Keskustelujen arkisto

Hi this is Trent asking if you guys write the Disney Comics?

On Thu, 24 Feb 1994, Robert Reeves wrote:
> Since I bought the complete hardbound "library" from a fellow who needed $$ to
> buy model trains, I've stayed away from the albums. The comic books on the
> other hand seem to be more 'fun.' After the first couple of weeks with the
> library I seemed to be looking at it less and less. I would never sell it
> though, odd as that may be. Maybe it's like those boxed-set CD collections
> that are all the rage, you know you should have it (as a permanant reference)
> but the 'originals' are like old friends.

My favorite Disney comics are dog-eared Gold-Key/Western issues
from the 1960s and 1970s.

Now, about reprints... I remember some decent Gold Key stories
with Moby Duck. Is there a reason why he hasn't appeared recently?

And what do you all think about using Emil Eagle (Super Goof's
foe) as a Duck villain? I think he would make a decent nemesis for the
Junior Woodchucks.

Torsten Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu Omaha, NE, USA (via NZ)

P. S. Gladstone kinda blew it with "Rocket Wing." The story
was reprinted by Disney in a regular comic, their 3-D special, in
summer 1992. I know very few fans who missed that special edition.
Or many who didn't have eyestrain after reading it ;-) BTW The 1933
Gottfredson Sunday strip in that comic is reprinted NOWHERE else.

P. P. S. Maybe Gladstone decided to print "Rocket Wing"
anyway because the 3-D printing, with major changes in the art to make
it 3-D, didn't count as a "real" reprint to Gladstone. In that case
I'd like to see that MM Sunday strip again... ;-)

<David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu>

GIL:
Take it easy. Maybe I'm just falsely modest to fish for
complements.
Or you should be the fly on my ceiling not more than 5 minutes
ago before I got up from the drawin' board and was cussin' myself
because I couldn't get a view of Donald anywhere near right.

Gary Leach said:

>>Just want everyone out there to know
>>that we are finally entering a rather interesting period in our publishing
>>history at Gladstone, when not only Van Horn and Rosa are coming our way via
>>Egmont, but stories by Michael T. and Janet Gilbert, Dave Rawson, Pat
>>McGreel-all American writers-as well.

Cool! Does that mean we'll be seeing Mr. Monster going after Bombie Zombie
and Witch Hazel?? :^) Just kidding! But what is Michael Gilbert working on?
I've always enjoyed his work, since I first saw it in Elric all those years
ago.

Harry wrote:
> Here's my proposal for a Disney-comics Database format.

And here are my comments. Let me just say first that I think you have
done a brilliant job on this so far. Most of my comments are just
minor remarks.

> Story code
> ~~~~~~~~~~
> [...]
> For the other publishers, we use mainly the codes they deliver themselves,
> maybe with some normalization:

Yes, some sort of normalization would be necessary. Perhaps also a
reasonably "smart" program to take care of such normalization on behalf
of the user (ie, you don't have to remember the exact format for a code
when you make a search).

> Database files
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> [...]
> (Our 'don-rosa' and 'van-horn' lists will not be generated from the database,
> because they have a lot of extra information that doesn't fit (?))

At least we'll keep them until we see that we CAN generate more or less
identical files from the database.

> Story files
> ~~~~~~~~~~~
> These files contain one line per story with information that can be used
> in the various lists, and zero or more lines with extra information that
> will not be accessible for other lists (e.g. exact dates for pencilers/
> inkers in the Mickey Mouse newspaper files).

Why not just state that every line beginning with a semi-colon (or
whatever) is treated as a comment and let this be true for the issue
files as well? That way you can squeeze in all the extra info you
want.

> Data fields:
>
> [...]
> - number of entire pages (2 characters should be enough...)

Should is the keyword here. However, as you know, there are some Italian
comics with well over 100 pages. True, these are mostly split up in
several parts, each with their own unique code. BUT, when some of these
are published in thick paperbacks in Sweden and other countries, they
are in one part and often with all codes save the first removed. Thus,
if some lunatic were to index these in the future and did not know (or
did not care) about this, he/she would need three characters. So if we
can afford three characters for this field, I suggest we use that, just
to make sure.

> - indication for number of broken pages:
> space = none, '+' = somewhere between 0 and 1 (need we be more exact?)

No, '+' should do.

> - (start) date, in the form yy/mm/dd

Isn't the international standard yy-mm-dd? If I didn't get some kind of
explanation, yy/mm/dd would confuse me at least.

> - title hero (2 [or 3?] characters. DD, US etc. We'll need a list of
> Disney characters. I like Tryg's abbreviation for Gyro: GY is better than
> the GG or GyG we used so far.

Two characters should be enough. Little Bad Wolf and a few others could
cause problems, but LW is good enough, I think. I, too, like GY.

> - title tag (2 characters):
> T: original title
> R: story has no original title, title of one of the reprints given
> D: story never had a title, some "official" Gladstone description given
> O: story never had a title, the indexer gives an own description
> H: Dutch title or description (I plan to create H-lists and D-lists from
> my Dutch index, but I don't plan to translate all the titles! If a
> story is reprinted in the USA, that title can be listed. Or should
> we list both?)
>
> - title or description
> I know Per prefers additions like 'in' and quotes, as in:
>
> T:DD in "No Such Varmint".
>
> I myself prefer a title without any additions, and all lower case, like:
>
> T:no such varmint
>
> It seems desirable to separate the title hero from the (rest of the) title.
> That would mean titles like:
>
> T:in "No Such Varmint"
>
> which I think makes less sense.
> How shall we do this?

This is where I have my only major disagreement with you. I think this
should be in the issue files. Unnecessary? Well, that field will be
filled with spaces in the issue files anyway, right? And that way, it
will be easier to fit in (say) the Danish titles of Ole's index or any
other future non-american indices. The story files would include a
description, normally the original English title in the same form that
you propose above. The issue file title would then be in Per's format
(which I too prefer, if we have to go with your proposal). The obvious
disadvantage with all this would obviously be that someone will have
to type in BOTH the story file description AND the issue file title
for any new entries. Well, you can't have everything. :-)

I'd like your comments on this one, Harry.

> - remarks
> Is it OK to put Tryg's information about occurring characters here, or
> should it be a separate entry? Remember: we only have that information
> for a very limited set of stories. It seems not suitable to reserve
> a special field for this in all story-files.

Why not just on comment lines like those I suggested above?

> Issue files
> ~~~~~~~~~~~

No comments here, except for those already given above.

> Current issue files (to be transformed):
> - gladstone-disney
> - swedish (from Crone's list, and maybe from the NAFS(k) list on ftp)
> - danish (only if Ole wants to do it...)
> - dutch

If noone beats me to it (I've quite a lot to do these days) I will also
make issue files from the Swedish info in the Rosa and Van Horn indices,
so that it will be possible to make database searches on those stories,
at least.

> That's it for now. Let the reviews begin...

The only thing that I really missed from your post was info about how
you plan to make the programs, especially the user interface. Will you
have command line parameters, or do you plan to invent your own
database language? The latter would certainly be preferrable if we
still plan to make an email service out of this (like someone proposed
when this was discussed in the past). Also; will the user be able to
do case-insensitive searches and the like?

Another feature I'd like to see in the program(s) is generation of
(optional) legends for each output produced. Such a legend would
consist of a short natural language description of what the output
consists of and explanations for used abbreviations. Here is an
nonsense example of how that could look:

"This file is created with the [name of program, et c]. It contains
information about:

Stories by Carl Barks published in WDC 100-200.

Used abbreviations for creators:

CB = Carl Barks

Used abbreviations for comics:

WDC = Walt Disney's Comics and Stories

Used abbreviations for characters:

DD = Donald Duck
[et c]"

Info of this sort is really quite easy to generate. It would of course
require that the program have access not only to the story/issue files
but also to the files explaining all those abbreviations.

/F

Torsten Wesley Adar wanted our thoughts about using Emil Eagle in Duck comics.
This has already been done several times here in Norway, mostly in the 70s
and early 80s, pitting Emil against Gyro Gearloose. Not very good stories,
though. I can also remember at least one incident where Emil Eagle was
put up against the Junior Woodchucks. In the story, Emil created winds with
a machine in a cave in the park. A very average story. I have never
considered Emil as only Super Goofs foe, he has been used just as much with
Gyro here in Norway, in fact, he has been used with almost all the ducks
one time or another, I believe.

About Moby Duck.
He was in a lot of stories in the 70s, and (flame me) I liked many of them.
But this is probably because I was just a kid then, and read my Disney
comics to shreads, and I don't think I would have liked those stories as
much if I had read them for the first time today.

Jon C. Lorentzen

Dear Folks,

Mark Semich said that the Donald newspaper strips in DD 284
seemed to be dailies... sounds like they must have gotten through the
Sunday strip in DD 283 then, unless there are a few Sundays opening up
DD 284's Taliaferro section.

He also mentioned a few gaps in dates. Maybe Disney has
banned some strips... but most probably those gaps are where there
were SUNDAYS! (Not Sundays with a DD strip printed, since there was
no Sunday strip in 1938.)

As of 1990, the only banned Taliaferro strips from 1938 were a
full week or two where Donald was at an Indian reservation. I hope no
more have been banned since then... but it seems as if SOMEONE has
been looking through the strips for something to ban, because since
1988 the 10/17/37 strip with the first app. of the Nephews has been
banned.

And BTW, I remembered wrongly that the dailies began in Jan.
'38. We'll know if these are the first dailies if the first week
includes:

A) Donald feeding seals at the circus (accidentally)
B) Donald climbing a mountain
C) Donald trying to hang a picture and failing.

I believe those are the first three. I know of another one
that belongs in the first week:

D) Donald takes a bath in the sidecar of a police motorcycle,
after filling it with water, only to end up in jail.

This seems like prime banning material, but Disney didn't used
to have it banned (Gladstone did run it circa 1989), and they've let a
lot of strips run in recent DDs where Donald ended in jail. Is this
among the reprints this issue?

That's all for now.

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