Keskustelujen arkisto

Expocartoon in Roma, May 1997

For me this was both a business and a pleasure trip. I was flying out on
the Saturday (1997 05 10) and on the Monday I had to give an invited
seminar on my computer research at the University of Rome. Expocartoon was
from the Thursday (15) to the Sunday (18), and I was flying back on the
18th because I had to go to London on the 19th to attend another computer
conference.

My departure was quite Fantozzian, if you'll allow me use this term (which
you won't understand unless you are familiar with Italian "culture" from
the '70s and '80s), in that Friday night I remained at the office until
very late (2 am) to finish my slides for Monday's talk, and the taxi was
supposed to pick me up at home at 04:15 to go to the airport. So of course
I didn't sleep at all and packed my suitcase in a hurry, forgetting several
essential items. Among these were my list of missing comics (grrrr!!! And I
was just going to Italy's largest convention!) and a little gadget by
Nokia. I brought lots more Nokia thingies: the Communicator (a GSM phone
which does email, fax, web, messages, etc etc), its charger, an Italian
adapter for the charger, but by forgetting the gadget (which, thanks to a
wonderfully stupid design, is the only way to connect the Communicator to
the charger) I rendered the Communicator useless after Saturday morning
when its battery went flat. To add to the Fantozzian qualities of my
travelling, the train from Fiumicino airport to Roma Termini ran over a
child (!!! Never heard of this happening to anybody I know. I was only told
later that this was why we had stopped.) and so it stopped in the middle of
nowhere for a substantial amount of time, waiting for the investigating
magistrate. But all this has got very little to do with comics, so let's
just skip to the Wednesday when Don arrived.

Comic Art, the publisher of our book and the organiser of Expocartoon, had
booked a very nice central hotel for Don and the other foreign guests in
Via della Penna near Piazza del Popolo. Don phoned me from there around
lunchtime on Wednesday: he and Ann had safely arrived and we decided to
meet at 15:00 for a walk. An interview was already scheduled for 17:00 at
the hotel so we couldn't do much, but at least we visited Via del Corso,
Via Condotti and all the well-known fashionable shopping places around
there that are the main purpose of many American and Japanese tourists'
trips to Rome, but which were of very little interest to my guests. This
brought us to Piazza di Spagna, the Barcaccia fountain (that's how Romans
call it, don't ask me the official name), the Spanish steps and Trinità dei
Monti. Ann Rosa was filming everything on videotape for posterity. One of
the highlights of this visit was the McDonald in Piazza di Spagna, with its
fake-ancient-Rome ambience. We didn't eat there, mind you: we just had a
look inside.

When we got back to the hotel we were interviewed by a journalist, Giuseppe
Greco from ADN Kronos (a famous news agency). The chap asked questions in
Italian and Don replied in English, with me in the middle as an
interpreter. I started to take notes at the beginning of the interview, but
then my brain got overloaded by the simultaneous activities of listening,
transcribing, translating and speaking and I stopped transcribing, so I
can't exactly tell you what we said (but anyway, it was all stuff that we
had gone over in much greater detail when doing the book). One thing worth
mentioning is that if you expect Don to tell you something about his comics
work, he'll just sit there with a blank stare saying "but I don't know what
to say"; but as soon as you ask a question, however short, he'll fire away
with a wonderfully detailed explanation, far exceeding the capacity of my
mental buffer. So I had to always stop him in mid-sentence to translate
what he had said so far, or I'd forget the beginning. Greco said that he'd
write his article the next day and that it would then be dispatched to the
various newspapers subscribing to the agency, which would feature it on
Friday. I didn't and don't expect to get anything from him, but if anyone
sends me a photocopy of any newspaper carrying an article based on this
interview, I'll be pleased to scan it in and put it on this page.

At 19:30 we had another interview: this time by Roberto Genovesi from ASCA
(a less famous news agency). The interesting thing about this agency is
that they also produce a daily "newspaper" on the web called notiziapiù and
he said that the interview would appear there as well as in the thingie
that the agency hands out to the press. This is a Good Thing (TM) because,
unlike the other case, we get a pointer to the interview: the front page of
the newspaper is at http://www.tin.it/notiziapiu/16_maggio_97/ and the
interview itself is at... well, I can't actually give you a proper URL
because of these f%*@#ing frames, but you can follow the link from the
front page. Maybe someone will volunteer to translate it (I already did
that, live, and for a much longer text than what eventually came out here,
so please don't count me in again for this one;-)). The peculiar thing
about this interview was that the chap tried to ask one of these "funny"
questions, namely the following, and Don asked me in a low voice to think
up something myself because he hadn't got a clue what to say! The question
was something along the lines of "You've seen that in Europe there's lots
of messing around over the issue of a common currency: what do you think
Scrooge would do if he were elected Ministry of Finance? Would he be loved
by people in this role? Would he be able to bring Italy in the monetary
union?" Of course I was just as lost as Don was and I didn't add anything,
but Don made something up on the spot and I now see that the journalist
even embellished it a bit himself and made it the highlight of the
interview! Anyway, on the whole the interview is acceptably faithful to
what we actually said and so if you can get it translated (give me a
translation and I'll put it here if you like) you won't be
disappointed. Don was excited to find out that his interviewer is actually
a comics author in his spare time.

After this we walked to restaurant Le Volte of Piazza Rondanini, where
almost everybody else was one or two hours late because they were putting
the finishing touches to Expocartoon (opening the next morning). We spent
that time with Giulio Cesare Cuccolini, a well known comics expert, who
told us in great detail how he was (and had been for several years)
tracking down the evidence for a middle-ages trial that he was interested
in (some story of a Jew converted to Catholicism with miracles in between,
father killing son, priests killing father, Catholics getting lots of good
publicity out of it, Jews never retelling the story etc etc). I'm not sure
how popular the subject was with the other guests, but he was certainly
eager to tell. When the missing guests finally arrived we had a fantastic
and delicious n-course dinner, with n greater than I care to remember. Too
much stuff for the Rosas, apparently, who among other things were heavily
jetlagged, but I personally hadn't eaten so well in a long time (which of
course isn't hard given that I normally live in England, but that's not the
point -- it REALLY was good).

The next day, Thursday, was the opening day of Expocartoon. We were there
just before 09:00. The gates opened for the public at 10:00, but before
that we had an opening ceremony for big shots like Piero Badaloni, the
president of the Regione Lazio (Italy is divided into 20 regions and Lazio
is Rome's region). We thought that would be a speech-based thing, but
instead the president asked to see the exhibitions of original art. For
those of you who don't know there was, among others, a very nice exhibition
of thirtysometing pages of Don's art, organised by Leonardo Gori and yours
truly. Most of the Life of $crooge covers, some panels from each of the 12
chapters plus other miscellaneous things such as Wendigo, Guardians of the
Lost Library and the original cover of Uncle $crooge 300 (the one with all
the heads, most of which were removed when Gladstone used it, but which can
be seen in the inside of the comic).

After this we were set free for the day, so we missed the exhibition
entirely to go sightseeing instead. Having lived in Rome for longer than
anywhere else and so being morally a Roman, I was naturally promoted to the
role of tourist guide. As you can guess, having lived in Rome for 12 years,
I had only rarely done any sightseeing (that's the sort of stuff you do
when you VISIT the place, not when you LIVE in it!). But, expecting this,
in the past few days I had been reading up on my old History of Art books
from secondary school, plus an archaeology book from my dead grandmother's
library. Unfortunately, though, I hadn't had time to study much more than
the Colosseo. I had also bought Don a nice English-language guide book
about Rome in London, by Dorling-Kindersley, only to find that he had
bought exactly the same book himself back in the USA. Anyway, we went to
the Colosseo and I said all I knew, which wasn't much but was definitely
more than I knew about the rest. I was disappointed to find out that there
weren't any of the guided tours that I remembered taking when I was a
little kid, with competent guides telling you the story of everything in
great detail, turning even the most innocent piece of stone into a
magnificent relic from a glorious past.

Then we stopped for lunch at a pizzeria at the end of Via Cavour, near Via
dei Fori Imperiali. Actually pizza (accept no imitations!) is my favourite
food, and that's one of my great treats when I go back to Roma. Ann had a
Quattro Formaggi, Don had something I can't remember but including sausage
and I had a salmon one. We all tasted all three and I found them all
excellent. At the pizzeria, after the meal, Fabio Gadducci joined us. From
there we went on to visit the Fori. Don, with the Dorling-Kindersley book
in hand, was our tour guide, and I must say he did very well!

We then took the subway to Ottaviano to visit the Vatican. Don found the
subway particularly exciting: "In America you never get to go on the
subway, except in big cities like New York. It's all cars and planes. When
I come to Europe I experience all sorts of interesting means of
transportations, like subways and even TRAINS! I had never been on a train
before coming to Europe." At the Vatican, after seeing Piazza San Pietro
and the inside of the church, the plan was to walk up to the top of "er
cupolone", which the guide book said was open until 19:00. Unfortunately
reality said otherwise (it was only open until 18:00) and so we missed
it. If only we had known! We had been there since at least 17:30... Don
was wearing a hat because he didn't like the nice Italian sun on his head
all day (it was around 30 degrees Celsius -- oh, how I miss that weather
here in cloudy Cambridge!) and, as we were walking towards the entrance, he
said to me: "I'm gonna take my hat off, or otherwise one of these Swiss
guards might shoot me." We discussed briefly about this and I argued that
being shot was unlikely: if anything, the guard might chop his head off
with a big axe. But Don noted that this would ruin the hat and so
maintained his proposition to keep the latter in his hand. However, holding
a hat in your hands instead of on your head is so unnatural that he soon
put it back on his head without noticing! A concerned old man came around
and told him in a low voice "Il cappello... Il cappello... Your hat!" Good
thing the old man spotted him before the Swiss guards.

After this Fabio went away to meet other friends in Piazza di Spagna to
organise even more Disney-related events for the future and we took a nice,
long, slow walk to the restaurant: Via della Conciliazione, Castel
Sant'Angelo, Ponte Sant'Angelo, Via del Governo Vecchio, il Pasquino,
Piazza Navona (where we stopped for about half an hour to watch all the
artists and caricaturists), il Pantheon and finally we arrived in the
Jewish Ghetto where the restaurant was. This time among the many guests we
met Maurice de Bévère i.e. Morris of Lucky Luke fame. He and his wife spoke
good English and discussed at length with Don about the various comics
publishers' policies regarding the authors' rights on their work. Morris
was very surprised by what he discovered about Disney, namely that
everything a Disney author does becomes Disney property automatically. I
personally like Morris's work very much -- I've currently got something
like 30 out of his 60something Lucky Luke books, all in the original
French-language edition. It was great to meet the man in person and to take
part in interesting conversations with him. Don knew Lucky Luke too: he had
bought the English editions at comics conventions when they first came out
some years ago, and had recently re-bought the same stories in American
editions from the unlucky publisher that tried to bring the famous cowboy
to America.

At the same dinner we were finally handed the first batch of copies of THE
DON ROSA BOOK! At last! With all the months of work that had gone into it,
I really couldn't wait to hold it in my hands, especially given that there
hadn't even been time for the publisher to send me the proofs. Let me dump
whatever is left of my modesty in the bin and let me say with pride that it
is BEAUTIFUL! We went through a lot of trouble and a lot of hard work for
this book, but the result made it all really worth it. I'm very
pleased. The only disappointment is that it's "only" in Italian... I hope
that one day we'll find a publisher willing to translate it into English,
not only for the comparatively small USA market, but more importantly for
all the North-European "Egmont" countries where Don's work gets all the
credit it deserves. Don too was very excited (red ears on seeing how big
his name was on the cover) and kept pointing at the pictures he recognised,
continuously asking me "and what does this say?" with the enthusiasm of a
kid who's still learning to read. It was fantastic. "Oh, and you used this
picture of me in my Captain Kentucky outfit!" "Why does it have this
Superman here?" "What does it say under this picture out of my old Barks
story?" "What does it say here about my friend Ray Foushee?" We both signed
books for the various people at the dinner and couldn't stop browsing them
in between the many courses (delicious as usual -- Rinaldo Traini, Comic
Art's boss, had consistently chosen very good restaurants, with excellent
genuine food instead of posh waiters dressed like penguins).

I think I'll stop here for now, first because I want to go home and eat,
and second because this is already too long for a normal human to read in
the context of a mailing list digest. I'll write the rest another
time. Eventually this trip report will end up on my web pages, where it
will be graced by some of the many pictures I took with the digital camera
I had with me.

Post scriptum for those of you who specifically asked about the book. (Note
that I'm not doing this for greed, as I don't get any royalties -- I did it
all for free. This is just information for those who are interested. It's a
book done for fans, by fans. Of course I'll be very pleased if it sells
well, and I hope that readers like it, but I have no monetary interest in
it.)

The exact coordinates of the book are:

Alberto BECATTINI, Leonardo GORI, Francesco STAJANO
Don Rosa e il Rinascimento disneyano
Editrice Comic Art
Roma, May 1997
(no ISBN)

21.5 x 31 cm
128 pages of which 16 in colour

For a list of chapters, a scan of the cover and more stuff wait until I
find the time to update the book's web page at
http://www.orl.co.uk/~fms/disney/rosa/libro/

Price: 39000 ITL Italian Lire, which is about 20 XEU European Currency
Units or 23 USD American Dollars.

Publisher's coordinates:

Comic Art
Via Flavio Domiziano, 9
00159 Roma
Italy
Tel +39 6 54.13.737
Fax +39 6 54.10.775

Frank (filologo disneyano) http://www.orl.co.uk/~fms/

On May 22, 1:07am, Frank Stajano wrote:

> Don knew Lucky Luke too: he had
> bought the English editions at comics conventions when they first came out
> some years ago, and had recently re-bought the same stories in American
> editions from the unlucky publisher that tried to bring the famous cowboy
> to America.
>
If that's the same unlucky publisher I did some work for recently...
they brought out two Lucky Luke books (Stagecoach and Jesse James).
As I understand it, of the Euro-titles the publisher put out, the
Lucky Luke books were the only ones that sold at all well. Titles
in other series (Spirou, Johan & Pirlouit) sold abominably. Pity
the unlucky translator who agreed to a payment on publication deal,
when the publisher suspended operations with three translations
still unpublished... (The Lucky Luke translations were based on
British versions that already existed, I understand. I didn't have
anything to do with them.)

I was suitably astonished to see how many Lucky Luke titles there
were when I was in France recently. Thirty-one titles from Dupuis
alone, then a whole bunch of Dargaud titles, then the Lucky titles.
Morris may own the property, but each successive publisher still
has the rights to reprint the titles he did while working for that
publisher. Plus, there are two spin-off series (Kid Lucky and
Ran Tan Plan -- what, no Daltons series?!) by other hands, though I
would assume closely supervised by Morris. I could be reading Lucky
Luke books for the rest of my life (I have a lot of them, but by no
means all of them).

Incidentally, the Disney Channel in the US has shown the animated
Lucky Luke movies on TV here, and Disney's home video arm has released
them on tape and videodisc (along with Asterix). Unfortunately, that
doesn't seem to have translated into an enormous public demand for
the original albums. (Even when the Smurfs were hot stuff in the US
about 15 years ago, nobody paid much attention to Peyo's original
albums, at least a couple of which were released here in English.)

--Dwight Decker

Barks Treasury: Introduction

This treasure trove of new art has been unearthed
from the bottomless and rich mind of Carl Barks --
phrase-maker, consummate story and gag man, word-
smith, neologist, name-crafter, image-maker, and
fine artist.

The pages that follow contain reproductions of forty
new color pencil sketches. In preparation for his
recent ninety-sixth birthday, Carl began drawing in
August of 1996 and finished a series of over seventy
pencil sketches in March of 1997. His goal was to
create a body of work which would add texture,
further dimension, and downright fun to his familiar
themes: Uncle Scrooge's measureless money bin, the
many worldwide adventures of Donald Duck and Uncle
Scrooge, and the funny things that happen in Duck-
burg.

To anyone secretly discovering this volume without
knowing quite what it is (are you sure you're allow-
ed to be looking at this at all?), Carl Barks is a
"Living Legend." Mr. Barks always says that Walt
Disney himself, and the Walt Disney Studios over the
years, created the "stage" on which he could show-
case his talents and his memorable characters for
all the world to see and enjoy. Carl has given life
to the Disney Ducks, giving them their definitive
personalities and a place for those personalities to
develop and thrive: Duckburg! And because of this,
Carl Barks has been proclaimed a "Living Legend" by
the Walt Disney Company.

The forty plates in the work that follows attest to
his greatness, his liveliness, and his pure genius.

--

Barks Treasury: First Twenty Plates

* NO PEEKING! OPENING DATE, APRIL 12TH, 1997
Scrooge locking his safe (from the "OSO Safe Co.").

* HATS OFF! THE FLAG IS PASSING BY
Huey walking by on the street holding a U.S. flag,
while Scrooge tips his hat, which reveals five
bundles of money on his head.

* MY WHOLE MORNING'S RENT COLLECTION!
Scrooge on a balcony overlooking Duckburg, trying
to grab his hat as it's blown off over the balcony
by the wind, with money falling out of his hat.

* OF ALL THE PLACES FOR THIS TO HAPPEN
Scrooge on a balcony overlooking a canyon, trying
to grab his hat as it's blown off into the canyon
by the wind, with money falling out of his hat.

* I SHOULDA STAYED IN EARTHQUAKE COUNTRY
Scrooge running from a tornado, trying to grab his
hat as it's blown off by the wind, with money fall-
ing out of his hat.

* UNINTENDED DONATION TO HISTORY
Scrooge on a platform overlooking the La Brea Tar
Pits, trying to grab his hat as it's blown off
into the tar pits by the wind, with money falling
out of his hat.

* WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME, WRONG HAT
Scrooge on a pier overlooking the ocean, trying to
grab his hat as it's blown off into the ocean by
the wind, with money falling out of his hat.

* FORTUNE BLOWING IN THE WIND
Scrooge on a rural street, trying to grab his hat
as it's blown off over a fence (with a bulldog
waiting on the other side of the fence) by the
wind, with money falling out of his hat.

* SAVE A DIME, LOSE A BUNDLE!
Scrooge on a balcony overlooking Niagara falls,
trying to grab his hat as it's blown off into the
falls by the wind, with money falling out of his
hat.

* BATTER UP!
Huey, Dewey, and Louie playing baseball with a
(emerald) ball and (jeweled) bat in Scrooge's
money bin.

* FINDERS KEEPERS
Scrooge bringing aboard a treasure chest filled
with gold and jewels -- and an octopus that thinks
it's his treasure chest.

* MONEY JUST FOLLOWS HIM AROUND
Scrooge as the Pied Piper, playing a flute, with
two hoops of gold coins following him.

* I MAY HAVE TO SPEND SOME OF THIS STUFF
Scrooge sitting on the depth guage in his money
bin, with the money level past the 120ft mark,
with his hat pressing against the ceiling.

* GARDEN OF MOOLAH
Scrooge walking across a bridge made of gold bricks
in his money bin, with a river of bills flowing
under the bridge and river banks of gold coins on
the sides.

* AT LAST A USE FOR THESE OVERSIZED EMERALDS
Scrooge bowling with a (emerald) ball and (stacks
of gold coins) pins in his money bin.

* SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN, WHO WAS HE?
Scrooge building a castle of gold coins, silver
coins, and jewels in his money bin.

* REMIND ME TO BUY THIS GOLF COURSE
Scrooge swinging a golf club, hitting a golf ball
and unearthing a divot, which uncovers an oil
spout.

* PLENTY TO BLOW ABOUT
Scrooge blowing a giant horn in his money bin,
blasting Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie with the
extra loud noise.

* BANKER'S HOLIDAY
Scrooge walking through a mountain pass, with a
pick in right hand and tossing gold nuggets in his
left hand.

* FAR, FAR DOWN BENEATH THE GROUND
Scrooge recoiling in horror as a Fermi shows him
the trophy for creating the largest earthquake.

--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V97 Issue #105
******************************************

FRANK:
THANK YOU for posting that report of (the first part of....more to come?) my
visit to Roma. I'm always a bit uncomfortable when I return from such a trip
as I'm always sure there's probably one or two people here who want me to
tell about what I saw or did... but I really don't like to give such
"speeches". Just like with interviews you mention and as with the panel
discussion of your book at ExpoCartoon, I never like to presume to *tell*
anyone what I think they should know about me or Ducks... but asked the
simplest question, I will give the unwary asker a much vaster earful than he
bargained on. So, I read your report with more interest than I imagine
anyone else here... it's fun to "relive" those too-brief moments, and also
fun to see it through someone else's eyes. And you have quite a memory on
you! I look forward to part two whenever you get to it. As for my part, I'll
not give a "report" of my own, but just be careful what questions you ask or
I'll overload your 'puter screen.

One thing in Frank's report that Nils was asking about -- the drawings I did
which were auctioned by Amnesty International... I like to do these at
European conventions for both altruistic *and* selfish reasons. First, it's
always nice to do something for a charitable cause, naturally. But secondly,
I am so frustrated by the fact I sit at American conventions and do nice,
full-color drawings for people who neither know who I am or ever see Disney
comics, then go to Europe and encounter so MANY true-blue Barks/Duck fans
that it's all I can do to give a scribble to even a fraction of them! They
deserve so much more. I can't help but hate myself for not being the artist
that I should be, such as the pros who can whip out a gorgeously simple
sketch in 5 seconds -- my drawing style is very painstaking and careful
since I don't have the know-how to do it properly, and it takes some
concentration for me to do a drawing that I'm really happy for someone to
have from me. Perhaps I'll always be a comics fan rather than a pro, and I
always want to do my best for other comics fans? I tried to coach Frank
while he was acting as my "bodyguard" in the crowds... if I need to go
someplace or do something, he must prevent anyone from asking me for a
sketch... because I will NEVER refuse a fan a sketch. Once asked, I *must*
fulfill the request of a Duckfan, no matter how tired or rushed I am. It's
not in my nature to refuse a fellow fan as if I were better than they were.
So I tell Frank that he has to prevent them from asking (and I hope he can,
otherwise sometimes I'd never get across a room or away from a booth).
Actually, I suspect that I don't realize how polite many of the Italian fans
were being to me... while I was strolling around the convention alone,
admiring the exhibitions and searching for Ducktoys, people would pretty
much leave me alone... until ONE person would stop me and politely ask me
for a sketch -- then suddenly everyone in the vicinity would use that as a
natural go-ahead and I'd be mobbed with Duckfans. The only way I could get
out of those situations is to ask one of them I was doing a sketch for (if I
could find one who spoke English) to tell the rest that I just couldn't do
anymore sketches at that moment but I could later at so and so, and
eventually that would work.

Anyway, where was I? Oh -- I selfishly like to do the drawings for charities
since it gives me a chance to sit down and show that I *can* do someone a
pretty fair color drawing if I take about 40 minutes... and I can be proud
for someone to have it. So, also understand that these were small
single-figure drawings done on-the-spot, not something I brought from home
or such.

To Nils again -- yes, that looks like a humdinger of a book about mio. I
actually tried to avoid looking at it much while I was in Rome, especially
while at the dinner when it was first presented to us, because I knew it
would be too Narcissus-like of me. And I guess so! It's not every day (in
fact, it's never until just then!) that somebody hands me a beautiful
illustrated book about myself! You can imagine what that feels like for
yourself -- it feels the same to me! I'm sure my ears were deep red for the
rest of that trip. But I am very lucky that I can't READ this book -- I
gather that it's all highly flattering, and I think I'm better off not being
able to read all that stuff, or else I might lose my "boyish charm and
disarming modesty" (which is probably all a big act anyway!)... (well, maybe
not... I wouldn't know how to fake those bright red ears that afflict me at
such moments of too-much-attention). But believe me, when I got home I sat
down with this Rosa-book and *read* it; no, I can't read Italian, but I just
sat there and force-read it. I mean, I just peered at the text until I could
magically begin to make a guess at what this or that section was about from
key-words. But I did this where no one could see me! Yet just mentioning it
here... I can feel that my ears are... wait, let me go look in a mirror...

Anyway, Nils' last question was where does my father come from -- he was
born in his father's hometown of Maniago which is a bit inland from Venice,
which is where my grandmother was born.
There! That's *enough* about me!!!

Anyway, I'll wait to see Frank's "part two" before I try to think of
anything that I feel an urge to add to his report for some reason...

DWIGHT:
Mr.Morris mentioned how many Lucky Luke books he had done: 61.

ARCHONTIS

> You say that you think Greeks have interesting names. Please be advised that
> the Greeks on this list (myself and Kriton) are in a minority with regards
> to having "interesting", not so common names. The big majority do have
> "common" names like George, Nick, Kostas, Dimitris, Yiannis, Andreas. These
> are christian names of saints, while mine and Kriton's are of ancient Greek
> origin and bear no association with a saint of the Orthodox Greek Church.

Thanks for the insight. My remark was - as you have guessed? - meant
as a joke in the first place..

> I'd guess that the Greek equivalent to "Harald" might be Charis, a nickname
> for Theocharis meaning God's Grace. But then, Harry and Haro(a)ld are
> probably different names, no?

Well, Harald (Norw. original "Hariwald" - "hari-" = army, "-walt" =
executing power: "Leader of an army") is the same as Harold
(Engl.), Herault (Fr.), Arraldo (It.) The only known nickname for it
is English "Hal" (like in Hal Foster, Hal Jordan...:-)

"Harry" on the other hand, comes from "Henry" (NOT Harold - a popular
mistake!), which originates via Germ. "Heinrich" in Old High German:
"hagan" = court and "-rich" = mighty.

Hope this clears this up!
;-)

NISSE
>>"Pogo" was **very** popular in the USA in the 1950s and early
>>60s>Was it also popular in Europe?

>No, Pogo is almost unknown in Europe. But I've heard about POGO
>as an inspiration to Jeff Smith's BONE (which has been printed in
>Denmark in album format).

Well, speak for yourself or Denmark, Nisse. Of course POGO was never
as popular in Europe as in USA (never having been printed as a daily
strip, as far as I know), but Kelly's strip has been reprinted several
times in many different countries. Among comics-fans, -enthusiasts,
-conaisseurs, Pogo and Kelly are quite popular and famous here
- among "outsiders" NO comic-book-artist is...

MARCO
How come you price things in Euro? Around here (Austria, Germany...)
no normal person even knows how much that would be (well, I have a
faint idea). And Italy, most probably wont get the Euro soon anyway
- as opposed to our countries?

FRANK
>>3. We know Don/Keno has Italian ancestors. Approximately where on the
>>Italian map would he place these roots of his?

>Approximately at the top right corner. Precisely in Maniago, Friuli.
>(Friuli is the part of Italy that borders the former Yugoslavia.)

HE! Then Don's ancestors aren't Italian at all! They are Austrian!
The Danube Monarchy - remember? So, if they left before 1918 they
were _clearly_ Austrian (like the parents of Jack Kirby and the father
of Will Eisner). If later, at least their ancestors were subject to our
monarch Emperor Franz Josef II! Add Ludwig von Drake - and we
finally have a chance to say, that Austria is a very important
comics country! (If only...)
;-)

Harald

--- Harald Havas <(Email removed)>

On May 22, 12:53pm, James E. Smith III wrote:

> Hi Disney Fans? Can anyone tell me, if the "Incredible Shrinking
> Tightwad," part II has come out yet? I haven't seen Walt Disney's Comics
> and Stories for awhile.

Yes, it has come out. I got mine a week ago. So get thee hence
to one of the finer funnybook shoppes in your vicinity and
secure of a copy of it!

--Dwight Decker

Soeren:

>The issue counts from Disney's DD Adventures and Gladstone's DD
>Adventures are crossing!

Look at it this way: at least there are like-numberings distinguishable as
either being Disney or Gladstone. Collectors of such titles as Superman and
X-Men haven't been so lucky!

Gary

****************************
"You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you
think it means."
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Gladstone on the Web: http://www.hamlco.com/bhc/
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