I'm glad there was a Digest in my mail tonight so I could send a parting reply.
MARC:
Schmid was a company making reasonably-priced to a-little-too-expensive
Disney items (as opposed to the MUCH-too-expensive "col-yecch-tibles"
types)in recent years, and they were not hard to find, so I prolly have
those you saw. I think they might have lost their license about a year or
two ago. I probably have all their stuff... but ONE item they made that I
would sure like to get was a Xmas figurine, circa 1982-85, based on
"Mickey's Xmas Carol" that featured $crooge (or whoever that $crooge/Von
Drake character was that Disney used as an "actor" in that film).
The closest I'll be to Portland will be Seattle, whenever they decide on a
date for the post-August CenterCon, which I have an advance invitation to. I
have been the guest at several Portland shows in the past -- you can always
suggest me as a potential guest to whoever puts on future shows there.
The "10 Avatars" story is now appearing in Europe, so it will be at least a
year or more before you might see Gladstone schedule it. And I hate seeing
my stories serialized in WDC&S, too, as does everybody and his brother, but
I have as much to say about how my stories are used as you do. Gladstone
must feel that those 8-page chapters are selling points for those $6
editions, and I want Gladstone to get every break they can in order for us
to have GOOD Disney comics in America for as long as we can, so I would
never seek to dispute their decisions even if I could. They always have my
support!
CAREY:
Author
Topic: 199606
(175 messages)
Don Rosa
Disney comics Digest V96 #135
Message 151 -
1996-06-26 at 07:28:00
Marco Barlotti
Brazil Disney Comics
Message 152 -
1996-06-26 at 12:04:54
ALIPIO: you write
> I just received the following informations of ABRIL JOVEM:
> " The story was writed by Kaled Kalil Kanbour and drawed by Carlos
>Edgard Herrero. It was published in "PATO DONALD", # 1983,1984,1985 and
>1986. It was not a continuation of the Strobl'stories but a brazilian
>project. The year of publication (here in Brazil) was 1992.
But: which story? Are you referring to B910348? which of Strobl's stories
could it have been supposed to be (mmh, I'm getting tangled in this) a
continuation? Please, be a little more explicit!
And you haven't answered me: what has Glittering Goldies' granddaughter to
do with Jose' Carioca? (That character, known in Italy as Paperetta Ye'-Ye',
was introduced by Romano Scarpa in December 1966, TL 577, and appears
currently in many B-coded stories featuring Carioca. By the way, what's her
name in Brazil? And why is she missing in Per's index?). Also: where do
Jose' Carioca and his friends live? Duckburg? Brazil? Which town? And about
characters: what's the name of the unlucky unlucky one so similar to Horace
Horsecollar?
Thank you,
Marco
> I just received the following informations of ABRIL JOVEM:
> " The story was writed by Kaled Kalil Kanbour and drawed by Carlos
>Edgard Herrero. It was published in "PATO DONALD", # 1983,1984,1985 and
>1986. It was not a continuation of the Strobl'stories but a brazilian
>project. The year of publication (here in Brazil) was 1992.
But: which story? Are you referring to B910348? which of Strobl's stories
could it have been supposed to be (mmh, I'm getting tangled in this) a
continuation? Please, be a little more explicit!
And you haven't answered me: what has Glittering Goldies' granddaughter to
do with Jose' Carioca? (That character, known in Italy as Paperetta Ye'-Ye',
was introduced by Romano Scarpa in December 1966, TL 577, and appears
currently in many B-coded stories featuring Carioca. By the way, what's her
name in Brazil? And why is she missing in Per's index?). Also: where do
Jose' Carioca and his friends live? Duckburg? Brazil? Which town? And about
characters: what's the name of the unlucky unlucky one so similar to Horace
Horsecollar?
Thank you,
Marco
Nils Lid Hjort
Rosa in Oslo tomorrow
Message 153 -
1996-06-26 at 13:01:06
I have the following information from another list member:
Friday 28th of June, 16:00, Tegneseriehuset,
Langesgate 7; official opening (seemingly) of the
Comic Books Gallery. Part of the gallery seems to
be on Rosa's work, "from the start of a project to its
finished state", and Don will be present.
Entrance: free for members of the Comic Book Society,
Nkroner 10 [only about 6000 roubles, or one cup of coffee]
for non-members.
Nils Lid Hjort
Friday 28th of June, 16:00, Tegneseriehuset,
Langesgate 7; official opening (seemingly) of the
Comic Books Gallery. Part of the gallery seems to
be on Rosa's work, "from the start of a project to its
finished state", and Don will be present.
Entrance: free for members of the Comic Book Society,
Nkroner 10 [only about 6000 roubles, or one cup of coffee]
for non-members.
Nils Lid Hjort
Dan Shane
Disney comics Digest V96 #135
Message 154 -
1996-06-26 at 14:06:24
MIKE:
The script pages show any dialogue not already in the comics. The idea
of the black and white pages is to showcase the art as it leaves Don's
hands. Others do the lettering, and we wouldn't want to give the
impression that it's done otherwise.
Talk to Don about additional episodes being put on the Page. He'll
definitely being doing some of that when time allows him to do so, and
if other $crooge artists want to get involved, this thing may grow
beyond all reasonable proportions someday (my time contsraints allowing
for it, of course).
I like your idea of an itemized list of new stuff. I'll put it into
practice in future updates.
The script pages show any dialogue not already in the comics. The idea
of the black and white pages is to showcase the art as it leaves Don's
hands. Others do the lettering, and we wouldn't want to give the
impression that it's done otherwise.
Talk to Don about additional episodes being put on the Page. He'll
definitely being doing some of that when time allows him to do so, and
if other $crooge artists want to get involved, this thing may grow
beyond all reasonable proportions someday (my time contsraints allowing
for it, of course).
I like your idea of an itemized list of new stuff. I'll put it into
practice in future updates.
Markoff
Similar letter-writer names
Message 155 -
1996-06-26 at 18:12:55
ARTHUR:
> No ... I don't think so. I know that it was someone from the list
>and I thought it was you. I guess I was wrong ...
There was a letter from Jonathan Marks in Uncle Scrooge Adventures 27. Maybe
that's the name you're thinking of?
> No ... I don't think so. I know that it was someone from the list
>and I thought it was you. I guess I was wrong ...
There was a letter from Jonathan Marks in Uncle Scrooge Adventures 27. Maybe
that's the name you're thinking of?
Wilmer Rivers
Donald Duck in Relativity Land
Message 156 -
1996-06-26 at 19:01:15
I've just written up a bit of history on the idea of black holes, in-
cluding the origin of the notion that a mini black hole might pass
through the earth, but since that history is off-topic, I've sent it to
Don and Carey by private E-mail. Now, though, I do want to post to the
whole List some more on-topic speculation about how the idea of black
holes could be used within a Disney comic.
How could a Duck story make use of black holes? A typical Duck story
requires 3 features for its set-up: (1) a reason to attract a mini black
hole, or invent a Universal Solvent, or whatever, and (2) something to
go very wrong during the accomplishment of (1), requiring (3) that the
Ducks undertake a dangerous and exciting adventure to fix (2). So what
could be used for (1), the premise of the story? It would be hard for
the Ducks to do anything with a mini black hole here on the earth that
wouldn't wind up becoming a recipe for pressed duck! So I would re-
ject ideas such as Scrooge's wanting to have a mini black hole in his
factory for the purpose of crushing coal down to diamonds, a trick which
was very popular in Superman comics decades ago. (Of course, Superman
just squeezed the coal himself, needing no black hole!) In fact, I
would stay away altogether from the idea of the Ducks' encountering a
mini black hole here on earth. Instead, suppose Gyro were to attract a
mini black hole from somewhere in the galaxy, and then he placed it in
an orbit around the earth. [I don't know how this "attraction" would
work - maybe a Star Trek-like "tractor beam", or something exotic with
magnetic monopoles, but like any other gravitating body, once the black
hole starts falling towards the earth, here it comes, and we acquire a
new satellite!] Why would he do such a thing? It's Scrooge's scheme to
solve the waste disposal problem! You just have a black hole out there,
and shoot all your garbage into it. It never fills up, and hazardous
waste disappears into it forever. There must be some money to be made
from that! At any rate, it's up there in orbit, not down here on earth,
so the story can proceedly "safely", until the real disaster strikes, as
feature (2) requires.
And what would that disaster be? Consider scenarios like these:
(A) The garbage that Scrooge shot up to the black hole starts coming
back. It just falls out of the sky, onto people in the street. To
placate an understandably angry mob of Duckburgians, the Ducks pilot
a rocket up close to the hole to see why the garbage is coming back.
When they get there, they find that the black hole is surrounded by a
civilization of creatures rather like Terri-Fermis ("roly-poly holeys"?)
who live in a culture built using debris that falls into the black hole,
which they normally collect before it can plunge down into the event
horizon and disappear. Who knows, maybe they even subsist mainly on a
diet of Venusian skunk-cabbage that used to get sucked into the black
hole, back before Gyro moved it from its previous location into its
present orbit around the earth. Now their world around the black hole
is filled with Scrooge's garbage, spiralling down in ever-decaying orbit
toward the event horizon, so they've started scooping the junk up and
then chucking it back to earth! Or...
(B) Scrooge figures that he could save money if the black hole were
closer to earth, so that he wouldn't have so far to shoot the garbage
into space, and so he pushes a lever on Gyro's tractor beam to move
the black hole in closer, before Gyro can stop him. Of course, the
black hole is now too close to the earth, and we suffer the effects of
its strong tides. These are more pronounced on objects at higher
altitudes, such as a money bin atop Killmotor Hill, whose roof ruptures
and whose contents get sucked skyward. As they have done so many times
before, the Ducks must now go retrieve Scrooge's fortune, this time be-
fore it spirals too close to the back hole and gets crushed into a
single big blob of metal. Or...
(C) A mysterious industrialist (who looks suspiciously like a Beagle
Boy in disguise) shows up at Scrooge's office with a business proposi-
tion for him. The "industrialist" explains that all his businesses are
scheduled soon to be shut down temporarily for repairs, all at the same
time, and so he asks whether he could rent Scrooge's entire empire -
factories, mines, farms, and the black hole waste disposal system - just
for 72 hours while his own businesses are being fixed. In return for
the use of Scrooge's businesses during those 72 hours, the industrialist
will pay Scrooge $100,000 rent. It sounds like a good deal, so Scrooge
accepts, and they start a stopwatch clicking in his office to begin
counting down the 72 hours. The industrialist then uses the waste
disposal system to send the stopwatch spiralling towards the black hole.
Scrooge doesn't understand, until HD&L explain to him (using the Junior
Woodchucks' Manual) that according to relativity theory, time runs
slower the closer you get to a black hole. So the stopwatch will keep
slowing down, and the 72 hours' setting on it will never expire! The
watch keeps ticking, so the contract is still valid, but the watch runs
so slowly that the "industrialist" back here on earth will never have
to give up possession of Scrooge's empire. The Ducks must therefore
retrieve the stopwatch from the vicinity of the black hole, in spite of
efforts by the Beagles to sabotage their salvage operation. Or...
(D) Scrooge hires Donald to be the night watchman at his black hole
waste disposal facility. Donald carelessly turns Gyro's "black hole
attractor" back on, and a second black hole starts falling in towards
the first! A cosmic collision of, well, astronomical proportions
looms imminent, with catastrophic effects unprecedented since the dawn
of time, unless the Ducks can avert the collision of the 2 black holes
by diverting the trajectory of the one that Donald started moving
toward earth. Gyro invents a repelling beam, but it must be applied
at close range, so the Ducks board their rocket and hope for the best.
If all these seem too deeply rooted in Sci-Fi for a Disney comic, then
you can always adopt the Barksian approach of subsituting mythology in
place of technology. This time, instead of Gyro's inventing a device
to attract black holes, the story starts out with a discovery made by
Scrooge's team of prospectors in the Arctic. His miners uncover a mys-
terious box buried in Spitzbergen or some such place north of Scandana-
via. It's shipped back to Duckburg, where Scrooge himself takes charge
of investigating it, since he suspects the box may contain Viking gold,
or at least a treasure map. The box is sealed with what appears to be
a silver rope, and it's decorated with a picture of a wolf and a symbol
which appears to be the sun. Only a couple of words survive from the
weathered inscription on the box, and (according to the Junior Wood-
chucks' Handbook, of course), they translate to the names "Ragnarok"
and "Fenrir". (You can already see where this is going, right?)
Scrooge opens the box, and just as happened with Pandora, something
blasts out of it as soon as it is opened. It's a rocket, which
shoots towards the sun. By deciphering the writing which is intact
**inside** the box, the Ducks deduce that they have unleashed a dooms-
day machine. They realize that this machine, developed by a sorceror
named Loki (or by alien scientists from the planet Valhalla, depending
on how you want to set up the story; it doesn't really matter) is the
basis for the Ragnarok myths about the end of the world, and as in the
myths this doomsday machine called Fenrir is designed to "devour the
sun". This puzzles the Ducks, until further clues lead them to figure
out that the weapon contains a mini black hole, and the rocket is aimed
at the sun, so when the rocket gets there, it will melt, and the sun
will indeed by swallowed up by the black hole! (Since the weapon is
heat-activated, it was to keep it cold that the box had been buried in
the Arctic, of course.) So the Ducks must intercept the rocket somehow
and turn off the weapon. A reference in the inscription to "the Hammer
of Thor" gives them the necessary clues - they must catch the rocket
using a comet, so that its ice will freeze the weapon (just as it did
in the Arctic), and so that the comet will then carry the black hole
back out to the frozen outer limits of the solar system. So it's off
to Gyro's workshop...
Anyway, I don't think the concept of black holes is too heavily Sci-Fi
for Disney comics. So if Don wants to rework his 1970s story, or if
any of the other Egmont writers on this list want to play with the
idea, it could turn out to be a valid concept for a Duck story, I think.
Just be sure to keep the science reasonable; for that, you might want to
enlist the help of a former member of this list, astronomer William
Hathaway. And I'm sure there are lots of other Duck-fans with technical
backgrounds in gravitation and relativity who would be glad to help!
So let's see what some of this List's pros can come up with...
Wilmer Rivers
cluding the origin of the notion that a mini black hole might pass
through the earth, but since that history is off-topic, I've sent it to
Don and Carey by private E-mail. Now, though, I do want to post to the
whole List some more on-topic speculation about how the idea of black
holes could be used within a Disney comic.
How could a Duck story make use of black holes? A typical Duck story
requires 3 features for its set-up: (1) a reason to attract a mini black
hole, or invent a Universal Solvent, or whatever, and (2) something to
go very wrong during the accomplishment of (1), requiring (3) that the
Ducks undertake a dangerous and exciting adventure to fix (2). So what
could be used for (1), the premise of the story? It would be hard for
the Ducks to do anything with a mini black hole here on the earth that
wouldn't wind up becoming a recipe for pressed duck! So I would re-
ject ideas such as Scrooge's wanting to have a mini black hole in his
factory for the purpose of crushing coal down to diamonds, a trick which
was very popular in Superman comics decades ago. (Of course, Superman
just squeezed the coal himself, needing no black hole!) In fact, I
would stay away altogether from the idea of the Ducks' encountering a
mini black hole here on earth. Instead, suppose Gyro were to attract a
mini black hole from somewhere in the galaxy, and then he placed it in
an orbit around the earth. [I don't know how this "attraction" would
work - maybe a Star Trek-like "tractor beam", or something exotic with
magnetic monopoles, but like any other gravitating body, once the black
hole starts falling towards the earth, here it comes, and we acquire a
new satellite!] Why would he do such a thing? It's Scrooge's scheme to
solve the waste disposal problem! You just have a black hole out there,
and shoot all your garbage into it. It never fills up, and hazardous
waste disappears into it forever. There must be some money to be made
from that! At any rate, it's up there in orbit, not down here on earth,
so the story can proceedly "safely", until the real disaster strikes, as
feature (2) requires.
And what would that disaster be? Consider scenarios like these:
(A) The garbage that Scrooge shot up to the black hole starts coming
back. It just falls out of the sky, onto people in the street. To
placate an understandably angry mob of Duckburgians, the Ducks pilot
a rocket up close to the hole to see why the garbage is coming back.
When they get there, they find that the black hole is surrounded by a
civilization of creatures rather like Terri-Fermis ("roly-poly holeys"?)
who live in a culture built using debris that falls into the black hole,
which they normally collect before it can plunge down into the event
horizon and disappear. Who knows, maybe they even subsist mainly on a
diet of Venusian skunk-cabbage that used to get sucked into the black
hole, back before Gyro moved it from its previous location into its
present orbit around the earth. Now their world around the black hole
is filled with Scrooge's garbage, spiralling down in ever-decaying orbit
toward the event horizon, so they've started scooping the junk up and
then chucking it back to earth! Or...
(B) Scrooge figures that he could save money if the black hole were
closer to earth, so that he wouldn't have so far to shoot the garbage
into space, and so he pushes a lever on Gyro's tractor beam to move
the black hole in closer, before Gyro can stop him. Of course, the
black hole is now too close to the earth, and we suffer the effects of
its strong tides. These are more pronounced on objects at higher
altitudes, such as a money bin atop Killmotor Hill, whose roof ruptures
and whose contents get sucked skyward. As they have done so many times
before, the Ducks must now go retrieve Scrooge's fortune, this time be-
fore it spirals too close to the back hole and gets crushed into a
single big blob of metal. Or...
(C) A mysterious industrialist (who looks suspiciously like a Beagle
Boy in disguise) shows up at Scrooge's office with a business proposi-
tion for him. The "industrialist" explains that all his businesses are
scheduled soon to be shut down temporarily for repairs, all at the same
time, and so he asks whether he could rent Scrooge's entire empire -
factories, mines, farms, and the black hole waste disposal system - just
for 72 hours while his own businesses are being fixed. In return for
the use of Scrooge's businesses during those 72 hours, the industrialist
will pay Scrooge $100,000 rent. It sounds like a good deal, so Scrooge
accepts, and they start a stopwatch clicking in his office to begin
counting down the 72 hours. The industrialist then uses the waste
disposal system to send the stopwatch spiralling towards the black hole.
Scrooge doesn't understand, until HD&L explain to him (using the Junior
Woodchucks' Manual) that according to relativity theory, time runs
slower the closer you get to a black hole. So the stopwatch will keep
slowing down, and the 72 hours' setting on it will never expire! The
watch keeps ticking, so the contract is still valid, but the watch runs
so slowly that the "industrialist" back here on earth will never have
to give up possession of Scrooge's empire. The Ducks must therefore
retrieve the stopwatch from the vicinity of the black hole, in spite of
efforts by the Beagles to sabotage their salvage operation. Or...
(D) Scrooge hires Donald to be the night watchman at his black hole
waste disposal facility. Donald carelessly turns Gyro's "black hole
attractor" back on, and a second black hole starts falling in towards
the first! A cosmic collision of, well, astronomical proportions
looms imminent, with catastrophic effects unprecedented since the dawn
of time, unless the Ducks can avert the collision of the 2 black holes
by diverting the trajectory of the one that Donald started moving
toward earth. Gyro invents a repelling beam, but it must be applied
at close range, so the Ducks board their rocket and hope for the best.
If all these seem too deeply rooted in Sci-Fi for a Disney comic, then
you can always adopt the Barksian approach of subsituting mythology in
place of technology. This time, instead of Gyro's inventing a device
to attract black holes, the story starts out with a discovery made by
Scrooge's team of prospectors in the Arctic. His miners uncover a mys-
terious box buried in Spitzbergen or some such place north of Scandana-
via. It's shipped back to Duckburg, where Scrooge himself takes charge
of investigating it, since he suspects the box may contain Viking gold,
or at least a treasure map. The box is sealed with what appears to be
a silver rope, and it's decorated with a picture of a wolf and a symbol
which appears to be the sun. Only a couple of words survive from the
weathered inscription on the box, and (according to the Junior Wood-
chucks' Handbook, of course), they translate to the names "Ragnarok"
and "Fenrir". (You can already see where this is going, right?)
Scrooge opens the box, and just as happened with Pandora, something
blasts out of it as soon as it is opened. It's a rocket, which
shoots towards the sun. By deciphering the writing which is intact
**inside** the box, the Ducks deduce that they have unleashed a dooms-
day machine. They realize that this machine, developed by a sorceror
named Loki (or by alien scientists from the planet Valhalla, depending
on how you want to set up the story; it doesn't really matter) is the
basis for the Ragnarok myths about the end of the world, and as in the
myths this doomsday machine called Fenrir is designed to "devour the
sun". This puzzles the Ducks, until further clues lead them to figure
out that the weapon contains a mini black hole, and the rocket is aimed
at the sun, so when the rocket gets there, it will melt, and the sun
will indeed by swallowed up by the black hole! (Since the weapon is
heat-activated, it was to keep it cold that the box had been buried in
the Arctic, of course.) So the Ducks must intercept the rocket somehow
and turn off the weapon. A reference in the inscription to "the Hammer
of Thor" gives them the necessary clues - they must catch the rocket
using a comet, so that its ice will freeze the weapon (just as it did
in the Arctic), and so that the comet will then carry the black hole
back out to the frozen outer limits of the solar system. So it's off
to Gyro's workshop...
Anyway, I don't think the concept of black holes is too heavily Sci-Fi
for Disney comics. So if Don wants to rework his 1970s story, or if
any of the other Egmont writers on this list want to play with the
idea, it could turn out to be a valid concept for a Duck story, I think.
Just be sure to keep the science reasonable; for that, you might want to
enlist the help of a former member of this list, astronomer William
Hathaway. And I'm sure there are lots of other Duck-fans with technical
backgrounds in gravitation and relativity who would be glad to help!
So let's see what some of this List's pros can come up with...
Wilmer Rivers
Harry Fluks
Brazilian Disney Comics
Message 157 -
1996-06-26 at 20:04:37
Thanks, Alipio, for all the information! Brazil is now a bit less
a black spot in my Disney comics knowledge!
Alipio said:
> It was not a continuation of the Strobl'stories but a brazilian
> project. The year of publication (here in Brazil) was 1992.
And Marco asked:
> But: which story? Are you referring to B910348? which of Strobl's stories
> could it have been supposed to be (mmh, I'm getting tangled in this) a
> continuation? Please, be a little more explicit!
It was in fact a reply to my remark about that Brazilian story in the Dutch
pocket book (yes, B 910348). I said:
> Fethry asks Donald to come back to the newspaper,
> so this is actually a follow-up to the "newspaper stories" by Strobl in
> the 70s.
What I meant was the *situation* where Scrooge runs a newspaper,
and has Donald and Fethry as employees. This situation has its
origin in the Strobl stories in the 70s. I think that France and Brazil
made a lot of stories in this situation. And Donald must have left the
newspaper shortly before the above mentioned story. Why else would
Fethry ask Donald when he comes back?
So, though the story is not a direct follow-up to another story, there
apparently is some kind of continuity in Brazil.
BTW: I never knew Paperetta Ye-ye was Goldie's granddaughter!
Marco also asked:
> where do Jose' Carioca and his friends live?
There are some very good Dutch stories from Joe Carioca, direct
sequels to the newspaper strips (Straatman/Colomer Fonts). In that "world", Joe lives in (the "bidonvilles" of) Rio de Janeiro.
These Dutch stories are probably never published in Brazil, just like
we have never seen a Brazilian Carioca story in Holland.
--Harry.
Harry Fluks, Leidschendam, Netherlands
(Email removed)
a black spot in my Disney comics knowledge!
Alipio said:
> It was not a continuation of the Strobl'stories but a brazilian
> project. The year of publication (here in Brazil) was 1992.
And Marco asked:
> But: which story? Are you referring to B910348? which of Strobl's stories
> could it have been supposed to be (mmh, I'm getting tangled in this) a
> continuation? Please, be a little more explicit!
It was in fact a reply to my remark about that Brazilian story in the Dutch
pocket book (yes, B 910348). I said:
> Fethry asks Donald to come back to the newspaper,
> so this is actually a follow-up to the "newspaper stories" by Strobl in
> the 70s.
What I meant was the *situation* where Scrooge runs a newspaper,
and has Donald and Fethry as employees. This situation has its
origin in the Strobl stories in the 70s. I think that France and Brazil
made a lot of stories in this situation. And Donald must have left the
newspaper shortly before the above mentioned story. Why else would
Fethry ask Donald when he comes back?
So, though the story is not a direct follow-up to another story, there
apparently is some kind of continuity in Brazil.
BTW: I never knew Paperetta Ye-ye was Goldie's granddaughter!
Marco also asked:
> where do Jose' Carioca and his friends live?
There are some very good Dutch stories from Joe Carioca, direct
sequels to the newspaper strips (Straatman/Colomer Fonts). In that "world", Joe lives in (the "bidonvilles" of) Rio de Janeiro.
These Dutch stories are probably never published in Brazil, just like
we have never seen a Brazilian Carioca story in Holland.
--Harry.
Harry Fluks, Leidschendam, Netherlands
(Email removed)
Arthur De Wolf
Meaningless subject again!
Message 158 -
1996-06-27 at 19:20:34
Hi!
Guess what? You all know by now, that the Dutch publisher and it's
artists don't like the artwork by Rosa, and the way Rosa uses the Barks-
material. Well ... today the first album of the reprints of the Life
of Scrooge came out, and there's a whole article about Don Rosa in it.
It's unbelievable. This is probably the first time Rosa's name is officially
printed in a Dutch publication.
The article was very interesting. There was nothing of interest in
it about Don Rosa, that we didn't know yet, but it was just interesting
to see how they're REALLY looking at the person 'Don Rosa'. I'll try
to translate it (remember that they NEVER print credits in Holland, and
that the Dutch public almost never reads anything about the people behind
the stories):
"Many writers and artists of Disney comics have gratefully used
the characters created by Carl Barks. Scrooge, Gyro Gearloose, Gladstone
Gander and even neighbour Jones were created by Barks and are now part
of Donald Duck's world. Also lots of artists have tried to follow Barks
in his steps, by copying his style of drawing and writing. Only few have
partly succeeded in this: the Dutch Daan Jippes, Ben Verhagen and
Mau Heymans, the Danish Freddy Milton, the Argentenian Daniel Branca, the
Canadian William van Horn and the American Don Rosa, to name just a few."
"Keno Don Rosa is one of the most remarkable, and certainly most
productive (?) follower of Barks. All stories in this album and the next four
albums are from him. Rosa, bron in Kentucky (1951), grew up with Disney
comics and drew his own comics. He graduated as a engineer."
Then follows a piece of text about Rosa beginning to work
for Gladstone etcetera ... (I'll skip it)
"The first story he did for Gladstone immediatelly showed that Rosa
hadn't forgotten the Barks-stories from his youth. The storylines were
completely the same as the ones by Barks. His artwork though, was
considerably less good. Even when Rosa was trying all of his best and some-
times even copying certain positions of characters literally, it didn't work;
he didn't become the second Barks. He was still only the first Rosa, someone
who has a new, and somewhat unique style of drawing in Duck-adventure
stories."
"After ten years, the opinions of Rosa are still divided. Some say
(especially the Skandinavian countries and America) that they enjoy the
"underground-like" style and they regard the new busy and detailed way of
drawing as innovative. On the other hand, others think the way Rosa is
drawing, deviates from the old Duckstyle of their youth."
"All parties do agree though, that Rosa is a born storyteller, even
when he copies a lot from Barks-stories, Rosa makes his stories in a
"Indiana Jones-like" way very exiting and fascinating. Don Rosa honestly
admits, that all of his stories and every page in every story was inspired
by Barks. He sees it as a tribute to the old master ..."
How come they suddenly know all this abour Rosa? When I and Harry
were talking to them, it seemed as they didn't know anything about Rosa!
I guess they read the accompanying texts with each episode of the Lo$
in the Gladstone-issues. Or maybe they read the interview in the Comics
Journals?!?!?
Have a nice day!
Arthur de Wolf -- Roosendaal, the Netherlands
--> Costumer Support World Access Videotex NL <--
email: (Email removed) (home), (Email removed) (work),
(Email removed) (school).
==> homepage: www.pi.net/~wolfman/disney (still under construction)
--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V96 Issue #136
******************************************
Guess what? You all know by now, that the Dutch publisher and it's
artists don't like the artwork by Rosa, and the way Rosa uses the Barks-
material. Well ... today the first album of the reprints of the Life
of Scrooge came out, and there's a whole article about Don Rosa in it.
It's unbelievable. This is probably the first time Rosa's name is officially
printed in a Dutch publication.
The article was very interesting. There was nothing of interest in
it about Don Rosa, that we didn't know yet, but it was just interesting
to see how they're REALLY looking at the person 'Don Rosa'. I'll try
to translate it (remember that they NEVER print credits in Holland, and
that the Dutch public almost never reads anything about the people behind
the stories):
"Many writers and artists of Disney comics have gratefully used
the characters created by Carl Barks. Scrooge, Gyro Gearloose, Gladstone
Gander and even neighbour Jones were created by Barks and are now part
of Donald Duck's world. Also lots of artists have tried to follow Barks
in his steps, by copying his style of drawing and writing. Only few have
partly succeeded in this: the Dutch Daan Jippes, Ben Verhagen and
Mau Heymans, the Danish Freddy Milton, the Argentenian Daniel Branca, the
Canadian William van Horn and the American Don Rosa, to name just a few."
"Keno Don Rosa is one of the most remarkable, and certainly most
productive (?) follower of Barks. All stories in this album and the next four
albums are from him. Rosa, bron in Kentucky (1951), grew up with Disney
comics and drew his own comics. He graduated as a engineer."
Then follows a piece of text about Rosa beginning to work
for Gladstone etcetera ... (I'll skip it)
"The first story he did for Gladstone immediatelly showed that Rosa
hadn't forgotten the Barks-stories from his youth. The storylines were
completely the same as the ones by Barks. His artwork though, was
considerably less good. Even when Rosa was trying all of his best and some-
times even copying certain positions of characters literally, it didn't work;
he didn't become the second Barks. He was still only the first Rosa, someone
who has a new, and somewhat unique style of drawing in Duck-adventure
stories."
"After ten years, the opinions of Rosa are still divided. Some say
(especially the Skandinavian countries and America) that they enjoy the
"underground-like" style and they regard the new busy and detailed way of
drawing as innovative. On the other hand, others think the way Rosa is
drawing, deviates from the old Duckstyle of their youth."
"All parties do agree though, that Rosa is a born storyteller, even
when he copies a lot from Barks-stories, Rosa makes his stories in a
"Indiana Jones-like" way very exiting and fascinating. Don Rosa honestly
admits, that all of his stories and every page in every story was inspired
by Barks. He sees it as a tribute to the old master ..."
How come they suddenly know all this abour Rosa? When I and Harry
were talking to them, it seemed as they didn't know anything about Rosa!
I guess they read the accompanying texts with each episode of the Lo$
in the Gladstone-issues. Or maybe they read the interview in the Comics
Journals?!?!?
Have a nice day!
Arthur de Wolf -- Roosendaal, the Netherlands
--> Costumer Support World Access Videotex NL <--
email: (Email removed) (home), (Email removed) (work),
(Email removed) (school).
==> homepage: www.pi.net/~wolfman/disney (still under construction)
--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V96 Issue #136
******************************************
David A Gerstein
Gladstone cancellation
Message 159 -
1996-06-27 at 22:53:19
MIKKO:
I'd like to see Marco Rota's new Mickey story here, too. I'll
see what I can do to have Gladstone publish it, but...
...it may not happen for a while because DONALD DUCK AND
MICKEY MOUSE has been cancelled. Gladstone didn't want to do it, but
the comics were actually losing money, so they couldn't afford to keep
it going. Even the recent issues with Egmont stories, apparently,
didn't reverse the poor sales in the long run.
To replace it, though, WDC&S will be going monthly and will
have new Mickey stories as well as old ones. This means that "Plastic
Mickey" by Michael Gilbert will appear there rather than in DDM #8
(which will not be published). But there may be a little while where
things are fairly confused...
Nonetheless this will mean that Rosa-serials will appear with
the chapters only a month apart, which is certainly an advantage.
Anyway, I'll be trying to have Gladstone use the Rota Mickey
story (which Byron tells me Marco also wrote, he didn't just draw it).
But it may be a while from now. Still, in the long run, WDC&S monthly
will bring us as many new MM stories as DDM did, alternating them (I
guess) with Gottfredson.
David Gerstein
<(Email removed)>
I'd like to see Marco Rota's new Mickey story here, too. I'll
see what I can do to have Gladstone publish it, but...
...it may not happen for a while because DONALD DUCK AND
MICKEY MOUSE has been cancelled. Gladstone didn't want to do it, but
the comics were actually losing money, so they couldn't afford to keep
it going. Even the recent issues with Egmont stories, apparently,
didn't reverse the poor sales in the long run.
To replace it, though, WDC&S will be going monthly and will
have new Mickey stories as well as old ones. This means that "Plastic
Mickey" by Michael Gilbert will appear there rather than in DDM #8
(which will not be published). But there may be a little while where
things are fairly confused...
Nonetheless this will mean that Rosa-serials will appear with
the chapters only a month apart, which is certainly an advantage.
Anyway, I'll be trying to have Gladstone use the Rota Mickey
story (which Byron tells me Marco also wrote, he didn't just draw it).
But it may be a while from now. Still, in the long run, WDC&S monthly
will bring us as many new MM stories as DDM did, alternating them (I
guess) with Gottfredson.
David Gerstein
<(Email removed)>
Augie De Blieck Jr.
Comics Buyers Guide Awards
Message 160 -
1996-06-28 at 04:08:04
The awards were apparantly announced last weekend at the Chicago Comic
Book Convention, and has created quite a stir over in rec.arts.comics.misc.
I think the group here will be pleased with the winners. The question is
- how did Gladstone, a relatively small company in comparison to DC and
Marvel and Image and Dark Horse, garner all these votes? I know they
printed the voting ballot in all their books, but it has got to be more
than that. Did the Gladstone Gazette encourage this or something?
I really would't consider "Horsing Around with History" the best story of
last year, for example. I doubt many here would, either, and we're all
Duck fans!
-Augie
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Augie De Blieck Jr. * "I've got to start drinking more. My life wouldn't
(Email removed) * make any more sense but at least I'd have something
(Email removed) * to blame it on." -Dragon (TSD #28 by Erik Larsen)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: (Email removed) (Johanna Draper)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Re: CBG Awards
Date: 27 Jun 1996 02:22:43 GMT
Organization: Webdancer Productions
In article <4qsjot$(Email removed)>,
>Didn't *anybody* make a list of the winners???
Yeah, yeah, you just want me to do your reporting for you, Comic Book Net.
:)
CBG made a list of the winners, of course, but if you can't wait:
All of these are preceded by "Favorite":
Editor: Bob Harras
Writer: Carl Barks
Penciller: William Van Horn
Inker: Pat Block
Colorist: Tom McCraw
Painter: Alex Ross
Letterer: William Van Horn
Cover Artist: Alex Ross
Comic-Book Story: "Horsing Around with History (Uncle Scrooge Adventures
33)"
Original Graphic Novel/Album: Sandman Midnight Theatre
Reprint ditto: Carl Barks Library
Limited Series: Sin City: Big Fat Kill
Comic Book: Uncle Scrooge Adventures
Character: Donald's nephews
See what I mean about the ducks?
Johanna
Book Convention, and has created quite a stir over in rec.arts.comics.misc.
I think the group here will be pleased with the winners. The question is
- how did Gladstone, a relatively small company in comparison to DC and
Marvel and Image and Dark Horse, garner all these votes? I know they
printed the voting ballot in all their books, but it has got to be more
than that. Did the Gladstone Gazette encourage this or something?
I really would't consider "Horsing Around with History" the best story of
last year, for example. I doubt many here would, either, and we're all
Duck fans!
-Augie
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Augie De Blieck Jr. * "I've got to start drinking more. My life wouldn't
(Email removed) * make any more sense but at least I'd have something
(Email removed) * to blame it on." -Dragon (TSD #28 by Erik Larsen)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: (Email removed) (Johanna Draper)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Re: CBG Awards
Date: 27 Jun 1996 02:22:43 GMT
Organization: Webdancer Productions
In article <4qsjot$(Email removed)>,
>Didn't *anybody* make a list of the winners???
Yeah, yeah, you just want me to do your reporting for you, Comic Book Net.
:)
CBG made a list of the winners, of course, but if you can't wait:
All of these are preceded by "Favorite":
Editor: Bob Harras
Writer: Carl Barks
Penciller: William Van Horn
Inker: Pat Block
Colorist: Tom McCraw
Painter: Alex Ross
Letterer: William Van Horn
Cover Artist: Alex Ross
Comic-Book Story: "Horsing Around with History (Uncle Scrooge Adventures
33)"
Original Graphic Novel/Album: Sandman Midnight Theatre
Reprint ditto: Carl Barks Library
Limited Series: Sin City: Big Fat Kill
Comic Book: Uncle Scrooge Adventures
Character: Donald's nephews
See what I mean about the ducks?
Johanna
TWAdair
Breakfast in San Diego
Message 161 -
1996-06-28 at 07:22:32
(Email removed) (Michael Naiman) suggested the following:
"Might I suggest breakfast at the Marriott (next door to the convention
center) they have a fabulous buffet...this way everyone could park
conveniently at the center and walk next door! I've eaten there many
times...highly recommend it."
I have no problem with this. Since people will be arriving at different
times on the Fourth, I would like to suggest that we meet at Eight O'Clock on
the morning of the Fifth at the Marriott for breakfast. The early time will
allow us to eat and chat in leisure, and then we can all get to the Con at
opening time to snatch up all the good comics in the dealers room.
So, everyone, Iet's meet in the lobby of the Marriott. I'll be the guy with
the beard, long hair, glasses, and wearing a Donald Duck tie.
Hope to see you there!
(Feel free to bring anyone along. Just remember, seperate checks.)
Torsten Adair (Email removed) Omaha, NE, USA
"Might I suggest breakfast at the Marriott (next door to the convention
center) they have a fabulous buffet...this way everyone could park
conveniently at the center and walk next door! I've eaten there many
times...highly recommend it."
I have no problem with this. Since people will be arriving at different
times on the Fourth, I would like to suggest that we meet at Eight O'Clock on
the morning of the Fifth at the Marriott for breakfast. The early time will
allow us to eat and chat in leisure, and then we can all get to the Con at
opening time to snatch up all the good comics in the dealers room.
So, everyone, Iet's meet in the lobby of the Marriott. I'll be the guy with
the beard, long hair, glasses, and wearing a Donald Duck tie.
Hope to see you there!
(Feel free to bring anyone along. Just remember, seperate checks.)
Torsten Adair (Email removed) Omaha, NE, USA
Donald D. Markstein
Junkville Journal
Message 162 -
1996-06-28 at 15:56:03
Well, I've done it again -- let the Digests accumulate for weeks before
responding. And now, some of the things I was going to say are obsolete. But
let's get into it...
HARRY FLUKS --
As it happens, I have a copy of that WDC&S FIRST APPEARANCES album, too.
I never saw it advertised or on sale anywhere -- I just happened to see it in a
therapist's waiting room a couple of years ago while my daughter Karen was in
for treatment, and made a trade deal for it, for a couple of other kids' books I
had lying around.
I think the selection could have been better. Scrooge's first appearance
in WDC&S isn't such a landmark, since he was already established by then, but
Gyro's first appearance, which is not reprinted there, actually WAS in that
title. If a Scrooge story HAD to be gotten in, The Beagle Boys made their first
appearance there.
Good thought on Gladstone's running "The Year That Was" rather than
letter columns, that the former would function better than the latter as place
holders for ads that they hope might come in at the last minute. Better that,
than what Hamilton Comics (same company, different imprint -- they use
"Hamilton" for their non-Disney material) did with MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS
#1 in December, 1994. When a last-minute ad came in, they gave it the inside
front cover, where they'd originally planned to put the story credits -- and
there went my by-line!
(And that is NOT the worst thing an ad salesman ever did to me.)
RICH MORRISSEY --
"So where does that leave Tom and Jerry, characters created
by Hanna-Barbera *for* MGM?"
With the heirs or assigns of MGM, which copyrighted it, one would think
-- at first glance, anyway. However, I believe H-B bought the characters during
the 1970s. (But then, where would that leave Harvey's T&J comics of a couple of
years ago? Oh, this is all so complicated! Why won't my brain stop spinning?)
Thanx for the Ozzy Digest address, by the way.
DWIGHT DECKER --
I watched the first couple of weeks of SAILOR MOON, and concluded that
it's drivel. Possibly the non-U.S. version is better, but to my way of thinking,
Dave Barry hit the nail on the head -- they get their power from fashion
accessories? And THIS is supposed to appeal to American females of the '90s?
MIKE RHODE --
No need to apologize to Dwight for not liking Bucky Bug. **I** am the
number-one Bucky Booster on this list.
Since you characterize yourself as a collector-type, why not do what I,
another collector-type, do? I wait until the Don Rosa serials are complete, and
read the episodes all together. I don't particularly care for having them split
up, myself -- but if the guys at Gladstone are convinced, as they seem to be,
that it will help them sell the book, then I can put up with it. Their
circulation is so low -- "marginal" is not too strong a word -- that I'm in
favor of anything they can do that might boost it, even a little, even if it's
somewhat inconvenient for me.
GARY PANTZER --
"Back in Digest#124, Matt Sommer mention an interview of Don in
a comics journal. Can someone tell me what the title is?"
The title of the comics journal is THE COMICS JOURNAL.
ARTHUR DE WOLF --
"are you Americans familiar with the Hiawatha stories?"
Only VERY OLD Americans are familiar with the Little Hiawatha stories --
they were dropped from WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES in the mid-1950s. Only
even older fans are familiar with Little Minnehaha, which ran only briefly in
the '40s. I (*sigh*) am quite familiar with both. (Oberon seems to exist in some
sort of a time warp -- they run new stories about characters that disappeared in
the U.S. long before most readers -- or their parents, for that matter -- were
born.)
"Do they also make such difficulties with indians in other comics,
or is it just Disney again?"
Mostly just Disney. Since about the 1960s, there's been a general taboo
in the U.S. about racial and ethnic stereotypes. The Disney folks play it even
safer than most -- they seem to figure if they eliminate all caricatures of
anybody but whitebread Americans, they won't offend anybody. (Except a few nuts
like you and me, but who cares about that, eh?)
DON ROSA --
My sympathy on cutting grass. I'm always sure to say something sarcastic
to my wife about her habit of watering the stuff, or doing anything else to
encourage it to grow to the point where it needs cutting. When anybody complains
that my lawn looks like Don King's head, I use a line from HONEY I SHRUNK THE
KIDS -- "Rain forests are disappearing all over the world. We all have to do our
part."
Quack,
Don Markstein
responding. And now, some of the things I was going to say are obsolete. But
let's get into it...
HARRY FLUKS --
As it happens, I have a copy of that WDC&S FIRST APPEARANCES album, too.
I never saw it advertised or on sale anywhere -- I just happened to see it in a
therapist's waiting room a couple of years ago while my daughter Karen was in
for treatment, and made a trade deal for it, for a couple of other kids' books I
had lying around.
I think the selection could have been better. Scrooge's first appearance
in WDC&S isn't such a landmark, since he was already established by then, but
Gyro's first appearance, which is not reprinted there, actually WAS in that
title. If a Scrooge story HAD to be gotten in, The Beagle Boys made their first
appearance there.
Good thought on Gladstone's running "The Year That Was" rather than
letter columns, that the former would function better than the latter as place
holders for ads that they hope might come in at the last minute. Better that,
than what Hamilton Comics (same company, different imprint -- they use
"Hamilton" for their non-Disney material) did with MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS
#1 in December, 1994. When a last-minute ad came in, they gave it the inside
front cover, where they'd originally planned to put the story credits -- and
there went my by-line!
(And that is NOT the worst thing an ad salesman ever did to me.)
RICH MORRISSEY --
"So where does that leave Tom and Jerry, characters created
by Hanna-Barbera *for* MGM?"
With the heirs or assigns of MGM, which copyrighted it, one would think
-- at first glance, anyway. However, I believe H-B bought the characters during
the 1970s. (But then, where would that leave Harvey's T&J comics of a couple of
years ago? Oh, this is all so complicated! Why won't my brain stop spinning?)
Thanx for the Ozzy Digest address, by the way.
DWIGHT DECKER --
I watched the first couple of weeks of SAILOR MOON, and concluded that
it's drivel. Possibly the non-U.S. version is better, but to my way of thinking,
Dave Barry hit the nail on the head -- they get their power from fashion
accessories? And THIS is supposed to appeal to American females of the '90s?
MIKE RHODE --
No need to apologize to Dwight for not liking Bucky Bug. **I** am the
number-one Bucky Booster on this list.
Since you characterize yourself as a collector-type, why not do what I,
another collector-type, do? I wait until the Don Rosa serials are complete, and
read the episodes all together. I don't particularly care for having them split
up, myself -- but if the guys at Gladstone are convinced, as they seem to be,
that it will help them sell the book, then I can put up with it. Their
circulation is so low -- "marginal" is not too strong a word -- that I'm in
favor of anything they can do that might boost it, even a little, even if it's
somewhat inconvenient for me.
GARY PANTZER --
"Back in Digest#124, Matt Sommer mention an interview of Don in
a comics journal. Can someone tell me what the title is?"
The title of the comics journal is THE COMICS JOURNAL.
ARTHUR DE WOLF --
"are you Americans familiar with the Hiawatha stories?"
Only VERY OLD Americans are familiar with the Little Hiawatha stories --
they were dropped from WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES in the mid-1950s. Only
even older fans are familiar with Little Minnehaha, which ran only briefly in
the '40s. I (*sigh*) am quite familiar with both. (Oberon seems to exist in some
sort of a time warp -- they run new stories about characters that disappeared in
the U.S. long before most readers -- or their parents, for that matter -- were
born.)
"Do they also make such difficulties with indians in other comics,
or is it just Disney again?"
Mostly just Disney. Since about the 1960s, there's been a general taboo
in the U.S. about racial and ethnic stereotypes. The Disney folks play it even
safer than most -- they seem to figure if they eliminate all caricatures of
anybody but whitebread Americans, they won't offend anybody. (Except a few nuts
like you and me, but who cares about that, eh?)
DON ROSA --
My sympathy on cutting grass. I'm always sure to say something sarcastic
to my wife about her habit of watering the stuff, or doing anything else to
encourage it to grow to the point where it needs cutting. When anybody complains
that my lawn looks like Don King's head, I use a line from HONEY I SHRUNK THE
KIDS -- "Rain forests are disappearing all over the world. We all have to do our
part."
Quack,
Don Markstein
BBranvold
RE:SAN DIEGO
Message 163 -
1996-06-28 at 17:59:49
I GUESS THE BREAKFAST PLANNED SOME MORNING IS THE BEST TIME TO GET TOGETHER
AS A GROUP. IT SEEMS EVENING ACTIVITIES ARE GOING ON, THAT SEEM TO BE
PULLING MEMBERS 2 DIRECTIONS. DON ROSA SAID
HE IS AVAILABLE FOR BREAKFAST BUT HIS EVENING PLANS ARE SOMEWHAT BOOKED. IF
SOMEONE SETS A DAY AND PLACE, I'LL BE THERE.
I CAN NOT CORRESPOND WITH DON NOW AS HE HAS RETURNED TO EUROPE. SEE YOU IN
SAN DIEGO!
"I DON'T KNOW ABOUT STATUS, BUT I OWN THE HOTEL"--STATUS SEEKER
AS A GROUP. IT SEEMS EVENING ACTIVITIES ARE GOING ON, THAT SEEM TO BE
PULLING MEMBERS 2 DIRECTIONS. DON ROSA SAID
HE IS AVAILABLE FOR BREAKFAST BUT HIS EVENING PLANS ARE SOMEWHAT BOOKED. IF
SOMEONE SETS A DAY AND PLACE, I'LL BE THERE.
I CAN NOT CORRESPOND WITH DON NOW AS HE HAS RETURNED TO EUROPE. SEE YOU IN
SAN DIEGO!
"I DON'T KNOW ABOUT STATUS, BUT I OWN THE HOTEL"--STATUS SEEKER
Deckerd
Junkville Journal
Message 164 -
1996-06-28 at 19:55:33
On Jun 28, 8:56am, Donald D. Markstein wrote:
> DWIGHT DECKER --
> I watched the first couple of weeks of SAILOR MOON, and
> concluded that it's drivel. Possibly the non-U.S. version
> is better, but to my way of thinking, Dave Barry hit the
> nail on the head -- they get their power from fashion
> accessories? And THIS is supposed to appeal to American
> females of the '90s?
The original Japanese version of Sailor Moon probably isn't
_so_ much better than the edited/rewritten American version
that you would like it if you saw it. I think what appeals
to me about the show is that deep down I like the basic concept
of superheroes, American superhero comics have mutated in weird
and nasty directions since the old days of the Mort Weisinger
Superman comics I grew up on, and to me Sailor Moon is a refreshing
new take on superheroes that hints at the direction American
superhero comics should have taken and didn't. Likeable characters,
worthwhile causes, heroes worth rooting for. Not to mention pretty
girls as the lead characters instead of steroid studs.
Then again, this is a Japanese production, and the Japanese
animation industry has developed its own traditions and cliches
over the years that can be pretty startling to an American
audience coming in cold on them. I've been immersing myself
in Japanimation almost exclusively for three or four years now,
so I'm kinda used to some of the odd bits, and I accept a lot
of things that would have you pronouncing the dread judgment
of "drivel." (Actually, I tend to think the odd bits are what
give the show much of its charm.) But, yeah, this is a very
commercial enterprise, and the wands and lockets you see on
the show that give the girls their powers are on store shelves
almost immediately. For all that, there is an individual creator
(an astonishingly young Japanese woman named Naoko Takeuchi)
with her own singular vision. The show and the manga have made
her very rich, but I think she believes in the characters as
much as any American comics creator believes in his, and the
stories she writes express her own view and outlook.
Besides, you've known me for an awfully long time now. Surely
you've noticed that the way to get me interested in a comic
is to print it in a language I can't read?
Boy, is this off-topic... Back to Disney comics next time!
--Dwight Decker
> DWIGHT DECKER --
> I watched the first couple of weeks of SAILOR MOON, and
> concluded that it's drivel. Possibly the non-U.S. version
> is better, but to my way of thinking, Dave Barry hit the
> nail on the head -- they get their power from fashion
> accessories? And THIS is supposed to appeal to American
> females of the '90s?
The original Japanese version of Sailor Moon probably isn't
_so_ much better than the edited/rewritten American version
that you would like it if you saw it. I think what appeals
to me about the show is that deep down I like the basic concept
of superheroes, American superhero comics have mutated in weird
and nasty directions since the old days of the Mort Weisinger
Superman comics I grew up on, and to me Sailor Moon is a refreshing
new take on superheroes that hints at the direction American
superhero comics should have taken and didn't. Likeable characters,
worthwhile causes, heroes worth rooting for. Not to mention pretty
girls as the lead characters instead of steroid studs.
Then again, this is a Japanese production, and the Japanese
animation industry has developed its own traditions and cliches
over the years that can be pretty startling to an American
audience coming in cold on them. I've been immersing myself
in Japanimation almost exclusively for three or four years now,
so I'm kinda used to some of the odd bits, and I accept a lot
of things that would have you pronouncing the dread judgment
of "drivel." (Actually, I tend to think the odd bits are what
give the show much of its charm.) But, yeah, this is a very
commercial enterprise, and the wands and lockets you see on
the show that give the girls their powers are on store shelves
almost immediately. For all that, there is an individual creator
(an astonishingly young Japanese woman named Naoko Takeuchi)
with her own singular vision. The show and the manga have made
her very rich, but I think she believes in the characters as
much as any American comics creator believes in his, and the
stories she writes express her own view and outlook.
Besides, you've known me for an awfully long time now. Surely
you've noticed that the way to get me interested in a comic
is to print it in a language I can't read?
Boy, is this off-topic... Back to Disney comics next time!
--Dwight Decker
Deckerd
Breakfast in San Diego
Message 165 -
1996-06-28 at 20:43:58
On Jun 28, 12:22am, (Email removed) wrote:
> Subject: Breakfast in San Diego
> (Email removed) (Michael Naiman) suggested the following:
>
> Since people will be arriving at different
> times on the Fourth, I would like to suggest that we meet at Eight
O'Clock on
> the morning of the Fifth at the Marriott for breakfast.
Oh golly, that's painfully early, but I'll try to make it.
I'm the guy that looks like the spawn of an unholy union
between Garrison Keillor and Newt Gingrich.
> So, everyone, let's meet in the lobby of the Marriott.
> I'll be the guy with the beard, long hair, glasses,
But that describes 15,000 other comics fans at a con!
> and wearing a Donald Duck tie.
Oh, okay. That should serve to identify you well enough.
I just saw your picture in CBG, too. (By the way, that
ad of yours was either a hopeless waste of money and a
pathetic venture in futility because nobody _ever_ gets a
job in comics that way or a creative bit of enterprise
and initiative on your part I should have thought of
trying years ago. I've gotten two major freelance jobs by
_responding_ to things I saw in CBG, but I've never
advertised looking for work myself.)
>
--Dwight Decker
> Subject: Breakfast in San Diego
> (Email removed) (Michael Naiman) suggested the following:
>
> Since people will be arriving at different
> times on the Fourth, I would like to suggest that we meet at Eight
O'Clock on
> the morning of the Fifth at the Marriott for breakfast.
Oh golly, that's painfully early, but I'll try to make it.
I'm the guy that looks like the spawn of an unholy union
between Garrison Keillor and Newt Gingrich.
> So, everyone, let's meet in the lobby of the Marriott.
> I'll be the guy with the beard, long hair, glasses,
But that describes 15,000 other comics fans at a con!
> and wearing a Donald Duck tie.
Oh, okay. That should serve to identify you well enough.
I just saw your picture in CBG, too. (By the way, that
ad of yours was either a hopeless waste of money and a
pathetic venture in futility because nobody _ever_ gets a
job in comics that way or a creative bit of enterprise
and initiative on your part I should have thought of
trying years ago. I've gotten two major freelance jobs by
_responding_ to things I saw in CBG, but I've never
advertised looking for work myself.)
>
--Dwight Decker