Keskustelujen arkisto

Harry wrote:
> Again I can answer part of [James's] 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.

It's there now! The new file "don-rosa" at the ftp archive is a
long (> 800 lines) collection of quotes from Don Rosa sorted on
subject that Harry has collected from various posts to the list.
I think it comes in very handy to be able to look up a particular
story by Don and get some of his own comments on it there.

But whatabout the old file "don-rosa" with the Don Rosa index? Don't
panic, it's still there, only its new name is don-rosa.index to better
indicate its contents.

"mm-crash-course" and "us-crash-course" are two other new files
containing David's lists of what he recommends as the ideal stories
with Mickey Mouse and Scrooge McDuck respectively among those
reprinted since 1986.

And finally "characters/peter-pig" is a new character description
(also from David) describing ... (surprise) ... Peter Pig.
-- "
Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: starback at minsk.docs.uu.se
"Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!"

JAMES W.:
My personal version of the origin of the Money Bin was printed
in Europe a few weeks ago in "Lo$" #10. You'll hafta wait 1 1/2 years to
see it in America.
As I may have mentioned once before, when I did the "Lo$" there
were scant few Barks stories that I decided I was compelled to ignore.
In a few cases it was due to conflicting "facts" in his own stories
(very rare and spread years apart) and in THIS instance, stories that
were done while Barks was still developing the new $crooge character
slowly; he only slowly realized $crooge would be around for a while, so
Barks never tried to create him all at once. In order to explain the
Money Bin as being the cash that $crooge earned himself as he trapsed
the globe, I decided the Bin had to have been built about 50 years
before it was first shown in that WDC&S issue. So I ignore that one
tale, at least the parts of it that suggest the Bin is "new". I also
ignored that "corn crib" tale; yes, it's an excellent story, but you'll
hafta agree it's only a "fable". It may well be the most wildly
fantastic story Barks ever did, and I really credit him with writing
stories with a firmer foothold in reality. I mean, in that tale,
$crooge's corn-crib-o'-money is picked up by a tornado, and a million
dollars in cash drops into the hands, individually, of every man, woman,
child and duck in America (or on Earth?), and nowhere else (not a cent
into a lake or field or river or...). And $crooge gets it all back
(every LAST CENT of it) by selling overpriced food to each and every
human being in the country (a sort of dishonest thing that I can't see a
"square" $crooge doing). It's a great story as a lesson in "values", but
it was obviously a dream $crooge had one night after a bowl of gruel.

DAVID:
Well, yes, all my WDC&S are in great shape... especially my
oldest ones. I guess I've had a full set since before you were born, so
you can guess what I had to pay for them. Actually, I got all my DD 4
COLORS and my WDC&S back to #5 for less than $1 each from a guy two guys
who bought them off the stands. I paid LOTS more for #1-4 from another
original-buyer... I think I paid about $400 for all 4; they were in near
perfect shape -- he'd read them once in 1940 then put them in a box and
sealed it with wax. (Don't ask me why!)
My WDC&S from about #90 - 250 in mint condition cost me 2 cents
each from the original buyer. And an interesting tale there: I'd already
built up most of a set of those issues by then (1970) and I replaced
them with that batch, never opening many of them up since I'd already
read my others. Then about 5 years later I was doing my index to WDC&S
and going through each issue... and in one copy I found a wad of six $10
bills. In that same purchase, I'd bought about 4000 other mint comics
from the 50's-early 60's... so that $60 greatly cut down what I had to
pay for that batch (at 2 cents each, about $80 - $60 = $20). No big
deal... in the days when the only ones of us looking to buy old comics
were those of us who actually LIKED the things ourselves, stories like
this were not so unusual. (Well, actually, this story wasn't so bad by
any standards, I s'pose.)

FRANK:
I thank you for your ideas of how Gladstone could publish a
portfolio or cards of my past work to raise money. But they wouldn't
raise money for ME. After all, right now they are reprinting my old
stories (with much ballyhoo) and I receive no royalties simply because
they don't need to pay me royalties and I don't expect them to hand me
money they aren't forced to. Companies do not pay royalties unless thay
are compelled to. If they published cards or portfolios or anything else
of my past work, they would only need to pay DISNEY to use my work, not
me. THIS is the problem right there.

MARK:
I can't (and wouldn't) threaten Egmont that I'd ever quit,
because I know that they only value me for publicity purposes. My work
actually sells negligible extra copies for them. If I quit, they'd never
know the difference by their sales figures. That gives me little
leverage, eh?
I have always had the opportunity to get bad publicity for
Disney for the unfair ways they treat freelancers. But that's NOT the
way to deal with Disney! You must try to help them enter the 1970s
gradually, not try to force them to do so by shaming them publicly. That
would LOSE ground rather than gain it -- large, cruel corporations don't
react well to that sort of stuff. I'd lose the job I love.
I have no interest in doing my own characters. I didn't grow up
on any character I might create tomorrow -- I grew up on the Ducks.
Besides, I know my work is popular because readers like what I do with
their favorite characters... not what I do with ANY character, just
THOSE. I did these exact same stories 15-20 years ago in fanzines, and
hardly a soul read them when I wasn't using the Ducks.

HARRY:
Please go back and reread my messages! You are interpreting me
exactly as I don't wish! I LOVE my trips to Europe!!! I'm treated like a
minor-league national hero!!! I NEVER tire of the activities I'm called
upon to perform there!
It's simply a matter of what's fair. It gets rather frustrating
to be the only guy in America being treated the way I am as far as
reimbursement.
Look at it this way: when I come to Erlangen (which I thought
was a suburb or Nuremberg?), I'll be there with Neil Gaiman as the other
comics guest. I will probably attract FAR more attention than he will,
since I do the beloved Ducks. We will be appearing as guests of Ehapa,
who is doing sets of albums of our work; DEATH and SANDMAN written by
Gaiman, and a German album series of strictly MY work, written and
drawn.
Now, Ehapa pays DC royalties for the use of Gaiman's work.
Gaiman does the work for DC originally, and DC shares the royalties
with Gaiman, of course.
Ehapa also pays royalties, to Disney, for the use of my work. I
do not work for Disney -- they contribute NOTHING in helping me write or
draw my stories. And yet, they do not share a cent of those royalties
with me.
Gaiman works no harder than I do (I can't imagine anyone working
any more diligently than I do on these Ducks), yet he's paid by a
completely different system. Recently, they say, he spent a few days
writing an issue of this SPAWN comic, and reportedly was paid some
$150,000 in royalties. SPAWN doesn't sell a fraction what these Duck
comics sell.
Gaiman himself is one of the people who has told me that I'm
being cheated -- every other comic pro in America thinks I'm a sap for
doing Disney comics. But this is the system I am in day by day, going to
conventions and having to listen to the other pros talking about the
huge sums they make constantly in the new systems. Selling their art,
getting royalties off every use of their work...etc., etc.
Now, don't you think this all gets increasingly frustrating for
me? I'm very close to swearing off attending conventions since I don't
need the grief I feel when I associate with other professionals. Don't
you think this is normal human nature for me to feel lousy about all
that? And I'm helpless to do anything about it since no other Disney
freelancers will take a stand for themselves with me.
But, of course, the answer for me is to either quit, or shaddap
my griping. If I want to be treated fairly, all I need to do is NOT do
Disney comics. Simple as that.

MIKKO:

I wrote:
> In the Gyro story in Uncle Scrooge 13, Morty and Ferdie appeared (and Grandma
> appeared in that story, too).

Mikko:
> I don't know if I have these stories, but I have seen single
> panels in Finnish DDs. In the panel that featured Grandma and M&F,
> Grandma is driving with electric car.

This must be the U$13 story I meant. Probably published in Finland somewhere
near AA 13-1956.

> Zeke Wolf appeared in 'A Whole Herd Of Help' and in 'Sheepish
> Cowboys'. (According to our publisher.)

And those are indeed from Grandma Duck's Farm Friends, not written, but only
drawn by Barks.

> When I browsed thru my brothers DDs, I found out that in '91
> our publisher got special permission to print 'Donald as milkman'
> Barks story. Is it still banned or something.

This story has been published (at last) in Disney Comics' WDC 550. In Holland,
it was reprinted in 1974 (for the first time ever anywhere), without
some kind of special permission. I don't think the story is banned in any
way.

> And how about
> 'Marco Polo'. Our publisher printed it in 'I, $crooge McDuck'
> hardcover, but it's only in the first print of that book.

That is (or was) a "black list" story, not to be reprinted ever. Apparently,
they make exceptions for special Barks libraries, like Another Rainbow's CBL
and the Dutch one.

BILL SAWYER:

> Please unsubscribe me from the Disney Comics list. I've enjoyed
> reading the list, but I just don't have the time to contribute the way I
> should.

Let me repeat that there is absolutely NO obligation to contribute ANYTHING
to this list! Just reading the messages is OK! (If _every_ member of the list
would mail messages too, there would be no time to read it all! 8-)

DAVID:
> I'd sure like to see a complete FG library in English, but I
> doubt it will happen anywhere (...)

As I said before, there IS a complete FG library in English, issued by
Horst Schro"der (in Sweden, I think).

--Harry.

Don,

It may be true that you did stories in fanzines 15 years ago and
nobody seemed to care. However, I assert that your name is far better
known now than it was then. Certainly that is the case in Europe.
I submit that if you started to do stories of your own characters now,
they would sell better than they did 15 years ago.

Who heard of Todd McFarlane before he did Spider-man? Using his reputation
from that comic, he started Spawn. I'm advocating that you do the same
thing.

You will never start out with the same emotional attachment to characters
that you do to the ducks. However, your emotional attachment to new
characters might grow over time. Perhaps most importantly, you'll have
a financial attachment that will definitely grow over time.

Maybe the best answer is to write one issue of Spawn and retire.
___________________________________________________________________
Mark Mayerson Side Effects Software Inc.,
Internet: mayerson at sidefx.com Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(416) 366-4607

>In a message that I`ve deleted Don Rosa asks for advice on how he should
>start making money on his art.

The answer is obvious! Your expertise lies in the field of understanding
the ducks. Among them is the greatest financial genius of all times. Just
use that expertise and ask yourself "What would $crooge McDuck do in this
situation". I'm sure he (and you) would come up with some ingenious solution!

Lars Petrus (Only 1/2 joking)

>David says:
>I'd vote for the mansion.

I'm absolutely amazed that in all the years Uncle Scrooge has been
around that this issue has never been resolved. I can believe that
Scrooge might own a home, but I cannot see him living in a mansion.
My wife and I own a small townhouse and it takes a few hours every
week to keep it in good shape - little thing like mowing the lawn,
cleaning the house and so forth. The larger the house, the more
maintenance there is. A mansion is a very large house and
requires a bunch of maintenance. Most mansions are serviced by
gardners and house cleaners, because the owner wouldn't have the time
to do it all. I cannot see Scrooge living in a poorly maintained
mansion, it just isn't his style. Likewise, I cannot see Scrooge
paying a gardner or maid. So I think a mansion is out.

Though we have never seem it, I think there are living quarters in the
moneybin.

>This isn't supposed to sound like a flame, but you speak as if
>you have not seen the character before.

David, I've been on this list for about a year and I've yet to see
anything that resembled a flame. I've never seen the stories that
you listed, so William Van Horn's story was my first exposure to
Ratface. Since I've read other stories featuring Magica de Spell,
I assumed that WVH had created Ratface.

While I love Disney comics, I'm still relatively new to them. I've
probably only read about half of Barks, Van Horn, and Rosa's stories.
I've been reading comics for thirty years, but I only started reading
Disney comics about five years ago. As a child, I had the misfortune
of getting a stack of Gold Key Disney Comics as a gift. They were
terrible and by and far my least favorite comic books. There was only
one story in the whole stack which I enjoyed. Years later, I found out
that it was 'Submarine Santa' by Carl Barks. I probably would never
have read another Disney comic in my life, if not for a book I got a
few years ago. It was a history of comic books and it contained
various reprints -- EC reprints, Jack Cole's Plastic Man, Bill Evert's
Submariner, and Carl Bark's Uncle Scrooge. The story was 'A Financial
Fable' and reading that story caused me to give Disney comics another
try.

>BTW, don't get sore about THAT, James. If you haven't read "Monarch
>of Medioka" you'll soon see that this is the best Floyd Gottfredson
>story of all time.

Don't worry, I've never gotten sore about Floyd Gottfredson. I
absolutely adore his stories. I don't buy Graphic Novel, so
I'm looking forward to seeing "Monarch of Medioka" reprinted.

>Another part of the campaign involved printing a new sequel to
>"Blaggard Castle" in DISNEY ADVENTURES

David, you are our resident Mickey Mouse expert. What did you think
of this story?

I had two major problems with the story. First, Mickey seems extremely
out of character. Mickey is a modest person, but in this story he
doesn't feel all that odd going to a place which is little more than a
museum dedicated to his bravery. Mickey is too humble to be involved
in such a place. Also, Mickey is to intelligent to fall for such an
obvious plot. Second, as usual the Phantom Blot was totally out of
character. The Phantom Blot's speciality is espionage. Having him
spend a fortune to rebuild the castle made no sense.

>Romano Scarpa understood in 1960's "Lentils from Babylon." I
>won't reveal how, but Scrooge does lose his bin and its contents. The
>story basically implies that Scrooge doesn't have much tangible MONEY
>outside of the bin, but that he does have land and an estate, and he
>keeps himself going on those for a while. But his business debts have
>mounted up, and he has to sell nearly everything... An interesting
>compromise.

I don't want to critize a story which I haven't seen, but that doesn't
make much sense. We know for a fact that Scrooge owns business all
over the world. We also know that those business earn a profit,
because Scrooge won't keep a business which lost him money. Therefore
those business provide a steady cash flow. More importantly, the
businesses alone are assest. Even if Scrooge didn't have any cash, he
could borrow money by using those assests as colateral. I still say
that if you total all of Scrooge's assests and his bank accounts that
they are worth more than the money in the moneybin.

>On the other hand, I can feel another urge to regard that as something
>inexplicably taboo to deal with.

Don, I find it really hard to consider something this fundamental
as taboo. I cannot believe that this hasn't caused writers and artists
problems in the past.

>Also, it should be pointed out that in all these storybooks and
>Viewmaster reels and action figures based on Gottfriedson's MM, FG's
>name is never mentioned. But you figured that, right?

As much I despise the way Disney treats their creators, we (MYSELF
included) who should know better are commiting just as great of a
crime. We always refer to these stories as Gotfredson's, we never
mention or give credit to Ted Osbourne and the other people who wrote
these stories.

>Actually, I really enjoy playing around with the character of
>$crooge to try to explain the reason he loves his money. As you say,
>he doesn't love being "rich" for the buying power or status or power...
>he loves HIS MONEY as mementos of personal achievement. I'll do more
>stories about that in the future.

I'm really going out on a limb with this one. I honestly do not
believe that Scrooge's number one love in life is money. Here is why.
In Scrooge's eyes, there are three kinds of money: other peoples money,
his money, and money he earned himself. Of these monies, the ones
which he earned himself are his favorite. Why? Because they are
reminders of his life. Scrooge is a lonely old man and this money is
his favorite because it more than just money, it is a rememberence of
his past. I haven't seen Don's later chapters of LO$, but in my mind
Scrooge did not start building his moneybin until late in life. As
long as Scrooge was young, he was too busy living to worry about
reflecting on the past. It was only when Scrooge got older and settled
down that he started to become lonely. In my mind, 'Christmas on Bear
Mountain' isn't important because it introduced Scrooge to Donald and
company, but because it introduces Donald and company to Scrooge.
Donald and company breaks Scrooge's lonelyness and force him to start
living again. By the time 'Only a Poor Old Man' comes around, Scrooge
is less bitter and is starting to live. Before we know it, enjoying
his moneybin and protecting it from various threats isn't enough,
Scrooge is suddenly back out really living. We start seeing Scrooge
traveling the world. I think Scrooge's true love in life is earning
the money, not the money itself. And that is why the money he earned
himself is his favorite type of money.

James Williams

Dear Per,

I'm sending this to everyone so they know this, but in any
event, time to update the AR-index.

You see, Gladstone's first piece of original material from
their new period, number AR 201, has appeared.

What is it, you ask? A one-page Scrooge gag in US 286.
Written and drawn by Vic Lockman. Titled "The Skipper."

Gladstone ran no page this month describing the month's
comics. I sure as heck would have liked that better than AR 201,
which makes me long for the brilliant art of Stan Walsh, or that
Italian guy who we discussed who always draws the ducks exploding in
rage (I've forgotten his name now). X-p

Apparently Mark Semich has seen some ads for DDA 27, with its
new DD long adventure by Pat Block. Apparently the art is quite good,
although the ducks have rather short bills. I'd guess that this story
(Mystery of Widow's Gap) is AR 202. I'm looking forward to that A LOT
MORE than anything more drawn by Vic Lockman.

* * * * *

Someone else complained about D&M's Mickey stories in
yesterday's digest. I hope you've let Gladstone know your feelings.
I do when I can...

Your friend,

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