Keskustelujen arkisto

Torsten:

> *** plot revelation *** read at your discretion ***
>
> I seem to recall a story where Donald raced Scrooge to the top of a
> mountain. Donald did it the hard way, by climbing up the mountain, while
> Scrooge simply piled coins along the vertical face of the mountain and
> built a staircase! Now, assuming he used only one type of coin, and used
> a constant slope, how much would this staircase be worth?
>
*** NOT YET end plot revelation ***

But that whole story was a DREAM, remember?
(In fact, Barks decided to change the original ending into a dream ending,
because it looked too unlikely to be true.)

> *** end plot revelation ***

--Harry.

Please remove me from the distribution list...I've found that I'm
not getting the time to read these.

Regards,

Rob Schorzman (590-2768) (rob at cs.itc.hp.com)

Don> My "Life and Times of $crooge McDuck" does seek to take every
Don> last detail of $crooge's life, no matter HOW MINISCULE, and include it
Don> in the series. I challenge anyone to locate a detail I have missed!
me> Well, I've asked you before if we will get to know the
me> story behind Miss Penny Wise.
Don> Who is Miss Pennywise? That's Miss Quackfaster?

Gotcha! No, Miss Penny Wise is an old maid who is "the *one* person
in the world" that Scrooge fears, because of an old note she owns by
which she can forclose on Scrooge's entire fortune. What on earth
could all that be about?? It's from WDC 164.
-- "
Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se
"I've baked gingerbread for nigh onto sixty years!"

Hello Don,

I would like to tell you my explanations to some seemingly impossibilities
in the Duckburg universe, now consisting of Rosa stories in addition to the
Barks canon.

> As Per mentioned, someone did finally point out to me that it is
>stated in "Lost in the Andes" that Rhutt Betler (not "Betluh... that
>includes the southern drawl) died as he left Plain Awful...
>When the story is printed again in Germany or the US, the goof
>can be easilly remedied by having the old guy be the professor who
>bought the eggs from the Cuzco padre; this has two problems though: if
>it ISN'T the REAL Rhutt Betler there's not much point to the whole
>scene -- also, why did they forget between 1882 and 1949 that those
>stones were eggs. (That latter matter is easilly explained. Often
>museums file away stuff and forget what it is.)

Another twist may be that the professor got out alive, seeked sponsors for
the new trip, finally gave up, returned to Plain Awful (but keeping the
secret about it because of the natives), and then didn't find his way
through the fog and finally died, exhausted, before the family who then
lived at the edge of the fog.

> My "Life and Times of $crooge McDuck" does seek to take every
>last detail of $crooge's life, no matter HOW MINISCULE, and include it
>in the series. I challenge anyone to locate a detail I have missed!
>...The Magic Hourglass as never existing.

What the heck! Why?

> And I have the Money Bin built in
>1902 just as it is "today" rather than how Barks slowly hit on the idea
>between 1947 and 1951 or so.

NO! NO!! NO!!! Pleazzze Don !!! Dont you see that Scrooge always collected
his money in his office, which became larger and larger, until finally he
had to build the bin. That is a much better explanation, because you then
assume that his offices became larger as the money kept on coming in - but
not going out. You cant expect Scrooge to build that incredibly large bin
at the beginning of his career, unless you give him some sort of
perspective on "I shall be the worlds richest duck and this bin here is
gonna prove it!" Scrooge in fact builds his bin at the end of his career,
he partly retires to it, he doesnt have to use his time in the office so
much anymore. More about the bin below.

>The change after "Back to the
>Klondike" is almost imperceptible compared to this -- perhaps that 1952
>change is just the tail-end of the main change?

You are right, but nevertheless read John Nicholses essay, the best essay
he ever made.

> As for Gladstone's ancestry... I like intrigue like this --
>I have lots of it in the series -- but this bit of intrigue doesn't make
>sense to me.

Better have some Swedish Duck fan translate the essay to you. Huh Per?

>And in 'The Money Pit' we get to see that there are some VERY old and rare
>coins near the bottom of the bin. This would mean that the story 'The
>Money Pit' takes place *before* any of the Barks stories where all Scrooge's
>money gets out of the bin? Including the 'first' money bin stories?

Scrooge is an eccentric character. The banks, in which he doesnt trust his
dear old money, know that he is an eccentric and that if he ever exchanges
everything he owns, he will come back and change it back!!! So that they
always keep his fortune in their vaults and extra-vaults and doesnt ever
give it away to others until he requests it back. As in the story about the
money champ - he finally asks to have the silver dollars exchanged into his
old personal coins. And the same in the stories where all the greenbacks he
got at last will be converted back into his own money. The banks never dare
take out anything of it, whatever that may be of scarce money. Remember, as
the worlds greatest capitalist, Scrooge controls the banks of Duckburg.
Therefore Scrooge always knows where his cash is in the bin, he has only
recently put it there...

>in case he needs
>to (gasp!) buy something, or if he ever gets the desire to frolic in his
>wealth.

Scrooge needs to buy something, but he doesnt need to use his private cash
of the money bin. He has of course other values, among them his daily flow
of money from his factories etc. In early stories we see him get it into
his office, later on this will be taken care of by his clerks in downtown
while he has partly retired to his money bin.

>Of course that is one of those stories that make it a bit strange
>that there are old coins about that Scrooge remember exactly when he
>earned. Presumably he took care to get the same coins and bills back
>afterwards. (Another one is where he exchanged all his money into
>greenbacks.)

Exactly! And I am firmly of that opinion that we can explain most of
Barkses twists and turns by common sense. It is of course much better for
Don and us others that the money bin is drawn the same way the whole time!

Now why have I never seen a lift in the money bin. Scrooges office is at
the top of the bin. And how do you get the money in and up and out into the
bin: A large lift for the goods that can also carry equipment like shovels
and bulldozers.

And why doesnt he have to expand the bin? Simply because the bin contains
his personal cash which he collected himself, and he will never throw
anything into the bin that is simply a result of financial transactions
which he himself has to supervise only! That cash gets into his banks
downtown or is used to finance other developments in his financial empire!
All the salaries are paid downtown. Scrooge isnt that mad. You must not
view him as an extremely stingy man. He just wants to keep his collection
of his personal reminiscences (= coins and greenbacks), because the
collection is the result of his life, and all his memories are in cash, not
in building up a family. Most people build a family and would never give
away any children even though they may be starving. Scrooge build a fortune
and would never give it away. Giving away the money of the bin is giving
away his life. He has unpersonal money downtown which can be used to
finance trips around the world to inspect, etc.

Happy to have some comments! I hope you understand that to build a money
bin in 1902 already would be a grave mistake and show a wrong understanding
of Scrooge as a person. To sum up: As long as he actively works in his
office, all the money is in his office. When he retires to his money bin,
his personal money goes with him while the unpersonal money, that other
people make for him as he is their boss or owner of their company or
whatever, still goes into his office downtown.

So I also hope to see one day that Scrooges office empire has a prominent
place in Duckburg. This also explains why he sometimes is found in offices
in the city while other times in his money bon. It also explains why he has
few or none clerks in his bin while a lot of them on the city.

Geir Hasnes - at the age of five, in 1962, intending to be the worlds
foremost Donald Duck expert - at the age of 36 not living with that vision
anymore.

I have not seen any translation of this, so here goes:

Translation of the Don Rosa interview in VG July 3 1993.

The interview goes over 2 double-pages, with the family tree taking one
double-page.

I have tried to keep the translation as close as possible to the original. The
bad grammar, flowery language, bad jokes and otherwise stupid contents etc.
are not of my doing.

Layout of interview pages:
__________________________________________
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
Silly picture | | Serious picture |
| | |
_______________| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
Title | | |
| | |
| | |
_______________|___|_____________________|
| |
| |
Intro Main text |
| |
| |
___________________|_____________________|

Silly picture: ANTIHERO: -Donald is greedy, egoistic, proud and arrogant, says
Don Rosa, who loves his antihero. [This is a picture of a seriously demented
person. He seems to have a strong fixation on waterfowls, and is totally
covered in small (and large) children toys. The article doesn't say what this
madman has to do with Don Rosa, but it might simply be some poor soul who has
been subjected to Disney comics at a tender age.]

Serious picture: `DET ALLER HELLIGSTE' [Norwegian expression. Directly means
the inner part of the Jewish temple (inner sanctum?).]: Ca. 500 Donald-figures
and Huey, Dewey and Louies in all sizes are collected in Don Rosa's
Donaldroom. Here the famous comics are made. [The picture is of a balding guy
with beard and round glasses. The walls are full of Duck figures. There is
also a copy of CBL in the background. The man looks suspiciously like the
madman in the other picture, but he seems almost totally sane. (The picture
may have been taken after some kind of cure.)]

Title: Et duckehjem [ Pun on `Et dukkehjem' ("A doll's house" by Ibsen).]

Intro: Don Rosa (42) is a living legend among Donald-fanatics. At his home in
Kentucky he draws and `dyrker' [in this case nurtures, as in a hobby, also
used in the meaning of worship] his antiheroes Donald and Scrooge. And he has
especially Norwegian readers in mind. Norwegians are big consumers of
Donald-comics, while Americans prefer supermen. Don Rosas last work: A family
tree for the Duck, Coot and the McDuck families, which VG presents today.

Main Text: Louisville, Kentucky (VG)
In a quiet valley, under shadowy trees, under steaming hot Louisville, the
Donald-artist and -writer Don Rosa lives. Surrounded by his wife, the parrot
Gyro Gearloose, three harehounds and about 500 Donaldfigures!

Who would believe that the lean person before us was educated as an
engineer, and leader of his own construction company, before Donald took over
fulltime?
- Come in, says Don Rosa. Gyro Gearloose screeches at us from his cage.
Rosa's offer of letting the parrot fly free is politely but firmly turned down
by VG's `utsendte' [someone who is sent out, commonly used about reporters].
On our way through the kitchen we discover something that could have been...
no, that is a dog! Cleo is the oldest of the three Beagle harehounds
(B-gjengen is called Beagle Boys in english). She is totally deaf and almost
14 years old. The animal is sleeping.
But when Don Rosa jumps up in the air, and lands 15 inches away from the
ancient, it gets up on all four - because of the vibrations in the floor.

Loves the ducks

Ouch! Now again! We'd better move on says Don - and leads us through the
soda cellar, and up into the most holy - the Donald room! About 500
Donald-figures and Huey, Dewey and Louies in all sizes are collected on the
floor, in closets and on the walls. Here are Donald-clocks, Donald-Coke
bottles, Donald-hats; any kind of equipment with Donald's smiling face on.
In this room, equipped with drawingboard, big TV and even bigger TV-chair -
and with it's own bath/toilet with shower!- Don Rosa's stories about our
`nebbete' [having a neb, also expression for being a loudmouth, fresh etc.]
friends from Duckburg are made.
Among Donald-fanatics around the world Rosa's stories are among the highest
valued.
And Don himself thinks he knows the reason. He is so fond of the figures
himself, that he could never even imagine mass producing Donald-stories. Don
prefers making long adventure stories - in many episodes - where all the
drawings and events are as authentic and typical of the time as possible.
This demands careful preparations before each new story.-Often I use a week
for investigations, before I sketch the story. When that is done, I draw the
whole story - picture by picture - with pencil. I fax the finished story to
the mediahouse Egmont in Copenhagen for approval. (Egmont, which owns Hjemmet
in Norway, has the rights to Donald for Scandinavia, Germany, England, Eastern
Europe and China - all in all 21 countries.)

Norway is Donald-country

- When the story is approved, I finish it in ink. I have to make sure that
the talking bubbles are large enough to fit the text in all countries - no
matter how intricate the language is - says Don.
He adds that Finnish is the worst, spacewise.
Norway and Finland are among the worlds greatest Donald-countries as of
1993. In today's USA Donald is counted among the comics for specially
interested comics collectors. The print run may be as low as 20 to 30 thousand
per month. In Norway Donald sells around 200 000 each week.
Many of Don's stories finally appear in American Donald, after their
triumphant round through Egmont's `nedslagsfelt' [the area a bomb explosion
covers, ie. the area Egmont sell their comics in].
- Americans think that Donald is childish, while the so called superheroes
are for "adults". It's the other way round, sighs Don Rosa with deep wrinkles
in the high forehead.
- Also everything having to do with reading is unpopular in USA. Here it is
TV and video - with tons of garbage - that sells. I get letters form youths in
Skandinavia that writes better English than their American peers! I'm afraid
that USA is developing into a country of well-to-do idiots.
Don hasn't any doubt about his favorite in Duckburg. - Uncle Scrooge! He may
seem like a hard, greedy person on the outside, but in contrast to most
Americans Scrooge isn't struggling for more status or power. All he wants is
as much cash as possible. He works hard, and has memories about almost every
cent he has made. The whole money bin is full of good memories!
Donald is greedy, egoistic, proud and arrogant. Both he and Scrooge are
really antiheroes. That's why they are so popular, says Don.
Rosa has worked for years on the family tree that VG presents today.
- I built on the original, smaller family tree that the Disney-writer per
excellence - Carl Barks - made in his time.
When the publisher heard that the family tree was finished, they wanted to
publish it. It is okay by me, says Don - who still has one spot free: It's
still not clear who the father of Huey, Dewey and Louie is! - Everything in
it's own time, smiles Don.
We understand that he won't `si et kvekk' [say a quack, will not say a word]
about the paternity.

Family tree - Don Rosa is probably familiar with this already. For those of
you that haven't seen it already: Nyah, nyah, nyah!

To Dag: thanks so much for the trouble you went to in translating that
VG article. I'm afraid you're not the first to do so for me -- and you
must have missed the Digest that included some other nice fella's
translation. But naturally I appreciate your work as much as his. I hope
someone ASKS me next time before going to so much trouble!

Geir: about the Money Bin...
Well, I'm mighty sorry, but it's far too late to change the part
of my "Life of $crooge" series that has the Money Bin built in 1902/03.
However, though I appreciate your reasonings, I still prefer this
version. In one old WDC&S story, $crooge digs out some ancient barrels
from the bottom of the Bin and thinks "here's my first billion, right at
the bottom where it's been for seventy years." This story was a few
months before the first view of the Bin, but I don't know how else to
treat it than as the Money Bin. I built my story around the construction
of the Bin and the placement of that billion, $crooge's Yukon Billion,
in its barrels at the bottom. Even at that, I had to ignore the "seventy
year" remark... it shoulda been more like fifty. And, yes, a few months
later is the first few of $crooge's "new" (says Donald) Money Bin...
newly REMODELED maybe??? I dunno. But there just MUST be things to
ignore if I'm going to have a snowball's chance in heck to fit Barks'
conflicting "facts" together. If he had thought of the Bin earlier, he
would have used it in the Bear Mountain story. One thing I did which
should please Gier a bit is that I DO have ALL the money in the Bin as
that which $crooge PERSONALLY earns through HIS work. The bin continues
to fill from 1903 to 1930 at which point it is FULL... and THAT'S when
$crooge comes home to personally manage it all, not before. I agree with
the idea that all his OTHER money is being kept in those downtown banks
and such, and that's what he uses to run his company and buy his lunch.
But like I say, MY version is set in stone now, and cannot be changed...
but it's only MY version. I never expected everyone to like it and they
are perfectly free to view my stories as askance as I view all nonBarks
junk. Why shouldn't they?
But I'll tell ya, I tried for over two years to clear ALL my
ideas with every Barks fan on the planet, and if one of them wanted me
to hear their ideas they can only "blame" themselves for not being in
touch with me. I view these as Barks' characters and I am ENORMOUSLY
reluctant to screw them up too much! No one will ever imagine the
trouble and effort I've put into two years of trying to tell this story
and fit all of Barks material into a sensible SINGLE storyline. The
VOODOO HOODOO story alone with all its historical inaccuracies and
censored characters was a major headache -- but I think I did a splendid
job of it, if I do say so. And like I said, I HAD to ignore certain
things... YES, like the Magic Hourglass! What respectable $crooge fan is
going to tell me that he believes that every cent $crooge ever earned is
because of a magic spell on an old hourglass and NOT due to his OWN HARD
WORK and YEARS OF IT! What an insulting thought! If you don't want to
ignore the existance of the Hourglass story itself, we can just say that
it was all a "big misunderstanding". But still, $crooge KNOWS damn well
that his money was not earned FOR him by no Hourglass or no dang Dime
either. No, I flatly reject that whole "Magic Hourglass" tale as pure
fiction -- it never took place.
Just think of the headache I have coming next week when I start
trying to make a shred of sense outta "Christmas on Bear Mountain"!!!

Other matters Geir mentioned: rather than try to explain the
paradox of all the times $crooge has exchanged his money and then had it
restored... rather than hunt for these explanantions which will never
completely work, I (as I said) simply treat any "current" stories as not
having happened by the time the next month's issue roles around. Simple
as that. We MUST take the easy way out and not seek to explain
EVERYTHING, otherwise we'll turn into geeks like those that populate
science-fiction fandom!
Lifts in the Bin? It seems obvious to me how the Bin is
constructed: since the interior is a cubic container, all the offices
must be contained in a facade section along the front face of the Bin...
and perhaps that's where there's a lift. But I've shown the bin being
filled through the large central hatch in the roof using a roof-mounted
steam shovel/hoist.
And as for reading John Nichol's essay, I can't. Even though he
lives in the next state over, I've never heard from him and I have no
copies of his magazines. I hesitate to BUY them since I once saw where
he sells new Disney comics and charges his clients double or more for
issues I have a story in -- this is sheer gouging and I don't appreciate
it. (These are not back issues -- he does this with current issues).

Hi again, folks!

It's been a long, rainy summer and it's been a long night. For when I
arrived at my site again earlier today I discovered that I had no less
than 255(!) letters waiting for me to be read, and one other arrived
while reading them. I suppose I'm just lucky that my mail account
didn't crash altogether! I guess that any sane person would have quit
the list for the summer...

Anyways! It's good to be back, and now that I am, I will of course have
to give a few comments on discussions that you have forgotten a long
time ago. Actually, some of these are so old that I'm almost embarassed
to even mention them. However, I feal that a few things should be added
here and there.

First off are Torsten, Per and Harry from June 29th to July 1st.

Torsten:
>Source: Comics Buyer's Guide #1025 July 9, 1993 p. 132
>...
> "In the late 1970s and early 1980s the Walt Disney Studios
>produced approximately 20 feature-length stories featuring Mickey and
>Goofy. Many were written by Greg Crosby, now Vice President of
>International Marketing at Disney, and all were drawn by Jaime Diaz at his
>finest.

Per:
>Actually at least 14 of these have been published in Sweden:
>
>Title Pg Code
>------------------------------------------------
>Goofy da Vinci 44
>Goofy Columbus 44
>Goofy Galileo 44 S 76159
>Mickey Marco Polo 44 S 76179
>*Goofy Beethoven
>Goofy Gutenberg 44
>Goofy Arthur 44
>*Goofy Ulysses
>Goofy King Tut 44 S 78096
>King Goofy Midas 44
>Goofy Eiffel 44
>Around the World in 80 Days 44
>*Goofy Wilhelm Tell 44 S 80135
>
>There are some funny gags and situations in those stories, even though
>they are not very Disneyesque. Other opinions?

Harry:
>And there are a few other stories:
>
>*Goofy Frankenstein H
>*Goofy Hercules H
>*20000 miles under the sea H

Per, in a later letter admitted that the "Goofy Frankenstein" was also
published in Sweden. I could add to that that "20000 miles (leagues?)
under the sea" was also published in Sweden, although in another format.
Of this I am almost sure. I am completely sure that I have seen an
ad for that same comic in a German comic book, so several of the others
are probably published there as well.

As for the quality, they aren't, like Per says, very much like anything
that we are used to see under the Disney label. I, however, can't help
but loving those stories. When I was a few years younger I just adored
them and I could read them a million times (almost). Especially I liked
"Goofy King Tut" and "King Goofy Midas". Most of the others, although
not all of the same high quality, would in my opinion provide good value
for money. The lay-out is at best wonderfully weird and the pictures are
full of small details and jokes.

On another subject, Torsten wrote on July 11th:
>Ahem! Anyway, Uncle Scrooge Adventures #23 (shipping August 24th) is a
>special 64-page issue featuring, among other things, a unique "crossover"
>adventure drawn by Paul Murry! The Beagles and the Blot are after
>Scrooge's fantasticatillions ... It will take the combined efforts of
>Scrooge, Donald, Mickey, and Gyro ... to foil the villains and keep
>Scrooge's fortune intact!
>
>Full-scale "crossover" stories like this have always been rare in Disney
>comics, especially ones featuring such a stellar cast! Not only that, but
>this tale, originally published nearly twenty-eight years ago, contains
>among the very few face-to-face encounters in comics between Mickey Mouse
>and Uncle Scrooge McDuck!

Well, I can tell of at least one similar tale. That one is an Italian
comic spanning over more than two hundred pages to tell the story of how
Scrooge went to the Olympic Games in Seoul 1988. Part of it features
The Beagle Boys teamed up with Black Pete to rob poor Scrooge and Mickey
(and Donald, unless my memory fails) helps him (Scrooge, not Pete) out.
The art is pretty OK, but the story is far too long to be interesting in
the long run. In Sweden it was published in one part in Kalle Ankas
Pocket 98 while in Italy it was probably split up in several parts. The
number is I1708.

That's that I suppose.

/Fredrik Ekman

Harry noticed that the list is over a year old. Time really flies!

> I don't have the exact date of the first message. Per, maybe you can
> tell, plus give us some other interesting statistics like how many
> messages we mailed in the past year?

Whatever is meant with the "first message" the date is August 3, 1992.
First there are some test messages that I sent out when I hadn't added
any subscribers except myself. Probably those don't count. I don't
have the first such test anyway, because the first recorded one
(22:35:15 my local time) is titled "YAT (Yet Another Test)".

Then at 23:07:56 (still my local time, i.e., +0200), I sent out another
"first" message after adding a couple of members, namely those who
explicitly had asked me to add them if I got around to creating a
mailing list. (There were some others I more or less knew that they'd
like to take part, but I wanted to make sure that I didn't add anyone
who hadn't asked for it.)

Some statistics:

Year Month Number of messages
1992 Aug. 83 ****************************
Sept. 27 *********
Oct. 26 *********
Nov. 32 ***********
Dec. 36 ************
1993 Jan. 14 *****
Feb. 25 ********
March 100 *********************************
April 104 ***********************************
May 145 ************************************************
June 85 ****************************
July 48 ****************
Aug. 45+ ***************+

That's a total of 770 messages, up to this one.

Maybe I should make poster-oriented statistics too, like a top-ten
list of contributors? :-)
-- "
Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at student.docs.uu.se
"Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!"