Keskustelujen arkisto

I know it has been discussed before, but I was in the store tonight and
started leafing through the current Disney Adventures Magazine. I was
looking for Van Horn's Dinosaur story, which I very quickly skimmed. It
featured the usual Van Horn aliteration and hyperbolic vocabulary. I didn't
buy the magazine -- $3 seemed steep for such a publication. Has any one else
read the story who would care to share your views on it?

-- Wes

On Thu, 5 Oct 1995, Don Rosa wrote:

> I HAD done it once previously, however. I hid another Duck fan's
> last name on my cover to "His Majesty McDuck". See if you can find it. It
> was "Bankard".

Yup! T'was no problem!

Have you ever written (hidden) your own name in one
of you comics? (Appart from "DON" on the statue outside
Duckburg Museum in "the Duck who never was"
Marco Rota is doing it quite often.
Perhaps you should start hiding D.U.C.K. in every part
of you 3-part stories, then there's a bigger chance for
at least one D.U.C.K. to survive. I think you did this in part
3 of the "War of the Wendigo" story.

------------
Geir J. Netland
------------

KNUT:
You liked the ending of "Tightwad"? That's good -- it was one of
those instances when I didn't have an ending in mind from the start, and
that was all I could think of.
No, I meant that nobody in the movie found the real Falcon... or at
least the Fat Man was chasing a phony lead. But was there a Maltese Falcon
in real life? What a good question! After researching adventure stories for
the past 8 years, I've learned that history is PACKED with fabulous true
tales like that, so I wouldn't doubt there was some truth in that premise. I
wish I knew... that would make the movie 10 times better for me.
Of course, the BEST part of the movie is what makes other movies
like TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE and THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING so great.
The fact that all of these movies were directed by the same man might prove
that my mind works the same way John Huston's did. What made these movies so
good is that the heroes LOSE the treasures they so desperately seek. I think
that's especially important in my $crooge stories -- I think I've said
before that $crooge is so rich that there can't be any thrill in seeing him
gain more treasure... it's much more interesting to see what mistake he
makes in judgement or ethics that will cause him to LOSE his goal.

MIKE:
You liked those coins? I noticed that they didn't fiddle with them
even though I clearly drew American coins, even down to the faint lettering
of "AMERICA" or "LIBERTY"... of course, they colored it all gold like they
always do, so maybe that was enough disguise?
Speaking of coloring, I was also puzzled, like you, as to why they
colored the close-up views of the Beagle Boy's skin PINK, instead of their
normal "flesh" tone. Hm... could it be due to the "gag" where I had Donald
saying he thought the giant Beagle hand that plopped next to them was a
"pink oil-tanker running aground"? Did they use that gag in the translation?
You remind me that I keep forgetting to bring those issues up here
to post a list of the stuff in $crooge's junk closet. Yes, I'm sure I used
some of this group's suggestions, though I didn't make notes as to who
suggested what. When I post the list everyone is free to remind me what
they'd sent me.

Too bad there's no one from Germany in the group. I just received a
copy of the 6th album of the "Lo$", and they used the extra half-pages in
chapter XI, the pages that had never been used until then. But yesterday
Gladstone's issue with that same chapter came out -- I haven't got a copy
yet, but I trust they used those extra pages also. I also hope they
corrected that one panel where I show $crooge with two pairs of specks!
Also, WDC&S #600 came out, and I'm anxious to see how the Duck Family Tree
looks.

Hi everyone,
I've been a little underworked at work and have been doing some
reading. As you may recall, I can't find Disney comics here in Japan, but
I did read an interesting Mickey related item.
In his book "The Panda's Thumb", Stephen Jay Gould has an essay
entitled "An Homage to Mickey Mouse" (as best I can remember; I left the
book at work). It is about the change in Mickey's features over time. He
makes specific reference to the movies, but since the comic Mickey is based
on the movie, it still holds true.
In short, he said as time passed Mickey developed more juvenile
features (bigger eyes, bigger head, shorter nose etc). It then goes on to
explain how these features seem to be related to the perception of
"cuteness" by humans. He noted the more adult features of Goofy and others
as well. The beloved Donald Duck was also mentioned. Seems he became more
juvenile as well, but not nearly as much as Mickey since he's still a bit
of a bad boy.
So, let me ask you, do you think, based on the earliest Donalds
you've seen that he has become "cuter"?

Thanks,
Bill

P.S. It is a good book on evolution and worth getting if you are mildly
interested in the topic. I really liked the Mickey article (about 8-9
pages, almost all text with just a few illustrations)

So I just read "Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" #11.

DON

I think you had previously mentioned that this story might
disturb some people. Well, I liked it very much, but I am a bit
bothered about some of the things that you showed - it's almost
like DC's "Post Crisis" approach, where history sort of happened
the way one thought that it had, except that people that used to be
admirable actually have some evil background... I do *not* subscribe
to the belief that a character has to go through some sort of
"learning to be evil is wrong" experience in order to be honest.
I mail-order the Gladstone books for my 12 year old brother and 7 year
old sister, and I'm not entirely sure whether or not I'd have purchased
this one for them. That's a bit young to start having one's heroes
shown as evil.

Anyways, that's not what I meant to write about on this post :-)

I really wanted to pick nits:

Spoiler!

On the last page of the story, there are two references to
Scrooge being "the richest man in the world" only it looks like
"man" was written in by someone else. Did this originally say
"richest duck"? And if so, what was the reason for the change?

Given your attention to detail, I'm assuming that you already
know that George Washington was not on the Quarter until 1932 -
and that "Chief Quarter Dollar" was Lady Liberty - whose correct
name really *was* on the front of the coin :-)

Lincoln was right on - his first appearance on the penny was 1909...

WDC&S 600

It was very nice to see "Mythological Menagerie" again (in WDC&S 600)
but I would have assumed that after 8 years, Gladstone would have
fixed "just look a these merit badges" (If it *is* an error, I may
be mistaken)

And I had forgotten how thoroughly enjoyable the Dan Jippes ten pagers
are. I hope that we see more of them...

jasphe at aol.com

Wilma,

Interesting post. I have read those conspiracy theories you refer to and in
some cases the research leading to the conclusions of the various authors
seems pretty solid.

I went to the Dallas United We Stand America Conference this summer, and
took a half day (I got there a day early) to wander about downtown Dallas.
I came upon a place called the Conspiracy Museum, paid the fee, went in
expecting something totally different, because of all of the conspiracies I
have read about of late. It turned out to be is a fantastic collection and
reproduction of all kinds of news article to do with each presidential
asassination. The first floor was all about Abraham Lincoln and whether
John Booth was really killed as first reported or whether or not he in fact
went through life and appeared in up to three identities later in life. I
didn't make it to the JFK part of the museum as they were closing, but did
visit the memorial at the site of his asassination.

I loved the Maltese Falcon story. I prefer to hope that secret societies
exist to preserve knowledge and traditions, even historic treasures, rather
than to control the events or even knowledge of history. Still the idea
that they must be secret discredits any society to me. The Rosecruteans are
another group that is secret. I once got an invitation to join them, but
got a strange feeling about the whole thing and never responded. If I had,
I guess I would know by now what they were about.

I love the idea of guardians of a library of knowledge! Don's story brought
out something that is somewhat true to life when you study the history of
the world around us is the similar creation and flood stories most religions
have as well as a similar prophet stories. Thus it would not be surprising
for a book of knowledge to appear in many languages/countries in the world.
There are similarities between the Egyptian/Tibetan/Hopi Books of the Dead.

Such a book of knowledge as the Junior Woodchuck Guide surely would have
roots all the way back to Atlantis and Mu. When those who believed the
warnings that great floods and earthquakes would come and had the good sense
to escape Atlantis and Mu before it happened, these wise people who would
settle all over the world would NEVER have left home without their book of
inexhaustible knowledge...story idea anyone? Don? David? John?

Kathy

>Don Rosa writes:
>> But was there a Maltese Falcon in real life? What a good question!
>> After researching adventure stories for the past 8 years, I've learned
>> that history is PACKED with fabulous true tales like that, so I
>> wouldn't doubt there was some truth in that premise.
>
>The premise of the movie was that the falcon was part of the treasure
>of the Knights Templar, who operated out of Malta. The Knights Templar
>are one of those organizations who are considered by paranoids - er,
>believers in "conspiratorial" interpretations of history - to be at the
>root of much that has happened throughout the ages. In particular,
>Umberto Ecco has popularized that belief in "Foucault's Pendulum". You
>may recall that many reviewers compared Don's "Guardians of the Lost
>Library" to that book, as well as to Ecco's earlier "The Name of the
>Rose". Since "GotLL" has a lot in common with the idea of a mysterious
>society passing down its treasures from century to century and continent
>to continent, I wouldn't be surprised if the Maltese Falcon had in fact
>wound up in the remains of Fort Duckburg, perhaps now disguised not as
>a black enamel falcon but instead as a black enamel woodchuck.
>
>Incidentally, the other mysterious organization that conspiratorial
>devotees believe to be responsible for much in the world today is the
>Freemasons. (This belief is reflected in many of Alan Moore's comic
>books, especially "From Hell".) The Freemasons and the Knights Templar
>actually are entertwined in the Scottish Rite branch of Masonry. Of
>course, in "The Man Who Would Be King" the adventurers discover that
>the Freemasons are responsible for preserving Alexander the Great's
>treasure in India, so maybe Donald and Scrooge can find themselves on
>the trail of lost treasure which leads from India to Malta to Fort
>Duckburg. I would certainly like to see the expression on their faces
>when the high lama in the temple in India opens up the holy vault to
>show our heros the milenia-old sacred symbol that only he is allowed to
>see, which turns out to be the emblem of the Junior Woodchucks of the
>World.
>
>Completely off the subject, fans of grand conspiracy interpretations
>of history should read Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49", which
>attributes the state of the work today to a band of Medieval robbers
>who now operate the world's postal service. Maybe there's a Beagle
>Boys story in there. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing the Maltese
>Falcon in a Disney comic book. It would really be fun to see Gus Goose
>as Sidney Greenstreet!
>
>Wilmer Rivers
>
>