Keskustelujen arkisto

Hello, everyone!
I'm emerging from my lurking mode to report on Carl Barks Day here in
Oregon. My husband Michael and I were thrilled to finally meet the "Ol'
Duck Man" a few minutes before the ceremony.

A short time later, Carl was honored by the Oregon State Senate with a
special proclamation, which was then voted on by all the senators. (All
voted "yes," BTW!)

A reception followed, with a small display of art (including the DD
Birthday litho, his latest, I think) and a big Donald Duck cake. We then
met some of Carl's grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who were all
extremely nice and shared some great memories about their Grandpa Carl.

One grandson recalled with delight the Uncle Scrooge moneybags Carl gave
them when they were little (with real money inside!).

A granddaughter said Carl would pay them for good story ideas. (Sorry,
didn't get around to asking if he ever bought any!)

The grandchildren also shared their feeling about what it was like to
have a "famous" grandpa that nobody really knew about.

One granddaughter said she used to brag that her grandpa created Uncle
Scrooge, but no one ever believed her. After a while, she quit telling
people!

Carl's grandson remembered that when he once told a teacher his grandpa
created Uncle Scrooge, she thought he meant Ebenezer Scrooge.

"And so--"
A very happy time was had by all!

--Janet Gilbert
Eugene, Oregon
(Home of the University of Oregon Fighting Ducks, whose mascot is Donald
Duck. His pic is on the stadium and everything else around here!)

I found a couple of issues of "The Uncensored Mouse" in a bin at an out of
town comic store. I had never heard of this comic before, and I was excited
to see that it contained unedited MM dailies starting with the first and
running through April 26, 1930. It was published by Eternity Comics and only
two issues were printed before they Mysteriously Stopped ;) The Publisher
was Dave Olbrich, with Chirs Ulm, Mickie Villa and Tom Mason helping. The
issues contain a lot of material I am sure Disney Co. doesn't want people
like me to read because it may have a bad influence on my behavior. I
understand that more of this type of material floats around. Does anyone
know how I can find it?

Wes

"But, Mickey! It's SUICIDE! We'll be KILLED! How'll we ever land without
wheels?" -- Captain Doberman

I got the new Previews magazine today which, for those of you who aren't
aware solicits the comics for retailers to order through the distributors.
This issue concerns the publications shipping in June 1995. And there is
some very interesting things going on with Gladstone. (You could take the
word "interesting" with a slight note of sarcasm if you wished.)

They are raisiing their prices! The little explanation blurb says the
following:
"New Gladstone Comics Titles and Formats Shipping in June

"Beginning this month, Gladstone is temporarily dividing its lines into
two groups. Titles in the first group will be published in the
standard Gladstone format of 32 pages and a slick cover wrap, with a new,
higher price of $1.95 per book. Titles in the second groupd will be
shortened by four pages (text and house ads), but will contain just as much
full-color comic book material for a _reduced_ price of $1.50 ($2.25 for
giants.)"

A couple of questions come to my mind. Since when is $1.50 a reduced price?
OK< the $2.25 is reduced (and a handsome savings at that), but $1.50 is the
same price we're paying now. Sheesh. And now I have to pay an extra $.45
for the letters column and text pieces. They better have a lot more articles
in there!

So follow along with the rest of the solicitation: Donald Duck #292 includes
Barks' "Noble Porpoises" and more Taliaferro strips, for $1.95.
Uncle $crooge Adventures features "Beagle Bug-Off" by Vic Lockman and
"The Money Counting Machine" by Daniel Branca for $1.95.

BUT!

Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse #1 is solicited at $1.50. Does this mean that
this title won't be raising its price? Or is it only coming out in the
text-less version? And do they rally think renaming it for the purposes
of having another #1 issue will help?

Also, Uncle Walt's Collectory (note spelling!) #1 is shown to be a $2.25
book, with a great cover by Don.

So when will the second wave of books come out? They aren't solicited. Next
month after these books come out?

Also note that at the beginning of this rambling message, this move was
called "temporary." Temporary to see which sells better? Temporary to
let us get used to the price hike before moving all the prices to the
higher level?

And will the giants on the $1.95 books go to $3.50 now, or what?

So many questions...

-Augie

P.S. Marvel tried this once already, and moved all their titles to the
higher-priced version after a fraudulent three month test, which is what
this seems to be.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Augie De Blieck Jr. - "Sometime I wonder, why are we so blind to fate?"
ADEBLIEC at drew.edu - -Billy Joel, Two Thousand Years
Drew University -

On 2-APR-1995 00:40:41.8 Cdoberman said to ARCHIMEDES
Cd> I found a couple of issues of "The Uncensored Mouse" in a bin at an
Cd>out of town comic store. I had never heard of this comic before, and
Cd>I was excited to see that it contained unedited MM dailies starting
Cd>with the first and running through April 26, 1930. It was published
Cd>by Eternity Comics and only two issues were printed before they
Cd>Mysteriously Stopped ;)

WES: There were only two issues printed before the Disney machine came
down heavy on Eternity, as the books were unlicensed. Too bad. The early
Mickey was a gutsy little competitor who never gave up. Kinda like U$.

A friend of me (the norwegian fan who called you about 2 week ago, Don) has
made a norwegian Rota-index, and we'd like to know if he's forgotten any
stories. BTW: My friend (Geir J. Netland), Erik Hoerthe and I have made a
new norwegian CARL BARKS INDEX printed by "Donaldisten"
The price is 50 Kr., and it can be ordered from:
Donaldistene
Westye Egebergsgate 8 c
0172 Oslo
Tlf: 22 36 07 70

Ok, here's the Marco Rota index (sorry, we only have norwegian titles):
J 277 DD og de ville vikingene DD 1982:12-15, 93: dd bilag nr 1
????? DD Mitt liv i et eggeskall (album 1985)
????? DD sarasenernes natt (album 1986)
D 5480 O.S og sjoeroeveroeya MM 1981: 11
D 9434 DD reisen til miklagard Eventyr m/tidsmaskinen 1,
DD 1994: bilag 6
D 90243 DD eventyr med tidsmaskinen 1 Beste historier 5
D 92120 Modellflykrigen DD 1992: 40
D 92444 OS Robrik DD 1993: 13-14
D 92513 DD teskjemannen DD 1993: 38-39
D 93041 DD aquanauten DD 1993: 35
D 93302 OS moldvarpfolket DD 1994: 12-13
D 93481 Donald villand magiske runer DD 1994: 26-27
D 93504 DD strandlengsel DD 1994: 24
D 93376 DD redningsmannen DD 1994: 49
D 93577 OS loven er for alle DD 1994: 47

-Vidar

>ALL:
Since I talked to John Clark today concerning my finishing up the
"Hearts of the Yukon" story for WALT DISNEY'S COLLECTORY / UNCLE $CROOGE IN
THE YUKON #1, I asked him about the report that someone (who was it now?)
posted on here yesterday about reading information about Gladstone's new
pricing format. Frankly, the way it was described didn't quite make sense to
me, and in truth that wasn't exactly the whole story.
What Gladstone / Bruce Hamilton is doing is an experiment to find
some way to offset the new price of paper. In case some of you weren't aware
of it, the cost of paper has skyrocketed in the past year, and this is
something which may effect the future of comic books in general (or already
has, obviously). My reactions to this are mixed -- I am frankly ashamed that
I contribute to the felling of trees for the purpose of printing such
unessential matter as comic books... even though comic books are vital
compared to the far worse sorts of magazines and utter junk that people
waste paper printing, not to mention packaging, etc., etc.
All comic book pricing will soon rise, and Gladstone will raise the
price of it's half-line of "normal" comics (done as they have been for the
past few years) to $1.95. Everything about these issues will be the same as
before except the unavoidable price increase.
The other titles which will remain at $1.50 will, as reported,
contain 4 fewer pages. But what Gladstone is doing hasn't been tried since
the Fox comics of the late 1940's, the MARCH OF COMICS of the same period,
or Gold Key's BEST OF DONALD AND $CROOGE type issues of the mid 60s. Old
comic collectors will already know where I'm going with this. The Gladstone
$1.50 comics will have no cover stock. The 4 pages being eliminated will be
the wrap-around cover. The first page of the interior comic will have the
"cover" of the comic. There will still be the same number of pages of
stories, but there will be no letters page and fewer house-ads. The story
credits will now be printed on the stories' first page as with all other comics.
I think it was already mentioned on here which titles would be the
$1.50 line -- mostly the lower sellers, I guess... DD, D&M and whichever.
Also, there will be no more issues larger than these 28-32 pagers.
(This is a reversal of a previous Hamilton idea from the late 80s that
Gladstone comics would be more profitable at 64 pages with a price hike.)
The future Gladstones will depend on which of these lines sells more
profitably. If the "covered" issues sell better even with the higher price,
the others will switch to that format. If the "coverless" issues are more
profitable, all the Gladstones will go coverless. There's no sense in
worrying or whining about it. It's a fact of economics and the American
comic business where barely enough comics are bought in the first place to
make it profitable. And there's no reason to decide not to buy the
"coverless" issues in a misdirected protest, or to even buy extra of the
"covered" ones. We collectors are a negligible force -- we just hafta see
how the Great Unwashed Masses (which aren't very "Great" as "Masses" go)(but
are probably suitably "Unwashed") will react to this change. (If readers
decide they don't like EITHER style, I guess you won't be seeing the last
chapters of the "Lo$", eh?)

Hi all.

Non-Scandinavian readers beware... SPOILERS AHEAD!

Ok. I have now read 2/3 of the Universal Solvent story by Rosa, and enjoyed
it a lot, but something bugged me about the second part, when they reach
the room at the center of the Earth. Scrooge falls of the vehicle and falls
towards the center of the room, and past it, and then falls back upwards.
This might seem logic, but being a physics-student, I don't know if this
would happen. You see, this room is just like the inside of a hollow spherical
shell, where the rest of the Earth is the shell. Inside this sphere there
should be zero gravity, no forces at all. The Ducks should be completely
weightless in the room. Things outside this room would be pulled towards
it's center, but things inside will not. Anyway, it's been over a year
since I learned this stuff, but that's how I remember it. It also makes for
a great gag in the story.

-jonC

Jon Cato Lorentzen <jonlo at ifi.uio.no> warns:
> Non-Scandinavian readers beware... SPOILERS AHEAD!
and I herein reinforce this warning!!!

Jon argues that once the Ducks have reached the hollowed-out room
at the center of the earth, Scrooge would not fall out and then yo-yo
back and forth past the exact center, since in a hollow sphere the
gravitational potential is constant and its gradient (the gravita-
tional field) is therefore zero. That would of course be true, but
the room is not empty! The Universal Solvent itself rests at the
exact center of the spherical room, and (as you will recall from the
explanation of how it "dissolves" things) it has a mass equal to that
of some of the rock which it has swallowed up inside the hollow room.
Although the Solvent normally extrudes what it swallows, the very last
extruded material now keeps falling back into the blob of Solvent that
lies at the center of the room, and it gets re-absorbed. So this blob
of liquid has a mass equal to that of a significant chunk of rock,
and this is why Scrooge falls towards it (and back towards it again,
after passing it). We must assume that the mass of rock within the
Solvent is not **too** big, however, since ...

Mild Spoiler for Part 3 follows!

Scrooge is able to return it to the surface still inside the jar.
This is OK, since the Solvent needs to contain only a small amount
of mass in order to pull Scrooge back and forth; after all, as you
point out, all the other gravitational forces cancel, so the little
bit of rock held within the Solvent will suffice to make Scrooge
fall towards it.

Anyway, thanks for taking the physics so seriously! I wish someone
would take up the torch passed by Tony Strobl and come up with a
new comic to start kids thinking about science: "Donald Duck in
Physics-Magic Land", or something. Former engineer Don Rosa, are
you listening?

Regards,
Wilmer Rivers