Keskustelujen arkisto

ROB REEVES:
Yes, that boxed set of comics WAS available at Disney Stores,
but surely you realize the VAST difference in that item and in selling
actual comics for reading! That high-priced phony-collectible was
designed to be sold to the typical American "collectibles-lout"... it
was NOT to be opened - the comics were sealed in plastic which the buyer
(in that collectible-lout system) KNEW he was NOT to open and (horrors)
READ the material. And this repackaging of the comics removed them from
the category of a periodical publication which would need resupplying
and reordering and LOTS of paper work and effort on the store's part;
that boxed set of comics was exactly like the T-shirts and cuddly Ariel
dolls. Stocking it was easy, and buying it required no intellectual
involvement whatsoever.

WILLIAM HATHAWAY
Just as reading in America is alive and well among a select
group, using INTERNET (which involves reading) is also alive and well;
but you do know that is AGAIN a very tiny, select, "elite" group of
people. And if you're saying that all or even most computer users are
well-read, it has always been quite a joke to me to read some of the
messages posted by young computer-whiz kids, which seem to show that
they have little or no command of the language, and obviously read as
little as any other Americans.

> P. S. The title of this article sounded unusually desperate,
>but in fact was a Warner-Bros. cartoon reference. Anyone here get it?

"You wear a disguise/To look like human guys/But you're not a man/You're a
chicken, Boo!" ~8>

=============================================================================
M. Mitchell Marmel | Co-Chaircritter, Alt.Tasteless
Drexel University | Awards Committee, 1993
Department of Materials Engineering | *I CAN BE BOUGHT!*
Fibrous Materials Research Laboratory | marmelmm at dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu
============================================================================
=

David Pomarede:

Well, I decided to do my homework on the subject and search for any comics
I could find. I'm half french (my dad's french, my mother from Tennessee),
and some of my little cousins come to stay for the summer. Well, last summer
they left some "Le Journal Mickey" and some "Picsou Magazine" (Picsou is
Scrooge's french name) and I brouwsed the little books for any stories with
Gyro in them. What I found were evidence of the french calling him a STORK!
I dunno, maybe he's something other than a barn-yard animal. Please disregard
my last contribution. Personally, I think albino magpie sounds cooler.
By the by, what's the deal with his little lightbulb with legs?
===David===

re Gyro:
I was being a bit facetious in even bringing up the question of
what sort of critter Gyro is. I still think my idea as a child was most
accurate in the sense that Gyro isn't ANYTHING... or as someone here
just said, he's just "a weird bird".

TORSTEN:
Your comments combined with others in that Digest indicate a
fact I've learned in the last 7 years of doing these Duck comics -- no
matter what story I do, it will be some people's favorite, some people's
least favorite, with everyone else somewhere in between. Already I've
heard comments that the Lo$ #1 is one of my very best stories, as well
as people who think it was not much of a story, just a string of facts.
Myself, I agree sorta with that latter view, while at the same time I
feel that it was EXACTLY what I was trying to do; given the list of
facts I needed to cover in that chapter, and the progress I needed to
make in $crooge's life and character, I'm QUITE pleased with that
chapter, which is rare for me in regards to most of my own work. I will
apologise to you and any others who didn't think that was much of a
story... I'm afraid that you'll finf the REST of this series as being
similar -- I have a list of facts to deal with, a specific era in
$crooge's life and development to cover, and usually ONLY 15 PAGES to do
it in. I have always thought that this whole series will only read well
when it's printed in ONE volume. More on that in a sec.
I called Gladstone (Susan D-L) and told her that I enjoyed and
appreciated the excellent coloring job she did, but I asked if she might
consider dropping $crooge's brown hair when she could. At the time I
hadn't noticed that part about Fergus' hair turning white by the end of
the story. Also I am grateful for the extra trouble they went to in
having it lettered by Todd Klein, not one of their usual letterers, who
did a really special job.
$crooge's mother's eyes: just for variety, I gave her the
"floating" style -- Barks often gave background Duck characters
"floating" eyes. Besides, I'll be showing Matilda as having these sort
of eyes through her life, and Ma is who she gets 'em from. But there's
nothing unusual in those type eyes -- many Ducks and Geese and Coots
have 'em.
I wonder if that old Pogo baby was in the back of my head when I
gave Hortense her "glxblt". If it's the same gurgle, that would be
interesting. You won't see her again until 1885, and she'll be talking
clearly by then. Actually, when you next see her, I'll have made a bit
of an error in aging her a bit TOO fast -- in 1885 she'd be only 9 and
she would look like $crooge does in this part 1, but I draw her older.
I created that McDuck coat-of-arms, and I have RETHUNK it since
then. If I ever draw it again, I won't show a field of coins (which
tends to suggest the McDucks were RICH which they weren't); in the upper
section I'll show a single coin falling and an open hand, and in the
lower section will be a FIST -- that will suggest stinginess, not
richness.
If and when Gladstone compiles these stories into an album (at
least 2 years from now) I suspect it will be in 2 or 2 softback albums.
John once told me that he thinks albums that are priced at under $20
sell much better (that's why everything for sale in TV ads is $19.95),
and that means it can't all be in one album. I'm sure they'll include
the annotations, or maybe we'll expand on them somewhat. I don't know
about John (Gladstone), but when they publish an album of these chapters
in Norway, they've already requested to use the "lost scripts"... there
are the equivalent of about 3 full stories that Byron Erickson rejected.
I wouldn't mind people seeing these to see what stinker stories they
might have been inflicted with if not for Byron's editing.
A MAP of $crooge's travels might not be such a great idea. My
intention with this series is NOT to tell the story of ALL $crooge's
early adventures... just a superstructure which brings all of Barks' own
facts about $crooge under one roof. Other writers or myself should
always be able to add to that framework in the future -- I hope to
sometimes fall back and do other "untold tales" of $crooge's life. What
a WONDERFUL character he can be if a writer could tell a story from
ANYWHERE in his history from ANY point in his development! Is there any
other such character in fiction? (Oh, lots I guess. Horatio Hornblower.
Conan. etc., whose adventures skipped around in their history.)

ANDREW DAVIES:
I'm glad you liked that cover to UNCLE $CROOGE ADVENTURES #5 --
it was MY favorite as well -- in fact, it was the ONLY one of my own
covers that I liked so much that I kept it and I still carry it with me
to conventions for show. But as for the COLORING -- the printers
wouldn't cooperate with Gladstone when it came to coloring that cover,
and you never saw it as I intended it. In fact, you've never seen the
entire art for the cover -- in the background I had drawn an elaborate
Aurora Boraelis which was supposed to mix with a dark, starry night at
the top, with the sun rising behind $crooge and his whole body in
dramatic backlighting; you can still see a trace of that backlighting in
the way I did his coat, and perhaps in that weird blue smudge on his
face which was a puzzling, halfhearted remnant of that complex original
idea.
So... how do you people like it when I jabber this much? Don't
get me started!!!

TRYG:

Yep -- thass right; it's Henery Hawk! I have at least one cartoon
featuring him; possibly even the one that David referred to. Hey, David! Time
to 'fess up: what cartoon/which character didja have in mind?

Also, Tryg, if my postings are deifficult to read, it is probably due to how I
write'em: on a glorified-typewriter kind of texteditor on a VAX/VMS terminal
with no fringies like mouse, windows or desktop -- just command-words of the
"go-to" variety; and also the keyboard settings might play tricks -- I
obviously use a Swedish alphabet setting.

DON:

Go on -- write as long postings as you like too; they're always good
reading, being well-written, funny, well-versed, opinionated and from a friend.
No need to stay short, 'lessen ya wanna.

And speaking of reading -- not that I think you're necessarilly wrong; but
huccome reading is such a little cared for pastime in America? I mean, out of a
pop. of approx 250 MILLION, there ought to be quite a few literati -- even
considering your statistically high rates of semi- or total analphabetism.

Here in Sweden, as you know, the problem has never been to get kids (or adults)
to read comics -- but that in intellectual circles, reading comics haven't
actually counted as really reading at all! There are PICTURES with the words!!!
That this is a completely off-the-mark concept has never bothered that
particular brand of nit-wits, who wouldn't know the first thing about what is
good comics or bad, and how comics rely on the INTERPLAY of word and picture,
and is in it's own way a perfectly complex and if so desired complicated
reading matter. Oh, well...

BJORN-ARE:

No, we haven't discussed the reception in Norway of Gottfredson's
"Thursday".

All me usual best!

Mattias

Thanks to everybody who sent answers to my question about the "Valdres March".
Chris Mickey's #1 Fan!! :) :)

David Pomarede:
Sorry guys, when I said that I thought I heard Gyro say that he had some
poultry heritage, I was probably wrong because I was relying on what I could
remember, and not what I had looked up. Next time I'll try to do my homework
on the subject. I don't know, do you really think that it was Henery Hawk?
Anyway, thanks for correcting me.
==Dave==