Keskustelujen arkisto

TORSTEN:

> A googol is ten to the one hundredth power (The digit "1" with 100 zeros
> behind it). A googolplex is ten to the googol power {That is, 10^(10^100)}.

I remember that the word 'googol' was invented by the daughter of a scientist...

JAMES quoted someone, but he didn't say who and I don't recall:

> I don't care much for Strobl, but know he has his fans and agree he
> deserves a tribute - but why, when this is WDC&S, are they using only
> Strobl DUCK material? Didn't he draw mice. wolves, dawgs, etc. as
> well?

Strobl's mice etc. were quite UGLY. While his ducks are acceptable (for
years his ducks were the 'standard' ducks besides Barks), his other
characters are badly drawn most of the times. I'm glad Gladstone doesn't
reprint any of that.

But they COULD (re)print some very good Bad Wolf stories from Holland in WDC!
Dick Matena and Wilbert Plijnaar did some excellent stories in 1976 and
1977. With the help of Daan Jippes. The stories certainly deserve a reprint!

DAVID:
> Well, I'm back.

So I noticed!
David indexed a lot of Gladstone and Disney comics while he was away. He
sent the information to me; I'll make a new version of our "gladstone-disney.
index" file for ftp. In a few days!

JAMES:

> I can imagine
> a story where Scrooge McDuck finds some fabulous fortune and manages to
> overflow the money bin. The problem with such a story is that I cannot
> see how it could have a happy ending.

You're almost exactly describing "Christmas for Shacktown" by Barks. Not a
fabulous fortune, but one single dime overflows the bin. And the ending
_is_ quite unhappy for Scrooge...

MIKKO:

> I could update Don Rosa and Van Horn indexes for Finnish books.
> Can I update the files myself (and mess up everything...) or
> can somebody tell where to post the information.

You _could_ send your Don Rosa updates to me... I have some Dutch info for
that index as well, so I can use your updates and my updates and send a
new version to Per for ftp.
Who can give updates (e.g. Life of Scrooge) in other Scandinavian countries?

About the Van Horn index: Fredrik Ekman is the right person to mail updates to.
I don't have his e-mail address at the moment...

> How can you explain that Morty and Ferdie appear in the
> same panel with Granny Duck in one Barks made story
> (Don't ask what story it is...), if the ducks are
> living in different 'universe'.

In the Gyro story in Uncle Scrooge 13, Morty and Ferdie appeared (and Grandma
appeared in that story, too). It's the only Barks story where M&F feature, and
that's only because Donald's nephews were not allowed in that story (some
mail regulation law...). Barks originally intended HDL in that story, as
he had Donald in the Gyro story in U$ 14, but had to replace him with Speedy.

I don't remember if M&F are actually mentioned by name, but I always consider
them just two child mice, not necessarily the M&F from the Mouse Universe.

--Harry.

Harry PTT Research ()_() Dutch Disney comics freak
Fluks Leidschendam (_) H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl

"Yeah... I've _heard_ of coral barques!"

A long long time ago Mattias wrote

> PER:
> I went into the ftp, and found that everything prior to 1993-10 in the
> archive-folder was gone. Have you removed'em, and if so -- are they still
> available at request?

Please, Mattias, if you want to ask *me* something, please drop me a
line about it instead of asking the whole list about it. If for no
other reason because then I would have answered it sooner.

What happened was that just as I added some new files there the whole
ftp disk partition got full, which is the reason why I deleted some of
the older files. Anyway, now the space for ftp files there has
doubled (!) so I've added those files again, as well as the last
couple of months.

What we're talking about is the complete archive of all mail sent to
disney-comics since its inception. Because of all the repetitions,
erroneous information corrected later, "news" which aren't news any
longer etc., I don't recommend them for reading for those newcomers
who want to know what we've said before here, but anyway... there it is!
What I'd like is more information in the "characters" subdirectory of
the Disney comics ftp archive. The next time someone asks what
species of bird Gyro Gearloose is (just as an example) it would much
better to be able to refer to a file characters/gyro instead of going
"some say he's a chicken, but then maybe not; we've been through this
before anyway -- go look at some old mail files!" because it's not
particularly easy to extract the relevant information from that. All
that is needed is really that someone collects the relevant
information gotten from the list on a small subject like that and
writes it up and I will gladly put it in the archives at a suitable
spot. Such a text doesn't have to really answer the question at hand
(like "how much money does Scrooge McDuck have?") -- just collect the
relevant facts and views about it.

The other change I was doing right then was to add USA #25 and #26 to
gladstone-disney.index (from David). An additional "team" was also
entered in "creators" because of it, namely H+A = Paul Halas and Donne
Avenell.

Mardi Gras Before the Thaw
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wilmer answered my question (thanks!) on this Barks oil recently
released as a lithograph in Sweden (the American print of it is sold
out according to the ad for the Swedish one). I don't plan on buying
it or any other lithograph, but it's nice to have those pictures in
some way, so I appreciate that the ads show the whole painting in full
colour.

Harry asked
> Do you have some more information, like the orientation of the painting
> (Portrait or Landscape) and the year in which Barks drew it?

Landscape (I've added an L to the oils file ... now!), but I don't
know the year. The ad I have says it's done in the late 80's.
-- "
Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at minsk.docs.uu.se
"Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!"

Dear Folks,

Don Rosa said,

"Yes, there is a VERY odd phenomenon going on in toy stores
using Gottfriedson's classic MM strips. It started, I think, in a
series of storybooks, then was carried over into those Viewmaster
reels and a set of "action figures". It's very puzzling to me why
some Disney licensee would seek to make a profit based on a version
of MM that the general public has no interest in or knowledge of
whatsoever, and I'm sure would regard as very hokey and
old-fashioned."

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT???! "B'gawrsh, I hopes t' shout in yer ear
trumpet!" DISNEY itself is behind this campaign. They are trying to
revive interest in Mickey as a dynamic CHARACTER -- hence the move to
Gottfredson (note: not GottfrIedson) as source material.
Gottfredson's strip is the only American source in any medium wherein
Mickey was a fully rounded character after the mid-1930s. Of course
he was also rounded in the early cartoons, mostly those in the
pre-color period: hence the recent laser discs of purely bw Mickeys.

FG *** IS *** credited in the storybooks, although not in the
coloring book I mentioned the other day. It says in large letters on
each title page (there are three in the series: "Mail Pilot," "The
Seven Ghosts" and "Blaggard Castle") "ART BY FLOYD GOTTFREDSON," then
in smaller letters, "Story retold by..." whoever.

This campaign, titled "The Perils of Mickey" as I've
mentioned, has been very successful, I understand.

The general public doesn't really know about ANY Disney comic
artists, you're right, but Barks and Gottfredson are definitely the
most famous. Those Abbeville Press books were in print for years, and
I know MANY people who own them. Most people I know who do bought one
Barks and one Gottfredson out of the whole lot (which consisted of 3
Barks, 2 Gottfredson, and the AT Silly Symphony collection). But this
did give the stories exposure. Meanwhile, Disney has acknowledged
many times that it's the early Mickey who is most popular. They
insist on using the unfortunate modern "cutified" Mickey about 60% of
the time even now, though, because Disney may know what the public
wants, but it also has its own ideas of what it's going to give them.
Typical.

NEAR EVERY KID I HAVE EVER ASKED PREFERS THE EARLY, PIE-
EYED "GOTTFREDSON" MICKEY TO THE MODERN CUTE MICKEY. (Sure, the old
Mickey is cute as well, but not in that infantile frontal-lobotomy way
that the modern one is.)

The Perils of Mickey campaign has also resulted in the making
of a new MM cartoon short for theatres... something about MM and
Minnie, a mad scientist, and a monster, titled "Runaway Brain." I
know that Disney Animation would never dare animate MM with pie-eyes
again, but I'm pretty sure he'll have his early-'40s appearance at
least...

The major flaw with the campaign is that there are not
hardback or softback books in the bookstores now containing
Gottfredson dailies and Sundays. It's as if the core of the campaign
is missing. I'd also like to see a MM series from Disney TV, although
it would have to be done RIGHT, and I think that only a die-hard
Gottfredson fan could supervise it and have it come out the right way.
I hope to be in charge of such a project before anyone else gets in
there.

* * * * *

JOHN: Thanks for correcting me on that story -- I assumed by
a "huge ball of money" you meant a huge pile of it. I'd forgotten the
good old remote-controlled orb-bin. That story's called "The Tricky
Experiment," right?

* * * * *

The replacement of Donald with Speedy in US 14 is bitingly
obvious because Barks left in a reference on Speedy's part to how
jealous the improved gas was going to make Gladstone. An unfortunate
oversight on Barks' part.

* * * * *

I'll be doing some character files soon. Among those I plan
to do are:

Bolivar
Gladstone Gander
Morty and Ferdie
Peter Pig

* * * * *

Harry notes that the last page was removed from "Hidden
Valley"'s original version when it appeared in US 285. I can't think
of a more conclusive ending than the one there! What was the original
ending like?

* * * * *

Also, Harry, write in if you want to see Dutch wolf stories.
My guess is that there will be at least a few other 68-page WDC&S over
the next two years (besides #592). But you'd better get after them
now, because Gladstone already has a tentative schedule through early
'96. That can change, of course, if readers react negatively to a
format. So far, Gladstone hasn't gotten enough criticism for anything
to change except, perhaps, the Diaz stories in D&M -- and it'll be
tough, because there are internal issues at Gladstone involved there.
Still, the more letters they get, the more that schedule will get
flipped around.

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

I went into my local comic book store today to pick up Uncle Scrooge
286 (It's already on the way, David.. :-) ), and while I was on my way
out, the guy behind the counter showed me a letter that he had
received from Pat Block.

I don't remember the details of the missive, but the long and the
short of it was that Pat appeared to be doing a mass-mailing to
various comic book stores, explaining that he was a new Western Donald
Duck/Uncle Scrooge artist. He included a xerox copy of the cover to
DDA 27 with his letter (BTW, his work looks *very* nice, but
unfortunately he draws the ducks with extremely short bills.)

In the letter, he asked if the comic book store would be interested in
having him appear for an autograph session and he also offered to
supply the store with pre-autographed copies of DDA 27 for its
customers. I found this to be extremely interesting, as I've never
known of any disney artist to engage in self promotion. I hope it
works out for him - it's a good idea for him to have his *own* supply
of DDA 27's, as most stores don't seem to have many Gladstones in
stock.

Don Rosa wrote:
> Anyone here from Denmark?

Yeah, where is Ole "RoC" Reichstein Nielsen? I haven't seen a message
from him in a long time, and I'm curious about his remarks on the format
of the Disney comics Database I'm working on. Ole, where are you?

> GERMANY:
> Of course, I'm still to be in Frankfurt and Erlangen this May 30
> to June 6.

So not in Nuremberg? That's even better, because Frankfurt is closer to
Holland...

> Frankly, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to deal with
> these nice invitations to come over to Europe and promote Disney comics.

I always thought you would LIKE to go on a trip to Europe, which is fully
paid by the editor, I assume. But maybe it gets boring after the 5th time?
Do you really have to work hard in Europe, autographing things etc.?

If you want to go somewhere where there are less fans and hence less
autographing work, try Holland. The chance you run into someone who
even knows your name is about 1 to 15 million... 8-)

--Harry.

Harry PTT Research ()_() Dutch Disney comics freak
Fluks Leidschendam (_) H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl

"Yeah... I've _heard_ of coral barques!"

I just read Don Rosa's remarks concerning his European Tour/Disney
Compensation. I have to admit that I sympathize with his problems.
Here you have a person that is going flat out producing
quality work, but is not being compensated the way that anyone else
in the industry would be.

I've been thinking about this for a while now, and I have a few
suggestions...Would it be possible for Gladstone to produce additional
materials for which Don could get compensated? Here I'm thinking
of things like a portfolio of Don Rosa's covers, or even some trading
cards. These would be things that would sell well, but would not
require any additional work on Don Rosa's part. They would be a
repackaging of work that he has previously draw. I don't know if
Disney would go for this...or if they would be comfortable paying
Don additional money for art that he has already drawn. Yes, I
know that a lot of Don's work was done for Egmont, but I'm sure that
some deal can be worked out that would be favorable for all.

What do people think about this? Any other ideas?

Frank

James asked about the money bin. Again I can answer part of his questions
by quoting Don in an old message. This quote and many others are (or
will soon be) available in a 'don-rosa' file on our ftp site.
For those who don't know how to use ftp, send a message to me, and I'll
send you the file.

--quoting Don Rosa:--
. Yes, $crooge's Money Bin has been dumped, converted to bills,
. moved, and utterly destroyed in many stories, a few of which *I* did.
. But in spite of how I view certain historical aspects of Barks' stories
. as set-in-stone (and I seek to set-into-Impervium with my series), there
. are other aspects of the Ducks that I do not regard or treat with such
. solid conviction. Though I always insist that the Bin looks exactly the
. same and is always on the same hill (something Barks changed
. constantly), on t'other hand, no matter HOW many times it is emptied or
. converted or destroyed, by the next story I choose to disregard that as
. a non-fact and treat the Bin as having never been disturbed since it was
. first built and filled. Maybe my frame of reference is that anything
. that happened before "current times" is hard fact; anything that happens
. in a new story is forgotten by the next story, as if it never occured.
. This might be one way to explain my attitude that time in Duckburg
. stopped moving forward around 1955. I keep telling stories on a 1955
. slate, then wiping it clean for another 1955 story.
--end quote--

--Harry.