Keskustelujen arkisto

GARY:
It's not important to this forum, but I can't accept the idea,
right off, that Paul M. owns the rights to "Happy Birthday to You";
during just the past few years is when I last heard about the two lil'
ol' ladies who still own it, and I'm pretty sure I only recently saw
some movie credits that named the owners as a pair of females rather
than a Paul McCartney. But never mind...
What happened to my cover to that new UNCLE $CROOGE ADVENTURES?
I don't know -- I suspect this was a problem that arose during my trip
to Mexico? No, that was too short a time ago? I was surprised when I saw
the ad in a recent Gladstone with the cover with a portion missing, but
the explanation (sorta) was right there in the same ad in that new
"Cross Talk" thing.
My cover art had a collapsing bin in the left foreground and a
huge load of lentils falling onto $crooge from above. That's why he
seems to be stopping short in the midst of a headlong flight from that
grasping Beagle Boy. As it stands now, I'm not sure what it looks like
$crooge is doing. Dancing? Stopping so the Beagle can grab him? Oh, it's
no big deal -- it looks odd to me only because I know what it originally
looked like... anyone else would never notice anything odd (I guess).
But WHY did they eliminate that foreground stuff? I don't know. Maybe
I'll ask them next time I talk to John Clark, who is currently on a
vacation.

INTERESTING NEWS--
Marvel Comics is currently going through a major, major
"downsizing" of some sort due to the dwindling American comic book
market (the gum card speculators who made comics boom as a "collectible"
several years ago have left the hobby and sales are dropping). They have
fired 20 or so editors and are cancelling a large number of titles. I
would guess that the only reason they won't cancel all their Disney
titles will be due to some contract with Disney that won't allow this --
it's just like Disney to have companies sign contracts that would force
them to produce a product at a loss, they have such contempt for the
rights and the good of others. Or maybe they WILL cancel the Disney
titles. I do know that the editors of the Marvel Disney titles are out
of work -- I hear they have been transfered over to the Welsh Publishing
Company (a Marvel company) to work on those kiddie magazines (not
comics) that Welsh handles. I'm not sure if there is anyone on here who
cares about the Disney stuff that Marvel produces, but I'll report
anything I discover.

On Sun, 8 Jan 1995, PAULO BARRETO wrote:
> I don't know about them, but I'm afraid the Brazilian 70's
> collection is sort of a version of the Italian coins (the character
> names and the publisher's logo are local, though).

I think not (although, how should I know?). The only thing I know about
these Italian ones, except what I said before, is that they all depicted
some Disney character as a historic person. The first one, I think, was
Cleopatra (resembling Daisy if memory serves). They were all based on a
series of historic stories. Time-travel or some such. The only one
translated to Swedish that I know of is that first one where the ducks
dream about being ancient Egyptians and then go back in modern time to
collect their treasures. A relatively good story, although a bit weak on
the plot.

Now that I think of it, the first Swedish translation was published in
early -73 and I just managed to find it in our database. The code is I
750. There is no other publication listed in the database. We can only
hope that Fabio or Luigi clears this up for us, I suppose.

/F

I spent some delightful days with David last week. Thanks again
for your visit, David!

David lent me his copy of Becattini's Disney index part 2. Amongst
others is says that Daan Jippes was born in Amsterdam. Well, OK,
Jippes is not from Friesland. But I'm sure his ancestors are. His
name is very Frisian.

The new Uncle Scrooge Adventures is in the shops: The Lentils From
Babylon part 2. A very complicated plot. One can see David has gone
through a lot of trouble explaining things as clearly as possible.

Also in that issue: the one-page Strobl gag where Scrooge remembers
a bill, but not an old school friend. What a coincidence...

Now, about last week's digest #544:

Torsten, about Junior Woodchuck stories by Barks:
> I wonder why Gladstone doesn't publish these, either from the original
> Gold Key issues, or the re-inkings.

Gladstone is in fact publishing Jippes' re-inkings of those stories.
The second one will be published soon.

Jo/rgen, about Donald Duck & Co #52:
> The lead story is a Dutch story (H8499, 10 pages). A foreign stamp
> collector is coming to Duckburg to buy a stamp from Scrooge.

The Dutch text on the letter was "stempelkussen" (used to put
staps on letters), after the tearing off it was "tempelkussen" (temple
pillow). How was this translated in Norwegian?

BTW: the Barks story "Race to the South Seas" (W/M.O.C. 41 1949) must
be Daan Jippes' re-inked version. Gladstone and Disney also used this
version. Is there a "Dagobert McDuck" text on the 2nd page, and is
Donald's boat called "Kwaak" in one panel? (just curious 8-)

--Harry.

Greetings, folks.

With today's courses over, I return to the terminal to write
about Disney comics AGAIN (why does that somehow fail to surprise
me?). I think I'll start off by imitating Torsten and discuss a bit
of what I saw, comic-wise, on my travels around Europe.

In ITALY Disney comics are celebrated with a vigor that
outmatches any other country, even Germany (the closest competitor).
About 2000 pages of them are published every month, counting some
reprints. There are a whole slew of titles, none of them less than
100 pages. ZIO PAPERONE reprints Barks only at present, taking most
of its material from the CBL but using different color than the new
Gladstone albums do. MEGA-ALMANACCO contains a mixture of Egmont and
Brazilian stories, with the emphasis on the former these days.
PAPERINO MESE is a mix of Danish, Italian, Disney Studio, and French
(I think) material, all reformatted to three rows; it is where the
more prestigious Danish stuff goes, I think. TOPOLINO, TOPOMISTERY
(not like the Egmont MM series; these are old Italian reprints) and
one Donald adventure digest which I also saw, are mainly composed of
Italian stories. And there are probably MORE titles which I am
forgetting.
Unfortunately, all of these publications, with fine production
values and excellent color, are in the hands of Disney Italy.
Apparently their reign has been much like that of Disney Comics Inc.
was in the U. S. The Italian Disney folks continue to tout Italy's
long tradition of homegrown Disney comics. They not only print
complete credits for their own stories, but sometimes have articles
about the various creators of the tales. But they seem to know
nothing about non-Italian stuff. So even Marco Rota's work, so
celebrated in the publisher's own articles, is printed without
credits in the MEGA-ALMANACCO when it comes time to print his recent
Egmont stories for the first time. And the editors have put a plan to
feature the LO$ in PAPERINO MESE on hold for whatever reason, which
means that another sub-editor in charge of MEGA-ALMANACCO may begin
running that same series with chapters in RANDOM order, in that
title, if nothing is done soon. Who knows what's going to happen?
Alberto Becattini, who is in charge of editing some special stories
and one-shots (more on this later) is unable to fathom what some of
his Disney-bred coworkers are thinking, nor is he able to effectively
wield any sort of influence over the entire operation (which he
doesn't nominally have anyway). So the current Italian market is one
of extremely creative confusion. It's both a delight to see, and a
shame in some ways. I asked Alberto why Disney didn't just print the
LO$ flat-out in 12 consecutive TOPOLINOs or PMs. "Why not?!" he
replied. "That's too logical for Disney!"
The reprint front, when it comes to old American stories by
those other than Barks, is handled by Comic Art Inc. Apparently CA's
license is for the same material and characters as Disney Italy. No
one minds that two publishers are publishing the same characters.
Anyway, CA prints a series of books collecting everyone ELSE's work
chronologically. An oversize (11 by 17) series collects the entire
Sunday strip -- that is, MM in sequence on the bottom half of each
page, and Silly Symphony on top -- from 1932 on, restoring whatever
they can't get proofs to. A similar oversize series collects the
daily MM strip, although I have no idea why the books are oversize
when they don't need to be. And A4 hardbacks collect the Disney work
of Paul Murry, Bill Wright, Dick Moores, Carl Buettner, and Walt
Kelly, as well as homegrown folk like Scarpa.
Finally, the copyright laws are such that earlier Disney
comics, perhaps the lion's share of the newspaper strips, are in the
public domain! So at shopping malls, some booksellers sell cheaply
reprinted facsimiles of the original 1930s publications of such
stories as "Wolf Barker" and "Hoppy the Kangaroo" (Sunday stories
particularly prominent for some reason). Comic Art has jumped on
this bandwagon too, reprinting prewar TOPOLINO and PAPERINO issues in
bound volumes and issuing facsimiles of the Italian equivalent to
FOUR COLOR, a series called NEL REGNO TOPOLINO, and an equivalent to
LARGE FEATURE COMICS called ALBO D' ORO.
Oh, yes... each time an old American story is reprinted, it
gets a NEW translation over here! So the most famous Gottfredson and
Barks stories have about five translations apiece.
Donald may be more popular than Mickey here -- but if so, it's
hard to tell, as the Mouse gets droves of exposure. Ellsworth and
Eega Beeva are both very well known. And I've seen Ellsworth's
adopted son -- he is never used together with his father and looks
and acts almost the same, so if I was to translate one of the stories
for the U. S. I would simply call him Ellsworth.
Hog-Haid Moe is not well-known, but some looking revealed many
more stories with him than we have listed, including many very recent
Brazilian stories.

In GERMANY -- well, I've told you about Germany. About all the
Egmont stuff sees reprint, and since the German weekly is 60 pages
rather than 48 there's more Dutch material here, too. The
pocket-books remain in print -- something that didn't seem to be the
case in France or Holland. All 200+ pocket books can still be
bought, although scarcity varies as it's a long time between press
runs on the early volumes.
FABIO, as thanks for your hospitality, I contributed a German
pocket-book to a package Harry will soon send you. Why? Simple --
it's the German version of your favorite, "The Lentils from Babylon."
I hope you enjoy it!

In FRANCE the situation is very different. There is a weekly,
LE JOURNAL DE MICKEY, with about 40 pages of comics (and 25 pages of
other stuff). It features mostly its own stories, which from what I
have gathered are drawn in a pseudo-Italian style, but in writing
style, made for three-year-olds; then there are a few 1930s Sunday
strips (with various characters) in each issue, and at least one
Egmont story in each as well. Every year, several Gottfredson
stories are serialized too. The comic was once A4 size with
reformatted pages (5 rows), but now it's normal size with four rows.
Then there is PICSOU ("McDuck"), a monthly with about 60 pages of
comics (and 20 pages of other stuff, including video game reviews).
Until a few years ago it had mostly Brazilian and Disney Studio
stories, but around 1988 it began to change. Now it has a lot of
Egmont stories too, as well as a long Barks story in almost every
issue. There are occasional articles about the stories.
But then there's the down side. The translations are
reportedly unbelievably juvenile, so even though humor comics and
Disney animated films are both quite popular here, these comics are
taken to be for young children only. I gave my cousin a French
version of "Last Sled to Dawson," and though he liked the art and
admitted the story was interesting, he was put off entirely by the
simplistic, boring text. In short, even the best foreign stories are
murdered by the traditional approach of the local translators.
Looking at PICSOU and MICKEY I see a valiant effort to spread the
names Barks, Gottfredson, and Rosa, but you get the feeling that no
one over twelve may care.
Oh, yes... other comics. MICKEY MYSTERY is not the Danish
series but a reprint of the Italian one. And SUPER PICSOU GIANT is a
gigantic 256-page mix of Egmont and Italian stories. Dutch stories
don't seem to exist for the French.
Mickey is as popular as Donald here. The only attempt at
collectors' series in this country have been various
complete-Gottfredson sets. They have gone in and out of print, and
are currently "out". Oh, yes... I also saw one album of AT Three
Pigs Sundays, horribly cut and pasted to make them into a virtually
new story. >Sigh< No complete Barks series, either.
Ellsworth is famous here, having his own spot on the back page
of each week's MICKEY as well as, now and then, longer stories
inside. Unfortunately, he has devolved from a smart teen in
personality to a greedy and pratfall-taking Fourth Stooge. And this,
when the French call him "Genius"!

(YES, DON!!! You did hear me right when I mentioned "Last Sled
to Dawson"! Now here's the dope. Although the comic shops
do not sell old Disney comics here (for the reasons I stated), used
magazine shops do, and I was able to find PICSOU issues that included
"Son of the Sun," "Nobody's Business" and the aforementioned "Last
Sled to Dawson." I believe that French must be the first foreign
language your stories appeared in, as the printing of "Nobody's
Business" is from 1988. That may have been your first story to
appear here; I certainly know that it was published before "Son of
the Sun." And you'll get all three French comics very soon; Harry
will forward them to you along with some stuff he's preparing. Sorry
I couldn't find any more, Don, but I tried. Honest!)

HOLLAND is another Disney Valhalla. Although not as much
material appears here as in Germany, the overall quality is very
high. Harry himself showed me how Holland, beginning in the
mid-'70s, began to print editorials about the great, older stories of
the 1930s and 1940s; how they began approaching Barks reprints more
systematically and enthusiastically introduced Gottfredson to an
audience which, weaned on S-coded foreign material and Jim Fletcher's
local work, didn't even know who Horace Horsecollar was. By the late
1970s, when Daan Jippes hit his stride, we had some truly superb
comics appearing here. And as far as I can figure out, it's gone on
to the present day.
The comics are promoted as being for children, but it's simply
common knowledge that adults read them too. The translations vary in
quality with regard to the foreign material, but are often at least
pretty good.
There are albums of DD and US, which I think come out monthly.
They once contained CB material, but they've largely run out and so
now you get home-grown reprints as well as Egmont ones.
When it comes to popularity, Mickey is much less popular than
the Ducks, mainly because very few Mickey stories were published
in the 1950s and 1960s when the comics were developing. Instead
Li'l Bad Wolf and his gang have been the standard
"second-most-popular character universe" in the Dutch comics for
years now. This group, Br'er Rabbit included, have gotten the cover
of the weekly many times and there are some excellent stories with
them produced in Holland. I have cornered some of them and, with
any luck, can translate a few of the shortest ones for Gladstone
sometime soon.
Mickey had an era of great popularity in the 1970s, when
Gottfredson was first published here; that's when Mickey got his own
comic. Unfortunately, the comic's editors were determined to fix
what wasn't broken, and after a few years it went from digest-sized
to full-sized. But it couldn't sell in the new size for some reason.
The editors tried altering the format and using all different kinds
of stories, even dropping Gottfredson for a while, but never hit on
shrinking the size again, and the comic ultimately failed. Now there
are Egmont and FG stories presented in DD weekly, but not in every
issue.
A series of features in DD Weekly about Disney comics around
the world illustrated a few from BRAZIL. Joe Carioca is the major
Disney star there (!!!) and wouldn't you know it -- the covers
pictured in the article show him hanging around with MOE! So it
looks like in Brazil, Moe is still very popular. I wondered if such
a screwball situation existed somewhere. It does.

* * * * *

Folks, I need your help for a big story I'm planning. A story
for Alberto Becattini (I talked about it with him extensively). I
need all the information I can get about Mickey Mouse's family as it
was revealed in NON-Gottfredson stories. So please send it my way,
if you can. The meaning of all this will become clear soon.

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

DAVID: The Johnson Smith company certainly does still exist.
I get their catalog now and then. They still sell the traditional
party gags like whoopie cushions and joy buzzers and fake doggy
doo and flies in plastic ice cubes, but they seem to have
expanded the product line in recent years to novelties and
doodads of all sorts. Kind of like a Spencer's Gifts for
teenage and 20-something blue-collar types, I'd guess; if
you're in the market for a baseball cap with a Confederate
flag on it, that's the place to go. They also sell a lot of
Star Trek knickknacks, too, for whatever that's worth.
Uh...what's the coding on those Li'l Bad Wolf and Brer
Rabbit stories you saw in the Dutch comics? On my recent
jaunt to Holland, I picked up a couple of huge collections,
one with a summer fun theme and the other with a winter fun
theme, and while they reprinted a number of Wolf and Rabbit
stories, those stories were all Danish-originated. Since
English is the house language at Egmont, and all scripts
are in English, there may not be any need to translate them.
On the other hand, one of the Dutch stories I translated
for Gladstone did have an original English script, but it
still needed translating anyway. The script was written by a
writer/artist who was not a native English speaker, and it
was darned near incoherent. At times it was no more than an
artist's notes to himself. I ended up following the printed
Dutch version because whoever had translated the script into
Dutch had tightened it up, put in jokes, and made it
coherent.
On the third hand (!), Egmont's Brer Rabbit scripts, even
written in good English, would need some touching up for the
American market, because they generally aren't written in
Southern dialect, but in rather flavorless standard English.
Is Gladstone even interested in the minor characters?
A friend of mine (a former Disney Comics staffer) expressed
some interest in writing for Egmont, and I told him that while
everybody in the world wants to write Great Duck Adventure Epics
Just Like Carl Barks (or so it seems sometimes), Egmont is kinda
overstocked on Ducks these days. But come up with good stories
featuring Lil Bad Wolf, Brer Rabbit, and Mad Madam Mim, characters
serious fans tend to overlook, and that might be the way to break
in. Besides, these days it seems like there's only guy who can
write Great Duck Adventure Epics Just Like Carl Barks, and he
lives in Louisville; kind of stiff competition there. I'm just
amazed that these minor backup characters from mid-'50s issues of
WDC&S are still popular in Europe, long after they faded from
view in the States. Heck, you'll even find Lil Hiawatha stories
and Scamp stories in Europe. New ones! Anyway, my chum promptly
wrote a Lil Wolf story. He might have been happier writing Ducks,
but it's probably the minor characters that are more in need of
new writers and a steady supply of stories.

--Dwight Decker

what's the comans torequest that you only get a littl e mail a day from
here?? I get tooo much

DAVID, DWIGHT
As an aside, the Johnson Smith Co. does indeed continue to stay in business
-- right here in sunny old Bradenton, Fla. We've done a couple of articles on
them in the past at the newspaper.
Mark Worden has expressed a desire for me to arrange a tour of the place, so
when he comes down here from the frozen North in March, we'll get to see the
interworkings of this company with the X-ray specs.