Keskustelujen arkisto

Jonathan,

>They don't cost anything, and they come without me even asking! (What system
>do you get yours through?

I get them directly from Gladstone by mail (s-l-o-w mail).

>I'll describe what the inserts look like:

That's the envelope, but I wouldn't call it thick cardboard because I can
see through it.

Dwight,

>Ah, but don't forget that Mr. Sivonen is in Finland. Gladstone
>might not include the cardboard inserts in foreign subscriptions
>to save on weight...?

That may be the reason. I think they should mention that in the subsciption
form.

>Apparently, the freebies were now considered something other than pure printed
>matter, which put the entire package into a different and more expensive
>mailing category.

That's odd. The British system considers even CD-ROMs sent along computer
magazines as printed matter.

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

Oops

I wrote:
>That's odd. The British system considers even CD-ROMs sent along computer
>>magazines as printed matter.

In British Royal Mail printed papers and small packets have the same pricing.

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

Well, I've been back since Sunday, and I'm still trying to get caught up on
answering my mail (e & snail), cutting the grass, cleaning the yard and
getting back to Duck work. But the 10 Digests that were awaiting me was
rather intimidating and I'm only slowly finding the time to go through them
and reply where I'm needed.
I won't bore you with stuff about my trip through Germany except as briefly
as I can, since this isn't travelogue group. The Erlangen ComicSalon was as
busy as the last two I was at, but I think I saw LESS of this one than ever
before. I actually found time to walk around the area only once, and I never
even got to a great portion of it. But I never know how to handle the line
of people that are always waiting at the Ehapa booth for me to sign and
sketch, even when I'm not scheduled to be there (since they know I'm always
in the room somewhere). How can I let people waste their day while I browze
through aisles of booths filled with books of comics I can't read? So...
every chance I had, I was at the booth, signing and scribbling as fast as I
could. It's very flattering, on one hand, to hear people proudly (never
irritably) telling me they've waited 4 or 5 hours to get to the front of the
line, but it's also very disturbing for me to think I'm responsible for such
a terrible waste of half-a-day, and then I can only do a scribble for them,
rather than some full-color illustration that I think their time and
Duckloyalty deserves. And it also gets frustrating for me to do nothing but
scribbles all day. Sometimes I slowed down and did full-body-Ducks, but they
were still pretty sloppy. And once I was able to find a way to do one
full-color illustration for the winner of an impromptu lottery when I just
HAD to get one decent drawing outta my system. There's just no way to be
fair to every single Duckfan when there are so MANY of them -- perhaps it's
just my frustration in being used to America where there are so FEW Duckfans
at a convention that I can do each one a full-color drawing. Anyway, I hope
nobody is sore that their day was spent in one of my queues, but I tried
hard to get to everybody (and brother, it was HOT in that place).
I met Harald Havas (as he so wrote) and several other List members, and they
will probably attest to how rattled I must look trying to deal with so much
attention. And I met many other nice Duckfans in Germany during my week-long
bookstore tour after the show. In Koeln (Cologne, for us Americans who
insist on changing the names of foreign cities), I also had the great
pleasure of having dinner with a small group of the famous Donaldists, and
that was a real treat! And I finally found out just WHAT the Donaldists are.
Since I can't read their magazine that they send me, I naturally just
assumed they were a club of Duck/Barks fans... and perhaps some of them are
"merely" that. But the heart of the club is something altogether different
and unique, and it would really be best if one of their own were to explain
this to you in the compelling and intriguing manner that Johnny Grote
explained it to me one night in Erlangen. But... the Donaldists are a group
of scientists, engineers, mathematicians and other scholarly sorts who treat
Barks' stories not as entertainment but as science. They hold to the idea
that Barks was acting as the receptor of influences from another world or
universe and that his stories are not fiction but are reports from that
place... and that Duckburg exists somewhere, exactly as we see it shown in
Barks' "reports". In an attempt to analyze that world and understand it,
these scholars write long articles about various aspects of life in
Duckburg, what it's like and what it's based on, etc., site numerous panels
of Barks' reports as archeaological evidence of their various theories, and
publish these in DER DONALDIST or deliver them as serious lectures at their
Congresses. I had been sorta curious why I had never been contacted by the
Donaldists during other trips through Germany, whereas I was besieged by so
many other Duckfans in that country... and this would be why they never
sought to see me as a group (but only as individuals) -- anyone besides
Barks who writes and draws comics based on Duckburg are dealing in
entertainment, not accurate reports of facts, as are Barks' stories. In
other words, only the Barks stories are real... everything else is
imaginary. This appeals to me GREATLY! It's just how (as you know) I
operate! Even though I play with the Ducks' history and do my own complex
tales, I still regard even my OWN stories as fiction based on Barks'
"truth". That's why I always say that readers should never consider my
stories as any "official" version of stuff like $crooge's life -- writing
and drawing my lil' stories is as close as I can get to dealing with the
reality of the Barks stories from my youth, and no matter how much I love
doing that job, I always know my stories are fictitious accounts of
Duckburg... sort of like the historical-fiction novels or movies I love.
Anyway, I'm sure I gave a mediocre description of Donaldism, and perhaps
some Donaldist will help me out sometime... but I'm all the more sorry that
we don't have such a group or publication in America (or that I'm not in
Germany)... and I'm all the more interested in completing my collection of
DER DONALDIST even though I can't read a word of it... I think it's that great.

What should I bother to say about the rest of the trip that you'd want to
know? I visited a number of big bookstores (bigger than anything I've ever
seen in America... as big as a Louisville Department store!), as well as
some great comic shops. And I even had one day to sightsee! We went to
Heidleberg and strolled through the ancient town; the main attraction there
is the Castle and one of the tour guides is a translator gor Egmont... so I
was given a private VIP tour of the place, including areas that the public
never sees! That was pretty keen for Keno.

But enough travelogue stuff! If there is any specific thing that anyone
wants to know about my German tour, please ask and I'll answer immediately.
But now to the last 11 Digests (one more popped up while I've been typing!).
As usual, there was a great deal of interesting things discussed which I
can't take the time to bring back up. But I took quick notes on all the
times someone asked me a direct question, and I'll see if I can hit on all
those...

MIKE N.:
My cover will be on UNCLE $CROOGE #300... the one where I show $crooge
dreaming of all the Barks heroes and villains that ever appeared in the U$
title... but Disney DID have Gladstone eliminate many of the heads for the
inscrutable reasons that I can't explain to you since I'm not involved in
any of that. But, yes, there will be no Indian characters on the cover, as
we suspected, and probably no other "ethnic" looking characters. When the
cover appears, I'll be as interested as you to see what's left. I'll someday
put the original in our $CROOGE HOMEPAGE if anyone wants to see the original
65 heads (and try to name them all).

MIKE R.:
You asked if I had just read some old Elder or Kurtzman MAD comics before I
drew that "Universal Solvent" story? Hadn't you seen me often say that of
all my sister's comics that were around when I grew up, my main loves were
Barks' Ducks and Kurtzman's MADs? I'm sure there's subconcious influence in
every line I draw to those comics (and anything else I loved as a tad, like
old movies, etc.)

ARTHUR:
Episode 66 of the "Pertwillaby Papers" does exist. It featured me and my
friend Ron Weinberg, the associate-professor at college who wrote the thing
with me, discussing the plot of the next semester's strips, that being "The
Son of the Sun". That episode was never included in the fanzine reprints of
the episodes since it would have made no sense outside of the daily college
newspaper where the strips first appeared.

MATT:
Am I surprised when I see Gladstone reprinting one of my stories? Sometimes
I am, since, as you know, publishers who use these Disney stories deal only
with Disney when using our work, so we freelancers never even know when or
where our stories appear in comics around the globe. I was in fairly close
touch with Gladstone back when they could afford to commission new covers,
but nowadays I have very little reason to talk to them other than to have a
friendly chat. I usually find out during such chats which of my stories they
plan to reprint. But still, sometimes I am as surprized as anyone, such as
the use of a few of my old covers which I thought had been rejected 7 years
ago popping up on recent Gladstones. However, when foreign publishers use my
stories it's always a surprize... and that's when I try to depend on various
Duckfans in different countries to help me know about and to obtain such issues.
I also saw the images from QUACK PACK (the new TV series featuring
DD and HD&L) in TOON magazine... and disturbing is hardly the word for it. I
expected HD&L to look older from what I'd heard... but they only look
slightly older than what we're used to. However, other than that, they are
absolutely unrecognizeable. As you might imagine, they are dressed like
typical lower-class American teenagers, grunge-clothes, backwards baseball
caps, skateboards, etc. But even more disturbing is their facial expressions
of dazed and sleepy or mean expressions, sort of a drugged look to my eyes,
or at least plain DUMB. Of course, I'm only looking at model sheets here, so
perhaps the true stories are about this being part of a Junior Woodchuck
display of how decent Ducks should NOT look and act? Somehow I doubt that's
the case, but I can hope. Anyway, this could hardly, in one's wildest
imagination, be a worse depiction of our favorite young Ducks... and we can
all simply be happy that DUCK DAZE will come and go and be forgotten in a
few years, as with DUCKTALES. It will NOT effect the comics! But how Disney
allows this sort of thing is a question I'd like someone to answer someday!

CAREY:
Tell me about the SF stories that involved a trip to the center of the Earth
which involved a mini-Black Hole!!! The reason I'm curious is "The Universal
Solvent" story you're now seeing is my updated, Duckified version of my
20-25 year old original "Pertwillaby Papers" story. I used the universal
solvent idea alone because I thought the original version was too SFy for a
Duck comic -- that original idea being that it was a mini-Black-Hole! At the
time I wrote that story, I had never seen anything similar in any story
before... I'd never even seen Black Holes mentioned in fiction before I
wrote my tale (though I don't follow SF and they might have had such tales
since the 20s for all I know). My original strip was even several years
before Disney's oddball BLACK HOLE movie. But tell me what SF stories dealt
with that idea so I can find them... I still plan to use my old Black Hole
plot in a Duck story, and I'd like to check up on any other such stories,
either to avoid being too similar or to sorta swipe a few more nifty angles.

And with that... mercifully, I will cease!

And yet another lurker decides to pipe in. I've been reading these for
about 8 months but never wrote in - mainly because the subject was about
comics which hadn't come out here in the U.S. yet, at least not to my house
from Gladstone, or at my local comic store.

>Mike Rhode wrote:

>Did anyone think the new WDC&S 604 was pretty light on content for the $?
>I haven't been a big fan of the way Gladstone is going lately, but I
>actually stopped reading this in the middle and took 3 days to get back to
>it. And I'm the collector-type they're supposedly aiming at! The Van Horn

>was ok, but I can do without these article on Mickey Mouse magazines. The
>Bucky Bug seemed to be another historical curiosity (sorry Dwight), but was

>at least moderately interesting if you ignored the text. And then the big
>seller for American Disney comics, Don Rosa, once again includes a story
>fragment. The Universal Solvent is one I've been looking forward to, given

>the past discussion on the list, and to get it in three short blocks
>separated by a lot of time, is very annoying. This essentially ruined
>Treasure/Croseus for me too.

I very strongly agree on both points. I haven't been a reader of WDC&S, as
I stick to U$ titles and related stories, although I'll pick up other
stories which include Rosa art/stories. After reading about Treasure of
Croseus on this group, I couldn't wait to read it! Then I was greatly
disappointed to find out the stories was split among (as I though then) two
WDC&S's. I got the second a month or so later, and had to re-read the
first, read the second, and be disappointed that the story was split into 3
parts!

Well, as Disney comics are not the hottest selling comic in the U.S., my
local stores sold out of WDC&S #604 right away, and I had to search all over
to find it. That took 2 months, and I'd forgotten what the story was about.

So, to sum up, tearing up these stories into multiple parts really kills a
story for me also, and it just seems like a way for Gladstone to suck an
extra US$12.00 or so from me. I don't mind the price as long as the stories
are good, and I don't enjoy most of the rest of the book. Loved the T/C,
though, and the Universal Solvent has really got my attention also.

By the way, Don Rosa mentioned he would be at a comic event here in Seattle
in August (10/11). Does anyone know the name of the show & where it will
be? Are there any local Seattleites on this digest? Thanks all!

--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V96 Issue #132
******************************************

MARC:
Sorry -- plans have changed, and I WON'T be going to Seattle in August. When
I was invited by the good friends who run the CenterCon show, I jumped too
quickly at the chance to again visit Seattle and that area, which is
possibly my favorite part of the continental US. But when I told my wife I'd
be gone yet ANOTHER weekend and again leaving her alone, she FIRMLY showed
me a calender to indicate that between my tour of Germany, visits to Norway,
Denmark, California, Buffalo/Niagra Falls, and our own vacation in
Yellowstone, one of the ONLY weekends I had left to spend at my own home
during the entire summer was the weekend I had agreed to be in Seattle. So,
I caught the CenterCon folks moments before they put my name in any
advertising, and they were nice enough to allow me to postpone my visit to
their show until their next event, whenever that will be. So... if you want
to see me on August 10/11, that would be fine with me, but you'll have to
come to Louisville and watch me cutting grass.

ALL:
It occurs to me that I should warn European Duckfans of what's happening in
the various editions next week to avoid confusion. My "Treasure of the Ten
Avatars" is being printed, but NOT in all Egmont countries. Of the main
Egmont countries, "Avatars" will appear in Norway, Denmark, perhaps
Finland... but it might NOT appear in Sweden or Germany. "Avatars" is a 28
page adventure, and Sweden and Germany do not publish supplement editions to
contain longer, special stories. I think Sweden sometimes prints thicker
issues, but I doubt that they would take up 28 pages with one story. Also, I
never heard from the Swedish or German translators who both usually enjoy
discussing my stories with me while they are translating, so I assume this
one never crossed their desks. I don't think Germany will use this story
until it appears in that "Don Rosa Album" series, and that might take years.
But I'll be curious to hear from readers in those two countries, as well as
others, to let me know what happens.
Which leads me to ask: how many Egmont countries are represented by readers
and "lurkers" of this Mailing List group??? Do we have anyone in Iceland or
Great Britain? I still have no contacts in several countries such as those
two to help me know what's being printed there and to help me obtain copies.

Okay, for all people attending San Diego, I've now rescheduled the breakfast
for the Fifth, since some people won't be arriving until later.

Anyone have a problem with this day?

Torsten Adair (Email removed) Washington, DC, USA

Good new for Rosa stalkers in the Copenhagen/Malmoe area: I just got
confirmation that Don Rosa will show up in Fantask's store in Copenhagen
on July 1.st at 1400 to 1700 hours local time! Now that I got that set up
I guess I can call my family on 'The Devils Island' (Jutland slang for
Zealand), and warn them of my 'Gussing' them...

I hope to see some of you there, maybe from Sweden or wherever.
And if any of you Germans see Don, do tell him about the arrangement -
I've discussed it a little with him before he went abroad, but now he's
probably the only one who doesn't know.

Per (Starback): you might find it a little late, but still worth plotting
on the 'Where and When is Don?' page. The Fantaskers also hinted that info
would be available on their page (http://www.fantask.dk).
Anyone checking will know more than I do. I just started summer holidays,
so this will be appearing in my brother Lasse's name - just like in the
good old days. I hope he's still cleared for mailing?

About the prehistoric names of Disney characters: In Denmark Donald Duck
was originally called "Rasmus Rap" (rap = quack), and in a recent reprint
of "The Wise Little Hen" this name was retained - probably to retain the
rhymes in the translation. Mickey Mouse was originally "Mikkel Mus", and
this name is still used by senior citizens. A faithful 'translation' it
doesn't even sound silly to modern ears.

I suspect that the pre-war publications of Disney strips used many different
translated names, and only after the massive re-launching in 1948-50 in Europe,
Disney (or Egmont?) standardized the names. At that time the American names
were possibly thought of as an asset instead of a liability.

I just researched Daisy's first appearance in comics to be in Taliaferro's
daily on Nov. 4.th. 1940, after the occupation of Denmark, so she wouldn't
have an older name, but Gus Goose appeared already on May 9.th 1938, under
the name "Guffen". At least I believe I remember so. Well, not 'remember'
in *that* way, but...

Well, back to lurking for the summer.

- Ole 'Rosa overruns Copenhagen' Nielsen

Which reminds me that I claimed Don did a sketch in co-operation with Roberta
Gregory: this was a total misunderstanding of a mail by Jyrki from December
last year. My mistake entirely - I must have been reading too fast for my
brain to catch up. The title "Women Overrun By Ducks" was of an article about
how much more popular Disney comics were than underground feministic comics.
At least in Finland. But I enjoyed the image I made up in my head...