Keskustelujen arkisto

Yes, that is the one I was talking aobut a while back. -Kathy

>Another 4th nephew appeared in Disney's Uncle Scrooge #245 (Aug 1990), page
>#9 panel 4 (check out the raft!). "The Phantom Lighthouse"---script by Bob
>Langhans; art by Cosme Quartieri and Robert Bat
>
>
>
>

On Apr 20, 2:30pm, Donald D. Markstein wrote:
> Subject: Junkville Journal

> I was wondering about that CBG item myself. I'd heard the
> little-seen Fourth Nephew's name as Phooey too. I thought
> perhaps naming him "Barks", while a cute tribute and all,
> might be a little self-serving, considering the item
> seems to have come from the Carl Barks Studio. (Speaking
> of which, who are those guys who run the "Carl Barks Studio"?)

As far as I know, the Carl Barks Studio is just a man named
Bill Grandey and his wife, who were Barks's neighbors in
Oregon and took on the job of being his agents. I've seen
them at a booth at the San Diego con selling Barks's original
artwork. I guess this fourth nephew business is their latest
idea for promoting their client, even if it seems to me trying
a little too hard to make a little too much out of very little.
("Barks" doesn't fit the HD&L pattern, is it really much of a
tribute to give his name to a dumb mistake, and Barks didn't
create the three original nephews, let alone the fourth one,
in the first place.)

--Dwight Decker

Most of you are probably familiar with my page on
currently-available Gladstone comics. Some of you will also remember
that I mentioned a full Gladstone website was coming soon.
Well, my Current Gladstones page is now laid out in the format
of those upcoming pages, which are almost finished now and will be
announced here soon (I'm still in the process of editing them).
To sneak a peek at the basic layout of Gladstone's official
pages, and see the currently-available Gladstones go to my usual
Gladstone page for a look:

http://wso.williams.edu/~dgerstei/gladstone.html

David Gerstein
<(Email removed)>

Hi again!

Harald Havas wrote:

<<There are also two famous German Books called "Die Ducks - Psychogramm
einer Sippe" by Grobian Gans (that is: The Ducks - Ps. of a Clan by Ruffian
Goose) and "Das wahre Leben des Donald D." by Martin S. Gans ("The True Life
of D.D."), who deal ironically with the "real-life" implications of the
Duck-family.>>

I saw (couldn't read, alas!) a copy of DIE DUCKS when the Boston Public
Library had it on display. Looked good!

<<Just a short footnote: Dr. Erika Fuch, who translated the Disney-material
from 1951 on to German, and continues to do so (now in her eighties) at least
part time (as for ex. the latest Barks-story), created a very distinctive
style of her own, that sets apart all Disney-titles and esp. Barks-stories
from any other comic printed in German. This accounts for the incredible
success of Donald and Carl in Germany, but of course, also made some vital
changes compared to the original.>>

Speaking of the Ducks in Germany, the recent (apparent) capture of the
American Unabomber reminds me...wasn't there a similar (though less lethal)
terrorist in Germany who called himself Dagobert, taking the name from the
one Uncle Scrooge goes by in Germany? Was he ever captured...or even heard
from on the last few years?

L.Gori wrote:

<<Yes, Guido Martina was the writer for the first Scarpa's story published in
the USA, MM "The Blot's Double Mystery" ("Mickey and Donald" no. 6/8).
However, Romano told me that he added a lot of gags, becouse the script was
too "dark" even in "Topolino" of the Fifties... ;-) I'm very sorry my English
is so bad: I could tell a lot of stories about Martina, Scarpa, Carpi and the
other italian authors, I wrote with my friends Becattini, Boschi and Sani in
the book "The Italian Disney Authors". Perhaps Frank Stajano can translate
something for the list, if anyone is intersted. >>

I'd love to see it! In fact, why can't Gladstone, which has had so much
else (welcome) background on Disney writers and artists, include some of it
on its text pages?

Don Rosa wrote:

<<But... a zip-code in "The Treasury of Croesus"??? Where?>>

On the package the Ducks sent to Gyro in Duckburg.

<<Also, I'm still curious as to whether there was any particular reason that
TWO of my comic-book-history expert friends of 20-25 years back, you and
Steve Rowe, both joined our convivial group at the same time? Just
serindipity?>>

I can't speak for Steve, but I was notified about it after posting to a
Disney Comics message board on AOL. But I probably would've asked Dwight
Decker about it anyway (he'd mentioned it in CAPA-alpha, to which we both
belong, and Steve did once). Word gets around!

Harry Fluks wrote:

<<(By the way, Eiffel constructed the statue of Liberty. So some Americans
should know him...)>>

I'd always thought it was someone named Frederic Bartholdi (sp? And my
e-mail won't take the accent I think should be in his first name). Or did
Bartholdi just design it, and Eiffel handle the structure?
Even in America, I suspect Eiffel is much better known for the tower
that bears his name than for the Statue of Liberty. It IS Paris to most
Americans, probably as famous a landmark as any in the world, to the point
where any movie or TV show will establish a scene as being in Paris simply by
a shot of the Eiffel Tower. Parenthetically (and a bit jealously, since my
European travels haven't been anything like as extensive as those of some
others there), the one time I visited Paris, in the summer of 1976, I saw a
bit of the filming of the movie HERBIE GOES TO MONTE CARLO. (Yes, this is on
point, since it was a Disney movie...as well as the subject of a fine comic
book adaptation drawn by the great Dan Spiegle.) The plot involved a road
race in which the famed "Love Bug" participated, from Paris to Monte
Carlo...but I was quite amused to note that, to get the Eiffel Tower into the
background, a bit of fudging was done (since the cars set off in a
northwesterly direction, exactly opposite to the southwesterly direction
they'd have to take to get to Monaco from Paris). Still, I was impressed by
the on-site filming and authentic background: many studios probably would've
shot the race on a Hollywood lot and statted in the Eiffel Tower afterwards.

Wilmer Rivers wrote:

<<Speaking of modern historical scepticism, the lady at the British Library
is making headlines again with her claims that Marco Polo never traveled to
China but instead hung out in Constantinople, listening to stories of other
travelers. She bases this claim on certain curious omissions in Polo's
account, such as the fact that the Chinese had a Great Wall...>>

I believe her argument was largely refuted by other historians, who
pointed out her own substantial errors. Polo didn't mention that the Chinese
had a Great Wall because the Chinese DIDN'T have a Great Wall then. It wasn't
built (at least not to the extent of being Great) until centuries after Marco
Polo.

Ole Neilsen wrote:

<<Thank you for the background on early American indy comics. I'm especially
interested to hear a little about Phil Foglio's Plastic Man. Being a bit of a
card collector/player too, I enjoy Phil's art and stories...>>

So do I, but, quite frankly, Plastic Man was hardly his finest hour. Nor
was it anyone's except for Jack Cole. Many other talented people like Gil
Kane, Ramona Fradon, and Lee Marrs tried to work on the character, but I've
concluded Plastic Man was a very unique work of art on Cole's part, and that
for anyone else to do him was on a par with anyone besides George Herriman
trying to do Krazy Kat.

Dwight Decker wrote:

<<Marvel as a whole has just gone through drastic restructuring, with many
titles being discontinued. I believe all their licensed titles (i.e.,
properties they didn't own) were cancelled (which I guess includes the Disney
stuff), and even some of the titles they did own are being licensed out to
another company. >>

Well, ALMOST all. They are indeed dropping most of their licensed
properties (even Conan the Barbarian, a character they'd published for
decades and arguably did much to restore to the public eye), but they're
holding on to Star Trek, a property they'd briefly published and dropped,
reacquiring it only indirectly through their purchase of an independent
company, Malibu Comics, that had had the rights to two of the four shows.
They pursued it vigorously enough to win out over DC, which had owned the
rights to the original franchise (with Kirk, Spock et al) since Marvel lost
it, and to the second Enterprise show (with Picard, Data et al) since its
inception.

Don Markstein wrote:

<<I was aware of Peg-Leg, Black, Sneaky and Big Bad, but Dirty Pete is a new
one on me. When did this fifth Pete Brother join the family?>>

I don't remember...it was just one of the names I'd heard given for him,
all adjectives before his name apparently dropped for Political
Incorrectness.

<<Since Gold Key's Beagle Boys/Mad Madame Mim stories have them as
contemporaries, I don't think canonicity of THE SWORD IN THE STONE is really
a question. Or rather, it's far too awful a can of worms to figure out at
all, so why worry about it?>>

Agreed, though there's no theoretical reason she couldn't be alive in
the present, which she seems to be even in a few current stories. (Love
Scrooge's line in Van Horn's story in the latest U$--"Who did you think I
was--Madam Mim??"). She was/is a witch with powers on a par with those of the
immortal Merlin. To be sure, Martin O'Hearn points out that, in T.H. White's
original novel, she didn't even survive her battle with Merlin. But if a
character being killed off by her/his original writer was a factor, Disney
would be deprived of not only Mim, but also Roger Rabbit, the Big Bad Wolf
and two of the Three Little Pigs, and (depending on your definition) Jiminy
Cricket as well!

<<By the way, how does one subscribe to the Ozzy Digest?>>

According to editor Dave Hardenbrook:

<<If you want to subscribe to the Ozzy Digest, just send a message to me at
(Email removed) saying you want to subscribe. If you later wish to
unsubscribe, just E-mail me saying so.>>

Gotta run!

Rich Morrissey

On Apr 21, 10:35am, Jakob Soederbaum wrote:
> Subject: Re: Disney comics Digest V96 #74

> >> WDC&S actually broke five million
> >> copies an issue at one point.
>
> ??!! A Disney comic book printed/sold that many copies?!
> That's great! Hmm.. that must mean that those issues isn't
> worth very much on the secondary market, are they?

Anything with Barks carries a premium price, but 1950s issues
of Walt Disney's Comics & Stories are fairly plentiful on the
back-issue market. I even buy them or other Dell-published
Disney titles from the '50s to give away as gifts. (Hey,
Mattias Hallin! I still mean to send you that copy of Duck
Family Album from 1950 with the Barks cover!) By the early
'60s, though, circulations were way down, and comics ten
years more recent are in much shorter supply.

> Now, how come people don't buy Disney-comics nowadays?

The American comics market has suffered a disastrous recession.
First TV, then later video games, and the general decline in
recreational reading, along with drying-up of traditional
distribution outlets, and drastically higher prices, have all
been contributing factors.

> Could it be that the contents were better back then?
> How did it differ from the Gladstones?

The contents were about the same, except that the old Dells
were more tuned in to whatever Disney Studios was currently
releasing than Gladstones are. (By choice. Gladstone prefers
to concentrate on Disney Classic while Marvel was supposed
to handle New Disney.)

> I don't think
> there were 5 million kids buying Disney-comics at "that point"!
>
That was in the late '40s and early '50s, when comic books were a
vastly larger business than they are now, before television, and
when Disney had little or no competition as the parent-approved
entertainment source. It was pretty much all kids; I doubt if
adult readership was significant. In fact, adults who read comic
books were thought to be subliterate morons. But think of WDC&S
as a monthly Kalle Anka and you have some idea of its penetration
of the kids' market -- at that time. It seemed like every elementary
school kid subscribed to it. If it hadn't been for TV, maybe it
would have eventually evolved into a weekly comic book like
Kalle Anka and Anders And and still be going strong.

--Dwight Decker

--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V96 Issue #85
*****************************************

RICH MORRISSEY:
The story in which the Ducks send a package to Gyro in
Duckburg is not Don's "Treasury of Croesus" but Romano Scarpa's
"Colossus of the Nile" (USA 37-38). I can't recall if the original
story (an Italian story from 1960) included a zip code on the package,
but I seem to recall coming up with a zip code that would place
Duckburg in northern California somewhere (of course, Calisota would
REPLACE northern California were it really there, but I was just
trying to indicate whereabouts in the country it is).
On the other hand, it didn't occur to me that there might have
been no zip codes used at all when the story was made... sigh! (If a
story I'm rewriting is Dutch or Danish and has no reference to modern
technology, I try not to update it in any possible way.)
Maybe you confused "Colossus" with "Croesus" because the words
sound similar?
William Van Horn has an interesting approach to when his
stories are set. His excellent story in WDC&S 603 has Scrooge make a
reference to his having been earning money in one way or another for
118 years. Same story has an Oprah Winfrey parody in one panel. So
his stories are set in the present day while also being faithful to
Scrooge's early life with dates intact. All I can say is... Scrooge
sure ages gracefully. ;-)

PEGLEG PETE'S NAMES:
There have been some we've never even mentioned. Before 1930,
he was sometimes called Putrid Pete and Bootleg Pete. And there's a
late-1970s story where he's referred to as Bold Pete (a strangely
positive appelation that doesn't really roll off the tongue that
well). He was called "Sneaky Pete" for a little while too... or did
we mention that one? Whatever BEAGLE BOYS issue had a story reprinted
in Gladstone's DISNEY GIANT #3 was from that last period (the BBs make
a reference to Pete at one point, and call him this). This name was
eventually shown the door when it was decided that, given that this
was the name of a certain mixed drink, it would imply that Pete got
his name by being an alcoholic.
I like Putrid Pete and when I have to use him without the peg
leg, I'll call him that if it's allowable.
The name Big Bad Pete originated with a 1932 publicity release
that unaccountably named him Big Bad BILL. When looking for a new
name in the mid-1980s, Disney executives saw this and went for it.

David Gerstein
<(Email removed)>

DAVID:
As pertains Gladstone's format changes and sales... a local store told me
yesterday that since Gladstone has gone to the "coverless" (cheaper) mode,
for the first time since the late 80s his Gladstone sales started to
steadilly climb (while all other comics sales are dropping). And when they
switched WDC&S to $6, his sales tripled on that title. I don't have contact
with other stores, so I don't know if this is in any way typical, but I
don't know why this one store would be different. I don't like the
"coverless" style, and I wish they had created a new title for the $6 format
rather than "discontinuing" the old-fashioned WDC&S... but if what this
store says is typical, it looks like Gladstone made all the right moves to
keep in bizniz.

RICH:
I used a zip-code in "The Treasury of Croesus" where the Ducks send a
package to Gyro in Duckburg???? One of us has gone wacky -- there's no such
scene in that story! But -- even if there WAS such a scene in one of my
Egmont stories, anyplace you saw a package with an address on it, you can
only blame any mistakes in that address on the publisher. I must leave all
such things completely blank. But still... please tell me where this
zip-code appeared in the "Croesus" thing!

FREDRIK:
I'll agree that a listing of worldwide Disney publishers should cover all
related publications... but any comics in Burma, or anywhere else where
there is no Disney license, cannot feature Disney characters, no matter how
much they look like Disney characters.
What I mean is this: I collect Donald Duck toys. Sometimes someone will want
to sell me a Donald Duck toy with no Disney trademark. (These usually look
so bad that it takes a lot of imagination to see "Donald Duck" there, such
as the carnival-chalk figure that flea market dealers INSIST is Donald Duck,
though any boob can see it's not... but other unlicensed Ducks do look
fairly decent.) Anyway, I never buy any unlicensed Ducks for my collection
since no Duck image is Donald Duck until DISNEY says it's Donald Duck. It's
the license that makes it Donald, not the intent or the visual appearance.
So, Burmese comics with familiar looking Ducks and Mouse might be listed in
an addendum of Arthur's Disney Comics Publishers of the World listing, but
not in the main body.

HARALD:
I'm not sure why they made that footnote in the story that involved Goldie's
hair-lock. If they were referring to the hair, they should have mentioned
the story "His Majesty McDuck" which is where I first showed the contents of
that safety deposit box. If they were just referring to Goldie, they might
have mentioned "Last Sled to Dawson" simply because she appeared in that
story, but it is NOT part of the "Lo$" as her appearance in that story is in
current times. The first meeting between Goldie and $crooge is in Barks'
"Back to the Klondike" flashback -- I made sure I didn't violate that. One
reader objected to my having had them meet in my chapter 8, but that's a
silly claim since I had them only shouting anonymously at each other from a
distance, $crooge not even turning around -- hardly a meeting.