Keskustelujen arkisto

I'm going to go over here some things that you might've heard
before (I've tried to send them to the list) but I don't know
whether they have got there at all - and that's been happening
for some time now.

The Finnish staff of our DD mag has given me an explanation for
not including the creators' credits: they gather material from
many Disney publishers but don't get to know credits from them
all. Thus they think it would be unfair to include some credits
but not all. Nevertheless they give credit to Barks, Don, Paul
Murry, etc...

JACOB:

Are you referring to the Lego playing blocks at the end of your
messages?

MELANIE:

I don't have any answers for the real question you posed, but
could you *please* stop including these huge quotes at the end
of your messages? At least last time I got the whole digest all
over again!

--- Jyrki Vainio ---

MELANIE:
> I get the impression that all of you people must already know each other

Several people know each other. But I know most of the people on this list
only FROM this list.

> If this is really a private group, just say so and
> I'll go away. I don't like being ignored.

This is NOT a private group. If you have that impression: I'm sorry. But
since you have been on this list since its beginning (haven't you? I know
you from *before* the mailing list existed), you should know better.

I thought I removed the MIME stuff from the digests, but I must have
forgot to remove it from the digest in the works. Sorry that those of
you who have had such problems with the digests had to get one more
like them. As I'm so curious about whether finally will work out fine
I'm gonna send out a short digest almost at once.

For those who have had problems reading their digests: I hope it will
work out fine now. If not, preferrably send private letters to me about
it. At least I think there's been too much tech admin stuff here lately.

And I want to apologize to everyone I showed irritation at on the list
or in private mail. I got a little overwhelmed by negative reactions.

Anyway, for those who have had problems reading the first digests:
If you want to retrieve those digests again, hopefully in a format
easier to read for you, send email to the REQUEST address

(Email removed)

with "Subject: archive". That message can then include commands that
retrieves files for you. The contents

get volume95/1
get volume95/2
get volume95/3
get volume95/4
get volume95/5

would get all those five digests for instance.
-- "
Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden. email: (Email removed)
"Life is but a gamble! Let flipism chart your ramble!"

--------------------------------
End of dcomics-d Digest V95 Issue #6
************************************

This has been one busy list lately! I'm having a hard time keeping up.
Nevertheless, I'm going to try to respond to two digests at once.

MIKE RHODE: I agree with you completely with regards to the Sword in the
Stone story. Even worse is that they used Susan Daigle-Leach to color it
rather than have her color Don's story. ACK Guess we'll have to wait to
see here re-coloring of it in Don Rosa's Adventures in Color #12 or so,
eh? ;-)

I don't mind the Blaggard Castle story being reprinted, though. I've
never read it before, and found myself quite liking it. It reminded me
of time when I used to enjoy drawing adventure comic strips myself. (I
was big into Mike Nomad and Phantom then, and fancied myself quite the
story-teller. ;) Excellent coloring on it, too, I thought. I found it
interestig how bloated and repetitious the language seems when reading
all of these strips collected together.

I haven't read that Donald Duck story yet to which you refer. It just
looks boring. And the computerized lettering again! ACK!

DAVID G: I, too, enjoyed much of the historical pages. Much better than
those awful reprints of the Minnie Mouse Hollywood columns, or the silly
Goofy joke pages. I especially like the overview of the WDC&S masthead
changes through the years. I wish it had been laid out better somehow so
I didn't have to keep looking over to see the masthead to which they were
referring all the time, but I lived.

And as for those "only 2 pages of ads": Well, see above. The sick thing
is that Bruce Hamilton seems to be fancying himself as doing a public
service here. I'm surprised he didn't include his ad in the contents
page. Sheesh

Speaking of which, I did like the "title page". I like the "second
cover" it provides. Always thought that looked neat, like the way they
use one in The Legends of The Dark Knight comic book over at DC. And it
leaves more room for more letters on the inside covers.

And I still don't like "Dupe in the Deep", although I did particularly
like the "Crested Slickwillies." I wonder how well that translates overseas?

GARY: I loved Toy Story, too! But I'm a Computer Science major, so I was
naturally inclined to like it. =)

DON: Yes, I did say I found it "interesting" to see your stories split
like this. I didn't say I liked it, though. This four month wait is
unbearable. If they split it in half somehow, it wouldn't be so bad---
no, wait. It would still be bad. I'm hoping this is something they did
in an effort to squeeze a lot more into the WDC&S revamp, and is not
something they will continue. I'd rather see your stories reprinted in
full complete in one issue in U$A rather than chopped up in sections in
WDC&S.

The word balloons read, "Lydia, oh Lydia, say have you met Lydia? ..."
then "...Lydia the taaatoooed lady!" I found it twice over funny this
line - once for its Airplane!/Marx Bros. style of humor, and secondly
because I remembered the earlier discussion about it on this list months ago.

PER:

Do what you have to do with the digests to make your job easier. I have
my problems with the digests, too, but will learn to accept them given
more time and practice. That's all - change is always traumatic. I'm
more than willing to give it some time.

-Augie
----------------------------------------------------------------
Augie De Blieck Jr. Media relations, VR.5 Virtual Storm
(Email removed)
(Email removed)

George
My letter to you came back undeliverable. Did it really get through?
is (Email removed) the correct address? Please reply. thanks-BARRY-
end of message( does this help Don)

PER:
The latest (short) Digest came through on my screen beautifully!
Every message had a complete header and was separated from the next by a
line. Perfect! All is clear to me once more and I can tell who is saying
what. The only fine-tuning I'd still like to see done is to include the
names of the message-writers on the topics list, but that's a minor quibble
compared to the problems I had been having reading the last few Digests.
Great job, Per. Per for Per-fect, eh? (Sorry...)

MELANIE:
I guess it would be me who was supposed to respond to your message
about Hortense and Matilda. I think I recall seeing that query in some past
Digest, and if I didn't answer it it could only be that I failed to make a
note to do so, or I failed to see the note I'd made... or the question was
asked during one of my recent lengthy absences, which would make it even
more likely that I'd miss the question while trying to skim through several
dozen Digests. I sit and write out notes to myself while reading these piles
of messages, and I'm sure I mess up now and then.
Anyway -- will I ever use Hortense and-slash-or Matilda again? The
answer to that is... I don't know. I didn't "introduce" these characters
(who were created, at least in name, by Barks 40+/- years ago) with the
intention of making them permanent additions to the "modern" era $crooge
stories. I only needed them for stories of $crooge's early life. Obviously,
they have been gone from Duckburg and $crooge's life for so long that I had
to make up a hokey reason for them to be staying away, and to bring them
back would mean wtiting a story that would somehow CHANGE the status-quo of
the Duck Universe. Some people think I was trying to change the Duck
Universe with the "Lo$", while I felt certain that I was doing the opposite
-- showing how the Duck Universe came to be as it is, and furthur
solidifying it as such by showing all the (possible) history for it being
that way. But I don't know what I'll decide might be a good idea someday.
If you want stronger female characters in Duck comics, I think there
are still lotsa possibilities. It would be nice to do a Daisy and Donald
adventure where Daisy saves the day... but even saying the words "Daisy and
Donald" makes me think of those decades of Daisy's Diary stories and all
that junk that would be difficult to get out of my head in order to take
Daisy seriously as a decent character. If I tried to make an interesting
character out of her, I'd have a voice constantly telling me that this was
NOT Daisy Duck I was using since it's been established in decades of Gold
Key comics what a boring character she has been. It would be difficult to
maintain my interest knowing I was using a character I had no respect for.
This is somewhat the same as why I will never do a Mickey Mouse story --
certainly it's a character with vast potential, but I have never been
inspired to be interested in MM, so I can't find any excitement in me to do
a MM story.
What IS a much better possibility is in my future "Lo$" stories. I
can always do more stories of $crooge and Hortense and Matilda in 1880 or
1890 or 1910 or something. There is a slight problem in that I've stated
that $crooge's sisters never shared his adventures with him, but I could
wiggle around that.
Another great strong female would be Grandma Duck. I would really
love to do a "Lo$" story with $crooge meeting Elvira Coot (GD) in the Gay
90s. In fact, I have already written a story of GD owning a hashhouse in
Dawson City when $crooge struck gold, and having her in a barroom brawl with
Glittering Goldie straight out of "DESTRY RIDES AGAIN". But this was the
first version of the 8th chapter of the "Lo$" which was rejected by Byron as
being "not ROUGH enough"... so I can still use that same story for a future
episode addition. But since GD was a pioneer girl, she would be a GREAT
female Duck character.
Hortense and Matilda would be a great team in their own stories if
that were ever possible. Hortense is sortuva combination of $crooge and
Donald (hot-tempered and tough), and Matilda is sortuva combination of Daisy
and HDL (sensitive but intelligent).
So... does that answer your question?

HARRY:
(At least I THINK you were saying something about this. It came when
my Digests were still a hodgepodge of jumbled messages.)
My long Duck adventures are ALWAYS done in two versions, at least
for the last 3 years; a three-part version and a one-part version, with
extra half-pages of art for either version... they aren't "rarely" done that
way, as you say. The fact that they use the wrong versions in Holland when
they print the story in a one-part version is not the fault of the story.
The special pages of art, with extra gags and no caption-boxes, are
available to them if they would only request them.
Also, the editors do not place caption boxes over my art in the
splash panels. I supply them with those finished pages with the boxes in
place. Sometimes this means simply copying the art from a half-page panel
and cutting a hole in it and adding a paste-up box. At Egmont the equipment
they have prevents them, for some reason, of doing even simple editing
chores like adding caption boxes (or block-letter sound effects, etc.) to
the art. I guess it's because everything is done on computer screens... I
don't know. At least that's what I'm told... although I've also been told
(and shown) otherwise by the computer-people when I've visited the offices
there. It's confusing. But all caption boxes are my work, and nothing is
being carelessly "covered up" by an editor -- it's being carelessly covered
up by me.
I think it's GERMANY where they even add MORE extra stuff and print
a half-page of flashback panels from the previous week. This throws my pages
off by having the top of my first page appear at the bottom, then the
following few pages will be the bottoms of one page on top of the top of the
next page. But then they starighten it out by using a half-page ad and
everything falls into proper place.

MELANIE:
> Maybe you've all been here a long time.

Some of us (like I) have been here since the very beginning, about 3 years ago.
That may also be the reason why we sometimes don't react to a
message with the same questions we have seen and answered
several times before. But we should. Everytime a question is asked again,
there is someone who tells a NEW fact about the same subject. I've
seen this happen several times in the past years!
So, newbies: keep asking questions! (BTW: a similar request is stated
in Per's welcoming message. Did you read that?)

> If I was here before (and it seems vaguely familiar), I think I know why I
> left.

No, you didn't send messages to the list before. We had a tiny
exchange of letters 3 years ago, about a Don Rosa index. Shortly after
that, Per began this mailing list. I assumed you were a (lurking) member
all the time.

> I look at the arcane topics being discussed and wonder how anybody can
> know the answer.
> Maybe it's a cultural thing.

I don't understand what you're saying here.

> I'd rather learn more about how
> the Duck and McDuck families evolved or how the Beagle Boys were
> developed than somebody's impressions of a comics convention in Italy. I
> read the comics avidly but don't make it to Italy too often.

This list is not an American mailing list. It's a list for Disney comics
all over the world. This means you can expect messages about European,
Brazilian, Brutopian etc. comics here. Nothing wrong with that, as long as
the language of the letters is English.

Moreover, a report of an Italian convention IS interesting if the reporter is
Don Rosa, one of the celebrities of that same convention. I'm convinced
that at least 150 other list members enjoyed the report.

> It would be helpful to newbies if you could somehow identify and welcome
> them to the group, give them a list of pointers and help them navigate the
> culture here.

Again: have you read the welcoming messages? Have you looked at the
Disney files at "our" WWW or ftp site? Have you read our introducktions?

I hope you get used to our "culture", and stay with us!
--Harry.
((Email removed))
[Cucurari! Buburari! Tomdickunhari! Translation: don't forget the '4'!]

DON:
> My long Duck adventures are ALWAYS done in two versions, at least
> for the last 3 years; a three-part version and a one-part version, with
> extra half-pages of art for either version... they aren't "rarely" done that
> way, as you say.

I was talking about comics in general, not just YOUR comic stories.
It is rare in comics to have two versions like that, and VERY rare in
Disney comics. Your stories are the only ones I know of.

> At Egmont the equipment they have prevents them, for some
> reason, of doing even simple editing [...]
> I guess it's because everything is done on computer screens...

If they use that as an excuse, it sound quite silly. Computers are
supposed to make things possible, not IMpossible.

> I think it's GERMANY where they even add MORE extra stuff and print
> a half-page of flashback panels from the previous week.

Yes, that's Germany. They used to delete panels from the original
story to make room for the flashback text. They did that for example in
your "Return to Plain Awful", which was also published that way
in Holland. But they do it differently nowadays, like you described,
and I think that's an improvement.

--Harry.
((Email removed))
"McDuck, I want the combination of your SAFE!"
"The combination?....sure!... Left 2 turns to 38... Right fluks 4 turns to 17..."