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Don Rosa wrote:

>UNCLE $CROOGE #286:
> I hope folks here will be nice enough to discuss, along with
>that singing flea, this new American edition of "Master of the
>Mississippi" (Lo$ #2) which just came out in U$#286;

Hi Don:

I just read US 285 and 286 this morning. It took me a month to get around
to 285, but I finally did it. Your drawings are very detailed, which make
them both a joy and a pain for me to read. (The pain comes from my
deteriorating eyesight in recent years--it is often an eyestrain for me to
read at all, and I didn't want to miss any of those details in those busy
panels.)

I really enjoyed these two installments; its obvious you've put a lot of
work into collecting and sorting all the facts that Barks left scattered
like breadcrumbs throughout his stories. I didn't remember all those
references to the Louisville area though--you must have searched the local
archives for some of that info.... :)

I was wondering about a couple of things in the story. First, you mentioned
that $crooge arrived in Louisville during the time of the 6th Kentucky
derby. Now I don't know Derby history, and I didn't see a date
mentioned--what year was that? Second, Ratchet mentions wanting Lily
Langtree's autograph after confusing Scrooge's depth sounding (Mark Twain)
with the presence of the author. Was there a particular reason Lily
Langtree was mentioned, or was it just around the time she was in the US?

>At first glance-through, I'm STILL greatly disturbed by seeing the Ducks
>with all that brown hair, but I trust that will END with this chapter!

Brown hair on Scrooge really looks stange--especially since he didn't
have it in the first chapter.

>I was somewhat disappointed in a few panels where many shots of
>riverboats or figures are all colored a blanket yellow or blue... maybe

I kind of liked that effect. It helped separate the forground action from
the background. For me it made the panels much easier to read. As for
the loud sound effects, I didn't hear a thing... :)

Tryg Helseth <trygve at maroon.tc.umn.edu> Minneapolis, MN, USA
or <tryg.helseth at tstation.mn.org>

"I wish they all could be Calisota Ducks!" -The Beach Drakes

DAVID:
Your #1: I don't know what had you confused about Angus/Pothole?
On the very first page of the story I clearly show, when $crooge asks
someone about an Angus McDuck, that this is someone known on the
Mississippi as "Pothole" McDuck. How could I have done it more clearly?
A Pothole is the American steamboat-era name for a basin in the river
mud caused by swirling currents -- surely this is not a name a Scots
couple would give their child upon birth. I felt it was obvious that I
had to take one moment out to show that this had to be a nickname.
What about other names like Swamphole or such? If I ever, for
some reason (and I'm sure I won't (?)), did a story all about Sir
Swamphole McDuck, I'm sure I'd find a way to briefly point out that a
name like "Swamphole" must be a nickname. How could it not be?
#2 - CHECK! Those FLESH colored false teeth looked rather
disturbing to me, too! I'm surprised that Sue D-L would make a mistake
like that, unless she isn't so much a Barks buff as a fine colorist.
Hadn't she read Lo$ part 1? You might also notice that she didn't
color any of the boats or clothing correctly compared to the old Barks
riverboat story -- even though they DID color those last two panels on
my text-page correctly. Speaking of those two panels, you can see that
I changed $crooge's attire slightly from that old Barks tale -- $crooge
would not have had his glasses or his spats in 1880. Also, the
lettering of the riverboat names didn't match the old story either, but
big deal.
#3 - I know the problem you refer to about these off-register
colors in a few recent issues... but my U$ #286 was just fine. You got
a bad'n.
#4 - Ah, YES! I DID notice my own mistake about the owner of
the "heirloom watch". But the mistake was IN MY TEXT, not in the story.
What makes you so certain the mistake was in the story, even when you
say you can't recall the Barks original without checking back? In the
"Heirloom Watch" story, Barks/$crooge says the watch has been in his
family for two hundred years, and that it belonged to his grandfather's
grandfather. In Lo$ #1 I show Fergus saying the watch was his
great-grandfather's. Bingo -- Seafoam McDuck, right on the nose. All we
know from "The Heirloom Watch" was that the RUBY EYE belonged to
Quagmire McDuck, Fergus' uncle, already dead by 1877 (but whose estate
was tied up by this Swindle McSue stuff). Also, in case it's just
occured to you, "Seafoam" is another obvious nickname for a McDuck who
went to sea; my family tree shows his name to be Hugh McDuck.
In other words, I have had all this intricately worked out for
YEARS. You won't be able to catch me so easilly.
#6 - I know of no instance where the pig-villains that Barks
used numerous times have ever had the same name, or even the same last
name, twice. Am I wrong? Even when Barks used the last name of McViper a
few times, though I believe it was only by chance and not design, I
worked "the McViper Clan" into the Lo$ just to please anyone who would
pop up and say "what about his first meeting with the McVipers?". So
they appear in parts 3 and 11. But I don't know anything about a pig
named Argus McSwine having appeared twice -- which issues were these?
The pig-villain who was destroying forests in "The War of the
Wendigo" was (in my script) Ravage DeFlora. Heh, heh.

By the way, I just noticed that Egmont must have removed the
manufacturer's name from the plate on safe aboard the Drennan Whyte...
I should've known this and had Gladstone replace it: "Oso Safe Co.",
just like $crooge used later.

Mattias wrote:
> As per promise, I've checked with Stefan Dios about his translation
> of the punchline to "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime".

I bought the Dutch version this weekend. They translated it with a pre-war
Dutch song: "If you're born a dime (you'll never become a quarter)". If Dutch
children don't know this song, their parents or grandparents can certainly
sing it for them.

The song is from the same depression era, but maybe that's a coincidence.

--Harry.

Harry:

>I don't think Gladstone is allowed to use Li'l Hiawatha. He's an Injun, you
>know.

Don't I know it! I live in the heart of Injun country. The name of our
state was derived from the Dakota tribes who inhabited the plains here.
(Minnesota literally means "we waited for you all day in the rain")

The American Indian Movement celebrated its 25th anniversary last year
and is very strong here. In the 1970's a local radio station was
rebroadcasting the Lone Ranger series. The local AIM got it removed on the
grounds that Tonto spoke broken English and that was demaning to
Indians. That was 20 years ago--long before the political correctness
movement had swept the US--so I'm sure that reprinting Lil Hiawatha today
would be out of the question.

Tryg Helseth <trygve at maroon.tc.umn.edu> Minneapolis, MN, USA
or <tryg.helseth at tstation.mn.org>

"I wish they all could be Calisota Ducks!" -The Beach Drakes

On Mon, 11 Apr 1994, Tryg Helseth wrote:

> Harry:
>
> >I don't think Gladstone is allowed to use Li'l Hiawatha. He's an Injun, you
> >know.

> Indians. That was 20 years ago--long before the political correctness
> movement had swept the US--so I'm sure that reprinting Lil Hiawatha today
> would be out of the question.

Well, that ain't stopping Egmont. They even make new (somewhat
prejudiced) Li'l Hiawatha stories... Bad ones, even.

Steamboat Willie

----------------------------------------------

... Does The Little Mermaid wear an algebra?

----------------------------------------------

Internet: hellman at proxxi.uf.se, DuckNet: hellman at 313:100/13.0

Dear Folks,

Lessee here:

The McSwine debate
==================

"I know of no instance where the pig-villains that Barks
used numerous times have ever had the same name, or even the same last
name, twice. Am I wrong? Even when Barks used the last name of McViper
a few times, though I believe it was only by chance and not design, I
worked "the McViper Clan" into the Lo$ just to please anyone who would
pop up and say "what about his first meeting with the McVipers?". So
they appear in parts 3 and 11. But I don't know anything about a pig
named Argus McSwine having appeared twice -- which issues were these?"

1. Barks' pig villain looks, acts, and dresses identically in
several stories, including "Micro-Ducks from Outer Space," "Crown of
the Mayas," and "The Status Seeker." (I have not read "The Great Wig
Mystery," but the villain may be the same there, too.) In each story
he gets a different name. In "Donald the Milkman" he is McSwine, and
I believe that he may also have that name in "Northeaster on Cape
Quack."

2. In any event, Egmont needed to name him consistently, and
they picked McSwine (at least, when they were using the character very
frequently around the mid-1980s). Gladstone and Disney have both gone
along with this. I find nothing wrong with that. I like this pig
villain. Clearly Barks liked the idea of him having various aliases,
but I frankly find THAT... yes, a weakness. When a character who is
plainly the same (as opposed to the DIFFERENT pig villains in some
stories like "Swamp of No Return" and "Have Gun, Will Dance") is never
consistently called the same thing, it gets irritating.

In any event, McSwine HAS been McSwine twice in Barks, I
believe. His first name of Argus appeared on one of the aliases, and
when a first name was needed in two Egmont stories, Byron Erickson, I
believe, added it to McSwine. The pig villain is now Argus McSwine to
Gladstone, and, I believe, at least McSwine alone, to Egmont.

(In one Disney Comics issue (US 244) an Egmont story was
printed in which the (different) pig villain was named ANGUS McSwine
and referred during the story to "my cousin Argus", but I don't view
THAT as gospel. My guess is that the original story had none of
that... no sir, I don't like it.)

But I do like Argus McSwine, a name which IS rooted in Barks,
and since the character now has a continuing name -- as opposed to an
alias -- I certainly prefer this one to Scalpnick, John the Con,
Porkman de Lardo, and Foulcrook. (Well, "Porkman de Lardo" isn't so
bad, but is "Porkman" supposed to mean something? Sounds like a
superhero parody...)

BTW, the character is the villain in my second Egmont story
(sold last year), and when I referred to Argus McSwine they knew
immediately who I was talking about.

Characters Gladstone can use
============================

Gladstone can use the following characters, I believe:

A) Vintage characters from the MM, DD, GO, and Silly Symphony
cartoons. (That lets in Bucky Bug, Li'l Bad Wolf, etc. Note that
there was a Li'l Wolf story in Gladstone's WDC&S 586.)

B) Characters from older animated features, EXCEPT for direct
adaptations of those features. Gladstone can print a Li'l Wolf story
with Pinocchio in it, or the Pinocchio story from WDC&S 63, but not an
adaptation of the Pinocchio film, I believe. Furthermore, I think
Gladstone would probably not be able to use Pinocchio AT ALL around
the time that the feature is next released (1999, I guess).
(I think "older" animated features means those before Eisner's
team took over, but I'm not sure.)

C) Gladstone can use characters from Disney TV shows on a
case-by-case basis as long as those characters DON'T have their names
above the titles in a story. Hence some upcoming Gyro stories with
Launchpad in them by Van Horn (which apparently haven't been printed
by Egmont yet, hence their non-use here). These were "Launchpad"
stories in Europe, but here they have to be "Gyro" stories.

Hiawatha
========

As for Hiawatha, Whitman was reprinting them as late as WDC&S
507 (1984). My guess is that Gladstone could reprint them... IF they
rewrote all the dialogue, and IF they shied away from the sizable
number which revolve around pointing out Hiawatha's tribe as backward
compared to the "modern" world (i. e. stories in which Hiawatha visits
the city and attacks fire hydrants with his tomahawk, and such -- a
lot of those done around 1953).

But there's an easier way to use the character. From
1939-1941 the Silly Symphony strip featured solely Hiawatha gags.
They were almost all in PANTOMIME -- no stereotypical talk-um
whatsoever. My guess is that Gladstone could use some of those...
although again, Disney is impossible to predict.

There was a recent pocket-sized (2" by 2") book of three Silly
Symphony adaptations published by Disney Press. One of the three
stories inside was Hiawatha, illustrated by scenes from the original
film. The "Disney Road to Reading" series of 20 books, sold through
supermarkets, includes "Hiawatha's Kind Heart."

The character is not wholly banned.

Bucky Bug
=========

Someone (Tryg Helseth) said that here in the U. S., kids might
not be very thrilled by these stories. But... but... both Gladstone
and Disney printed them, to gleeful reader response, in the past.
Only one letter-writer -- Kevin Kuffa, who started writing during the
Disney period -- has complained.
Right before they stopped (in WDC&S 579) Disney announced
plans to print Bucky Silly Symphony strips from 1932. (One panel was
even reproduced!!!) According to David Seidman this was to have begun
around WDC&S 586 with the classic "war with the flies" story of
'32-33.
It's frustrating... I love Gladstone's new WDC&S issues very
much, but simply feel that the comic's format is not being used to its
best potential, good as the current stories are.

*** HAVE THE EARLY BUCKY SUNDAY STRIPS BEEN REPRINTED BY
OBERON... AND IF SO, WHERE AND WHEN? ***

TRYG:
The year that Lo$ #2 takes place is 1880; that's shown on the
cover and on the text page.
The only reason Lily Langtry is mentioned was that I needed a
closing line for a scene at that point, I guess. This is one of those
instances that I'm doing something completely subconciously -- I never
considered WHY it was so important for Ratchet to say something useless
at that exact point... it was just something that I knew was essential
to lead into the fade-out for the day's actiion.
$crooge didn't have brown hair in part 1??? Your eyes must
really be going bad! If your U$ #285 doesn't have $crooge with brown
hair, please send it to me -- that's the version I'd like to have!

MARK:
Of course "Scrooge" is a funny name -- but it's still a NAME.
"Pothole" and "Seafoam" are words that refer to the jobs these
characters eventually took. Wouldn't you consider a plumber named
Abercrombie to be somewhat less ridiculous than one who claimed he was
named Pipewrench at birth?

MATTIAS:
I'm counting on you to tell me what all those text features
concerning my Duck Family Tree are in ANDERS AND & CO. #13 & 14. Also,
by now you're reading chapter 11 of the Lo$, and I'll certainly want to
know your reaction to $crooge's meeting with Foola Zoola and Bombie the
politically incorrect Zombie, IF somebody doesn't pull some hanky-panky
and delete something.
Speaking of my Duck Family Tree, I just learned that Egmont
never did send it to Gladstone, even after MONTHS of repeated requests,
and it WON'T appear in the DD 60th Birthday issue. But, maybe that's
okay, since now it can appear in an issue where there'll also be room
for a few pages of histories of each family member, just as they have
apparently just done in Sweden.