Keskustelujen arkisto

In a message dated 97-01-15 19:54:18 EST, you write:

<< An afterthought: Don, have you ever considered doing post-1950s stories
with slightly disguised versions of the Ducks, like Freddy Milton did
with his Big Sneeze story, for example, or like Steve Gerber will
hopefully do with Leonard the Duck. This way you could even do longer
stories, and you wouldn't have to worry about personal hygiene. :-) >>

Isn't that what he did in the Pertwillerby Papers? And hey, perhaphs it's
time for a new generation of fans to read that material? And if popular,
then follow it up with Captain Kentucky.
Steven Rowe

Hm... I think I'm about due to send in one of my appallingly LONG messages...

MARCO:
I wasn't going to mention my talk with Lidia Cannatella (editor of Italy's
ZIO PAPERONE), but since you've brought it up on the Mailing List, I will.
Yes, I recently managed to find a new FAX number for Lidia -- the old one I
had seemed to stop working -- and I recently sent her a FAX after several
months just to see how she was feeling and send season's greetings (she had
been VERY ill a year or so ago). And almost immediately she called me and
talked for about an hour! As you say, she is VERY nice and pleasant. And one
of the very first things she started talking about to me is how she's been
getting these letters from a reader who has been objecting in harsh terms to
her translations of the stories... and I could tell it disturbed her. So, I
asked if the guy's name happened to be Marco Barlotti, and she was stunned
that I knew! And I mentioned that you were one of the members of this
Mailing List group and that I "talk" to you here on the Internet.
You made your speculation as to why she called you. You admit that she is
very nice and a charming person to talk to, and there couldn't be any way
you could miss that point. But why would you want to suggest that she is
scared of you like she was one of your students? If she joined this ML as
you invited her to do, and the first message she saw on the first Digest she
received was Marco Barlotti telling the planet that she was scared of you,
how would she feel? She is no more scared of you than she is an "Evil
Translator". If you want to know why she called you, I think I can guess...
When I spoke with her, I could tell that your letters and complaints just
plain hurt her feelings. You hafta realize that editors and translators "are
people, too" (even Byron!), and some of them are very devoted to their jobs
and try VERY hard to do good work. Maybe they do and maybe they don't, but
they TRY. And when you are over-harsh with your criticism, it hurts them,
not professionally (since you're no threat to them), but *personally*.
I think your letters hurt Lidia, and when I mentioned that you were part of
this group, she started thinking you might be lambasting her across the
Internet, and she wanted to make friends with you and see what made you
"tick". I'm sure she doesn't need to worry about what you say about her on
the Internet, except it was hurting her feelings all over again wondering
what you were telling people who might not even have a chance to get ZP and
judge her work for themselves.
So, take Lidia at her word. She's not afraid of you! She's a very nice,
sensitive person and she wants to be friends with us. I'm sure she'll see
what she can do about getting Disney to allow credits in the comics, but I
guaran-dang-tee you Disney will NOT allow it... so when it doesn't happen,
DON'T start blaming Lidia as the "Evil-Credit-Deletor". She is doing the
best job she can, and trying to do that in the Disney system is hard enough
without over-zealous Duckfans jumping on you.
And I'm not trying to ream YOU out, either. You and Lidia are BOTH nice
folks. Just give her a break!

ARTHUR:
What sort of "magazine about Disney comics" did you get that info out of?
There are no plans for a hardback "Lo$" book in Italy or France that I know
of. It's been mentioned perhaps, but I know of no definite plans. Was this
some sort of "fanzine" of rumors you read? And didn't it...er... mention my
$crooge 50th Anniversary story? (sniff... pout)

JUERGEN:
Nobody would like to see that old Duck story of mine more than me (if only
to glom it and bury it where it can't ever be found). Why didn't I keep
copies? This was about 1970 before the time when there were copy shops on
every corner. Making copies was not even something I might have realized I
could do in those days. I don't even know if there was ANY public place you
could go and have copies made. And even if you could, it would have been
those heat-copies made on slimy paper that turns brown in a few years.
Anyway, there are NO copies.
The last person who had it was a guy named Dick Reiche or Reich who was a
Duckfan and comic collector-dealer in the early 70s. I've tried a bit to
find him without luck. I've never tried the Internet and its various options
now available to hunt people down, but maybe that's an idea. (I just wish I
knew if I had the spelling of his last name right.) He once told me about
1971 that the story was in the hands of the editor of NATIONAL LAMPOON who
was thinking about using it, but obviously thought better of it.
The story was titled "Return to Duckburg Place", after "Return to Peyton
Place", the movie about a return to a small town which was racked with
soap-opera plots. I remember only vague bits. I know $crooge was dead and
Daisy had sold the rights to her Diary and moved to the Riviera (an idea I
actually used in "The Duck Who Never Was"). I think Gyro had suffered some
sort of brain damage (again an idea I used in "TDWNW"). I think I also
mentioned that Black Pete had murdered Mickey Mouse and Goofy had become
destitute without his friend to guide him... I probably had him an old wino
or something. I had HD&L in college and there's no doubt that I had some
background reference to them using drugs, but I wouldn't have built the
story around that sort of notion... just a naughty lil' reference to it
(because I've always been very anti-drugs). There would have been no sexual
type "underground" stuff in the story (since I've also always been too
prudish to want to do that sort of stuff). It was just sort of a mild
"naughty" bit of stuff. I forget what Donald was doing, but I think the
story was about him still being fairly normal, watching Duckburg collapse
around him. And I think the end of the story dealt with somebody (and it
might have been "destroy the capitalists" HD&L hippies) planting a bomb in
the Money Bin and destroying it and all the money permanently. Actually, I
think that's when I "kill" $crooge in the story. Gosh -- I wish I could recall!
Y'know, I *think* it was cowritten by a high school friend who I used to
work with on comic strips when we were in study hall. I need to ask him what
he recalls and if (what a thought) HE has copies of it. (But I'm 99.9% sure
he couldn't, if I don't). I'll let you know...

DIDIER:
Gladstone could have provided PICSOU with my cover art WITHOUT the logos and
stuff, if they knew that was what was wanted. But Pascal did such a perfect
job cleaning them up that that's not important.

QUESTION FOR ALL:
I'm being asked where in the Barks Library appears a copy of his old Family
Tree that he designed back in the 50s. I know it's in there somewhere, but
there's no easy way to hunt it down.

Also -- for the story I'm working on now: does anyone know what the HIGHEST
ranking Junior Woodchuck official was who was ever mentioned in a Barks
story? Rather than me spending hours trying to find that, maybe one of you
geniuses remembers off the top of their Exalted High-Tail Coonskin Cap.

Don asked:
> I'm being asked where in the Barks Library appears a copy of his old Family
> Tree that he designed back in the 50s. I know it's in there somewhere, but
> there's no easy way to hunt it down.

The easiest way I know is to look it up in the Disney comics pages on
the WWW. :-)

Select "Characters" on the main menu, and then under the introductory
matter for the duck characters you'll find a link for Barks's
"Duck Family Tree", and if you follow that you'll get to know (among
other things) that it was published in CBL, Set VI, p. 476.

Howdy, folks!
Beware of old mail in this letter! Did I say *old*?? *Ancient* is the word!

Some while ago, while visiting Leksaksmuseet (the Toy-museum) in Stockholm,
I happened to run into a frame that contained early Swedish Kalle Anka & C:o
issues. They were #2/48, #3/48, #2/49, #3/49, #5/49 and #6/49, all in MINT
condition (!). "Wow!", I thought. I began reading the plaque that told some
about why they were there, and my hair rose one inch for every word I read.
It said:

Gaava till Leksaksmuseet, Mariatorget, Stockholm
-----------------------------------------------
Givaren aer Don Rosa bosatt i Louisville USA.
Don Rosa aer mycket vaelkaend i Walt Disney-kretsar
han aer en av de legendariska tecknarna som
var med och danade de vaelkaenda Disneyfigurerna.
No 177/941106

Translation:

Donated to the Toy-museum, Mariatorget, Stockholm
-------------------------------------------------
The donator is Don Rosa, resident in Louisville USA.
Don Rosa is very well-known among Walt Disney-fans
he is one of the legendary cartoonists who
helped creating the famous Disney characters.
No 177/941106

What do you make of that??! I was quite startled, both to find this, and also
to read what those stooopids had written about Don... So I told them about
the mistake, and offered to send them five lines about who Don *really* is.
But I really wonder if they ever will put this into the frame... :-/

Btw, DON: Where did you find those issues??

Enough about that;

KRITON:

> I guess that what I'm trying to say is that stories featuring Scrooge
> and his *other* nephew, Ronald, with his nephews Gooey, Phooey and Blooey
> fighting the Beagle Boys should not have anything to do with Disney.

So *that's* where Phooey ("the 4th nephew") comes from??! ;-)

HARALD:

> JAKOB
>> ), and give a book collecting all the lovely Taliaferro-strips in a deluxe hard-cover
>> series? The Al Taliaferro Library in Color, eh? *I* like the idea, but I
>> think the guys at Gladstone doesn't... (Gary?)
>
> There is a Taliaferro-Sunday-page collection in German.

There's also one in Sweden. Or *was* some years ago. There were three
albums/pockets published of the years 1938-40 (or something). Nothing too
special though, IMO. But I'd *love* to see it in English...

>> Wasn't it the other way around? I remember Donald reading "Cousin Della"
>> on the postcard from his sister in "Donald's Nephews" (1937). Of course,
>> I could be wrong, I haven't watched this cartoon for a while. However,
>> "Della" is the nickname of Dumbella Duck.
>
> Nonononono... you see "Della" was a real relative of Al Taliaferro
> (his sister methinks, maybe sister-in-law, but I would have to look
> that up), that's why he named HDL's mother Della. He always included
> his real life and relatives in the strips. When the short came out,
> years later, the animation guy "funny-ized" the original name to
> "Dumbella" just for laughs... (haha)

I don't think anyone catched the joke... :-/ However, I've always known her
as Dumbella "Della" Duck, even in Swedish, and I'll stick to that.

MARCO:

> Jakob asked for a list of stories with "Little Gum", this strange character
> created by Chierchini (but owned by Disney, right?). All I could do was look
> for stories with "Little Gum" in the title, which in fact should be
> equivalent in this case. I found:

Thanks a lot! I'll try to collect those some time...

> and then no more "Little Gum" in titles for at least five years. Maybe he
> imploded, too...

Wasn't he an inter-galactic-immigrant, or something? I guess he went back to
where he came from (eventually fled when he heard Byron's doom)...

> (I didn't give you the titles, since I suppose they would mean nothing to
> you; I didn't give the lenghts because I had no time to check them out:
> anyway, some stories are quite long, some very short).

I don't think I would've had too much trouble with the titles...

Nevermind.

KRITON:

> JAKOB:
>
>> I just *love* it!!! Why don't Gladstone use this paper-quality? If they did,
>> their comics would sell *much* better, even in the US!
>
> They do, in WDC&S, since issue 601.

No, it doesn't appear to me as being the same paper. But it *is* glossy, all
right.

> Apart from being printed in glossy
> paper, WDC&S is also square bound, with carboard covers.

Gee mahooma! (Did I tell you I'm a subscriber since a number of years? ;-) )

> It's an excellent
> collector's item, but, like their albums, it has one serious shortcoming: it
> doesn't stand open on a table. I don't know about other people, but I love to
> read my comic books while having a snack (or dinner, if I'm eating alone)!!!

Why wouldn't the WDCs stand open on a table? OK, so I never tried it, but I
can't think of any comicbook that'd stand *easier* on a table! Can you read
Zio Paperone like that? My only copy wouldn't even bear to be opened...

> Each issue of WDC&S costs $5.95, and is probably too expensive for many
> potential readers. This is why it is only sold directly through subscriptions
> (I think).

Really? Now that you mention it, *I* never saw one (since #601) in a shop...
(But maybe that's because they're too expensive for the Swedish shops to
hold?)

> If all titles were printed on glossy paper, sales would probably
> plummet.

Naw! *I* would buy loads, to give away to friends, and such. I know David
Gerstein would too... ;-) Others?

Remember when you wanted all subscribers to this list to buy three copies
each of some special Gladstone comicbook, David? ;-) I think it had something
to do with the increase (or decrease?) of the paperquality that time also.
Maybe that was about WDC #601?

[...]
> These prices probably have to do with the number of
> issues in each run, and with the number of issues printed vs. issues sold.
> An increase in the latter ratio, caused by the better paper quality, might
> justify keeping prices the same, or only increasing them marginally. This
> is a job for a market analyst, however, which I clearly am not.

Arthur? ;-)

> Speaking of paper quality, I've always had a soft spot for the paper used by
> Gladstone in the first few issues of their first run. (Four color affairs
> on thick paper.)

I like all the paper-qualities they used in their first run. Even that old-
looking kind of paper they used early. *Much* better than the toilet-paper
they use in some issues nowadays...

>> Not that I don't want to see another Barks-story, but I think they're going
>> too far with the Old Man.
>
> Old Men (and plain old people, without capital letters) need to know they
> are needed, and Unca Carl most certainly is.

"Certainly", eh?

> Imagine telling him that
> no, we don't want him to write another story, and that he's done enough
> paintings, and that he can finally enjoy his retirement. He'd just fade away.

Or imagine this: "Oh, not agin! Juscht 'cause I'm conschidered around the world
asch the bescht schtoryteller ever, they can *never* gimme rescht! And even
now, 30 yeaz' afteh my retirement, I muscht *schtill* draw thesche darned
Ducksch! I can hardly schee any of the linesch I'm drawing, but they schtill
forche me to it! Will thosche scho-called-fansch *never* schtop?!"

Well??

To quote Don Rosa (another famous artist):

"I hope I'll be interested in *breathing* when I'm his age..."

DWIGHT:

> I don't know
> if Greek comics carry advertising, but in a country where some
> large fraction of all children read a certain comic, you can
> subsidize the publication by selling advertising space to
> companies anxious to hit that market. In the US, the outside
> ads are getting kind of scant and I'm sure Gladstone can't
> charge enough for them to pay for better paper.

Why not have advertisements for other Bruce Hamilton-published stuff??
Uhm.. apart from the cells from Sword in the Stone, of course...

RICH:

> (So should Glittering Goldie, and Birgitta
> MacBridge, even though she wasn't a Barks character--after all, neither was
> Ludwig von Drake!)

I remember having read somewhere that Birgitta *was* created by Barks. As I
remember it he had drawn some sketches on the character for someone to make
a story of (could that be Scarpa??). But those sketches are lost.

Or do I confuse this with something else?

> JAKOB SOEDERBAUM:
>
> Truly a mammoth and delightful posting! It's good to know DUCK TALES has
> turned young people all over the world onto the great Barks characters,

Well, wasn't that the original intention of the series? Uhm.. *before* Bubba
and Gizmoduck, that is... ;-)

> Very possibly Disney does own paper companies and lumbermills. But I
> still don't see why that would mean such outfits couldn't be used as villains
> under certain circumstances. They've had plenty of lawyer villains in Barks
> stories (as well as movies and TV shows) and you can't tell me Disney doesn't
> employ any lawyers!

They don't need to do that. Fleecem, Squeezem, Skinem and Skip are still
doing a great job... ;-)

Hmm.. could this actually have been Barks' reaction against the way Disney
treated him (and other cartoonists)??

[Asterix]
> Ironically enough, it mentioned him as
> possibly Disney's greatest rival in Europe...ironic because the first movie
> has now been released on video in America. BY Disney.

No way! Asterix-movies by *Disney*??!

ARTHUR:

> I bought a Scrooge statue today. There's a card hanging on it,
> saying that it was handmade in the Phillipines.

Probably as true as the ones I have that says "Handmade in Taiwan"... ;-)

> The statue is about
> 30 to 40 centimeters high and it shows Scrooge walking with his cane
> in one hand and a bag full of money in the other.

Looking a bit startled to his right, right?

> Can someone tell me more about this statue? Was it worth my
> money or is it a fake?

Depends on how you define "fake"...

> Is it unique or are there thousands of these
> things available?

Things can be handmade, and still being sold in quantities... If it was the
only one of its kind, and if it looks very well-done (also with the Disney-
mark on it), it wouldn't have sold for 100 guilders...

> JAKOB SOEDERBAUM:
>> In Sweden the weekly Kalle Anka & C:o has been published since
>> 1948 (then monthly), and that's quite alot of stories just here.
> Yeah, but those Danish stories are all the same in Sweden, Denmark, Finland,
> Norway, Hungary, Russia ... EVERYWHERE! So maybe there are less stories
> then you think!

Maybe. But if you consider that the creators mentioned in the Web-pages made
10+ stories each... UGH! OK, so that wouldn't make any 250.000 comics, but
there's also undoubtedly more guys than Barks and Strobl (and Rosa, and...)
who've made uhm.. *lots* of them!

DANIEL:

> Hoi!

WELCOME BACK, OLD PAL!!! :-D

[About the CBL]
> Let's say that the CBL prints about 99 percent of Barks' original art,
> just to give an idea.

I don't have the complete collection, but I heard that it's only *90%* of
the Library that is Barks original art. There's really much redrawn (and/or
censored)...

BYRON:

Ya big palooka! WHY ON EARTH DIDN'T YOU SHOW UP AS PROMISED AT SVENSKA
MAESSAN IN THE END OF OCTOBER???!!!! I bought *expensive* tickets to go
there and see you, but there were no Byron to be seen anywhere!! I heard
from someone you had decided against coming after all! I *demand* a *good*
explanation for this!

;-)

ARTHUR:

> Hereby I start my campaign which I will call "Give Rosa More Pages" and
> I ask everyone on this mailing list to join me. We will all go outside on the
> streets to ask people for their signatures and when we have enough signatures
> we offer them to Egmont to show them how many people agree with the fact that
> Don deserves more pages! ;-)

I'm on, Wolfie!

RICH:

> But my more rational self realizes there's still a lot of potential in
> other characters on the list. Emil Eagle in particular I'd like to see Don
> Rosa take a crack at. He'd fit perfectly into the niche occupied by one of my
> favorite characters from his "Pertwillaby Papers" series of the '70's,
> Professor Viktor Smyte. So far Don has used Gyro Gearloose in his role, but
> Smyte had a particularly nasty streak that Gyro (and most other Disney
> characters in that vein, like Ludwig von Drake or Dr. Einmug) don't.

Now you're talking in riddles! I *never* noticed any similarity between Gyro
and V.D. Smyte! What exactly do you mean? The only similarity I can find
with Gyro in PP is either Lancelot himself, or Prof. Phoebus...

The above may seem a bit old. In a matter of fact - it is! And I re-read it
to see if I needed to delete anything because of this - so I did. Now I have
40-50 digests left to read/answer. I don't have time to do this, and you
would never appreciate reading that much bullshit at one time, so I'll just
delete (ooooh! :-0) all the digests, except for the last 5 or something, to
see what the topics are... *nowadays*... ;-)

Sorry to have pestered you with those ancient answers. I felt that since I
had made them up (though 'long ago'), I could send them anyway. There might
still be *some* interest in them.

See ya again *soon*!
---

Greetings from M o s s m a n

ALL:

Today I got the Carl Library in Color album nr. 1 with Christmas stories,
I was lucky that a shop in Amsterdam had it still for sale. I already own
the b/w Carl Barks Library, but the reason to buy this album is that it
contains a far better version of "Santa's Stormy Visit".

The album also contains "Toyland" and I saw that at least two panels are
different from the b/w CBL, these were panels of which I've always thought
that they were odd: panel 5.8, 6.6 and 6.9. On panel 5.8 Donald has a very
unBarks face, panel 6.6 has a nephew with a very strange beak and panel
6.9 has a nephew with a very unBarks face (with the same drawing-style as
in panel 5.8). The CBL in color has panels 5.8 and 6.9 with a bit better
art (still not in Barks' style) and the strange beak in in panel 6.6 is
gone. I have compared both versions with a third version - the redrawn
Jippes-version - and this version has the mentioned panels also a bit
strange: In panel 5.8 and 6.9, the art also looks unBarks and panel 6.6
has the nephew with a beak that has a bit of both the b/w as the color
version of the CBL.

What happened with the story during the reprint of the story in the b/w
CBL and the reprint in the color CBL? Does the CBL in Color have all the
original art now or it is only a bit better restored? Do both CBLs print
the original art at all?

And last, has something happened with the story even before the first
print? All the above mentioned versions have panel 5.8 and 6.9 'unBarks'
enough (and all in that same different style) to suspect a redrawing/
restoration even before the first print.

Maybe someone here knows more about this?

SOEREN SCHRIDDE, 16-01-1997:

> A last try with another story I don't remember the name of: Donald has
> bet his house that he would go swimming in ice-water in the winter...

This is the Barks-tenpager of WDC 88 (untitled), which contains the first
appearance of Gladstone Gander. It doesn't contain such a panel. At this
moment I really have no idea of a story with another bumping nephew panel
(like in Voodoo Hoodoo), but I'll keep on thinking.

Maybe the wishing stone story? Hmm, no.

Greetings,

--- Daniel

"Hooray! I'm cured! My mind doesn't hurt anymore!"

The Mad Musician, OG 11 --- Carl Barks

--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V97 Issue #13
*****************************************

Soeren Schridde ((Email removed)) asked about some story with
HDL bumping into each other all three at once. This might be from
"The Fabulous Philosopher's Stone" (US 10), towards the end when
HDL have just learned that the stone will eventually turn U$ into
solid gold unless they do something *now*.

He also wondered:

> A last try with another story I don't remember the name of:
> Donald has bet his house that he would go swimming in ice-water
> in the winter...

"Wintertime Wager" from WDC 88. One of my favourites!

/ Anders

GARY:

> Now I find out I'm not even worthy of being considered as an example!

If it's of any comfort: you're not the only one. Pieter van Cleef wasn't mentioned
either, and his company is bigger than yours...

--Harry.

" "Heads will swing"? I don't get it. Something to do with frogs?"