Keskustelujen arkisto

ABOUT THE 3 CUBIC ACRES:

" This discussion about how much money 3 cubic acres are and how is it
possible to measure them appeared on this list some months ago, and
itcaused me enough headhaches... so please search for it in the past
numbers, before that all the mathematicians and phisycians of the list
start again... ;-)"

Well, I'm pretty new to this list so I can't quote from that previous
discussion but I can tell you that Dwight Decker published an essay on
this very subject back in Comics Journal #65 (March 1981). It's an
entertaining two page piece, illustrated by a large, early Don Rosa
drawing of Scrooge.
Decker first calculates that a cubic acre would contain 9,091, 422.4 cubic
feet, meaning that Scrooge's 3 acre bin would have 27,274,267.2 cubic
feet. He then assumes that value of all the coins in the bin average out
as quarters. A quarter is 1/16 of an inch so, of course, you would need 16
of them to fill one cubic inch. Multiply 16 by the number of cubic inches
in the bin and you;ll find that the old miser has 754, 078, 939, 456
quarters or about $188.5 billion dollars. Since, as Decker points out, the
total value of all American coins is a mere $11 billion, Scrooge has quite
an impressive stash.
I hate to repeat myself but it's a very entertaining essay and worth
searching for.
Kevin Greenlee

CLAUS and DANIEL :

What, of course Scrooge reads the paper in the free reading room at the
public library of Duckburg. That's a well known fact, at least according to
me... and Barks.;-)

Ok, maybe he doesn't do that every day, but the library-lady sure doesn't
look surprised when Scrooge runs through the door like a maniac.
BTW. The story I'm thinking of is a One-pager that appeared in US 6, CBL
set III.

Best,
Per-Erik
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(Email removed)
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MIKE POHJOLA wrote:

> In the Finnish translation of "The Treasure of Croesus" the
>Craugho Marx song was simply translated into Finnish. It felt rather
>strange even though I did know about the original version. However, I
>think it was the least bad solution for the problem.

Sure, as long as the girl and the country share the same name!

> In Lo$ #2 ("The Master of Mississippi") there's that Mark Twain
>pun where Scrooge is measuring the depth of the water saying: "Mark
>three... Half twain... Mark twain..." Where upon that Gearloose fellow
>comes and says: "Where is he? I want to have his autograph!" (I don't know
>the exact quotes since I got that one from the German translation!) In the
>Finnish version the imho easily understandable Mississippi jargon was left
>out and replaced with Scrooge singing a made-up song that would end with
>"taskustain puuttuu ain markat vain" (="from my pocket marks are ever
>missing"). Markat vain -> Mark Twain. I can't figure out their reasoning
>sometimes.

Yeah, that was also a tough one. I'm not so sure the Mississippi jargon is
"easily understandable" for all readers. Again, I didn't want Scrooge to
speak English in the Swedish comics. It would have required at least a
footnote! The Finnish solution, weak as it may be, actually sounds like
something I might have tried, had I felt it was absolutely necessary to keep
Mark Twain in the gag. But instead, since nothing else is made of Mark Twain
in the rest of the story, I decided to drop him in favor of another gag.
This was based on how the counting of the line marks might sound in Swedish;
and the Swedish name of Ratchet Gearloose (which I was able to invent from
scratch, since his name never was mentioned before in Sweden).

I can clearly see how the Finnish translator must have reasoned, starting
with "Mark Twain" and looking for puns. It would be easy to arrive at the
Finnish currency (Marks), which in turn shouldn't be hard to incorporate
into a Scrooge story. (Of course, I can't judge the quality of the actual
result.) This is exactly how I go about trying to translate a wordplay. I
start with the most crucial part and look for similar-sounding words to use
in a pun; then continue to other elements of the scene if I can't find
anything suitable, and so on. Sometimes, of course, I find myself forced to
leave it out completely. In this case, I thought the clearly depicted
depth-measuring was a more vital element than Mark Twain's name. So, after
finding a solution that pleased me, I didn't look further.

I very much enjoy these discussions about various ways to cope with such
tough spots in different countries. I realize that some people will disagree
with my unwillingness to put foreign dialogue in the translations, but I'm
still convinced that this is the best approach, overall. The majority of
European Duck readers are not like the members of this list! So, all you
writers out there, you better be prepared that although I try to do what I
can, some of your clever ideas might never reach the Swedish audience...
with my humble apologies, and all...

Stefan Dios
Malmo, Sweden

I find the recent recollections of the Duck Tales fans interesting. I'm of
the older generation, and I recall the talk of Barks fans when DT started was
basicaly negative. They hated the show, and they hated the comics. The only
thi9ng they liked was Uncle Scrooge toys... Now that you young folks have
grown up, I guess that I will be hearing alot more fond nostalgia about DT.

Also, I had a big mail crash - if you e-mailed me about Adventurous USMcD #2 -
or Scrooge and Donald; let me know ASAP (so I can buy them). It will take me
over a month or probably more; to pull out all my old e-mail and usenet
messages out of the junkyard.

Steven Rowe

I got myself an extra e-mail alias:
(Email removed)
You're welcome to send e-mail there if you wish.

I need to get a life!

:-)

Katie

--
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Planet Sullivan http://www.execpc.com/~sulliva1/
With Redwall, Disney Ducks, llamas, humor and more!
:-)
"I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy I every minute of it."
"Being crazy is what keeps me from going insane."
********************************************

CHRISTOPHER BARAT:

Me>Don Rosa chased off "his own" list!? I'm upset, angry and very sorry.
>Someone else has already commented on the use of the phrase "[Don's] own
>list". To my mind, it's ill-advised, giving people the false impression
>that this IS in fact a "Rosa cheering section".

Being interpreted thus, I must (relucantly) accept that my wording may
not have been immediately clear. But as the rest of the mail clarified,
or apparently didn't, my point was the exactly opposite, and the words
in quotation marks were an ironic paraphrasing of other's opinions.

I refer to dcomics as "my list" too, meaning that I consider myself
a part of it, that I feel like I belong here, and that I really,
really like it. *Not* that I'm disputing Per Starback's authority as
benevolent dictator (don=92t even *think* of taking this literally!),
or think of the 200+ other subscribers as my fan club. <ROFL> :-)

BTW recent digests seem to suggest that people are under the false
impression that this is a Disney *animation* ml, which it one of the
few things it officially isn't. I'm just stating that as a fact, not
an attack on you, Christopher, or others. I know where the PageDown
is when the subjects occasionally go too off-topic for my taste.

ME>...that's why [Don] is being exploited by people who use him as a
ME>prestige xerox machine (hi Gladstone!)...>>
>??? Explain, please? Gladstone is simply reprinting Rosa's stories.
>Are you referring to the album reprints of "LO$" and the first two
>years of Don's stories?

No, even if I find it waste of the few pages Gladstone publish to reprint
the same stories in both comic books and albums simultaneously, I was
referring to Don doing the same drawings over and over and over, only
to make the Lo$ hardcover book more valuable to collectors.=20
I wonder how many of those books ever get *read*?

Now for something less controversial... or maybe not?: Spoilers.

I have a possible explanation for Geoffrey Blum's essay on, and
alledged spoiling of the ending of "A Little Something Special".
Thanks forposting it, Archontis: now that I've read the actual
text I'm not so sure that Geoffrey is actually negative to Rosa or
ruining the ending on purpose:

It is absurdly funny that Blum's says he won't spoil the ending and
then goes on to do exactly that ("But I can say as much...")!

But possibly he saw the last couple of pages as an epilogue, a nice
little twist, and nothing more. It must be hard to write a text
piece for a story, if you're not allowed to talk about the story
itself: Blum did so, quite successfully, until he decided that there
*was* something he could discuss without risk and with direct reference
to his beloved Barks. I consider it an error of judgement, nothing more.

Becattini/Gori's pieces for the Scarpa stories or even Rosa's own
"Making of Lo$" are much more specific on the actual stories, and
I never read those pages before the story. Because...

SOEREN OLESEN [just got your private mail, and will get back to
you on that]:
>Knowing the end of any story should not be sufficient to spoil the
>story, if that was the case, why reread any story then?

=2E..reading a story (or watching a movie) for the first time is a very
different experience from reading (viewing) it again. The first time
there is an element of thrill and suspense, that is disturbed by
knowing parts of the plot before. Ever got tired of the many trailers,
behind-the-scenes and director's interviews that always *precede*
any major Hollywood release nowadays? One of the reasons I rarely go
to the movies anymore ("Titanic" just came up in Denmark last Friday).

But when I decide to pull a movie from the video collection, it is
because I already know what it's like and what experience I'd like
to re-live. Or maybe see things, others have described about it.
I just watched "Blade Runner" again after reading some interesting
articles about it, and surely it was a different movie this time.

Now, finally, something I expect *no-one* to object to:=20

Another of Scrooge's old flames appears in a Strobl story in U$ 78
from 1968, "I. O. U. ... But Who?"

LONG SPOILER: Scrooge finds an old I-Owe-You note for a few dollars,
but can't read the signature. Looking through his photo album, he finds
likely candidates for the debt. He first tracks down "his first
partner", Sammy Sourdough, who's still digging for gold in the Yukon.
But it turns out it is instead Scrooge who owes for the huskie, he left
with. Next he finds Pierre du Platt, who in the meantime has become a
rich diamond trader. But it it again Scrooge who has to pay forty years
interest, because he couldn't make change when Pierre paid back his
loan long ago. Finally he comes to Rosie Goldilocks, and her photo has
the legend "Dear friend, I know how much I owe you." The daughter of
a rich plantation owner, the faded southern beauty still lives in
Magnoliatown and gives Scrooge a big kiss when he arrives.
Her debt isn't money (of course): when Scrooge once saved her from
drowning, she promised to become his wife ("M-m-my w-wife?!")
She admits however, she did it to save the plantation and Scrooge
promises to put a lot of money into it - obviously relieved to get
away so easily. Whereupon she pulls her true love, Josias, out from
behind a tree: now they can finally get married after all...
Oh, the note was from Scrooge himself, who loaned for a bowl of soup
from his own piggy bank. END SPOILER.

First, I only have the Danish reprint, so the names may be entirely
wrong. Second, I know the lady isn't recurring and that Scrooge doesn't
seem to be romantically inclined, but there is talk about marriage
and a big, wet you-know-what.

Ole Reichstein Nielsen <(Email removed)>

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End of Disney comics Digest V98 Issue #34
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3rd of January this year there was an article in the Danish paper Weekend
Avisen (= serious paper) about Egmonts sales of the weekly _Anders And
og Co_ in Denmark.

I, myself, had not heard much news from the sales and strategies the past
years, so I found it quite interesting. As I am a very considerable person
(a-hem, pardon my modesty), I have translated the whole damn thing.

For Gary and the rest of the gang at Gladstone it might also be interesting
reading as Egmonts sales were dropping and they have managed to stop
this decline. Unfortunately Egmont must have spend a lot more money than
realistic for Gladstone. But still, there might be a few things to pick up. So
Gladstone: consider this consultancy service -for the moment- free of
charge (-I will sue you when you get rich).

[start article]

Comeback:

Re-prints of old Carl Barks stories, more pages and a new mail order shop.
All this has helped the Danish flagship _Anders And og Co._ to head for
the right direction.

[headline] THE DUCK STRIKES BACK

Well helped on its way by a massive advertising campaign, Egmont has
succeeded in getting the sickly _Anders And og Co_ a nice comeback
with the Danish consumers.

In 1997 the sales went up by 3 per cent to 96,000 sold issues a week and
in December alone the number was about 100,000. According to manager
of marketing, Peter T. Jahn this is far beyond expectations.

Since the beginning of the 90ies the print-runs had gone down with about
10 per cent a year. _Anders And og Co._ was well on its way to be killed
by the boom in family entertainment; including the ever-increasing
*Disneyfication* of the childrens universe.

Today, childrens time is a huge market and the competition for the
childrens attention is very tough. On the edge: In the good old days family
leisure time was spend *creating* things together while today it is about
*consuming*. In the old days there was _Anders And og Co. once a week
and Disneys Christmas Show once a year. Today there is Disney 24 hours
a day.

By 1996 _Anders And og Co._ had gone back from 126,000 (1992) to only
93,500 sold copies a week. At that time the alarm bells started ringing at
Egmont who are among the biggest Disney producers, print-wise. Egmont
issues Disney magazines in 28 countries

An extensive campaign was launched and through this Egmont succeeded
in stopping the declining sales. The tools were powerful TV-spots with
slogans like: _Our stories are better than yours_, an increase in quality of
the content, increase in page numbers and a new mail order shop selling
Donald Duck clothes. This not only stopped the decline but even
increased sales.

Peter T. Jahn, who describes himself as the businessman behind the duck,
says: _The aim with the campaign was first of all to stop the decline. We
had no illusions when it came to compete with the many trendy things in
this market_.

But it turned out that even in this computerized age there were still a wish
for _a quarter of an hour of dreams_.

Peter T. Jahn: _The re-making of _Anders And og Co._ is based upon an
extensive investigation from which the conclusion was drawn that there
was nothing wrong with _Anders And_ but the kids would just rather have
something else_. The same investigation showed that the comic was used
as a quarter of an hour where you could dream.

_That is why we decided to increase the page numbers and bring more of
the best_ says Peter T. Jahn and continues: _Anders And og Co_ may be
small in the total childrens market but when it comes to the sales of comics
it has got 65 per cent of the share.

So who are the new buyers?

Some are the so called _Heavy users_ that buys more than one issue at a
time but also more young families. This means that you create new
_Donald Duck families_. It also turned out that half of the readers are
adults. Typically: *Mum buys it and Dad reads it*.

_Anders And_ is a typical generation product that still is loved by the
people that grew up with the comic when it started in Denmark in 1949.
Some of the new readers are adults (parents) that read _Anders And_ in
the 1970ies when the quality of the stories was low. Now the task is to
convince them that the quality is again high.

That the interest in the Duckburg universe is still very much alive is seen by
the 700,000 hits Egmonts _Anders And_ Internet homepage has had since
the page was opened last summer. Here can be seen the characters family
relations and one can read about Disneys famous artist Carl Barks, and
much more.

Also, the new Anders And-shop has been a success and a new collection
has just been launched. Still, it will turn out a costly experience for the
parents if the 4 year old insists on getting a black leather jacket with Ducks
on the back. Price: 1248 DKK [=180 dollars]

The campaign for _Anders And_ will continue in 1998 where the actor Axel
Stroebye has been hired to perform in a series of TV-commercials.

Peter T Jahn: Yes we do flex the muscles but we make sure that our
product is OK when we succeed in catching the consumers. We prefer to
be able to show a bit more than we promise because we cannot jeopardize
with _Anders And_. At the same time we do claim that the fantasy with no
limits are to be found in Duckburg; that it is cheaper to buy and we can be
brought everywhere_.

And that is not bad for DKK 15.50 [2 dollars]

[end article]

The commercials referred to in the article are all made in the same manner:
The kid question his/hers parent where the _Anders And_ magazine the
parent promised to buy is. The parent has obviously forgotten all about this
and make up some incredible (and very much unbelievable) story why
he/she never made it to home with the comic. These stories involves
100,000 chinese all longing for _Anders And_, window cleaner
conventions, falling chimneys, wild trolley chases in supermarkets, Michael
Jackson and trucks loaded with sand to sahara, just to name a few. The
kid sighs and a voice says the slogan _Anders And - because our stories
are better than yours_.

Thats it for now.

Poul Frokjar