Keskustelujen arkisto

David wrote:
> BTW I'm a real fan
> of Dutch Duck artist Mau Heymans. This guy could be the next Duck craze
> in the U. S. if the stories with better scripts are chosen for use. I
> think he writes them himself, because they're jammed with alliterative
> phrasing that seems unique.... as well as distinctive billboards in
> the background with weird advertising slogans on them.

I always thought the Dutch editors gave him the best scripts they had (by
Evert Geradts, for example). And maybe the backgrounds are his own addition.

Is there any chance the (hilarious) Telepatoo story will be printed in the
U.S.?

--Harry.

Dear Folks,

I just had a chat with John Clark. He told me what was in the
DD 60th Anniversary comic... and ALSO he gave me permission, when I
asked him, to tell you guys what's in it. It will contain:

Donald in "The Secret of Mars" by Frederico Pedrocchi.
Donald and Mickey in "The Case of the Vanishing Coats" by
Floyd Gottfredson.
Donald in "The Victory Garden" by Carl Barks. (1st Barks
ten-page story)
Donald in the 60th Birthday story by Don Rosa (I don't actually
know much about it, Don...)
Some new gags to go between the long stories, by William Van Horn.
(These are being made especially for Gladstone and have not been
printed before.)

Aside from the hitherto-unknown Pedrocchi, this is a who's who
of the top American Disney cartoonists!

The Mau Heymans birthday story "A Plot Against Donald" has
been bumped from the comic due to lack of length (boy, I sure didn't
expect the Gottfredson story!). It will instead appear in some other
summer issue of the Duck comics.

My dialogues in general, BTW, will really start this summer.
He's just got in a shipload of the proofs from Egmont and is now going
to schedule July's issues, so he'll begin inserting them.

However, you'll get a taste of what's to come when "The Hoard
at the Rainbow's End" comes out next week! I'm really anxious to hear
what you think, because I greatly preferred the end result here to
"Bugged by Humbuggery" a few months ago.

That's all for now. >MWAH!< Goodnight everybody!

David
<David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu>

MATTIAS:
Last thought:
Stefan's editor friend doesn't need any permission, preliminary
or otherwise, to use the corrected version of the "GotLL" story which
I've sent to Gladstone. The license they have with Disney gives them
full permission to use it. Besides, the corrections are my property if
anyone's since no one has paid me to do them. It's just a matter of
finding out when the corrections are needed so I don't need to break my
leg getting them there if there's no need.

Geir couldn't be bothered to read his free copy of Norwegian Donald
Duck. You should give #1/1994 a chance as it contains a recordbreaking
27 pages of Dutch stories, of which only the Mau Heymans story made it
into the other Nordic issues. You - on the other hand - may feast your
eyes on a Jippes 10 pager just-like-if-not-better-than-Barks (H 7418).

Harry doesn't like pocket books Made in Italy, but only 14 have been
published in Holland, whereas Danes can pick up #150 this month.
In Norway it's #64 and the Germans must be close to #200. Incidentally
these books are very popular here; so popular that second-hand shops
will only trade them for others, not common comic books. (I guess it
has something to do with collector's disease. The ads go something like
"There are now xxx Jumbo Books, have you got'em all?") And as it has
been stated here before, the quality of the art has improved in the
later years. I had to buy a digest, which featured a story (I 1948) in
which Clarabelle read a fairy tale to Morty and Ferdie: "Mickey Mouse
and the Troubadour of Camelot." The story is colored in red-scale and
has the old pie-eyed Mickey and Minnie appearing in a medieval setting.
This ties in with the recent character/actor discussion, and I think
Italian scripters are the most faithful to Floyd Gottfredson, whose
introduction to the Abbeville book BTW kicks off with the words:
"Mickey Mouse is an actor."

Photographs of Barks unlawful? Finnish #52b/1993 (a Barks/Gyro special)
has 3 pictures of him including a signed full back cover color photo.
I think they are copyrighted 1993 by "The Good Fellows." There's also
an interview from Atlanta. Could somebody translate this bit?

(@ = a-with-two-dots)
Markku Kivek at s: Arvioisitko nykyisi@ ankkataiteilijoita?
Carl Barks: Jaa, tunnen heist@ vain kaksi - Don Rosan ja William van
Hornin. Pid at n kyll@ molempien aikaansaannoksista. Williamin grafiikka
muistuttaa enemm at n minun tyyli at ni. Rosa puolestaan ahtaa ruudut t at yteen
yksityiskohtia - jopa liiankin kanssa. Muuten, olen suunnittelemassa
k at sikirjoitusta uuteen Roope-seikkailuun, jonka William ty"ost@@ valmiiksi.

Did Adolf Kabatek really do the "Treasure Chest" series? He is only
credited for the idea, and in CB&Co.#18 an Alfonso MolinBH from Spain
tells that Francisco BargadNS runs the Recreo Studio in Barcelona. They
make S-coded stories and "recently did [...] Der Regengott von Uxmal."
That's ten years ago.

Don is mildly annoyed at some statements from Geoffrey Blum, that have
surfaced in an interview with Daan Jippes. These had been translated
through a handful of languages and were entirely out of any context.
I have most issues of CB&Co. and just got access to a scanner, so I
can at least "render into machine-readable form" the latest two issues.
The older ones are type-written and don't translate too well. I already
have the Geoffrey Blum interview that takes up half of CB&Co.#19. If
it's not a hanging offence, I could put it on the index/archive list for
those who understand Danish gobbledigook. Just give me the word, Per.
And I know you're watching me, in case my feather-brained brother tries
anything funny with my mail!
Just after mailing my last letter I got to read the most recent mail,
which happened to consist mainly of inquiries to, transcripts and
translations from Carl Barks & Co. #20. When I asked you to "beg on
your knees" for translations, I had no idea you already *did*.
Don't, oh please don't, type more of it, Don, I can see you obviously
labored over it. Though I couldn't spot a single error, I think that
"I'm a better writer than Don Rosa." (To be quoted out of context:)

For those of you who've read this far, here's the prize.
As promised, I have translated one (the shortest) of the interviews
in Carl Barks & Co.#20. The Jippes interview is roughly three times
as long. If somebody wants a go at it, I can make a scan of it.

If some of the following doesn't make too much sense, remember that
it has been translated from Italian, via German to Danish before it
even got to the point where I could mess it up.

========================================================================

INTERVIEW with MARCO ROTA from CARL BARKS & CO. #20
(translated from Danish by Ole Reichstein in January 1994)

Introduction by Klaus Strzyz

Italian Disney artists don't always have the best reputation in Northern
Europe. Their stories are often considered wild and chaotic, their style
too fast and inaccurate. That this point of view is justification can be
ascertained in numerous Jumbo books. But the following interview with
Marco Rota should prove, that there is more to it than that.

Marco Rota rose to become art-director at the large Italian licencee
Arnoldo Mondadori, and kept this position until Disney itself took over
publishing in Italy. On that occasion he was sidetracked by internal
intrigues, so he left the editorial staff of his own accord. Today his
work with Disney characters is limited to freelance projects. He has
among other things contributed with stories to the Scandinavian Egmont
group.

Marco Rota was born on September 18.th 1942 in Milan. He did his first
professional job at the age of 16, but it would take another 13 years
before he had his first Disney story published. It was "Topolino e la
tigre col fiocco" from June 6.th 1971 in Topolino #10. His style is
characterized by a calm, without the hectic course usually seen in
Italian licenced productions. A typical example of his elegant style is
Almanacco Topolino #277 from 1980 with the story "Le avventure di Mac
Paperin - L'arrosta della salvezza", now reprinted by Egmont.
Also some other stories from the early 80'es. The last monday issue of
Anders And & Co. #35/93 had a 12 page Rota episode from his current
freelance period.

The following interview was done by Luca Boschi and is from September
1986. It is translated from the German version in a book about Disney
artists edited by Klaus Strzyz: Das Imperium der Maus, 2.nd edition.

Luca Boschi: - How long have you been working professonally on comics?

Marco Rota: - It dates back to 1958, when I was 16 years old and full
of enthusiasm. My first comic was a western titled "Steve Morgan, il
trappolatore," that went as a serial in a weekly from the publishing
house Dardo in Milan. After that I worked a while for "Tarzanetto"
before I in 1963 came to Mondadori, where I drew chapters with Super-
man and Batman in the publication "Albi del Falco." For the - in Italy
very esteemed - weekly ABC I developed in 1966 some erotic comics with
a main character Mustine and her parents Sado and Maso. Then I did a
comic in Nordic settings, "Ringo il Vichingo."

- When did you come to Topolino?

- In 1962 I did a book for Mondadori with automobiles from yesterday,
today and tomorrow, where I contributed with both black/white and color
illustrations. At that time I was offered a full time job as an artist
in the house, so a couple of months later I joined the editorial staff
of Topolino.

- From the beginning you seem to be inspired by the American school.
Which artists did you like the most?

- Floyd Gottfredson, Al Taliaferro, Carl Barks and also Paul Murry.
Especially Murry's work seems at first glance somewhat childish, but
after a closer look you see, that he has a great narrative and
graphical talent at his disposal.
Gottfredson is of course the master, with respect to Mickey Mouse.
The weight and the anatomical building of the characters gives him a
high star on Disney's firmament. And especially the stories from the
30'es and 40'es display an unsurpassed synthesis of graphics and
narration. Taliaferro was a great artist, who unfortunately never got
to do longer stories, where he really could have excelled.
But the one who influenced me the most was Carl Barks. His stories
fascinated me right from my childhood. Apart from his outstanding
dramaturgy his stories are imbued with a caricature of reality, that
makes them more interesting than they already are. His drawings can
almost better be seen as photo documentaries from Duckburg, which
appears as a real existing place.

- You have said, that you should draw Mickey Mouse with a brush, but
Donald Duck with a pen. Why?

- Because you need some agitated, sharp and biting strokes sometimes,
when you draw the ducks. The pen is in that case more realistic, the
environment has more credibility and the caricature is close to
reality. I don't get the same effect at all with a brush, if I use
it to ink the ducks with. You risk that the effect is vague, rubbery
and powerless. For the mouse on the other hand it is fine, as that
figure almost entirely consists of circles, ovals and curves. The
mouse becomes gentler by nature, and the inking gets more fluent and
harmonic. Even though Gottfredson has used a pen quite a lot too.

- Which Italian artists do you like the most and who do in your opinion
come closest to the Disney style.

- Generally: Milo Manara, Hugo Pratt, Aurelio Gallepini, Guido Crepax,
Gino d'Antonio and Guido Buzelli. The Disney artists: Romano Scarpa,
Giovan Battista Carpi, Massimo de Vita and Giorgio Cavazzano. Romano
Scarpa is also a first class letterer and the greatest interpreter of
the full Disney universe. Carpi too is a first class artist, who with
Massimo de Vita has created some of the most beautiful stories lately,
whose original soul and feel for creativity has renewed drawing tech-
nique.

- Before you became art director not much care was put into the covers
of the Disney publications. Usually they were drawn by Gioseppe Perego,
who was also responsible for the prologues in the Jumbo Books. What
have you changed.

- At that time only a gag - unrelated to the contents - was shown on the
cover. The idea was, that the books were addressed to children, and you
didn't have to care about the adult readers. In the 60'es and 70'es
they became aware that adults read comics too, and because of that it
was decided in 1980 to change the covers, where you adapted the motive
to the contents. This pertained especially to Topolino. Since then,
news have been mentioned, or a recruiting campaign or a short concluded
story.

- How do you develop your stories?

- I often start with a random, isolated idea, which I put down in a
sketch. When I am convinced that of the idea's validity I write a
short synopsis. And where do the ideas come from? I got "Scrooge and
the depot in the sea" from a cover gag somebody sent to the monthly
Topolino without it being used before I decided to make a story from
it. Then there are all the people I know, who live out of town, but
work in the city - that gave me the idea for "Donald as a pendler."
Sometimes it hits me as a lightning from a clear sky, as the time when
I was standing on the pier in the Ligurian fishing village Varigotti
with my three year old son. I told him about pirates and pointed at
an old tower on a cape, and later that becme "Donald Duck and the
night of the Saracen." I try to include realistic things along the way
to give the story a special geographic conciseness. While developing
the theme I do preliminary drawings, sketches and studies, also of
surroundings, vehicles, interiors and costumes. Gradually I build up
a storyboard, where the picture sequence and the final text is worked
out. I also start inking while parts of the story are still open. After
this it also happens, that I change pictures or swaps some things,
because I have difficulty being totally content with my work.

- Abroad you are considered the Italian artist, who carries over Barks'
style best. What does that mean to you?

- It is a great satisfaction to me. For some artists it is impossible
to step in other's footprints, because if it doesn't work too well,
they start to doubt their own creativity. But if the goal is adjusted,
so it won't be a defeat but an improvement of youir own quality, the
process is laudable. For me the starting point is Barks. Maybe it is
also a weakness or a nostalgic retrospection or seeking a classic form
of general expressiveness, where the goal would be a possibility of
total confusion with Barks? But there is also a reassurance in that,
which I admit for the first time in public. I believe I am the first
in Italy to openly discuss this possibility or risk. My first story
is from 1972 and quite clearly expresses my wish to practically express
what I have dreamt of so many times.

- Did you recieve any reactions from your readers then.

- Yes, there were phonecalls, a few reviews and letters too. Of course
they didn't arrive at my address, as it wasn't signed, but at Topo-
lino's offices, where I was presented them by my boss. I 1979 I even
got a letter signed by 24 readers in their 30'es, professing them-
selves passionately as Donald Duck fans. It was a letter taking a
quite critical stance to the general style of Topolino's production
at that time, and it gave me a certain pride to feel, that my stories
with Donald as a pendler were mentioned as a prominent example, where
the old humor and tradition shined through, instead of the common
platitudes and banalities. Such statements were enough for me, because
it told me, that the readers acknowledged that I tried to live up to
the barksistic qualities. I can thank Barks for all that.

- Now and then tiny drawings with the signature "Marks" appear,
obviously a dedication to him. How did this trademark arise?

- The idea arose one day in Mario Gentilini's office. He was the
editor-in-chief of Topolino at that time. Every time I was in there
I saw a picture on the wall by Carl Barks, where Scrooge pushes a
wheelbarrow full of money. Underneath was the dedication: To Mario
Gentilini, Carl Barks. This drawing inspired me to implant a tiny
drawing in my stories signed Marks, so I achieved a phonetic
correspondance and at the same time openly admitted to my inspiration.

- Some years ago a problem was recognized at Mondadori regarding the
improvement of the art, and at that time you advised people to adjust
to Taliaferro and not barks. How come?

- Because you can learn a lot from Taliaferro, and I still think so.
Of course I then refer to his best period between 1940 and 1945. If
you study him, you can clearly see how the ducks and other characters
should be drawn most correctly, how a scene should be established and
the cinematic rhytm can be be played. Another important factor is,
that you can then study the duck and the mouse in the same tradition
of design, as Taliaferro's style can also refer to Gotfredson's Mickey
Mouse qualities.

- And how has the artists taken to your advise?

- It didn't work out too well. Taliaferrro has never been especially
recognized as a rolemodel by collegues. On top of that we got a load
of stills from the movie division as reference and ran into further
problems. There was only one artist who succeeded in approximating
Taliaferro, Guido Scala, but his style already showed some correspon-
dance before that.

- If you disregard your works, and some of Bottaro's and Scarpa's,
Italian produced stories are not in high esteem with foreign readers.
What is the biggest mistake that has been made?

- The faults are probably more in the art than the stories. Though some
lack of systematics in the psychological cope of the characters must
be admitted. Mickey Mouse has become a simple detective, who almost
mechanically works with the police. The settings have been provincial
and the international aspect was for a while only lightly accentuated.

- Apparently you have a weakness for vikings, since several stories take
place in earlier times?

- Yes, I always liked the sagas and medieval chronicles. It was an age
of obscurity, and there's something secretive about viking stories.
These themes haven't been exhausted by other writers either.

- In "The night of the saracen" you hid quite a few names of other
editors of Topolino. How did that arise, and did the readers notice?

- Already in "Donald Duck as a pendler" I had some caricatures. I like
having real people in the story, and I think that emphazises the ducks.

- And what about the names?

- They are hidden in small drawings along the way. For those who know
and look for it it can be a bonus, but so far nobody has succeeded in
finding them all.

- What is the major problem, when you try to adapt to the Disney style
and the various characters?

- The graphic synthesis, the original line and the anatomical characte-
ristics takes much practice, to be combined with an expressive fluent
dynamic narration. To master not only the main characters but also the
varied gallery of the supporting characters is a complex process, also
because you must transform all humanoid expressions to the style of the
animal caricatures. I basically think, that the duck universe is easier
to make homogenous and effective than Mickey Mouse and his gallery.
With Mickey you take a risk of making him a little man, and that's not
desirable. But often you see him drawn in a way that if you took off
his head, you are left with a bad caricature of a human. The humerous
and poetic has also diminished by the removal of the short pants, so
now you've got a somewhat dull humanoid, that in terms of expressive-
ness can not compete with the ducks.

- What advise would you give to a young artist wanting to try out with
the Disney ducks?

- You definitely should not believe you are a new Rafaell, who stoops to
spending a rich talent on something as trivial as comics. Also remember
that the world of Disney characters is mainly produced for children's
consumption, then you automatically realize the limitations of the
litterary and graphical means of expression. But you must also remember
that adults too have always been moved by the expressiveness of these
characters, when they have been used well, and thus don't fall short of
Goldoni and MoliBHre. Then you have to like the characters, be enthused
by them, have fun with them and about them, so your work doesn't become
a dull routine. Then you must follow the style, that corresponds best
with your own skills, and study it for so long that you are on intimate
terms with the characters. As for the characters, I recommend that you
thoroughly sketch moves, expressions and traits of personality. Then
you must join the seperate panels so that the reading runs freely from
picture to picture in a logic course. Inking the pencils is done with
brush or pen, but never with rapidograph. You must subdue your ambi-
tions of a personal expression and remember that many artists before
you already perfected the expression of character. We have an obliga-
tion to carry on the work in an existing tradition and to try to keep
the level of quality that the best performers have reached. If we do
remember that, we will also be aware that the personal sensitivity and
talent of an artist will always shine through, and in that way you will
always put something of yourself into the work, even if it is a commis-
sioned work with set principal lines.

========================================================================

Can we have another quiz, huh? (And make it *hard*, 'cause I cheat.)

Arrividerci.

- Ole Reichstein -

Ole "RoC" Reichstein wrote:
> Geir couldn't be bothered to read his free copy of Norwegian Donald
> Duck. You should give #1/1994 a chance as it contains a recordbreaking
> 27 pages of Dutch stories, of which only the Mau Heymans story made it
> into the other Nordic issues. You - on the other hand - may feast your
> eyes on a Jippes 10 pager just-like-if-not-better-than-Barks (H 7418).

This is THE best Jippes story ever made. It was first published in the
Dutch DD 43, 1977, the 25th anniversary issue. Jippes made the script in
1974 (hence the code H7418), but he penciled it not before 1976, and then
the editors let Ben Verhagen ink it. For several months after publication
I thought the story was a Barks story (we only had very incomplete Barks
indexes then...)

The story was reprinted in the first Gladstone WDC issue. I'm surprised
it hasn't been printed before in Norway, but maybe this is a REprint?

> Harry doesn't like pocket books Made in Italy, but only 14 have been
> published in Holland, whereas Danes can pick up #150 this month.

No, there have been more than 100 in Holland. They started with a new
series twice. The 1st series had numbers 1-11, the 2nd series 1-77 or so.
The 3rd series (issues 1-14) are all in colour, while the
previous series were half b/w. All books are translated from German.

And there are a few Italian stories in the pocket books that I do like...

> In Norway it's #64 and the Germans must be close to #200.

Germany published over 220 "Lustige Taschenbuecher", plus some other digest-
sized books called "Donald Duck". They also reprinted and re-reprinted all
of this in "Jumbo" books.
These books are on sale in many Dutch places where a lot of Germans come.

I once saw a reprint of a Gottfredson story in a pocket book (some "ghost"
story from the 40s), and they sometimes have S-coded stories (Strobl) as
fillers.

BTW: One of the Danish pocket books seems to have a cover by Ulrich Schroeder,
based on a sketch by Barks. It shows Donald and the nephews slicing a pie.
I saw a very small copy in an ad.
I think the Carl Barks Library also mentions this sketch. Does anyone
know more about this?

(In the next quote, @ is an unreadable character on my PC)
> Did Adolf Kabatek really do the "Treasure Chest" series? He is only
> credited for the idea, and in CB&Co.#18 an Alfonso Molin@ from Spain
> tells that Francisco Bargad@ runs the Recreo Studio in Barcelona. They
> make S-coded stories and "recently did [...] Der Regengott von Uxmal."
> That's ten years ago.

The Treasure Chest stories were the first subject I ever put on this list.
I think we concluded then that Kabatek _wrote_ the stories. In the album
about Scotland, there is an introductory text about "the editor who went
to Scotland", meaning Kabatek. So it's likely he wrote the stories (and most
of the others.)

Recreo also does stories for Egmont.

> INTERVIEW with MARCO ROTA from CARL BARKS & CO. #20
> (translated from Danish by Ole Reichstein in January 1994)

Thank you very much!
It seems our short summary of Rota stories was quite complete ("quite" in
the Van-Horn-list sense of the word 8-).

> Marco Rota was born on September 18.th 1942 in Milan. He did his first
> professional job at the age of 16, but it would take another 13 years
> before he had his first Disney story published. It was "Topolino e la
> tigre col fiocco" from June 6.th 1971 in Topolino #10.

Can someone translate this title?

--Harry.

DON:

I talked to Stefan this afternoon, and he said that generally speaking, he
would need the script and such a.s.a.p.; BUT! Do nothing till you hear from us!
Stefan will get print-outs of the last few days postings sometime during the
week-end, and next week he'll talk to his editor. AFTER THAT he/I will get back
to you, but for the time being: don't inconvenience yourself or John Clark or
anyone! We don't REALLY know yet how much use the material would be, and
there's no cause to go to any major amount of uncalled for trouble, is there?
But thanks anyway! from Stefan, for your ambition to help -- and sorry we're
pestering you with all this!

Mattias

For those who came in late:
David Gerstein asked whether the name of an Arab MM villain, Yussuf
Aiper, was a pun. I said the name should be pronounced "Yussuf Viper",
to show that the character is like a snake. Don Rosa then wrote:
> I still need help. How do you get "Aiper" to be pronounced
> "eye-per"? It has to be "ay-per". And even if it was "eye-per", I still
> don't see the full pun in "Yussaf Aiper" -- how does the second syllable
> fit in? (I didn't wonder about all this until you tried explaining it!)
>
I agree that this is a feeble pun. I still assume it has to be
pronounced "eye-per" rather than "ay-per", since "Yussuf Vapor" wouldn't
make much sense at all. Also consider: normally within a word, "ei" makes
an "eye" sound ("height"), but at the start of a word it makes an "ay"
sound ("eight"), and conversely "ai" makes an "ay" sound within a word
("straight"), but at the start of a word it makes an "eye" sound ("aisle"),
so "Aiper" would be pronounced "eye-per" whereas "ay-per" would have to
be spelled "Eiper". (All together now - "Huh???".)

But you're right, the "Yussuf" part doesn't really work. The only
way that I can interpret "Yussuf Aiper" is "You'se a viper", which would
be 1930's gangster-speak for "You're a snake", and this doesn't make sense.
His name should mean "**I'm** a snake", not "**You're** a snake". [BTW,
in real 1930's gangster-speak, "You'se a viper" would actually be under-
stood to mean "You're a person who smokes marijuana a lot", as fans of Cab
Calloway's songs can attest (Mattias???). This is in reference to the
snake-like hissing sound such a person produces when inhaling a deep drag
on a joint (Puff, the Magic Drag-On). But I digress.]

Anyway, we agree that "Yusuf Aiper", if in fact that means "You'se
a viper", doesn't work. It would make more sense if his name were "Yusuf
Ik'Tim", maybe. I suppose it should really be "Imaf Aiper", but I don't
believe that "Imaf" is a real Arabic name. (Note, however, that apparent-
ly "Iman" is acceptable as a woman's name, since that is the sole name
used by the internationally famous Somali fashion model who is now Mrs.
David Bowie. So a heroine in the story could be named "Iman Izgal".)

Meanwhile, Harry Fluks, our resident expert on 1990's gagster-speak, has
his own theory on "Yussuf Aiper":
> I think, if you pronounce it right, it's clear the name refers to us: we're
> all making *use of a Per*.
>
Ouch!!!! Any more puns like that and we may be denied further use!

Wilmer Rivers

RoC:
Thanks very much for that translation of the Marco Rota
interview! That was great.
But you also prefaced it with some other paragraphs, and I see
my name in one section:
"Don't, oh please don't type more of it, Don, I can see that you
labored over it. Though I couldn't spot a single error, I think that
'I'm a better writer than Don Rosa' (to be quoted out of context)."
Naturally, since my name is involved, this paragraph is of
interest to me, but I can no more make any sense out of any of it than
if it were in Swedish or Brutopian. I should please not type more of
WHAT? I labored over WHAT? You couldn't spot a single error in WHAT?
Where does the "I'm a better writer than DR" line come from, if
anywhere? What's quoted out of context? Trying to read this and make
sense out of any of it made me feel like I suddenly became dyslexic!
What was this paragraph all about anyway?

HARRY:
No, you're right, Barks has made more use of the JWW emblem in
the paintings of the past 20 years than he ever did in the comics. I
don't think he used the initial-emblem more than a half-dozen times in
the old comics... maybe not even that many. But you DID say that the
Dutch use the "JWW" because the Dutch translation of the name of the
Junior Woodchucks of the World is made of words that ALSO have "J.W.W."
as the initials -- isn't that right??? If that is true, then Holland
could make very good use of my alterations to "GotLL" to add the
plot-twist that involves those the "JWW" emblem.

After reading the various explanations of the pun in "Yussaf
Aiper", I have come to the conclusion that there IS no pun in "Yussaf
Aiper". It's just a name.

Interesting news about Gladstone's use of my Lo$ series: they
just heard back from Disney about approval on part 3. Disney is
requiring Gladstone to alter the art on pages 3 and 4 to remove the guns
being pointed in $crooge's face. Apparently it's okay to show guns, but
they can only be used for shooting into the ceiling to get people's
attention or something. I think they'll take the photostat art and twist
the gun hands to point the guns upward rather than Duckward. I really
don't object to this -- maybe it's such a tiny change as to be silly?
But Disney has told Gladstone (or warned them?) that they allow many
things in my stories that they'd never allow in any other Disney tales
since they feel that my stories are aimed more at older readers anyway.
This is nice to know, and it shows an encouraging attitude on Disney's
part that they are willing to understand and allow the idea that Disney
comic books can and should have different sorts of stories for different
sorts of readers, and not just shoot at the lowest common denominator. I
hope readers of the Egmont Disneys in places like Sweden or Denmark can
convince those editors of this concept as well!