Keskustelujen arkisto

> From: Ram Samudrala
> I'm just reading the new Rosa stories. I've not gotten to the Life
> and Times part 6.5, but I just finished the Treasure of the Ten
> Avatars: the story is incredibly clever in terms of use of the Hindu
> mythology though the art I don't think is of Rosa's usual quality

!!! No? Please tell me why exactly, so I can see what you mean and try to
improve.

> Regarding purchasing the bound copies, does Rosa see any money from
> these sales? I'm curious as that would be my only real motivation for
> buying them

I always hope people buy Gladstone products to help insure the shaky
presence of decent Disney comics in North America. But no... I get paid one
time for each of the stories, covers or texts that I produce for Egmont.
No matter how many times the material is printed or reprinted or put into
hardbacks or collector's editions around the planet, I don't get another
penny in royalties. The royalties are paid to the Disney corporation and
they keep 100% of it. That's how it is with all Disney comics, of course.
Now, sure, Gladstone is paying me a set fee to do each of those various
types of drawings they've decided on for their hardback... same as the
Finns paid me to do similar drawings for a limited leatherbound edition of
their Lo$ hardback and as the Germans paid me to sign a mess of theirs. But
this is piece-work I do just like the comic stories... I don't get any
extra if sales are unexpectedly good (though I always hope they are for the
publishers' sakes).

ERIC (is confused...):
> Is "nosferatu" mistaken for "news for you too"?

I shouldn't have brought this up! I seem to have assumed "Nosferatu", the
original 1920s "Dracula" movie (remade in the 70s), was more famous than it
is? But it's pronounced "Nose-ferahtoo". The gag (such as it is) is not
based on it sounding like any complete phrase, but it starts with "no" and
has the same beat and rhythm as "no bananas". Actually, what makes the gag
for me is the extra tag Harvey Corman adds to explain why he says "today"
(to mimic the old tune): "We have "Nosferatu" today! (It came in the
post!)" The "post" part just hit me silly, delivered with his corny British
accent and so seriously. It's a shaggy-dog gag. A long set-up that seems
pointless but then has a punchline. (I like complexity?)
Better yet, forget I brought it up!

> Just a couple of months ago, Mark Evanier mentioned (on the Groo
> mailing list) that he and Sergio Aragones (of MAD magazine, Groo
> comic books, and this year's Ruben award winner!) both read Don-
> ald Duck comic books.

Yes, Sergio once hunted me down at an Oakland convention to tell me how
much he liked "Guardians of the Lost Library". I assume he reads all the
Gladstones.

FELLOW DUCKFANS:

About a month ago, after seeing many List members sending in their Rosa
favorites in a disorganized fashion, just mentioning various stories here
and there, I thought it'd be a nice idea if a more formal Rosa survey were
carried out. I sent out the Questionnaire, listed July 31 as the deadline
for sending in responses, and kept sending weekly or so reminders to the List.

Well, the deadline elapsed yesterday. The number of responses I received
amounted to a total of 18 (I guess this number shows the REALLY die-hard
Rosa fans here! :-)). Needless to say, I certainly had hoped for a better
response, given that many on this List seem to be devoted Rosa fans.

But I guess filling out a Questionnaire IS time and energy consuming. It's
also summer, and most people's minds (if not bodies) are by the beach.
However, since I know that we can get a better turnout, and since I'd really
like to have a sample size of at least 30 respondents, and since deadlines
are made to be broken, (as I had initially said, the deadline was not
written on stone), I would like to EXTEND the deadline 'till September 15.
That extension should give ample time to vacation-goers who wish to
participate in the Survey to do their homework and send in their replies in
due time.

Let me also take this chance to heartfully thank the 18 respondents who were
so kind to take the time and fill out (totally or partially) the
Questionnaire. Their contribution is much appreciated.

To any future respondents: I know that some categories of the Survey are
harder and more time-consuming than others. However, YOU CAN FILL OUT AS
MANY CATEGORIES AS YOU WISH, AND PICK AS MANY FAVORITES IN EACH AS YOU LIKE.

Here's the Questionnaire once again:

INTERNATIONAL SURVEY ON DON ROSA

NAME:
NATIONALITY:
SEX:
AGE:

1) Pick at most 3 covers which you consider Rosa's BEST: (*NOTE*: NOT in
order of preference. Simply what you'd consider Don's 3 BEST covers).

2) Pick at most 3 OPENING SPLASH PANELS which you consider Rosa's BEST:

3) Pick at most 3 INTERIOR SPLASH PANELS which you consider Rosa's BEST:

4) Pick at most 3 stories (of any length) which you consider Rosa's WORST:

5) Pick at most 3 SHORT stories (2-14 pages long) which you consider Rosa's
BEST:

6) Pick at most 3 LONG stories (15 pages or more) which you consider Rosa's
BEST:

7) Pick at most 3 "BEST/CLEVEREST" hidden D.U.C.K.s. (in covers OR Splash
panels).

8) COMMENTS:

A lucky respondent shall receive an issue of the Greek KOMIX containing a
Rosa story.

I hope you have fun filling out the above questionnaire,

Archontis

Shaun:

>What will the Canadian price be [of the Rosa hardcover]?

Those haven't been worked up yet.

>What kind of paper will the interiors be printed on?
>Will the coloring of the series be changed? (IE, errors corrected, and the
>whole $crooge's brown hair controversy)

The paper and coloring will be identical to those used in the album collections.

>What will be on the cover?

Foil-stamping on leatherette. The stamp art will probably be a "Lo$" title
logo, nothing terribly elaborate.

Gary

****************************
"Ee!" - Tiffany Case (as two flaming shish kebabs unpleasantly
approach...)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Gladstone on the Web: http://www.hamlco.com/bhc/
---------------------------------------------------------------------

STEVEN ROWE:
You wonder why so many stories in so many comics take place in rural
settings? I would guess it's for the same reason I like to send the Ducks
off on adventures to caves or mountains or high seas or arctic wastes or...
best of all... empty deserts! It has something to do with the sheer
"back-breaking" and thankless labor of drawing BACKGROUNDS!!! Consider
drawing constant backgrounds of city streets with dozens of vanishing
points of perspective, hundreds of straight lines going in all directions,
doors and windows which must all line up, rows of bricks, many
architectural styles for visual variety, distant skylines, with the added
necessity of numerous cars and "innocent bystanders" -- combine this with a
glorified fanzine artist who has never had a moment of training on how to
properly draw this sort of scene and who can't afford an assistant to help
with the tedious, boring and time consuming parts of his job... then
consider a rural story setting of that empty desert where the background is
a single free-hand horizon line.
Which backgrounds would YOU rather draw??? If it's the former (city
scenes), and you work rilly, rilly cheap, give me a call!

Hi!

Reading "The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff" in Uncle Scrooge #306 was
a real treat. What a beautiful story, isn't it? Normally I was one of
those who hated to see Rosa's stories serialized in three parts in Walt
Disney's Comics and Stories. To fully enjoy a Rosa adventure story,
you'd have to read it as one part. That's why I was happy to hear that
Gladstone would publish two new Rosa stories without breaking them
up again.
Unfortunately, there are now some very funny jokes that didn't make
it in this American publication of "Pizen Bluff". At the end of part two,
for instance, Pothole says
"If this were one of my dime novels, this is where I'd write
'continued next week', to give me time to think!"
That was one of my favorite jokes, the first time I read it in a
European (three part) publication, but now it's not funny at all.
Also the two beautiful splash panels of part 2 and 3 are gone now.
Especially the splash panel of part 3 was, in my opinion, quite unique.

For those Americans who also want to see the Splash panels,
I've put them on my website, "Disney Comics Worldwide":

http://www.pi.net/~wolfman

Just go to the "Latest News" section and follow the link in the
article about Rosa's latest story.

Bye!

Arthur de Wolf

Are there any other collectors of Foreign Disney comics out there?
(eh ... Xenodonaldists?) I am interested in buying foreign Disney
comic books (Foreign as in Non-Norwegian, Non-Gladstone).
Send me your lists (please exclude those magazines you don't want
to sell) and we might get into some business.

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

PER STARBACK:

Thanks for five years Disney Comics Mailing List!!!

LIST OF CHANGES IN THE HARDCOVER CBL:

Although it's not mentioned on the "What's new?" page, a new version of the
list of changes in the Carl Barks Library is now available on:

http://www.update.uu.se/~starback/disney-comics/cbl.html

I'm planning to make such a list for the USA albums (including CBLiC) and
comics as well. So, if you already have a list of that, don't hesitate to
send it to me!

RIK PIERCE, 16 JULY 1997:

> I have just subscribed to all the duck books and so far have received
> just the Life and Times of $crooge. I'm salivating looking forward to
> what's coming. But perhaps for us newbies here you can explain what
> appears to be some sort of "Duck Hunt" I've seen this mentioned before
> in the list and in one of the copies of the books I've got now I did see
> a sign I think in the Money Bin's yard that said "D.U.C.K" Please
> enlighten?

The D.U.C.K. abbreviation means "Dedicated to Unca Carl, Keno". Keno is
Don Rosa's first name and Unca Carl is of course Carl Barks. You can find
this abbreviation on the first page of almost every Rosa-story. I say
almost, because sometimes an editor removed it. You can also find
D.U.C.K.s on Rosa-covers, but then they're only on covers which refer
to a Barks-story (as far as I know).

Is there a list of D.U.C.K.s (and removed ones) available, btw?

RAM and HARRY FLUKS, 20 JULY 1997:

R> While we're on the topic, my "peers" can't believe I read comic books
R> at my age (25) and doing what I do. I had to show them all Geoffrey
R> Blum's psychoanalysing in the Carl Barks Libraries in Colour to argue
R> that there is merit to this stuff. I presume others have the same
R> problem?

HF> I have that problem (and I'm even 35), but I certainly won't solve it
HF> using Blum's articles! Blum is explaining a lot of things "into" the
HF> stories, that the authors never have meant.
HF> If my family would read those articles, they would think I'm even
HF> more nuts than they think I am now.

:-)

I agree that Geoffrey Blum sometimes can go way too far in his theories.
For me it makes his articles difficult to read, I'd rather have the
'facts'. But still, sometimes his theories and investigations can shine a
very interesting light on the subject he's examining.

BTW. Why isn't Geoffrey Blum a member of this mailing list? Doesn't he
know about it or doesn't he have a modem/computer (or interest)?

DON ROSA, 28 JULY 1997:

> So I used the moonrocket from that Barks story in that old Dell Giant
> that involved Gyro building a rocket to find a certain substance on the
> moon to help $crooge get back into his Impervium Money Bin. That was a
> story done just the way I'd like to see space-stories done in Duck
> comics... even though there was one, single scene in that tale that was
> SO un-Barks-like and so odd that I tell myself it was something that an
> editor insisted Barks should jam into his story: when Gyro and $crooge
> blast off from Earth the G-forces flatten them into the shape of
> paper-dolls -- this is a silly physical impossibility the likes of which
> I don't think has ever been in a Disney comic, much less a Barks story.
> It's like something out of a Warner Bros. cartoon.

Actually Barks used this gag two more times: In the cartoon "Bellboy
Donald" where Donald scretches and flattens in the elevator, which he
later recycled this gag in the hotel ten-pager (WDC 206). Although it's
of course not sure if Barks made up the gag in "Bellboy Donald", it is
clear that he didn't object to using such a sight gag.

A reason why I don't like the Impervium story is that I don't understand
the end gag (if there's any).

(Btw, are my eyes fooling me or do I see a knife with the word "love" in
the shop-window of the Seven Seas Tattoo Parlor?)

> (There was apparently someone else working the day they censored all
> the unhygenic fleas and sneezes and prunes-in-pockets from my "Shrinking
> Tightwad" tale.) So, you see, I should be careful how I kid around
> with such unpredictable, inexplicable corporate censors.

Although I'd rather see the Shrinking Tightwad story complete in the
U.S.A., I can't say that I object to Disney's 'censoring'. Looking at the
parts to which they objected, they seem to have looked at them as being
"in conflict with good taste" (as we say it in Holland).

One part being removed has Donald trying to climb into a tree which turns
out to be a Beagle Boy's hair, Donald slips down and his hands are covered
with the grease of the unwashed hair. Another part which is removed has
Donald covered with the contents of a Beagle Boy's nose (snot to be more
exactly) because of a sneeze.

I'm not saying that seeing this caused me any nightmares, but I can
understand that Disney must have thought that this kind of humor is too
dirty for a (Disney) comic. I remember reading in the CBL that Disney (or
who-ever in charge) seems to make in difference in an animated gag and a
printed gag. An animated gag flows past the audience, while in a comic it
is stuck to the paper and so it can get far more attention than Disney
wants it to have.

The censorer also seemed to have thought that the idea of fleas on humans
are far too dirty, but I think that cutting it out of the story is a bit
too farfetched. But showing the Beagle Boy in his pants *and* making clear
these pants are obviously manufactured by Disney, is something which you
could have expected to be censored IMO.

A part of a story of which I think it is far too dirty, is the scene in
"Hearts of the Yukon" (page 2) where a villian gets a kettle over his head
which is obviously filled with *phlegm* and *spittle*. To be frankly, I've
always found that a disgusting scene. Of course it didn't cause any
nightmares, but I'm glad that I wasn't eating while reading this story for
the first time. (Btw, is there a similar scene like this in Lo$ 8 where
Scrooge is awakened by the same kind of kettle?)

KRITON KYRIMIS to ARAHONTIS, 1 AUGUST 1997:

A> The deadline is approaching fast! Come on, Rosa fans out there! I've
A> heard from only 9 of you so far!

KK> One reason you got so few replies is that answering any of the
KK> questions is hard work. [...] Since the survey was made as a
KK> response to a posting asking what Don's best story was, perhaps you
KK> should have another survey in the autumn, with just this question.
KK> I'm sure you'll get a lot more than 9 replies, enough to provide a
KK> statistically significant answer to this question.

I don't think the survey is too difficult. It is clearly stated that
categories may be left blank. I think the mean reason for only a few
replies is that it is summertime as someone else stated.

Greetings,

--- Daniel
"The madcap laughed at the man on the border"