Keskustelujen arkisto

Don:

I agree very much on Cussler being perhaps the worst pulp writer in business, at the
same time as he maybe have the best plots. This has intrigued me for a while and after
having read about ten of his books (perfect on crowded morning bus rides to the city
where the goal is to escape reality as far as possible), my conclusion is that perhaps
HE has the plots and someone else is writing the books, especially the latest ones. Or
he is just writing them too fast to get more money for veteran cars and planes?

His two latest books "Sahara" and "Inca Gold" are so far his worst, " Inca Gold" in fact a
LOT worse than "Sahara" (an impressive achievment). "Raise the Titanic" (from 1976)
is just too unbelieveable. He has nevertheless had a not too bad middle period from
about 1984-1990. "Treasure" is better than the two latest, and the best ones (in this case
a rather relative term...) are (in that order) "Deep Six", "Dragon" and "Cyclopes". This
last one is BTW about part of the El Dorado treasure. So for anyone not particular
about white male American chauvenism, deux ex machinas, the art of writing, and a hero
surviving ANYTHING, Cussler is worth a try for some chapters as there is rather a lot wild
things going on and great plots concerning obscure historical interpolations (sometimes
even plausible) and great treasures!

Cussler aside, I think you, Don, does manage both the plot and the writing (and I even
enjoy your drawings!). When watching the success of authors like the one mentioned
above, I often wonder what would happen if you tried writing a thriller based on the same
kind of historical, treasure hunting oriented plots you so often use. It's of course rather
different from doing a comic story, however, I think you should give it a thought (which
you already have done, I guess!). Even if Americans don't read they BUY a lot of books
(Clancy, Crichton, Cussler a.s.o.):-). And it wouldn't be the same kind of issue regarding
original art...

Bjorn Are

Re question abut censorship in Disney comics.

There is a lot of censorship in the Barks Library as compared to the
original comics. Most of it is because of supposed racism (dialogue changes
in Land of Totempoles, heads redrawn in Voodoo Hoodoo etc.) or references
to war / civil war / communism (dialogue changes in Treasure of Marco
Polo), but there are also subtle changes here and there in dialogue (a
Scotsmans tip in Micro ducks from outer space was changed) and in drawings
(the cash register in Atom Bomb was redrawn to a pyramid of bottles because
Donald never should be allowed to cahs in on other peoples unluck i.e.
their losing hair).

These are only a few examples and I am sure many other examples have been
spotted.

As for censorship in the Norwegian Donald Duck comic book, I am just
appalled. The 60s and the 70s saw the worst cuts in Barks art. The Gilded
Man was presented without any appearance or even mention of the Gilded Man
himself! The last page of Lost inthe Andes was once cut out. Etc. etc.
Whole sequences dropped in Christmas in Shacktown. Whew.

Geir Hasnes

In the late 60s and early 70s this occured very often (in Norway, at least).
I think the editors claimed that the drawings from Barks older stories had
too long beaks and throats, so for the kids to recognize Donald, the heads
would have to be redrawn (the "Normal" Donald Duck at this time was sometimes
drawn with an extremely short beak. Sometimes almost the entire story was
redrawn with fat, ugly lines (I distinctly remember the story where Donald is
kind to this cat that keeps him and the kids awake all night as being a
pretty terrible example).

As for the cutting of pages, I have read a couple of Barks-stories that
have been cut from 10 to 4 pages! The story where Donald is building the
worlds largest kite was presented in the early seventies with only the last
four pages remaining. The reasoning behind this evades me.

DON:
A friend of mine was on vacation in the area where most of your Croesus-saga
takes place. He pointed out to me some errors in your story, and is currently
writing down some stuff pointing out what contradicts with what he saw and
read down there (he bought a couple of books about the Temple and the area
around it, and was at the site of the Temple-foundation). I will post this
as soon as he is finished.

-jonC

Regarding Jon Cato Lorentzen's horror stories about Norwegian Barks
reprints circa 1970:

Although Norway and Sweden do not have their publishing in parallell --
like Sweden and Denmark have -- they apparently share (or at least shared
then) the source material. I recognize very well the examples of *awful*
editing Jon mentions. For a fairly comprehensive list of these atrocities,
check out the Swedish index files for this period (ca. 1968-71) and look for
comments like "redrawn", "Orig.pg: 10" and "pages missing". There are quite
a lot...

> As for the cutting of pages, I have read a couple of Barks-stories that
> have been cut from 10 to 4 pages! The story where Donald is building the
> worlds largest kite was presented in the early seventies with only the last
> four pages remaining.

I think this is actually the *only* 4-page 10-pager. "Gladstone's Terrible
Secret" comes a close second -- it was cut down to six pages when reprinted
in issue #12 of 1971.

>The reasoning behind this evades me.

Me too. One should perhaps point out that Barks reprints weren't the *only*
victims.

Anders Engwall Email: Anders.Engwall at eua.ericsson.se
ELLEMTEL Utvecklings AB Voice: +46 8 727 3893
[lvsj|, Sweden Fax: +46 8 727 42 20
Brullt brullt brullt brullt brullt brullt brullt brullt brullt brullt brullt

Lessee here...

A) Disney doesn't permit characters to insult each other now,
or tell one another to be quiet. Instances of this have been deleted
from every one of my dialogues now, sometimes leaving characters
looking angry with their dialogue not reflecting it. Barks reprints
and Rosa and Van Horn stories seem to be immune from this ruling.
All other stories feel the pinch. And WHY? This is very silly.
If I talked to Disney about it, they'd not say that these
things are objectionable, btw, but that they're "out of character."
Since when is it out of character for DD to say "Shut up"? He's been
saying it in comics and especially cartoons for decades!

B) Despite the fact that Disney Comics Inc.'s TV titles were
absolutely loaded with dialect (see some Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers
issues if you don't believe me), almost EVERY kind of dialect is
eliminated now.

C) Apparently any references to liquor save the one phrase "yo
ho ho and a bottle of rum" are not allowed in new stories, and very
selectively allowed to pass in old ones.

D) Smoking is allowed (even LIT cigars and pipes) -- note the
pipe-smoking technician in one panel of USA 30's Lentil story -- but
a hero cannot do it. A cigar was deleted from Donald's mouth in DDA
31's used-car-salesman story.

E) Someone seems to have gone through and gotten after the
earliest AT Sunday strips (the DDs in the "Silly Symphony" period)
for bad-role-model-type stuff. But other bodies of work seem
untouched.

F) Mickey cannot be in jail, even wrongly put there, in new
stories. It's okay in very old stories. Donald, however, can be in
jail in new stories too.

G) Some other altered stories:
"Treasure of Marco Polo" (1964). In CBL V, two panels were
changed. In one, 'Rebel Debbil' finds that his watch isn't working,
and it's stated that the watch was made by "the Workers' Paradise" --
changed to "McDuck Enterprises" in the reprint (which goes better
with Scrooge's scowl in that panel, but that's not why the change was
made). In a later panel, Soy Bheen leaps toward a cutthroat with his
fists ready, and in the next panel the guy (who was taken by
surprise) is on the ground groggy. It seems unaltered unless you've
seen the original, in which Soy Bheen is clutching barbed wire as he
leaps toward the tough and, in the next panel, the tough is dazedly
unravelling it from his neck.
"Luck of the North" had Eskimos' dialect rewritten in three
panels when Gladstone printed it in GGI 2! Did anyone else notice
that? If the version in the current album says "Whale no come"
(rather than "No whale comes") you'll know it's uncut.
"Adventure Down Under" had aboriginal dialect rewritten in 1989
(DDA 11), but the current album is uncensored.
When Disney reprinted Al Hubbard's "Peter Pan" adaptation in
1990, the Indians' dialect was altered, but that wasn't all. The
lyrics in a few cases matched the SONGS from the film, and THOSE were
deleted because -- I kid you not! -- Disney Music Co. will actually
sue other divisions of the company that use songs without paying
them! On the other hand, this is selective. Songs that were
originally copyrighted by the Bourne Co. seem to be legit (for
example the songs in Pinocchio, WDC&S 574, and of course "Who's
Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?").
"Smoke Writer in the Sky" (DD story from around WDC 196) has
had one frame censored in Disney's 1992 reprint. When DD forgets to
turn his smoke pipe off in the original, HDL tell him he's "made
[Unca Scrooge] look like a CHINAMAN!" In the remake, Donald's "given
him a PIGTAIL!"
Italians can look Italian, but not talk in dialect. FG stories
"Circus Roustabout" (in a brief trained-flea scene) and "Oscar the
Ostrich" were both altered. In the latter instance, the last name of pet-
shop-owner/villain Tony Dinero was never given in the redone story.
As we might expect, Disney need not worry. In Italy they leave it in!
Oh -- a pawnshop owner wore a yarmulke in the original
version of "Oscar." Disney wouldn't allow just the yarmulke to be
removed, but his whole HEAD had to go. Close inspection reveals the
new head to be that of an insurance salesman from "The Crazy Crime
Wave." Yiddishisms also left the dialect of the antique-store-owner
in "The Miracle Master" (and Stepin-Fetchit features on palace
servants were taken out, too). I don't mind seeing an obviously
Jewish character in Mouseton now and then. Makes me feel more at
home. We all know that Zeke Wolf is Jewish too. ;-)
In "The 'Lectro Box" MM's machine at one point transmits
pictures of Japanese generals in conference, then turns the generals
into rats (MM: "There's still a resemblance!"). This was altered in
1991 to make the generals into Americans who then transformed into
the Three Stooges.
A sequence in "MM vs. Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers" in which
MM tries to commit suicide has been banned. It lifts out of the
story without a trace (a cut version may see reprint some time),

A few red herrings: "Race to the South Seas", aside from DJ's
very good re-inking, has not actually been censored in the reprints!
"Volcano Valley" was not censored in DD 254 or CBLDD 6. And "jazzbo"
was NOT originally "Sambo" in WDC&S 34. (Thanks to Harry Fluks for
that last one.)

That's all for now.

David Gerstein
<9475609 at arran.sms.ed.ac.uk>

Date: 30-Jan-1995 05:28pm EST
From: DeBlieck, August
ADEBLIEC
Dept: STUDENT
Tel No:

TO: Remote INTERNET Address ( _IN%DISNEY-COMICS at MINSK.DOCS.UU.SE )

Subject: Life and Times #7

Well, the seventh chapter of the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck just
came out today in the States, and I wanted to e-mail this quickly before I
forgot any of it.

I loved it, as I usually do. The way you hid DUCK on the cover was very
tricky, Don.

I thought you avoided a major pitfall though, by making sure $crooge
didn't see his destiny. I can imagine how some purists might loathe that.
And your explanation of the Number One Dime was terrific, and will go
down as Duck canon in my book.

I don't know, though, DOn: That Bowerbird looked a lot like Magica's pet.

As soon as I get settled into the new school schedule, I'll let you know
what I think of your series as a partial whole so far, from a newbie's
perspective.

DAVID G: Uhm, this may sound horribly naive, but who drew the backup which
you scripted? I haven't read it yet, but it looks, at first glance, like
William Van Horn, but I doubt it is. Gladstone forgot a couple of credits
in there. And who was the original scripter?

-Augie De Blieck Jr.
(Now that I've gotten this down on e-mail, I'll use it for my next letter
to Gladstone. I love the way this works out!)

> On TV, it's now
>common to see a title that says that a movie has been "Edited for Television."
>I think that Disney and other comics publishers have the same obligation to
>their audience to make it clear that the work is not in its original form.

Disney probably feels no obligation to do this since the company believes it
owns the material lock, stock, and creative barrel. Directors and producers
have made a successful case against Ted Turner and others that they were
the original creators of the films in question. Nobody has been able to
make Disney admit that the comics created and drawn by so many talented
people were brought into being without Disney's help on every little line
and exclamation point.