Keskustelujen arkisto

Marvel still is making Disney Comics.
coming in June is that Hunchback guy from Notre Dame (us fan fans would say
he's the fighting irish hunchback). coming July 24 is Disney Comic Hits #12
with characthers from Aladdin and the King of Thieves.

Oh, can someone tell me the last month that Marvel distributed Gladstone to
the newstand?
I'm asking for cover date. (Gladstone now distributes themselves, and
apparently this hurts some- I no longer see them in as many grocery and drug
stores).
Steven Rowe

Hi again!

Don Markstein wrote:

<<I always assumed the reason Mim and the Beagles were contemporaries had
nothing to do with her longevity, but with the basic fact that ALL Disney
toons seem to take place during the same time period, in the same
neighborhood, at least insofar as comic-book crossovers are concerned.>>

I never got that impression. Relatively contemporary characters like
Dumbo and Scamp, yes, but hardly the more traditional characters. ("This IS
the fourteenth century," Prince Philip says in SLEEPING BEAUTY.)

<<Okay, that doesn't take any more mental gymnastics than does the fact that
Gus and Jacque are among the vermin that infest Grandma Duck's barn.>>

Which might be confusing enough when she calls for Gus (does she mean
Gus the mouse or Gus Goose, who also lives there?), but what's even more so
is that they're mouse-sized mice, whereas Gottfredson has shown them as
Mickey-sized mice when he used them in the strip! We just have to assume SOME
alternate versions of the characters somewhere...

Harald Havas wrote (and I quoted but neglected to respond to last time):

<<Er.. where did Roger Rabbit come from, and why would he be dead?>>

He was originally from the novel WHO CENSORED ROGER RABBIT? by Gary K.
Wolf, but didn't survive it. (I don't want to give any more, since it's a
murder mystery, but *that* isn't too much to reveal, since, as the title
indicates, Roger was the murder victim!) Disney's movie adaptation, WHO
FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?, used only a roughly similar plot, with completely
different murderer(s) and only a few of the main characters (Roger, Jessica
Rabbit, Eddie Valiant, and Baby Herman, all arguably more sympathetic than in
their original versions, were about it). Curiously enough, the movie's
popularity so outshone the book that, when Wolf wrote a second book about his
characters, WHO P-P-P-P-PLUGGED ROGER RABBIT?, he used the movie's continuity
rather than his own (thus enabling him to bring Roger back...).

David Gerstein wrote:

<<Now you've got me thinking about Br'er Rabbit. Y'know,
Harris' stories refer to Br'er Rabbit's given name as Riley Rabbit. I've
always meant to ask what comics story I saw the full name in...I've only ever
seen ONE Disney comic that mentioned it and I can't remember which one.
(Although I used it again in a D-coded BR I wrote last year.)>>

My guess would be that it was from the Brer Rabbit newspaper strip,
which seemed to last a lot longer than the comic book. Does anyone know
offhand who wrote and drew it?
Speaking of which, it's fascinating that DC extended its licenses even
into other media, probably paying the original creators (or editors, in the
case of Harris), even though I can't recall the strip using any of Harris'
stories, or the Winnie-the- Pooh strip using any of A.A. Milne's. (And
speaking of *that,* children's literature has lost two important figures,
both closely associated with Disney, in a single week--Christopher Robin
Milne, whose imaginative play with his stuffed toys inspired his father's
books about Pooh and the rest, and P.L. Travers, creator of Mary Poppins.
Both will be greatly missed; any chance of Gladstone doing a tribute to them
by reprinting adventures of both sets of characters?)

<<Your comment about the lack of availability of Disney's short cartoons is
extremely telling and exactly what I've been thinking for years. Disney
stands to make some real money by getting the shorts onto television a little
more, aside from the benefits you mentioned. I'm hoping the current purchase
of ABC will change this. (Although you CAN see lots of MM and DD shorts on
the Disney Channel, which runs three half-hours a day. Lots of EARLY Mickeys
in the mix.)>>

Unfortunately, I don't have cable, but I did break down and buy a VCR
about a year ago, so I can always rent videotapes. But some of the people at
Disney seem more reluctant than ever to release their cartoons even for
scholarly purposes. Jerry Beck wrote a book called "The 50 Greatest Cartoons"
a year or so ago, and a local independent theater tried to get those cartoons
to show for a special program...and it got almost all of them but Disney's. I
can see why Disney might consider "Der Fuhrer's Face" controversial (just
barely, but is there anything *that* controversial about putting down Nazi
Germany? And if there is, how to explain "Bedknobs and Broomsticks"), but
they wouldn't even let them show the Oscar-winning "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and
Boom," certainly one of the most innocuous educational cartoons ever made.

Don Rosa wrote:

<<In my personal copy of the Duck Family Tree, there are two differences from
the one that has been published around the world. I do not have Cousin
Fethry, but Egmont asked I include him in the Tree; even though they say they
dislike the character, he is so well-known in Europe that his absence
would puzzle readers. And secondly, I have Ludwig Von Drake married to
$crooge's sister Matilda, rather than her being an "old-maid". This was the
only way LVD could be Donald's uncle (once-removed?), and it would be logical
for the European-born Matilda to marry the foreigner LVD.>>

Thanks for the background! I'd thought Matilda was the one who married
Goostave (or Goostale or Goosetail) Gander and adopted Gladstone Gander,
originally the son of Luke Goose and one of Grandma Duck's daughters. (Didn't
Barks come up with that because Gladstone had appeared to be related to both
Scrooge and Grandma, despite their being on opposite sides of Donald's
family?)

<<I know that LVD is a TV character and not a comic character, and I know
that he was never even lasted long there, disappearing from TV after about
two seasons in 1961-63.>>

But they reran the episodes enough so he was familiar to a lot of kids,
much as Mickey Mouse (who never made a cartoon appearance after 1953, barring
a few specials) was. I too appreciate the reference, even if Barks may have
tended to consider him superfluous...Bob Karp and Bob Foster seemed to treat
him mostly as a crackpot inventor, and Barks already had Gyro Gearloose (who
never appeared in the strip) for that.
And I always thought the variety of origins was part of the charm of
the Disney characters. The Duck family includes characters from theatrical
cartoons (Donald, Gus Goose...), from the comic strip (Grandma, Donald's
nephews), from the comic books (Scrooge, Gladstone), and from TV cartoons
(Ludwig).

Since I'm going away for the weekend, I'll have to stop here! More next
week--

Rich Morrissey

RICH:
"I still have trouble "hearing" Clarence Nash's voice when I read a Barks story
about Donald."
That's because comic-book ducks don't squawk like animated ducks. They
walk differently, too. Also, they're smarter. If there's any connection at all
between the characters, it can only be that the non-animated ducks take on roles
when they go on screen. (Some of those roles would no-doubt require surgery, if
they weren't toons.) I made reference to the differences in a comics script
once, when I contrasted Donald's speech to that of a hypothetical "squawking
moron".
By the way, you forgot to mention the address for the Oz newsletter. So
I'm asking again...

THE NAMELESS ONE:
"Paranoid, maybe, but not superstitious, at least not in this instance."
No, paranoia may be unrealistic at times, but it usually involves things
possible, at least, in the real world. The idea that you can be physically hurt
on-line by someone knowing your name, but are safe if you keep your name secret,
is superstition. And fairly well-established superstition, too -- many
primitives, of various cultures, conceal their True Names lest they be harmed by
mysterious beings that they're unable to describe in detail.
And no, nobody really cares very much what your name is. We're simply
remarking on your superstitious behavior.
"I've been reading and loving comics for more than forty years."
Really? I had you figured for a kid -- your notions do seem more likely
in one who can be expected to outgrow them. Anyway, I believe that's about
average for this group, so don't you go getting supercilious with US.
"I would hope that more people would like to see objective criticism here about
Disney Comics, rather than "angels on the head of the pin" type verbiage about
the name of the fourth nephew."
If you want it here, put it here. But don't disparage the topics others
choose to talk about, unless you like being thought of as supercilious.

GARY PANTZER:
"VBQ: Why are the stories I read in Gladstone apparently published overseas
first?"
Gladstone is, I believe, the smallest Disney comics publisher in the
world. The U.S. comics market, with its ridiculously ubiquitous emphasis on --
well, I think you know what the U.S. comics market is like. Anyway, Gladstone
has very little in its budget for stories and art; but they can reprint to their
hearts' content. So the writers and artists sell their work elsewhere -- usually
to Egmont, headquartered in Denmark, the biggest of the Disney comics licensees
-- and Gladstone simply waits until it becomes available as a "reprint". That
way, guys like Don Rosa get paid something a little closer to what they're
worth, and everybody gets to enjoy their work.
Welcome to the group. We have no objection at all to the VBQ's.

DAVID:
"I figured Madam Mim still exists in present-day Disney universe because, as a
particularly powerful witch, she is immortal. (I'd hate to get on her bad side.
I'd never be rid of her.)"
And still wearing the same dowdy old frock, I see. Anyway, that's what
Rich said. So, what's your theory on Thumper being contemporary with the Seven
Dwarfs? Personally, I suspect this all works simply because the Disney Universe
is very, very small, and full of time/space warps that would boggle the minds of
anybody less mentally agile than you and me. (That's when I think about it at
all, of course. What the heck, they all run into one another in the neighborhood
and that's just the way it is.)

GARY:
"from the cover variety to the coverless variety (for lack of a better
description)"
The generally-accepted term in the printing industry is "self-covered".
That is, the 32-page package has its front page laid out and designated as the
cover, rather than having a cover added from another printrun with a different
paper stock. I prefer that term for a variety of reasons, among them (a) the
fact that "coverless" generally denotes a condition of comics, not a style of
printing them; and (b) it's correct.
Wish I could take credit for the plot in the "Trojan Horse" story, but
all I did was the American version of the script. I'm pretty pleased with parts
of it, but by and large, I don't like scripting Mickey as much because he
doesn't use such great speech patterns as Scrooge.

DWIGHT:
There's politics going on about the Fourth Nephew? Gee, I thought it was
just ignorance on the part of those who submitted the item to CBG. If the silly
idea that the Fourth Nephew's name is Barks is an actual attempt at a minor
coup, I hope they don't manage to put it over on the general public, because
Phooey is absolutely, without doubt, the perfect name for him. Maybe a bunch of
us ought to write Maggie to "correct the error" before it goes farther through
that vector.

Quack,
Don Markstein

DON R:

Didn't you also say that you pictured Daisy as being the sister of Della's
unkown husband? Or am I misquoting you here?

Dwight wrote:
> but it seems to me it isn't "logical" for Matilda to
> marry Ludwig.

Since when did love become a matter of logic?

/F

Mike,

>Who produces the Italian material seen in Aku Ankan Taskukirja and
>Roope-Sed=94n Taskulehti?

They come from Italy.

Ole wrote:
> the Uxmaal story...

David wrote:
> I know that "Night of the Saracen" is by Rota, but "The Rain
>God of Uxmal" (a German-produced story originally for ONKEL DAGOBERT'S
>SCHATZTRUHE) is not.

Does anyone know who's the author?

Gary Pantzer,

>VBQ: Why are the stories I read in Gladstone apparently published overseas
>first?

They are produced for Egmont in Denmark, not for Gladstone. European
publishers get the stories first.

-- ___
Henri Sivonen / \
(Email removed) WWW (renewed): | h_|
=46ax: +358-0-479387 http://www.clinet.fi/~henris \__

STEVE ROWE:
The idea about Pete bootlegging Disney comics has already been
used (although it was the Beagle Boys, not Pete) in a quite
uncanonical Super Goof story from the mid-1970s. The story was
written by Mark Evanier and was his personal favorite of all that he
did, so when Gladstone went to reprint a Super Goof story in their
WALT DISNEY GIANT #3 last year, this one ("The Comic Book Crooks") was
the one that they picked.
Anyway, the Beagles are unsuccessful in their comic book
counterfeiting because they've altered the stories so that they (and
Pete, who is mentioned as "Sneaky Pete") win in the end.
I'm uncertain as to the final month that Marvel distributed
Gladstones to the newsstand, but the final one that they distributed
was UNCLE SCROOGE #292.

RICH MORRISSEY:
Good point about Ludwig. Actually, Ludwig continued to star
in _original_ Sunday evening Disney ("WD Presents," "Wonderful World
of Color") hours all through the 1960s, and some new ones were done in
the early 1980s. Ludwig also made an appearance in "DuckTales" and
appears as a regular supporting character in the recent Disney TV show
"Bonkers" (although the use of him there is VERY uncanonical). He'll
be a regular in the upcoming "Duck Daze," too.

HARALD:
Interesting you should mention the Katzenjammer Kids. Yep,
during World War One they turned from Hans and Fritz Katzenjammer to
Mike and Aleck Shenanigan... and back to normal afterwards, in Harold
Knerr's version of the strip. Rudy Dirks, who had started the strip
in 1897 and was drawing it under a different name ("Hans and Fritz")
when the war began, changed no names, but implied that the characters
were Dutch instead of German.

DON MARKSTEIN:
For practical purposes, I don't think I'll ever show the Snow
White or Pinocchio characters living in the Black Forest. The Uncle
Remus characters mix very well with the wolf/pig universe, though, so
I'll use them together as they usually are.
(Geez, it's always weird how casually Li'l Wolf enjoys the
company of Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear when they visit his home, even
though these two would murder Br'er Rabbit in cold blood, and even
though Li'l Wolf is friends with Br'er Rabbit...)

MARCO BARLOTTI:
To quote Fethry, "The thick plottens!" I was the rewriter of
"Colossus of the Nile" (Fabio did the rough translation) and I must
have added that zip code out of the blue! Oh, well. (I had
misremembered that it was in the original story.) If Gladstone ever
prints the story again, I'll see if I can have them blot out that zip
code. I might put it in a story taking place today, but I guess I
pulled a boner using one in 1961.
The U$ printing of "Colossus" is identical in page layout to
the Italian one, with three rows per page. Just BIGGER than in Italy.
(Look to the old U$ 242 and "The Last Balaboo" for an example of this
same situation.) One other change: the U$ printing leaves out the
third page of the original story as it was felt to impede the plot
(the additional page of the ministers arguing).

HENRI SIVONEN:
"The Rain God of Uxmal" is written by Adolf Kabatek, as are
all the "Schatztruhe" stories. The second one, "White Gold on the
Matterhorn" even names a Japanese character Kabateki. (The first two
of these were also issued in England, where my copies come from.)
In fact, "White Gold" has enough funny moments that I think
I'll suggest it to Gladstone for their Giant. I've forgotten about
this idea for a long time.

David Gerstein
<(Email removed)>

RICH MORRISSEY wrote (about Ludwig von Drake)::
> I too appreciate the reference, even if Barks may have
>tended to consider him superfluous...Bob Karp and Bob Foster seemed to treat
>him mostly as a crackpot inventor, and Barks already had Gyro Gearloose (who
>never appeared in the strip) for that.

When, in the early 60's, Ludwig was introduced in the comics duck world,
Italian authors did a couple of nice stories based on a supposed rivality
between Ludwig (a duck of abstract knowledge, who's got many many academic
titles and owns a vaste library) and Gyro (a practical character, presumably
not learned but at the end getting the best results with his inventions).
The "inventor" side of Ludwig (as seen in the daily strips) never appeared
in Italian comic adventures featuring him; and Ludwig is still popular in
Italian stories as the "academic" member of the duck family. On the other
side, the "crackpot" side of Gyro substantially disappeared in Barks'
stories after a while (don't you agree?).

Marco Barlotti

"E la prossima volta che vi si guasta la vasca da bagno, non chiamate i
marines!"
(Topolino e l'unghia di Kali')

to: MARCO BORLOTTI
You asked: And, last, a call to Italian stuff experts: has the "McDuck
Foundation" story ever been reprinted in Italy? When and where, if so?
"Paperino e la Fondazione De' Paperoni" was originally printed in Albo d'Oro
#9 (1958) and reprinted in: Albi della Rosa 454 (1963), Paperino Mese 81,
Paperino Superstar (1976).
This is what I know.
Ciao!
Gianfranco Goria, cartoonist and comics divulger: (Email removed)
president of Anonima Fumetti - Italian cartoonists society: (Email removed)
http://www.alpcom.it/fumetti/