Keskustelujen arkisto

I thought I would pass along a Barksian reference from a non-Disney
comic book currently in the comics stores. "Sandman" number 66 (dated
January 1995) contains the following conversation between two Norse
gods (OK, a god and a demi-god, if you want to get technical about it):

Loki Sky-walker: "Odin...This is not what it appears to be."
Odin All-father: "Oh, So?"

I have to assume the use of this Barksism is quite deliberate, since
later on in this same issue there is a 2-page parody of the venerable
"Sergeant Rock" comic book, too.

Wilmer Rivers

SUBSCRIBE (Amanda Tryon)

DON:
Well, I see the logic you had behind ragarding The Magic Hourglass
as never-existing. I wonder what Barks himself thinks of that story...
Oh, $crooge also said if he will keep losing billion dollars in a minute
it still would take him centuries to have no money. That would mean he
could lose over half a trillion every year! So, I quess Barks didn't have
too much basis on that story but the adventure was good.
Sorry to get you so upset about saying $crooge and the others are
'just' cartoon characters, but I didn't mean it like _just_. I have
grown up with Donald Duck. I have learned to read with Donald Duck. I
have learned to draw with Donald Duck. I have made friend thanks to
Donald Duck. So, by saying "cartoon characters" I certainly didn't mean
any Itchy&Scratchy or some Superhyperspidersonicwarpradioactiveman. What
I meant was that... uh, well, maybe I better not continue, but I _do_
respect $crooge & co. very much. Maybe that idea of Duckburg being in
alternative universe, whiches time somehow stopped during the '50s while
our World kept going forward. Besiege, there's nothing wrong with that
age. I love rock'n'roll, but I also love computers, if you know what
I mean... (yes, this part of the message could be considered as an apologize
for Duckburg for me calling it Toontown)
And the reason I didn't know about the satellite was that the
Finnish translators apparently thought all this happened 199x. So,
"Brutopian Sputnik" was just "a satellite."

PMF:
You said disney animations have humans _and_ animals together (!)
If those animals are to mean like Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, then
the only one I can remember is Roger Rabbit. Then again if yoy mean
movies like Lady and the Tramp or Little Mermaid, they're a whole
another story. First of all, I don't think they happened in Duckburg
or even Disney universe, but the point is humans and animals didn't
communicate together. Who knows what animals talk among themselves when
humans ain't listening?

BOB:
You said $crooge would recognize Glomgold after 100 years. First time
they met after Lo$, he didn't however. And the point is, on the second
time he didn't either! They started fighting and got to courthouse and it
wasn't until there, where $ knew who he was.

WILMER:
> Loki Sky-walker: "Odin...This is not what it appears to be."

Funny... Though Finnish people didn't believe in the Norse gods, but however
I always thought I knew quite much about them. But Loki SKYWALKER?!-o

--

Mike - The Finnish Trekkie

> GARY B98294:

> That $crooge gumball bank that you mention is an excellent piece

Hehe, seems like everyone's got one... :-) I've got one, you've got one.

That Staffar on Staffars serier I mentioned in my previous mail to this
list is the guy that a certain Don Rosa said "I've never seen so many
Gladstone Disney's in one place" about at the Serie-Expo '94 in Sweden.
Staffar say's hello and replies: "You should see my store..."

I'm trying to persuade him to take home a batch of "Captain Kentucky",
but he says that he's got to get a new transport-firm first, but then
he'll likely place an order with you...

I hope they won't sell out... :-)

> despite the fact that it has the "DuckTales" $crooge coloring with the
> blue coat and red trim -- any connection with "DuckTales" diminishes the
> aesthetic quality of a $crooge item.

Well, now that you mention it... i think i buy another one and repaint him!

> BROR:
> Yes, you can be sure that so-called "press release" was pure
> Weasel talk from Barks' "business manager", whether Barks' signed it or
> not -- note the weasely editorializing tagged onto the tale of it. Don't
> hold it against Barks.

No, I wont. I assumed it was "The Managers" work...

Steamboat Willie, aka Bror Hellman.

--
---
Steamboat Willie Data: +46 (0)8 626 84 09 (V34)
hellman at proxxi.uf.se

Oh my,

I think I have to write back to at least 2 months of digests.

So, I'm gonna use this mail just to offer some scattered remarks on the
threads of the last months, and obviously to wish all of you a a Happy New
Year.

First of all, the dialect: All Disney characters speak a very good Italian,
without any accent or dialect. Sometimes their Italian may be a little old
fashioned, but that's all.

Then, about the intersection between the Disney movie universe and the Duck
universe: It was an almost common practice in Italian stories of the
Fifties and late Sixties. As an example the story 'Paperin Fracassa'
(beatifully drawn by Scarpa: I own a page of the original art!) has many,
many movie characters in it (Snow White, Pinocchio, the Seven Dwarfs,
etc...).
Now, it is limited to just a few, very special occasion, as the recent
isuue #2000 of Topolino!

About Fethry. Yes, it is not a beatnik anymore, but he still has a very
particular style, so to say. And, depending on the artists, it can be a
very good characters to use. As an example, 'Tre paperi in barca (per tacer
del gatto)' is a very silly Italian parody of the famous book by Jerome K.
Jerome (with Scrooge, Fethry, Donald and Malachia-Mons-Tobber, the cat),
while 'Paperoga e il peso della gloria' is a very nice story written by
Pezzin and drawn by Cavazzano (Fethry goofs up in a submarine).

Anyway, the story where Scrooge is an editor have been rarely produced in
Italy, and all of them in the worst period for Mondadori, the late
Seventies-early Eighties.

And what about Gancio? The raven Elmer (it first appeared in a September
1949 Sunday Page, drawn by Manuel Gonzales, if I remeber correctly) is
quite a well known character in Italy. The merit is (almost obviously) due
to Scarpa, who used him in some of hia Sixties stories as a kind of
alter-ego for himself. It has been used by many other authors, anyway, and
some time ago (15 years, maybe: I'm getting old...) he acquired a 'son'!!!
Well, almost: Gancetto is a child-raven that Elmer found when he was
serving in the Foreign Legion (according to Scarpa: but it was not such a
nice story...). In early Eighties Gancetto spent some time with Mickey (for
a brief period, Scarpa's stories got again a continuity. As it happend
during the first years in which Scarpa wrote and drew Mickey stories: this
period ended with 'Topolino e la fiamma della regina Loana'). Also the
story in Seoul for the Olimpic games is written and drawn by scarpa, btw: a
really bad show-off of his later years...

About Italian output: well, almost all of the current artists are
freelancer, even if some of them can make ink their pencils by another
artist (as an example, Cavazzano was the inker of Scarpa in the mid
Sixties: You can guess my opinion on those stories... :-)
There is only one Italian studio, 'Staff di If', contributing to the weekly
'Topolino': Their work is not so bad (there are some nice artists) but
their contribution is not quantitatively relevant.

Human characters in comic book stories: they have been used a lot in the
previous decades in Italian stories, but now they are a 'no-no'.

White books: their origin is definitely Italian. The strips have been cut
and reformatted. Rarely 'censored', and always for the sake of space and
format.

No e-mail for Alberto Becattini, sorry, Bob. But I can give you his
snail-mail address, if you want. Or just tell me: I meet him quite
frequently.
Again, Bob, sorry but no US cookie jar. But there are a lot of merchandise
here in Italy with Disney charcaters, really a lot: If some of you is
interested... (Note to all: Yes, I'm always VERY, VERY late in writing back
and sending stuff. Estote parati)

Intermezzos. Well, this is a strange story. 'Classici di walt Disney' has
two volumes. The first one was published from 1957 to 1976, 71 issues in
all, and with almost the intermezzos written and drawn by G####### P#####
(he was an employee at Mondadori, while most of the artists were
freelancers. He worked for Mondadori during the day, and worked freelance
for Bianconi, publisher of Trottolino, Cucciolo&Beppe, Tirammolla etc. in
'60-'70, during the night). In 1976 started volume 2 of 'Classici'.
Monthly. The odd numbers were reprints of the first volume, while the even
numbers were new ones. This was the way till issue 40. Then till issue 67
only original anthologies with intermezzos; after that just anthologies
without intermezzos. The latest issue is 217.

Mickey Myster. Harry, it seems that in France they are reprinting the
Italian edition of the series (it is different from the danish one), mixing
the stories with those taken from the monthly 'Paperinik'. Both the Italian
monthlies mainly use reprints of classical stories from the Sixties and
Seventies. The Scarpa's story is great!! One of my Scarpa's favourite with
Mickey. The story with Paperinik is... well... You can skip that without
any problem. Martina was already an old guy, and De Vita Jr still had his
previous style, reminiscent of Scarpa and not so interesting: today he is
very cavazzanesque, and very nice.

About Uderzo's inspiration. The first Italian stories with Pippo are from
the Thirties (Pippo viaggiatore di Commercio, Paperino e il vaso cinese,
Paperino chiromante: the latter two with Donald). The first Mickey stories
are from the Forties (Divina Commedia, Topolino e il Cobra Bianco, Pippo e
i grilli atomici, all of them by Martina-Bioletto). But I do not know if
they have ever been reprinted in France. Anyway, I think it is very
difficult they could have been the inspiration for Uderzo, even if I really
like most of them.

I recently wrote an article about Don for the magazine 'If'. It is six
pages long, and is very nicely illustrated. All this just to say that I put
a plug to disney-comics@ in that article. It should appear in February,
premiering at the comic convention in Angouleme: I hope ot will bring us
new subscribers!!

And what about Tony Dinero in 'Oscar and the Ostrich', David?
Well, he speaks a very good Italian, as every other character. Moreover,
Dinero sounds much more like a Spanish family name, than as an Italian
one...

About the super-extra-magnificent edition of 'Horsing around...'
Well, the edition, despite the best efforts by Luca Boschi, has been edited
by Elisa Penna: she's not bad woman, but her knowledge of Ducks Comics is
not so good. And it shows in completely wrong bibliographic references
about the first Italian editions of the stories (she mistook 'Albi Tacabili
di Topolino', a series of the Fifties, with 'Tascabilone', its reprint of
the Eighties).
And as it is obvious, she did not know anything about the other European
editions, even if the statement of 'first edition ever' is quite ambiguous
and could be intepreted as 'first English edition ever': but I know for
sure she didn't know anything about the other European editions.
Anyway, the book is quite nice, it is limited to 3.000 (maybe 5.000)
copies, and it will surely become a collectible in the Italian market:
despite its price (15.000 Liras, i.e. 10 dollars), it is already sold out.

Don! You are absolutely right about the infamous explitation of
'comics+signing+frame' for just 285 dollars. It is not advertised anymore
even in the Barks quicklist distributed by the Bear Mountain Enterprises.
So maybe it went bad: it would be terrible to think it sold out!
And about that: what can you tell me about the owner of Bear Mountain
Enterprises. Did he have any part in this 'framing'? You know, I sometimes
buy stuff from him...
About your family. Sorry, but I do not know anything about 'Lema'. I'll try
to get some information, but I think likely that it is not a
'"multi-million dollar" printing / publishing company'. But who knows...

That's all for now, boys.

As I was telling before, I hope you spent a nice Xmas, and I wish to all of
you a very, very Happy new year.

Fabio

PS Per, thanks again for this list!!

================================================================
Fabio Gadducci Dip. di Informatica
Home: +39-50-541725 Universita` di Pisa
Off.: +39-50-887268 Corso Italia 40, 56100 PISA (ITALY)
FAX: +39-50-887226 E-mail:gadducci at di.unipi.it
================================================================

My first reply to all these great statements I've been getting for the last
few months.
Did anyone see the one-page Uncle $crooge gag in Disney Afternoon #4
(Marvel)? A really bad gag and lousy art, but did the Marvel colorist make
the Beagle Boys African-American? Or was it a coloring error? Strange.
Speaking of $crooge merchandise, about two years ago I bought a nice Uncle
$crooge gumball machines (about 10 inches high) for $3 at a local toy outlet
shop. Got one for friend Alan Hutchinson and have a promise to get one for
Mark Worden if I see them again, but so far it has been a no go. I THINK it
was made in Germany, but I can't find the box it came in now (hid it too
well, I guess).

GARY:

>My first reply to all these great statements I've been getting for the last

Welcome to the list, Gary!

>Speaking of $crooge merchandise, about two years ago I bought a nice Uncle
>$crooge gumball machines (about 10 inches high) for $3 at a local toy outlet

I have one of those $crooge gumball banks that my Brother gave me as a
Chrismas gift a couple of years ago (1992). By coincidence, I saw that
same bank in a gift shop in Las Vagas in December of '92. I still have the
box for mine, and the address on it is

Superior Toy and Mfg. Co., Inc.
3417 N. Halsted Street
Chicago, Illinois 60657

If you are looking for a place to get another bank, you could write to them
and add "Attn. Gum Ball Banks" on the envelope.

ALL:

Over the years I've seen scrooge merchandise appear now and then. I have a
$crooge jigsaw puzzle showing $crooge in a boat on a lake of coins. About
20 years ago I got a painted plaster $crooge bank that has taken up
residence on my desk at work ever since. My favorite $crooge peice is a
sew on decal of $scrooge hanging on a vine looking down; this was copied
from the cover of "The Swamp of No Return" by a friend of my brother who
makes decals. I've always wanted to put this on an Izod shirt just above
the alligator--it'll be a long time before I get an Izod shirt, however.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Tryg

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