Keskustelujen arkisto

DAN & BJORN-ARE:

Actually, indian mounds are not the focus of what I was talking about. I
haven't looked at them in years, but I just pulled out the three books I own
on the subject of Pre-Columbian stone artifacts in America. They are:
"The Search For Lost America" by Salvatore Michael Trento
"America B.C." by Barry Fell
and "The Mystery Hill Story" by Mark Feldman
As I recall, and think now, the best of these is the Trento book which
documents several hundred sites, most in New England, consisting of perched
rocks, stone piles, standing stones (menhirs), slab-roofed chambers, stone
wall complexes, and various kinds of artifacts. He then compares them to
similar sites and artifacts in Europe. He begins, "Are all these rocks
monuments to acts of nature? Who left them and why? How old are they? How
many times has America really been settled?" Those are the questions he
addresses. A thought-provoking read. The Fell book is, as I recall, filled
with much of the same material, but some of the connections and conclusions
drawn would have to fall into the category, "crack-pot theory". The Mystery
Hill book documents one of the larger sites that is open to the public as a
tourist attraction in New Hampshire. I visited it in the late 1970's.
Unfortunately, it has been messed around with a lot since it's discovery by
previous owners, so the true origins can only be guessed at. Sorry for all
this, Disney fans -- just wanted to state my sources.

DON: Hope they ask me to letter the Columbus story -- sounds like fun. Sorry
to hear about lettering problems in some of your other stories -- are you
sure the letterer had the correct script? Don't recall who did the work, but
thought I'd put in a "benefit of the doubt" there for letterers everywhere
:-)

MATTIAS: I was going to comment that the "phonograph needle" gag, which I
also remembered as being from a Marx Bros. film, sounded like an old
vaudeville line to me, but your song reference ties it down nicely. Good
work!

DAVID: Let's hope that Disney does renew Gladstone's license, and that Brucde
Hamilton continues to publish the characters in this uncertain market. The
alternatives are bleak...

GILBERT:

> In American Disney comics the currency of Duckburg is the same as it is
> in the USA, Dollar and Cents. But in German Disney comics the currency of
> Duckburg is from its first mentioning on Taler and Kreuzer.

I always thought that was because the German comics were published in
(at least) 3 countries with different currencies: Austria, Switzerland
and Germany. To avoid that children complain about the Ducks living in
"the wrong country", they made up fake currencies.

--Harry.

I hope someone can help me with an answer to this because I wasn't
much help when someone asked me.
What does Calisota mean? I know it's the state or area where
Duckburg is but when I first came across it in the comics as a kid I never
had much luck finding it in an atlas. Does it mean anything or refer to
something or is it just a word that Carl Bark's made up?

Thanks,
Greg

DON:

Among your previous works in the realm of comics: Did you do a
column for Amazing Heroes? I seem to remember the one issue of that
magazine which I do own having a couple of pages' worth of covers on it
which had some common theme. The author was one Don Rosa. Was this you?

Wait, I'll go dig it up...

Here: Amazing Heroes #179 (May 1990 - LONG Todd McFarlane interview in
it which is why I bought it) "Don Rosa's Cover Gallery" it is called and
is three pages' worth of Superman covers in which his secret identity is
revealed. The subtle humor evident in the introductory paragraph sounds
like your work to me!

Wow, thanks for the trip down memory lane...

DAN: Yes, the Columbus news story is true. National Geographic, if I
remember correctly, re-plotted his course a few years back from his original
journals
and discovered that he actually landed on an island in the Caribbean, I
believe. Of course, there is a certain political element in this country
which took great pride in this and loved to splash the news about. It
has gone so far downhill in this country that in many places Columbus Day
isn't even celebrated anymore. (At my University, for example, we had
"Multicultural Awareness Day" off. It is very unfashionable to be a
white male these days. OK, political rant off.)

ARTHUR:

Yes, I'd love to try to work something out! Will contact you in private
e-mail!

-Augie
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On Mon, 23 Oct 1995, Arthur de Wolf wrote:

> Oh yeah, one last thing and I'm out of here. Daniel and I were
> wondering why you sometimes hide Mickeys in your stories. Like that one
> time in (I believe) a Lo$-chapter, there's a Mickey-head under a foot
> of an elephant. What do you mean by that? Do you want to suggest, that you
> kind of 'hate' Mickey, and want to crush him under an elephant's foot?
> I also remember seeing a Mickey in 'War of the Wendigo', but I'm not sure.

you did. Don has put MM into many stories. I don't remember all, but take a
look at the columbus story, metaphorically spanking, the DD birthday
story, the pied piper... I guess I've forgotten some. GEIR, is your memory
better than mine???

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Vidar

Gentlemen!...
THE world's greatest kite maker -
and her PROVES it by arriving
at the banquet in his car.....
entirely by kite power!

ARTHUR:
my meaning must have gotten lost in another of the run-on sentences
that I use. I meant that the original version of that story, the original
being titled "Vortex", was so much more complex that I could derive another
Duck story from out of it. And what your local edition titled "Journey to
the Center of the Earth" was their title for the story *I* called "The
Universal Solvent".

TODD:
I'm about as sure as I can be that that other letterer had correct
scripts. I supplied the original scripts or proofread the ones Gladstone
had. And the mistakes he made were of the type that someone would have had
to retyped the script and gone out of their way to put those mistakes in.
There's nothing wrong with making mistakes, of course -- but that
letterer made some doozies, especially in "The Duck Who Never Was", where
the whole story (the entire ISSUE) is based on Donald's birthday being June
9, and that letterer puts into my story that his birthday is September 6
(6/9 > 9/6), and makes it look like *I* made the error. But I can pull some
boners, too, and do so often -- in chapter 11 of the "Lo$", I had $crooge
with two pairs of glasses (which the Gladstone editor corrected, though it
appeared wrong all through Europe). And in chapter 8 in the splash panel
somebody put the Atlantic Ocean where the Pacific Ocean is supposed to be
(nudge, nudge).

GREG:
I think Barks was just pulling a funny name that sounded like a
state name out of thin air. But if you try to read something into it, I
useta imagine it referred to the fact that Duckburg seems to have the
impossible combination of the weather of both California and Minnesota.,
especially in the older stories where there were frequently palm trees in
the background in one issue, and a blizzard in the next.

JANNE:
Okay, since I leave in just 2 days, I guess it's time to mention my
travel dates again.
I'll be at the Lucca (Italy) International comics expo and elsewhere
in the region on Oct. 28 to Nov. 4. On Nov. 5-7 I'll be in Oslo, but this is
just a side-trip between main destinations, and I don't know if the editor
has anything planned that will put me in access of Duck fans. But on Nov. 7
- 13 I'll be at the Helsinki comic convention, and in other appearances in
the area. I'll be back home on the 14th.

Per:

My German pocket book calls Filo Sganga: "Kuno Knauel". Without umlauts.
We discussed him briefly last june.
Where did his English name, Jubal Cock, appear? In the UK?

--Harry.

Harry Fluks ()_() Dutch Disney comics freak
PTT Telecom (_) fluks at pcssdc.pttnwb.nl
Netherlands "Yeah.. I've _heard_ of coral barques"

As usual I'm completely out of sync with recent discussions, so
please excuse my inflation-ridden 2 cents opinions on old topics.

Anything-You-Say-Can-And-Will-Be-Used-Against-You:

How about automatically uns*bscr*bing anyone using the 'u' word in
reply mail? Our regular, caring reader would know how to reenlist
and the oops-wrong-number people would appreciate its efficiency.
I know it's a backdoor to Censorship, which we by sheer serendipity
are momentarily released from in this forum, but at least in this case
it would serve a double-good purpose; we will be spared the cries
of the innocent, and our hapless victims released from Disney-Comic's
rain of terror mail.
I also suggest a restriction on the word '*ncle':)

How come we never get anyone 'desperately seeking mature, semi-
proffessional, and alphanumerically encrypted discussion forum' -
it's always "HALP - I want OFF!"
*MY* new ML name suggestion would be "ye'nside-story.phd.uu.se";)

Anyway, 'men with the right stuff' still seem to find their way here.
I was especially glad to hear from Frank, our only resident Englishman
perhaps, a regular WJW guide on Italian digests, in which I happen to
be buried these days. It's almost like (re-)discovering Duckburg;
the American version has been practically in suspended animation since
Barks created the world and populated it, whereas the pantheon of the
Italian parallel universe has evolved continuously.
The guide to Scarpa's periods was very good, and I'd love to add some
references to other publishings of the stories, and then have it online.

Residents of EGMONT countries may find my Danish index useful when
discussing Italian stories; with the help of Beccattini's index I have
added comprehensive creator data for the early Danish pocket books.
These books have been published out of sync in various countries though,
so we need cross references from you people; like, "Norwegian Donald Duck
Pocket #82 looks a lot like Danish Jumbo-bog #83".
But hold your horses; the improved DANISH-INDEX will just have to wait
for Harry to go bug-hunting in it, and he's just getting it... now.

My least popular of the pre-1960's Italian artists must be Giorgio
Bordini, Giancarlo Gatti and Giulio Chierchini. And that's not even
mentioning Luciano Capitanio, Pier Lorenzo de Vita and Guiseppe Perego.
Favorites are Luciano Gatto and, it goes without saying, Romano Scarpa.

Now, I don't really want to knock these artists; I liked de Vita's
stories when I was a kid, even before I could read them, and at least
they had their own style, whereas modern Italian art is slick, but dull.
You should also remember that Italian artists were developing Disney's
characters long before Holland and Denmark, and thus had a tradition
before Barks set the standards, closer to the cartoons and Taliaferro's
early, dynamic style. I recall that the Norwegian Donaldists lumped all
Italian stories into a category named "brutalism" (examplified by the one
and only Guiseppe Perego), but had 4 or 5 periods in Barks' career.

Modern Italian Disney is often:

a) socio-realistic (somewhat italocentric)
b) space-opera (*VERY* unscientific)
c) time-travel (MM and prof. Einmug)
d) ethnographical (Wild West, Backwardistan)
e) parodic (world litterature classics)

If Gladstone did like the Dutch DD editors, and printed the pocket
stories with 12 panels to a page, even the longer ones would easily fit
into a normal sized book. And the art wouldn't even be printed smaller!
May I be so audacious as to recommending Danish artist Flemming
Andersens italistic art, as seen on the cover of DD #291?
Or should I just be content with my successful lobbying for the new,
improved mouse by that fabulous artist Felolo... eh, Refolili? Whatever.

BTW, I just checked out "How To Read DD" from the regional library and
glued in a couple of pages with the translators 'disclaimer' posted here
recently. The Danish version was indeed translated from the English,
rather than the original Spanish (Chilenian?) text.
I also added our address. If anybody asks tell them I sent them. ?!.

I have to admit that I found Don's "The Fabulous Shrinking Tycoon" story
disappointing; I thought it would be inspired by Philip K. Dick's short
story "The Tireless Frog" (tr.?, from "A Handful of Darkness", 1955), but
it never got scientific or philosophical enough for my taste, like
acknowledging the effects of reduced gravity. Mostly it read like a 'silly'
counterpart to Barks' thoughtprovoking "DD goes to Betelgeuze".
And wouldn't a shortened short-wave radio transmit on a shorter wavelength?

Don, if you are contractually obliged to make these slapstick stories,
at least this one, you didn't need a full 24 pages to tell, more like half.
Oh-uh, here I go again; Don's stories are too LONG!?
If you didn't know better, you'd think I didn't like them. Of course,
even this one was way better than the best tries of other less talented
creators. It's just that with Don, anything less than GRRRREAT is a
disappointment. After all he's up against the champ; himself.

Luckily, to the general, unenlightened public here in the New World,
it'll fade into oblivion, being followed so rapidly by the Columbus story,
part II or III of the Woodchuck cycle. Now THERE's a story that stirs the
very foundations of reality!
Being a halfbaked, ancient philologist (no, not ME, I'm only 30:), with
furry feet, I couldn't have had a better treat, if I'd ordered it myself.

Two questions; the Danish version's editorial listed the backgrounds of
LCoC; The Golden Helmet = idem, Cleopatra's Tomb = GotLL, and Brutopia
= The Swamp of No Return. But Brutopia isn't mentioned in the translation!
Where DOES it fit in, if at all?
Also, Donald says he first found the helmet "many years ago". That story
was published in 1952 (1954 in Denmark), but the newspaper on page 19 is
dated 1954. Just when I'd got to terms with today always being 1955.
Can someone sort out the chronology?

No intention of offending, harassing, or plain annoying people with my
opinions should be implied. If anyone would still like to hurt my
feelings, remember; I'm a sensitive sort of a guy, so no need for any
fancy, rude remarks. A simple IHU reply will do just fine;)

Disney-comics-digest-reader:
Ole 'RoC' Reichstein Nielsen
c/o lrn at daimi.aau.dk

"`What are moon-letters?' asked the hobbit full of excitement.
oLe He loved maps, as I have told you before; and he also liked
- runes and letters and cunning handwriting, though when he
wrote himself it was a bit thin and spidery."

("The Hobbit", J.R.R. Tolkien)

--- 1.50$,T: Gain control of target comic-book. Even if that book ---
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