Keskustelujen arkisto

You requested a source for undergrounds. As I live a couple of blocks from Bob
Sidebottom's Comic Collector Shop I can probably acquire them for you. Bob was
a major distributor of underground comics in the early '70s and I believe they
still have a good selection available. Knowing Bob's policies (even though Bob
himself is now dead) they will probably be a little pricey.

Let me know what you're looking for and I'll see what I can do.

Finnish AA:
> The new issue #18 has a page with a schedule for Barks' Euro-tour,
> something about the family-tree and something else about Marco Rota's
> 50 years' story?

I don't have the book right here, but I think in that Marco Rota's
story $crooge and his sister (!) Granny Duck found baby-Donald in the
middle of the road just coming out of egg. (!) Sounds quite
bad...eh?

/Mikko

Mikko:
> William Van Horn index update:
>
> According to an advertisment in U$ #252 the 'Run-Down Runner'
> story in DDAD #10 is written by John Lustig.

Experiences with other stories have taught me not to trust the advertisements
of Disney Comics...

> Family-Tree:
>
> Aku Ankka published some comments regarding Don Rosa's
> family tree. They also published a Barks' small (old?)
> version. According to that Gus Goose is as much Donald's
> cousin as Gladstone. Can someone confirm this or did
> our publisher mess things up?

Rosa used Barks' original tree (the one Barks used for his own reference;
published in the Carl Barks Library). But he changed a few things, such as the
name of Donald's sister and the place of Gus in the tree.

--Harry.

HARRY:
I didn't know you sent me those Dutch Rosas. They showed up a
few days ago -- thanks very much!
Putting them away, I noticed something that made me think about
the comment you said Michael Nadrop made about being irritated that I
swiped his cover idea. When they reprinted my "His Majesty McDuck", he
swiped MY cover idea (I guess it was him) and did a cover that was a
tracing of my cover, line for line, except in his style (i.e.: he left
out lotsa the lines). At least I substantially changed his cover, only
leaving the characters in the same general positions. (Oh, I know, his
gripe was about the fact that he wasn't given credit -- which is still a
mighty silly gripe considering they don't give ANY credits. Oh, well...)
By the way, Tello does have his own studio of Disney comic
artists in Spain. His name is pronounced "Tell-you". I met him during
my very first trip over to Europe. When he left the room for a moment,
I asked the editor (good ol' Nancy Dejgaard, now retired), "Tell me
that fellow's name again, please". She said, "Tello." I said, "Yes, tell
me." She says "Tello" again. I say, "Yes, please TELL ME, okay?"
"TELLO!" "Oh, never mind!" (That's a true story. I almost decided these
Europeans are crazy!)

A little while back I made a slightly cryptic remark that I had "been a
fan of Don Rosa's work before I even saw any". I suppose I should
explain myself.... (I should warn you all I'm prone to be a little
self-indulgent from time to time, and this post is such a time I
think.)

Back in the 60s and 70s we had in Australia reprints of US comics,
produced locally. (Actually, they started much earlier than that, but I
first found them back in the late 60s.) Like many people (I now realise)
I quickly found a taste for Barks stories (the "good duck artist" ya
know), and built up a big collection of these comics. Then, to my
horror, the Disney comics disappeared, and months later horrible Whitman
editions started to show up, with poor printing, bad paper, and worst of
all, almost no Barks stories. I wasn't sure, but I decided that
the "good artist" must have retired, so I just lost interest in new
comics, pulling out the old ones from time to time. It's hard to
describe the impact those long Scrooge tales had on me as a kid, maybe
some of you felt the same (I'm pretty sure Don and Steven Speilberg did
anyway.) That was about 1976, and I didn't buy another comic for almost
a decade...

When I was a poor post-graduate student back in the mid-80s I happened
to walk past the comic section of our local newsagent on the way to the
football magazines, when I saw something I recognized, a Barks cover,
but on a Reader's digest sized comic. I picked it up, and lo and behold,
but there is a "good" duck story I have never seen before! (It was
Tralla La, for some reason never reprinted after it's 1950s appearence
out here) I bought it, and read it several times, learning the name
"Carl Barks" for the first time. On reflection, it was _absolutely
clear_ to me that this sort of story was too good for the genre to
disappear, and sooner or later someone would pick up on it and produce
similar stuff. (I knew nothing of page rates and royalties at the time
:-) ) It was also clear to me that I would buy the new stories (and any
other old ones I hadn't seen before) with great delight. So, imagine how
I felt a couple of months later when I saw the Gladstone ads for U$219
with Son of the Sun in it. This was it! Just as Don felt it his "manifest
destiny" to write these stories, it was clearly mine to read them!

So, now to find U$219... Aaargh, as time went on, it was clear that I
had somehow missed it. Gladstones scheduled on either side came onto the
shelves, but no US! Panic time. I asked the newsagent - he was bemused
at best, and had no idea what had happened. I got onto my pushbike and
rode around to 25+ other shops, but no-one there had seen it either. I
tried the Direct shops, but their copies (like, all 1 or 2 of them) had
disappeared 3 months ago. I then, in desperation rang the newsagent
distributers, and was told "oh yeah, we got a lot that were water
damaged - that was probably them. They were thrown out." To cut a long
story short, I gave up and went to work, but at the train station, on
the newsstand there, was a single wrinkled, waterstained US219. Yahoo! I
wasn't disappointed with it, and I have enjoyed Don's work ever since.

To DON:

It is a bit sad now to read reports of Barks' reaction to your
popularity (and I'm sure that's the root cause of his obvious
bitterness), but it's not the first time someone who's work I've admired
has turned out to have the same flaws and pettinesses that other people
have. All I can say Don, is that you must feel pretty lousy about it,
and I don't blame you, but please don't "drop the torch" as it were.
When it's all said and done, does Barks think he _owns_ the ducks? That
is pretty sad from someone who worked for Disney for 30-odd years. In
any case, how could anyone resist the urge to investigate the impact the
ducks visit had on Plain Awful, given the impact Rhutt Betler had? (That
idea had occured to me too incidentally.) And the latest story
"Guardians of the Lost Library" is just masterful. You took something
that had been a sticking point with me for two decades - how could that
book have all those things in it? - and turn what was a somehwat clumsy
plot contrivance into a plausible, wonderfully convoluted story. As
well, you touched something I have a sense of wonder about, the Great
Library of Alexandria. Most of my favourite Barks stories do the same
thing - space travel, lost civilizations etc etc. Makes me feel like a
kid again.

I know my words of praise won't balance Barks condemnations, but I think your
work holds its own admirably Don. By the way, was the surname "Fonebone"
a tip of the hat to Jeff Smith?
(Finally, I'm not sure why you had to have Cleopatra in the story as the
female antecedent of the JWW. The last keeper of the library of
Alexandria was a woman called Hypatia, who died at her post at the hands
of those who sacked the library - so Carl Sagan says anyway.)

Sorry to go on so long everyone, but I did warn you!

Andrew Davies

P.S. Don, if you would like some old Australian Disneys for your
collection, I would swap some for some Captain Kentuckys.

Ole about "An education for Thursday":

> And in December, 1950
> came a follow-up (panels are shown on the back of Norwegian issue)
> where Mickey and Goofy, the Great Totem, visit Thursday and Friday,
> by Bill Wright alone?

Could this be the story "Tom-tom Island" from Mickey Mouse Four Color 304,
drawn by Riley Thompson?

> Young Americans
> ---------------
> Mikko:
> > They also published a fan-letter right after your 'first'
> > story (not Son Of the Sun) in Finland was published. The
> > writer asked who the incredible artist-with-odd-style was
> > and they answered it was 'young American called Don Rosa.'
>
> I already mentioned two stories about a Norwegian viking, Grote Pyr
> ("Big Pete"), by Dutch artist Dick Matena here. A third album, drawn
> in a much later style, and first published in 1988(?) is called...
> "De Zoon van de Zon". Can you correct me on the date, Harry?

It took a while before I saw the connection with Mikko's story: "De Zoon
van de Zon" is Dutch for "The Son of the Sun".
I'll look up the date in a Dutch comic book catalogue.

> Quiz
> ----
> 2) Has Donald Duck #1/1948 - the first Norwegian Donald book - been
> reprinted more than one time?

The Dutch once published an article with the covers of all kinds of foreign
Disney magazines. The Scandinavian ones were all first issues or 'facsimiles'
of first issues. On the Norwegian first issue, a text was written:

"Congratulations on your world record. Carl Barks"

Which world record was he referring to?

--Harry.

Greg wrote:
> William Van Horn was nominated as best cartoonist for his work in WDC&S.
> Don "No Respect" Rosa was not nominated.

And later, in reply to me:
> I double-checked. The actual cateogry is "Writer/Artist or Cartoonist".
> I suspect the difference between Wartist and Cartoonist is style and
> humor content.

OK, but why would this make us upset that Don won't get no award. Sure,
I agree that he deserves one and I agree that this category would be
appropriate, but why can't we instead be overjoyed that ANY quality
Disney comics get this kind of attention?

Please keep us informed as to the results.

/F

Dear Folks,

In just a week I'm leaving for home -- that is, I'm heading
from college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, to my parents' house in
Santa Barbara, California. My home address is going to change to
this:

David Gerstein
620 E. Valerio St.
Santa Barbara, CA
93103 USA

I'm giving it now, so that if anyone had some reason to send
something, it will come to the right address.

To settle my debts: Right now I owe Fabio Gadducci a handful
of my own, home-drawn comics. I owe Boris a copy of UNCLE SCROOGE
ADVENTURES 26. The latter will be sent tomorrow, and the others in
the next week. But am I still charted to send someone else something
else? I don't welch on trades, folks.

Fabio, I couldn't get through to John Clark to see what he
thought of "Foreign Correspondent" -- he's away for the week, so I'll
write you from home when I find out.

Lucky it isn't Thanksgiving yet, else I might forget to buy my
turkey in the melee and end up trying to swindle it from someone while
dressed as the Duke of Baloni!

Your pal,

David Gerstein

"I'd never like my friends t' know that Mickey Mouse couldn't
fill the bill on a job!"
<David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu>