Keskustelujen arkisto

Hi,

SHAUN:

>In 1880, $crooge arrived in Louisville, not St. Louis, Kentucky.
>Louisville is the hometown of the Kentucky Derby, and a certain Duck
>artist we all seem to enjoy the work of. Otherwise, great work on the
>timeline! I'm going to print it out and use it as a nice reference guide!

Thank's! Anyway, I really should(especially since I actually visited Don
during my summer holidays in '95(sorry for phrasing this as if you're not
here, Don!)), and DO know that really, but by that time in the evening it
was pretty late and I was getting sleepy and, and..... ;)

MARK:

>ME: We're doing a four issue GROO mini-series for Dark Horse. First
>one comes out at the end of January, 1998, then all four are supposed
>to be collected into a paperback. Glad you missed us.

I definately do/did! I couldn't believe it when you joined the list,
considering Groo is one of the only American comics I read (apart from
Disney stuff, that is)!

JO:

Thank's for spending all that time researching my question!

>I we are talking about the same interview, then last I heard of it is from a
>mail from Harald Havas, 12 April 1996 (!) where he wrote:
>"I sent the Barks-Interview to Per - everything else is up to him."
>

Um, well, no, actually. I'm talking about another interview that was
definitely mentioned in '97, since I only joined about 5 months ago! But
what DID happen to the interview from '96?? ;)

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On Sep 3, 7:48pm, Donald D. Markstein wrote:

> I'm not sure how the situation has changed with the current
> U.S. copyright law, but during World War II, the U.S. government
> held no copyrights. Everything it produced went immediately into
> the public domain. I guess that's why that Donald Duck IRS cartoon
> can appear in anthologies -- if it was "owned" by the government,
> then anyone can use it now.

Is that the same case with "Scrap-Happy Daffy," a cartoon featuring
Daffy Duck that seems to turn up on all those public-domain cartoon
collections you get for $3.00 at the drugstore? If memory serves, it
wasn't a regular WB cartoon, exactly, but a Public Service message
promoting scrap drives.

> Dwight Decker can probably tell you more about collections
> of Warner Bros. wartime cartoons, when he comes back from that
> seminar, because he keeps track of video better than I do (or
> anybody else I know, for that matter). I'm pretty sure there's a
> laserdisk containing a dozen or so of them, with commentary by
> Leonard Maltin. Naturally, the classics, like "Russian Rhapsody",
> are on it, as are some oddball, non-offensive items like "The
> Ducktator". "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" and "Tokio Jokio", however,
> are not.

I'm back but I'm not sure what I can tell you...The Maltin-hosted
collection is available (or was) on tape, too, and has a title like
"Bugs and Daffy -- the Wartime Cartoons." The cover art is a gorgeous
painting showing Bugs and Daff wearing WWII-era military uniforms.

"Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" isn't in that collection, but was in
Volume I of MGM's series of boxed laserdisc sets of Warner toons.
I've heard that the cartoon was omitted from a subsequent reissue
of the collection, supposedly due to Turner policy, and the first
edition has acquired collectible status and high prices on the
secondary market as a result.

As for why Disney is sitting on "Der Fuehrer's Face" (and if that
isn't an interesting image...), I don't know. It gets excerpted a
lot in retrospectives, so it isn't being tossed down the memory
hole, exactly. Somebody speculated that it was now thought to be
too "anti-German," but I always thought that was a bit over-simplified.
I'd guess the cartoon is considered too much a product of its time,
too caught up in wartime belligerence, too enmeshed in the context
of World War II, to be funny or even comprehensible to children
over half a century later. What that doesn't explain is why the
cartoon wasn't included in the "An Officer and a Duck" collection,
where it would have been in the proper context and could have been
introduced in a way to explain it. As I recall, the introduction to
"An Officer and a Duck" actually includes clips from "Der Fuhrer's
Face" -- but not the bloody cartoon itself!

--Dwight Decker

I have noticed the recent contributions relating to the KALEVALA,
which Don Rosa might be using as a background for a "Finnish Duck story",
with interest. (I particularly liked the tone-beat and trochaic rhythm
of Don Markstein's contribution! It was amusing to read it after having just
come from a strenuous two-hour lecture on Russian poetry, which is 80%
four-footed iambic. I got slightly seasick by the culture clash.) Yes, rhythmic
aspects of the language used by the creatures the Ducks would encounter would
be quite important in any successful Duck Kalevala story -- Barks proved in
U.S. #18 that such a thing can be successfully carried out!

Don R hints that his Finnish is rusty and would have liked to find a suitable
"Kalevala light", ideally with long synopsis and good analysis. I don't think
there is one around. (When in Finland last year I saw a Latin 365-page version
of Kalevala!) But I recall having seen much praise for an English translation
(of the Whole Thing) by Keith Bosley, a couple of years back. -- Anyhow, some
insights and glimpses into the big, old, cold, strange, wild, raving and
fascinating Kalevala world can be gotten through a couple of recent CD
recordings of new and old Finnish and Estonian music:

* One is by Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928), semi-famous contemporary Finnish
composer. "The Myth of Sampo", bulding on Kalevala, dates from 1995. The CD
booklet notes (by the composer) _do_ contain sortuva `Kalevala Light', and the
full text (Finnish with English translation) that Rautavaara chose to use for
his work (for tenor, bass, fullblooded testosterone-filled Finnish male choir,
and prior-made tape). So this is one way to get a Kalevala impression without
reading the whole thing. And it's interesting to see what aspects the artist
here chooses to highlight, and the partly quite visual interpretations/
descriptions. (I did send copies of these notes to Don a while ago.)

* Another is by Veljo Tormis (b. 1930), even-more-famous Estonian composer
(second only to Arvo P\"art in current popularity). I think the title of the
relevant work, also from around 1995?, is "The Eleventh Rune of the Kalevala".
It's a torrent of strong words with very vivid images of hard physical and
mental fighting.

* And a third is "The Kalevala Heritage", recently released by the Finnish
company Ondine. It contains old songs, "orally transmitted" over generations,
and that my date back several centuries. Check out
http://www.vn.fi/vn/um/finfo/english/kalheeng.html.

Nils Lid Hjort

--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V97 Issue #192
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Shaun:

>Would Gladstone sales suffer much if Canada *did* start up a
>Disney-licenced comic publishing company? I guess the question here is,
>how much of your sales are made here?

We certainly would not want to lose those sales in Canada. Still, if a
Canadian publisher did arrange to take on the challenge and expense of
publishing Disney comics strictly for Canada, they could triple the sales
we have but still lose money. They'd also face the daunting and, as I
understand current circumstances, necessary task of putting out versions in
French, which would add substantially to what would already be inadequately
covered production and printing expenses.

Rich:

>2) licensing agreements which would require
>companies like Gladstone and Acclaim to purchase individual rights for every
>character or program that they want to use, which is costly and more trouble
>than it would be worth (especially if the story with Mickey and Simba was a
>"One-Shot")?

That one hits closest to the truth, though things aren't quite as segmented
as all that. There are currently two comics licenses for the US, one for
the "traditional" characters, currently held by Gladstone, and one for the
"modern" characters, currently held by Acclaim and previously by Marvel.
Crossovers between the properties (characters, to us reader types) covered
by these different licenses would be tricky enough to arrange just between
Gladstone and Acclaim, and once you added Disney's required participation
into the equation...well, Gladstone and Acclaim would need to be able to
get a whole amalgamated-Disney-universe line out of it, that would look to
sell at least as well as Vampirella titles, for it to be worth the trouble.

Gary

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"It's Bindy Gonzer's birthday!" - Churchy La Femme
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Harry wrote:
> I we are talking about the same interview, then last I heard of it is from a
> mail from Harald Havas, 12 April 1996 (!) where he wrote:
> "I sent the Barks-Interview to Per - everything else is up to him."
>
> So, Per (or Harald)? What happened?

I added it to the WWW pages and it's been there since then.

MIKKO:

Your insight on the KALEVALA stories was welcome and enlightening. Perhaps
this bit of information will nudge Don toward giving more serious
consideration to adapting some of the legends associated with the collection
to his Duck adventures.

One suggestion: When referring to various ancient works, it's a good idea
not to identify certain writings as mythology when they are still viewed by
millions today as holy scripture, including the Vedas and the Bible. Just
because these collections are centuries old does not mean they are
universally considered to be fictional, as are the myths of civilizations
long gone. Joseph Campbell may have thought of the Bible, the Quran, and
the Vedas as myth, but not everyone agrees with him.

LOST ATTRIBUTION:

I'm surprised nobody has answered this on the list yet, so:

> Pardon my ignorance, but has Rosa's "Avatars" story been published in the
> U.S.?

Yes. Uncle $crooge Adventures #51, I believe.

DON:

You better get Byron to post his info fast now that you've got us all drooling
in anticipation.

MARK:

Speaking of drool: New Groo! Welcome back! What else have you been doing with
your writing life, other than the CBG column?

-Augie
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"Egg whites are good for a lot of things; lemon merangue pie, angel
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