Keskustelujen arkisto

On Oct 2, 9:08pm, Byron Erickson wrote:
> Subject: Ludwig Von Drake

> The *psychic* aftershock of Fethry's implosion also led to many more
> fatalities. Among them:
>
Is this list _official_ Egmont policy or just Byron's wishlist
of characters he'd _like_ to see dissipate into the mists of
oblivion?

--Dwight Decker

Jakob Söderbaum asked:

> > Just for the record: Barks only wrote (and penciled) the first 3 pages of this
> > story.
>
> Are those printed in the CBL?

Yes. Barks' pencils and Rosa's finished version. However because the
finished version isn't actually Barks stuff, they saved space by
squeezing it to half size - four pages per page.

--
Ville Saari EMail: (Email removed)
Tallbergin puistotie 7 B 21 Phone: +358 0 682 2226
00200 Helsinki
FINLAND /dev/null: write failed, file system is full

The Disney Comics Database has no indexes for the following countries:
Norway, France, Italy, Brazil, and Greece, and the indexes for Finland and
Germany are filled with gaps. Will that be fixed next time? (Hello, Geir,
Nils, Didier, Marco, Alipio, Kriton, Henri, Mike, Joachim, Danny?) Also, how
about the Russian MM 3 (alias MM 1), the Spanish Ole! Disney, and Arthur's
Spanish collection?

--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V96 Issue #215
******************************************

I have mentioned a few days ago as a possibility that an italian Disney
story may have a code I-n where n is <not> the number of the first issue of
Topolino wher it appeared. Of course, when this happens it is due to a mistake.
I found an example yesterday: "Paperino e la botte di Diogene" (script by
Martina, art by Massimo De Vita) first appeared on issue # 862 of Topolino;
however a reprint on GCD 77 has the code I-1862.
It is worth observing that on first appearence the story wasn't coded (they
didn't code stories in those days); the same is true for a first reprint on
CWD 70 ("Paperclan").
Two questions:
(1) does anyone know of other reprints of the story (also abroad, why not)
with correct/incorrect code?
(2) does anyone know of similar mistakes?

Marco

Omigod. Another endless message from me. Heaven help us.

I've been back since Sunday night, but as usually happens when I wander away
from the computer for any length of time, I accumulate a backlog of e-mail
from hither and yon, and I give first priority to answering messages from
individuals -- now I'm finally getting back to the Digests. And I even had
to go back and reread them to make sure I didn't miss anything that I was
being quized about. But I'll start by answering a question I was asked by
someone (?) even before I left, but which I declined answering until my
leader (Byron) returned from the French Riviera (!) so I could make sure I
should discuss my current projects in public.

Right now I am working on the special 50th anniversary story for Uncle
$crooge. In fact, just last night I sent Byron the 28-page script for the
story and now I am waiting to see if he likes all of it, part of it or none
of it. This is a difficult job for many reasons -- the first reason is that,
as in a few other instances, I am starting NOT with a plot idea, but with a
subject to find a plot to fit around. I know that this story must have some
special quality... there must be something about it that will make it
different from a normal U$ story... but what? As Byron told me, it needs to
be a story that can be enjoyed by some reader 7 1/2 years after U$'s 50th
anniversary... in other words, it can't be too self-concious; it must be
entertaining aside from the anniversary idea.
My immediate idea was to have $crooge's sisters return from ? -- that would
be something special to do. But Byron pointed out that that idea would
involve too much explaining of where they had been, and also would
necessitate that the story would then have to swing over and concentrate on
Donald and HD&L since this would be his MOTHER returning from limbo, and the
matter of his sister / HD&L's mother would become the matter-at-hand. So
$crooge's sisters stay lost.
Well, this is why I've been asking for Duckburg landmarks. And it's why I've
been asking about Ludwig Von Drake. I obviously will try to include every
Duckburg character in the story somewhere (but as Byron warned me, each
character MUST have something important to do in the story so they won't
just be doing a corny walk-by-the-camera saying "looka me, I'm in this
special story, see ya'!" And I now see that I can save some ink on Ludwig.
Of course, I like Ludwig... or I at least don't see why he's objectionable.
People say he serves no purpose. Neither does Louie, but I wouldn't suggest
killing him off. Anyway, Byron, please don't look closely at the distant
crowd scenes in this story if you don't want to see Ludwig.
My next idea was that this would be my chance to do a special Xmas story!
But I find out that, for marketing reasons, $crooge's anniversary will be
celebrated in the summer rather than late in the year as it should. So the
Christmas angle was out. (grumble.)
But as for the Duckburg landmarks -- one of my other immediate ideas is what
the story would center around. It can't be $crooge's 50th birthday! And
there's also no reason that it should be his birthday at all since
"Christmas on Bear Mountain" didn't involve his birthday. The obvious idea
to me was that the story would involve the 50th anniversary of $crooge
moving to Duckburg. And as usual, that means I see the story taking place in
the 50s... 1952, I guess.
As for the landmarks people suggested, as my ideas proceed, I don't see that
I can include many of them in the story. Most of the suggestions would be
pretty nondescript places that the Ducks would need to be standing right
next to to be recognizeable, and even then probably only by a very few
Duckfans. I will probably only end up using landmarks that would be visible
on the skyline, such as the Cornelius Coot statue and Mount Demontooth and
like that. But that comes in the drawing stage, and I'm still just in the
writing stage.
As always, I have lots of ideas, none of which I want to abandon, and I
originally laid out a story of about 40 pages. Then I kept wrestling it
down, combining panels and action, until I crammed it into 28 pages. This is
why my stories are always too fast-paced! When Byron gives me 10 pages, I
write a 13 page story. When he gives me 24 pages, I write a 28 page story.
When he gives me the 28 pages, I write a 40 page story. My ideas for these
Ducks are always far too extravagant than my space allows. I'm not lobbying
for more pages -- I just wish I could contain my enthusiasm!
My idea for a plot with some special element is nothing too brilliant, but
it's never been done before, at least in American Duck comics. The trick, as
always, will be to see if I can make it entertaining, regardless of any
"special element". That's what Byron is deciding right now.
What would YOU do for a 50th anniversary of Uncle $crooge story? When Byron
nixes my whole script, I'll be looking for a new direction!

Next -- here's something no one asked me about... but two nights ago I was
watching one of those old hour-long "Twilight Zone" episodes from around
1960... these are the ones that aren't on TV very often. In fact, I think
they were gone entirely until the SF Channel started showing them last year.
This episode was the one about the guy who slowly realizes his memories are
implants and that he's actually a robot -- same ol' stuff. But in one scene
he's knocking on his girlfriend's door and, as a joke, tells her that he's
"selling magazine subscriptions to raise money for the Junior Woodchucks"!
I'd seen this episode when it was first on, but I'd forgotten this line! How
interesting it is that a Barks creation slipped into a network TV show, and
a mere 8 years or so after he created the name. Cute, eh?

HARRY:
When did I do those Dutch stories where I only did the art? That was in 1988
when I was in between stories for Gladstone who couldn't afford to keep me
busy full time. I found out (somehow?) that I could do work for Oberon, but
I didn't want to WRITE anything since I figured that if I wrote a good story
I'd want to save it for Gladstone, and since I only planned on trying to
write "good" stories I'd never end up doing any work for Oberon unless I
accepted their scripts. This might explain why I did art only for Oberon
even though they liked my scripts but disliked my art -- I only wanted to do
art. The other three stories ("Piper", "Siver Platter", "Treasure/Glass")
came a year or two later, and they were stories I had written for Gladstone
which I submitted to Holland when Disney forced me to quit Gladstone.
What pages did they have me redraw? I recall that they sent me a complete
redraw overlay on the first page of "Silver Platter" and on two $crooge
heads later in the story. To answer Jakob's question of what happened to my
original pencil versions, well, I just erased them and redrew it all. They
had sent me corrections on the earlier stories where I just did the art, but
I don't recall the extent of that. And again, I just erased my versions of
the panels, so it doesn't matter.
As for Egmont, Byron always has some panels for me to redraw after I send
him copies of the pencils, and I always redraw something in virtually every
panel by my own decision when I'm inking, and on completion I go back and
white out lots more and redraw it, and 6 months later when I look back at a
story I think the whole thing should be redrawn by Rota or Ferioli or somebody!

JONATHAN:
"A Calisota Yankee in King Arthur's Court" and "The Once and Future Duck"
are my two alternate titles for one story -- I usually have two or three
titles for each story since I enjoy making up neat titles and I usually
can't decide on one. "Stranded in Time" was Byron's title for that same
story since my titles only made sense to people familiar with (English)
titles of Mark Twain's or T.H.White's books.

BYRON:
I laughed out loud at your list of imploded Disney comics characters!
(Folks, Byron is funny on the phone, but his List messages are funnier! He
cracks me up!) But........ if Fethry has ceased to exist, WHY did you people
force me to include him on the Duck Family Tree!?!?!?!? That Tree is being
reprinted all over the world, posters are being made of it, it will be used
for who knows how long... and you had me put a non-existant character in it!
Whassadeal?

JAKOB:
I checked, and you're right. When other Egmont countries like Norway and
Denmark started including full writer/artist credits on their Disney comics
in 1991, Sweden did not do so. However, they did something much odder I see
-- on my stories (only mine, they did this for no one else) they hand-wrote
my name below the story title, inside the art borders. This made it look
like I had actually SIGNED the story! If giving credits is against Disney
policy (who I suspect put the stop to Egmont's proper actions in the
matter), it is VERY much against Disney policy for an artist to be allowed
to sign his work, which is what Sweden had it looking like I was doing! But,
as you know, I am not in contact with any of these editors, so I don't have
the slightest idea what was going on behind-the-scenes during any of this.

MIKE:
As I recall, when the editors at Disney Comics started trying to get the
opinions of Disney corporate bosses for permission to use my Peeweegah
sequel, the first boss objected to the idea that all the Indians looked
alike, so they said I might need to touch up the art to have some of the
Peeweegahs dress differently or have different hair or something. But before
I could even decide if I wanted to consider doing that or not, the worried
Disney Comics editor kept showing the story to MORE bosses, which was the
death knell for a creative work in a large corporation, and finally he found
the one boss who banned the story altogether, and probably bragged to HIS
boss about what a wonderful thing he'd done. Now, that anonymous ban will
probably stay in place forever since no one will want to take the
responsibility and risk a mistake that would go on his work sheet when it's
easier to just leave the ban in place. That's how corporations work where
hundreds of mid-level executives are placed in fierce competition which each
other, as the WALL STREET JOURNAL claims Disney has set up its corporate
system.

And finally, hello to Barry and Michael and Eric (Chun, not Chung) and
Steven and ...uh... all the other Mailing List members who were nice enough
to visit me at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. It looks like I'll
be back there (in Oakland) at a big convention on November 8-10, so perhaps
I'll see you again? By the way, I'm always too frazzled at such functions to
remember everything -- who all from the List was at that Museum?

Jonathan:
> The Disney Comics Database has no indexes for the following countries:
> Norway, France, Italy, Brazil, and Greece, and the indexes for Finland and
> Germany are filled with gaps. Will that be fixed next time?

Hey! Easy! I'm sure you know indexing takes a lot of time. Currently, people are
working on:
- Norwegian Don Rosa index
- Italian issue (reprint) index
- French index
- German index (BTW, I don't think "filled with gaps" is a good description.
The German index is quite voluminous already)

And all other things get updates from time to time.

> Also, how about the Russian MM 3 (alias MM 1), the Spanish Ole! Disney,
> and Arthur's Spanish collection?

The Russian contents were posted to the list, and Arthur first has to finish
his contributions to the USA and Dutch indexes... 8-)

--Harry.

To supplement Barry Branvold's description of "Don Rosa goes to San
Francisco". It's been a few years since I last visited the City by the Bay.
I must say that in that time the downtown area seems to have attracted a
considerable amount of "dwelling-challenged" (re:homeless) denizens.
Everywhere you stepped there was someone with their hand out . I don't know
if its the liberal magnetism of the city or the nice weather that attracts
everyone , but, it sure made SF look like every other Big City in the US.
How sad.
Scott McAdam deserves a major "atta-boy" for his skillful driving
around the city. Since the earthquake, the freeways are in a constant state
of being rebuilt, and the traffic is murder. Everytime we stopped I felt
like the clowns getting in and out of a very small Volkswagen at a
circus...it must have looked amusing, all these (dare I say) middle-age
comic-nuts jumping in and out of a truck!!
I really enjoyed seeing the wonder in the eyes of the kids as Don drew a
quick Scrooge or Donald sketch for them. Most of the kids had those huge
saucer-eyes as U$ came to life on a piece of paper right before them. I
must say that they Gladstone LO$ albums were really "flying" off the racks
as people were lining up for autographs. And that's no easy at $10.95 per!
Many people had complete sets they wanted autographed. It would have warmed
the heart of Bruce Hamilton.
I didn't make it to the signing at Flying Colors Comics in Concord
because I went to Scott McAdam's store in Hayward to see his Disneyana
collection! Whew! board games, figurines,comic books, Little Golden Books
(even the Dumbo WITH dustjacket), Politoys from the continent, everything
for the Disneyana collector...thankfully no modern stuff! If you ever get a
chance and you are in the East Bay area...drop in and see him!
The exhibition was fabulous. The black and white drawings enabled
one to really see the "needless and irritating" detail that is Don's
trademark! Without the color, you could really see things that were
ordinarily missed. Hey Bruce, what an excuse for ANOTHER reprint..."Don
Rosa's LO$ in B&W" It worked once before!!
It was a kick to see the covers complete with the hidden "D.U.C.K."
message. For those people present that were unfamiliar with this, it was
fun to watch them try and find the hidden lettering. I noticed for the
first time the deleted "Mickey shadow " from the cover of chapter #6
(#290)...this never showed up in the US version.
A great big thanks to Barry Branvold. Because of his particular
(re:peculiar) brand of wit and humor, I believe that my wife has decided to
no longer accompany me on my comic trips! She's been to the big San Diego
convention a couple of times and WonderCon in Oakland...she's had about
enough of my comic buddies! Of course, she was the only female in our
wandering comic group and that can get a bit too much. She's had enough of
what I call "Geeking" to last her awhile.
Altogether, it was a jam-packed 48 hours of Ducking-around. Thanks
once again to those sponsors that made everything possible: Eric Chun,
Stephen Ng, Bill Howard, Scott McAdam ,Joe Field and of course the Cartoon
Art Museum and Egmont Publishing. If you are in San Francisco between now
and January stop by the Museum at 814 Mission Street. They are open Wed-Fri
11:00 AM-5:00 PM; Saturday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM; Sunday from 1:00-5:00 PM.
They are located about 50 feet from the corner of Mission and 4th

Jonathan wrote:

>Also, how about [...] the Spanish Ole! Disney

I personally have only three issues of Olé! Disney (and I don't even know
for sure if that is the official title). Even though there has been less
than 15 issues total, it feels a little far from satisfactory to have an
index of only three issues. Does anyone else have scattered issues?
Perhaps we could combine efforts?

/F