Keskustelujen arkisto

HARRY:
I hadn't noticed it, but now that you point it out -- YES, yet
ANOTHER error on the letterer's part in that "Duck Who Never Was" story.
He left off the $#@&# title. I must leave that blank area in the
upper-left quadrant of the splash-panel for the placement of the logo
and story title, mostly for Gladstone's use. As of a year or so ago, all
the Egmont countries adopted a style where the art on page 1 of each
story is shrunk, and the logo-title is put above the art, outside the
borders. And that is why I can't draw in a stylized BOX to receive the
story title (for instance, as I did in GotLL) because they would either
need to remove it in Europe, or just leave it BLANK and make the page
(and me) look stupid, as they started doing in Europe before I realized
I'd better leave those things out. But, YES -- I would NEVER leave a
space that big and empty on purpose.
The letterer's exact mistake on DD's birthdate was to transpose
where he was supposed to put "month" and "day". Yes, I know that I had
it placed "European style", opposite of the American manner. But that
shouldn't have confused the guy THAT much; after all, if he noticed I
"had it backwards", that means he must have conciously put some THOUGHT
into where he was placing the words, therefore he would never have made
such an error as he would have clearly known he was putting "Month:
September". And he left off "year" altogether. There was no excuse for
that bumble! &%#$^%
On the other hand, you've reminded me of something I was already
well aware of: my Duck Family Tree IS indeed built upside down. The
reason is that a normal family tree traces the lineage of ONE person
BACKWARDS. My Duck Tree traces the lineage of three complete different
families FORWARDS, so it had to be built upside-down. And since the
letterer didn't know this, that IS an explanation for his mistake.
However, the script told him how it was to be done, and he did not
follow his directions.

GEIR:
I think you are beginning to understand what I'm saying about
why Svein Erik Soland treats you as he does, but you're still not with
me all the way. I still think it should be VERY obvious why he treats
you the worst. You get lots of publicity and Soland's job is to control
EVERYTHING that is said to the press. Here's another bit of the puzzle
that you may not be aware of: Egmont is GREATLY AFRAID of the press in
Scandanavia. I'm not sure of the justification for this, but they have
told me that the press there is "gunning" for them; Egmont is so large
and omni-present and powerful that the press has a natural inclination
to seek to find BAD things to say about them. This is a key part of
Soland's responsibility. You are interested in the public view of the
Ducks -- great -- but Soland might be worried about his JOB, which is
more important for a guy with a family and responsibilities. And you
know that you do like to get publicity about the "adult" content of the
Barks stories -- and you must realize that, regardless of Soland's
personal feelings about that, his BOSSES regard the Disney license
material as just for kids, and they want only WHOLESOME, FAMILY values
to be discussed. The press will be anxious to use YOUR material rather
than the official Egmont items that it's Soland's job to get into print.
In other words, I think you should realize that Soland views
you as possibly his GREATEST threat. I'm sure he doesn't think you are
doing these things maliciously -- why would he? -- you're not The
Weasel -- but you are a major problem to him nonetheless. The LESS he
tells you about what's going on... the LESS he lets you be involved in
the official Duck business, the more control his bosses will see that
he has over the Norway situation. I think you are BOTH right in your
stance, and yet you are an unavoidable irritation to each other. The
only way to solve it is for the two of you to work together more
closely... but even then, you will have to realize that in that
situation, Soland must be the one to decide what's right. But perhaps
you'll at least understand each other better, he won't irritate you so
much, and you won't scare him so much.
I'll talk to him about this when I see him in November.

On Thu, 14 Jul 1994 h.j.bjornhaug at admin.uio.no wrote:

> Is there such a thing as an Egmont standard?

Obviouslty not.

> Last issue of Norwegian DD&co (#28) had the same CB ten-pager and the
> same U$-story as KA had. Probably the cont. MM story too, although I
> don't rembemer Scotland being mentioned.

It's not mentioned, I just assumed it from the clothes.

> But instead of the stupid BB story, we got a stupid
> Goofy story. And the Rota viking story was conluded here in #27.
> Norwegian DD never conludes one story and starts another cont. story
> in the same issue.

KA&C:o haven't done that before either...

> (We also got one one-pager by Barks and one by Taliaferro.)

We got a Taliaferro one-pager, (21-1-43) the old table-stuck-in-the-roof gag,
in # 27. Well, I don't know about an Egmont "standard" anymore but most
east-european issues seems to be identical. I have seen one and the same
issue from six or seven countries that's identical. Perhaps the nordic
issues are different since they are pre-egmont.

Steamboat Willie

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

... Does The Little Mermaid wear an algebra?

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

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

Don - amount of money in moneybin:

You kinda misunderstood me again. I was trying too
to explain to the guy who brought the topic to this list
again that IT IS WASTE OF TIME figuring out what is the
exact amount of money $scrooge has, BECAUSE it must be
changing all the time. ie. it's not constant.

I also understand the gag in 'magic hourclass'. I just said
that MAYBE $crooge had that time of money at that time. MAYBE.

> 350,000,000 BILLION?
> There's not that much money on the entire planet!

Well, who cares...I guess anything is possible in comic-books.

> Therefore skip it. Therefore stop.

I was just answering to that guy. I didn't brought the subject
to here.

OTHER DONALD WEEKLIES:

Don wrote:
> Also, I think it was also Mikko who seems to be trying to
> research another pointless question: does the Finnish Donald weekly
> match some other Donald weekly?

This question is not pointless to me at all. You see, Swedish
is second 'official' language in Finland. I'm able to buy Kalle Anka
here if I want to. I just don't want to go to the kiosk EVERY WEEK
and say: 'Can I look which stories are in it?' I rather use the Internet.
I also have to pay for gas to make that trip to kiosk.

( Gasoline prices US about 1,60 FIM/liter
FIN 4,40
SWE 5,30 ) =-)

/Mikko

Fredrik wrote:_
>
> 1. Was the 3D version of "Billion Bean Stampede" published in this
> week's issues of the Danish and Finnish weeklies as well as the
> Swedish?

Not here in Finland. Let me know if it was in Kalle Anka.

/Mikko

Fredrik:

> 2. What are the details of the VH story in the American DD birthday
> issue?

From my current version of the Database file AR.DBS:

AR 202 10 WH WH DD T:The Birthday Boy [frame story]

BTW:
The Database is still growing. David delivered indexes of a lot of early
Dell WDC comics, Anders Engwall is continuously sending info for
SWEDEN.DBI and the list of S-coded stories, and I have added information
about Gottfredson and Murry WDC serials.

I think I'll have a new Database version in 1 or 2 weeks.

--Harry.

Dear Folks,

With this message, I proudly announce DISNEY COMICS: INTO THE
FUTURE. This discussion panel will be meeting right in the thick of the
San Diego Comic Convention: on Friday, August 5, at 5:00 PM, in Room 7 of
the new San Diego Convention Center. (If any of that information changes,
you can find out when you get to the Con... it'll be updated in the
official brochures.)

A lot of interesting projects will be announced and discussed with
plenty of insiders to tell you about them. I'll be moderating the group,
which includes (as of right now) DON ROSA, JOHN CLARK, and ANINA BENNETT
(Egmont-US editor) to tell you about the upcoming comics from a podium, and
answer the questions you have. I'm currently negotiating to have Pat
Block, Ron Fernandez, and others there as well.

Anyone else reading this who currently works in Disney comics
(including Heidi MacDonald and Dwight Decker, who I'm most sure are reading
this) is welcome to come here and tell the attendees about your projects,
because I'd like to have you there. I can't promise a huge turnout -- this
being America, after all, where Disney comics aren't exactly that popular
-- but I'm sure it'll be an interested and devoted one, as last year.

* * * * *

Anyone interested in the disney-comics group here can RVSP by
writing to me E-Mail or calling me, (805) 569-2415. I am also looking for
someone to post the message -- up through the immediately preceding
paragraph, but NOT this one or anything after -- to the Internet. I need
it sent to these groups:

rec.arts.disney
rec.arts.animation
rec.arts.comics.info
rec.arts.comics.misc
alt.fan.disney.afternoon

Unfortunately, I no longer have access to an E-Mail system that can
send things to the Internet. Phooey! But I hope you can help -- if
someone can do this, please post a message to me saying you've done it, and
also to the list so no one else will then have to bother doing it!

Take care, folks. I hope SOMEONE's going to the Convention so I'll
have an audience there....!

Your friend,

David Gerstein
<gerstein at math.ucsb.edu>

gerstein at math.ucsb.edu

I just crossposted your announcement to the desired newsgroups, and it'll
probably show up as soon as Scowling Jim Cowling, moderator of
rec.arts.comics.info, gets around to approving it.

Seeya,
Joev

Too quiet? Here's an interesting bit of nonsense to disturb the
quietude... since a few people on here have been nice enough to express
an interest in seeing my "War of the Wendigo" story, I can pass on the
latest bit of idiocy about that Peeweegah sequel.
Several years ago Disney Disney Comics had put this 28 page
story of mine on the schedule, only to be yanked at the last minute. At
the time I was told that the reason for the banning of the story was
simply that it involved INDIANS (Barks' Pygmy Indians), and that the
Disney was SO worried about being politically correct and had so little
interest in having any hassles over something as completely unimportant
to them as comic books, that they had decided not to review the story
but to simply ban it on the basis of the fact that it contained Indians.
Then I started hearing several other versions of the reason for
the ban, none of which bear repeating.
Finally, last month, during a meeting Gladstone editor John
Clark was having with the Disney operative who has the job of approving
everything that Gladstone does, the guy (without prompting) brought up
the subject of the story, and said that the only reason it was banned
was that all the Indians looked alike, and one Disney executive thought
this was very insulting to Indians. Naturally I had only been copying
Barks' original... but knowing that nobody at Disney knows anything
about Barks' comics, this reasoning was the first that actually began to
even sound like a reasonable (if mislead) objection to the story (where,
of course, the Indians are the heroes). So I told John that since I'd
put so much extra work into the dialogue in that tale which would only
be used in an American edition, I was particularly interested in seeing
them use the tale, and I offered to retouch the art to make the
Peeweegahs look generally different. So he decided to suggest this to
Disney, while also saying that they planned to print my sequel in a
special large edition with Barks' original (in a "ploy" to see if they
could use my story as is, since it would look very odd if we had to
alter the Indians in the second story if they could remain the same in
the original... see? Strategy.)
Anyway, if you've been following this digest, you'd know all
this so far.
John Clark just sent me the letter from Disney saying what I
would have to do to my sequel to get it approved for publication. Not
only would I have to make sure all the Peeweegahs looked completely
different, but I would need to redraw them to look like "wood spirits"
or fairies or something, and they would need to be colored blue or green
or some color to make sure they were no longer human beings. And
obviously all reference to them being human (much less Indians) would be
deleted, as well as any clothing they were wearing or teepees they were
living in or Indian stuff they were using... and all the dialogue in my
carefully written dialogue that referred to them as Indians would be
changed.
Naturally, my response was "well, screw THAT!" I mean, it's not
even like I'd get 1 penny in royalty for the use of the story, so I'm
not about to bend over backwards to cowtow to such an idiotic corporate
attitude.
Obviously, then, the original report was completely accurate.
Disney is a corporation SO hung up on being mindlessly "politically
correct" and are so worried about attracting ANY attention with the use
of any sort of ethnic type (not mere stereotype, but ANY use of an
ethnic sort) that the story is truly banned simply because it contains
Indians, regardless of how nobley they are depicted.
And as far as Gladstone's other idea of reprinting "Land of the
Pygmy Indians" -- nope, it is permanently banned from use.
After a few years of dealing with Disney, you'd get used this
sort of nonsense or you'd quickly go nuts. It's a two-sided matter: you
have a huge corporation which is neuroticly concerned about its public
image -- then you have a huge corporate system of people who are
terrified of making a decision to allow something that would backfire
and cost them their next promotion, in addition to how little respect
they have for lowly comic books -- this sort of thing will always
happen.