much to do with Disney
comics.

And another off-topic: No, Torsten, there are no Disney phonecards
here anyway.
-- "
Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se
"Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!"
(Yes Harry, that same old quote! Earlier I sometimes tried to insert
an appropriate quote that had something to do with my message, but
nowadays my messages are so random so that quote fits very well. :-)

Hi, Folks!

First time I've actually gotten out to my Dad's office (which is
now NOT walking distance from home, and I don't drive... yet), and there
were tons of digests waiting, of course. Hoo! Hah!

I'm still in the middle of them, but, before I go on:

In case Don Rosa doesn't get an answer (and there's probably one in
the next digest I haven't looked at...) Scrooge's dogface accountant
Clerkly (he of the hornrimmed glasses and the continuous nervousness)
appeared not only in "Lost Beneath the Sea" but "So Far and No Safari" as
well, and perhaps some others. He's in both of the two new Scrooge stories
I've done for Egmont (and may be in some future ones, too).

By the way... I'm proud to say that my first script is now in the
process of being drawn by Daniel Branca!!!!!!!!!!

Now the other important topic: One other of the Goofy "historical
bio" stories has seen print here: Goofy Frankenstein, which was in
Disney's GOOFY ADVENTURES #1 and 2, in two parts. They cut about half of
it out, I think, and somehow it still seemed to make perfect sense. You go
figure.

Well, I'll head for the hills for the time being!

Your friend,

David Gerstein

(By the way... the 1946 two-week Mickey Mouse story "Goofy the Kid"
is in GA #9 as "The Goofy Crooner". A Gottfredson strip story, I mean. I
forgot to supply that info for the reference morgue.)

Dear Folks,

Okay, I'm finished reading the recent digests.

I hope Mr. Rosa finds the info on Clerkly useful. Yes, he did
appear several times. He's the dogfaced, worried-looking clerk with
glasses. Etc, etc, etc.

In a crowd scene in my first Egmont story I show Scrooge's office
staff including "Mrs. Quackfaster, Clerkly the accountant and various
unnamed ducks and dogs." I hope no one jumps on me for this.

I visited John Clark at Gladstone for several hours during my
cross-country car trip. Here's a bit of what he told me:

As of right now ALL the Gottfredson stories (except for some Sunday
pages here and there) printed in the next few months will be those that
already were in albums, aside from the single exception of Hoppy the
Kangaroo which was a tremendous seller for them and had such large
circulation that they don't feel it needs to be printed again.
I informed Mr. Clark about the Milton "Big Sneeze" and he's going
to get it and print it, as far as I know.
As far as I'm able to figure out, the CBL of WDC&S in Color WILL be
joined by series for Scrooge and Donald books as well. It seems Gladstone
IS able to branch out into those series.
The cover of the next WDC&S (2 months from now) with "Spotless Don"
illustrates that story and is by Van Horn.

It's Bruce Hamilton's idea to print a lot of Jaime Diaz in D&M
because he likes it. John Clark does like the long M&G "historical"
stories but is dubious as to how well they'll be received or sell. He
wants MANY letters with HONEST opinions, so PLEASE write! More now than
ever, fans have a chance to influence the direction of Disney comics.
I'd in fact be glad to see ONLY Gottfredson and Scarpa used in BOTH
titles that include Mickey, but I realize that my boredom with Murry, etc.
is far from normal for Mouse fans.
So Diaz is the main exposed Mickey artist besides Gottfredson, and
if you ask me Gottfredson should really be in D&M. In the WDC&S that came
out today, the second (and last) part of Wolf Barker appears... taking up
over half the book! In fact, this is an issue of WDC&S that's ONLY Donald
and Mickey (with an additional one-page gag for each besides the longer
stories). Stories by people other than Gottfredson are usually shorter and
can be serialized in SMALLER parts. Don't you think that the place for
them is WDC&S so other characters such as wolves and bugs can have some
room?

Gladstone bought four of my dialogs on foreign stories. These were
stories I picked MYSELF to do, so I think that they're a cut above some of
the plots we've seen from Europe. I'm sure any of you European fans could
find LOTS of good Egmont and Oberon stories, just like I tried to.
Anyway, we'll see the fruits of my labor soon. I'm proud to tell
you that WDC&S 590 (in January) will have my first published dialogue...
done in July 1992, which shows how long my stuff's been sitting around.
Disney bought three of them planning not to use them until about DiDDA 40,
which as you know never came out, so Gladstone now has those three, along
with their four, and I just mailed off two more (one of which they GAVE ME
to do from the Dutch) today, so you'll get a chance to see what my writing
is like.
As for when the new stories I'm WRITING for Egmont will appear
there or here, not for a year. Trust that you'll find them respectful to
the classics.

Your friend,

David Gerstein