Keskustelujen arkisto

On Feb 8, 7:18pm, Daniel van Eijmeren wrote:

> Once someone here wrote a list of Barks-stories referring to World War II.
> I don't know if this story was among it, but, as a way of cursing, a nazi-
> cross can be seen in panel 18.5. Very odd, because the story was submitted
> at the end of 1946 while the nazi's were defeated in 1945. (Or was there a
> habit of using that sign this way in comics/cartoons in those years?)
>
I don't think using a swastika in simulated swearing (#!@$%&!) is "odd" -- I've
seen it used in French comics of fairly recent vintage. I think it's more that
the @#$! cartoonist simply needs a #$%$! graphic symbol to make his &*+!! point
and the usual #$@!! symbols and letters have been too !*&%#! overused. The
swastika simply indicates bad language, not a political statement (unless you
take it to mean that since a swastika represents bad things, using it this way
shows that the language it represents here must be bad, too).

But if you want a Statement...there's some early Barks ten-pager that has a
scene set in a junkyard, and just as a background bit, without any special
attention being called to it, a copy of "Mein Kampf" is lying amid the trash. I
think Barks made a very eloquent comment without any need for words or a brass
band introduction to emphasize it.

--Dwight Decker

--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V98 Issue #48
*****************************************

SOEREN OLESEN to me:

>> turning a GIF into JPEG gives poor results [...] So, scans should be
>> JPEG-ed from the original source and not from a GIF.

> My advise is this: Try to do all your picture editing in the GIF format
> - and then - when the picture looks right convert it into JPG.

When I scan I always use a BMP-format. GIF and JPEGS are compression-
formats, while BMP isn't. Even after converting to a compressed format for
internet, I always keep a copy of the original BMP and then archive it.

> You know, GIF compresses but does not disturb info!

Indeed it doesn't, but since it can contain only 256 colours it has a
habit that it (when turned on) dithers some colours by placing two other
colours next to each other (as in printed dots). When the GIF is turned
into JPEG-compression the process gets disturbed by this, which results
in poor quality. I myself once tried it and the result was indeed bad.

Greetings,

--- Daniel

Hi Folks,

DANIEL and DWIGHT:

>> Once someone here wrote a list of Barks-stories referring to World=20
War II.

Is it available somewhere in the archive? If so, where?

>> I don't know if this story was among it, but, as a way of cursing, a=
=20
nazi-
>> cross can be seen in panel 18.5. Very odd, because the story was=20
submitted
>> at the end of 1946 while the nazi's were defeated in 1945. (Or was=20
there a
>> habit of using that sign this way in comics/cartoons in those years?=
)
>>
>I don't think using a swastika in simulated swearing (#!@$%&!) is "odd=
"=20
-- I've
>seen it used in French comics of fairly recent vintage. I think it's=20
more that
>the @#$! cartoonist simply needs a #$%$! graphic symbol to make his=20
&*+!! point
>and the usual #$@!! symbols and letters have been too !*&%#! overused.=
=20
The
>swastika simply indicates bad language, not a political statement=20
(unless you
>take it to mean that since a swastika represents bad things, using it=20
this way
>shows that the language it represents here must be bad, too).

Of course! In Germany, by the way, most of the swasticas in Disney=20
comics are whited out (unless they are overlooked, as in the first=20
printing of FC 147 in Micky Maus 19-22/63). Another example of the Nazi=
=20
cross in the Barks corpus are in WDC 142 (removed in any German reprint=
=20
except for Goofy 8/81) and in WDC 60 (not within a speech balloon, but=20
as part of the ornament of Donald's Indian feathers; these were also=20
redrawn in two of five German printings).=20

>But if you want a Statement...there's some early Barks ten-pager that=20
has a
>scene set in a junkyard, and just as a background bit, without any=20
special
>attention being called to it, a copy of "Mein Kampf" is lying amid the=
=20
trash. I
>think Barks made a very eloquent comment without any need for words or=
=20
a brass
>band introduction to emphasize it.

Interestingly, the book's title is also whited out in the story's first=
=20
German printing (TGDD 118; of 1992!); it seems EHAPA does NOT think=20
"Mein Kampf" has to be dumped on the junkyard.=20

That's All Folks

Klaus
(Email removed)
_________
"Wenn ist das Nunst=FCck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! ... Beierhund das Ode=
r=20
die Flipperwaldt gersput." <I>Thomas Vorwerk falls laughing out of=20
tree.</I>

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

Francois:

<<<And while I'm discussing Dave Rawson's stories, I must congratulate

John Lustig for his story "US The Hi-Tech, Low-Down Blues", D 92226.

This is one of the better recent Vicar I ever saw: the dialogues are

good and the end is totally unforseen (the leader of the company is

*not* a human!).>>>

Thanks very much. I'm glad you enjoyed it. That story, though, was actually
drawn by Branca. (He did a great job too.) In terms of it being "recent,"
well...actually I wrote it back in 1992. It's funny how things pop up in
different countries so many years apart.

Recent or not. I'm delighted to know that you liked the story.

--John Lustig

DWIGHT DECKER --
I agree on the datedness of dialog in late Barks stories --
seems he was trying to be "hip" and "with-it", and all he really
was, was an old man trying to ape the speech of the young. I
think of that whenever I'm tempted to write "hip", "with-it"
dialog myself nowadays...
While we're on the subject, how's about that revamp he
did of Gladstone Gander in his last couple of WDC&S stories!
Woo! I'm sure glad THAT look didn't stick!

>> "as a translator, I feel I also have a duty to be faithful to
>> the original as much as possible. The customers aren't paying
>> to see _me_; my job is to make the real writer look good."
Sure, but what makes the writer look good? When I choose
words in dialog, I'm interested not just in their bald meaning,
but also in their "sound", as the reader "hears" them in his
head. I like a certain "rhythm", I guess you could call it, and
a subtly different one for each character. Translating my words
straight may get my meaning across, but the "sound" will be
completely lost. I think it makes ME look better if the
translator is able to pick up on my rhythm, and compose an
approximation of THAT in his own language, than if he simply
chooses words for their exact meaning.
And by the way, I worry a lot less about rhythms and
sounds when I'm writing panel descriptions. There, my only real
goal is clarity. I'll use the same word as the subject of six
sentences a row, if that's what gets the meaning across best --
something I'd NEVER do in writing anything that a paying
customer is going to see, even in translation.

>> "That flip remark of yours to the effect that anybody who
>> cares about the originals should just read them in Dutch seems
>> to be implying that the Dutch stories were written in some
>> weird language nobody knows, by anonymous writers nobody ever
>> heard of, so what they wrote doesn't matter and can be
>> replaced without any qualms."
I certainly didn't intend it that way. What I meant was,
if you want the original writer's words, you have to read them
in the original writer's language -- just as if you want the
words of Carl Barks, you have to read them in English.
Translations in other languages may be good, may even have
become part of the tradition and canon of that language's
version -- but they aren't the words of Carl Barks, and nothing
can ever make them his words. Since a translation MUST depart
from the original (or else how could it be a "translation"?), we
are talking about a difference of degree, not kind -- I depart
more than most from the original words (if only because I'm
rendering them in verse), but ANY sticklers for the original
should go to the source.
And as I said earlier, It's required that the script I
write fit the art I'm working from -- so, since I have no
interest in writing a ludicrous parody (cf. "What's Up Tiger
Lily"), how far from the story can I deviate? I am NOT writing a
new story -- I am writing an English-language SCRIPT for the
story I see in front of me (even if I DO sometimes have to
squint real hard to see it).

>> "Well, gee, weren't those stories published somewhere? Isn't
>> the original dialogue available in printed comics? And don't
>> you know somebody just a few miles and a local phone call away
>> who can read Dutch, and who would be glad to offer his
>> consulting services for free just to prevent this kind of
>> thing from happening?"
Thanks for the offer, and if I'd had it earlier, I might
have taken you up on it (I've already sent off the last one, at
least for awhile). I'm always hesitant, tho, to ask people to do
something for me free, when they usually get paid for it. Even
so, most people I know with access to the original printings are
also able to give me a detailed English-language synopsis (and I
did credit Harry Fluks with helping me out on one particularly
thorny one). Anywho, by the time I identified the problem,
latched on to the original words, called you, and we got
together, chances are, I'd have figured out something that
worked. Most panels yielded to scrutiny after not TOO long a
time -- what REALLY ate up the hours was working out those
rhymes! (But that's also most of the fun.)
But I do take your larger point, which is that for
almost-neighbors (at least, compared with anybody else on this
List), we don't get together very often. I'll send you a flyer
for our Easter party. We're going to eat rabbits.

ROB GIBSON --
Actually, the Santa Claus image in "A Visit from St.
Nick" isn't all that modern. The modern version pretty much
started with the cartoonist Thomas Nast, and was solidified by
end-of-the-year ad campaigns for Coca-Cola. (It's the latter
that gave us the "traditional" colors of red and green associated
with the holiday -- red for their version of Santa's suit, and
green for the Coke bottle.)

Quack, Don=

STEVEN DIOS to ETA BETA, 2 FEBRUARY 1998:

E> In a '66 Barks one pager (US 61), the whole gag relies on a sign
E> hanging from the wall that says "Top Wages". [...]

S> This is a prime example of what I mentioned a short time back: when the
S> pun is shown in the picture *and* is part of the story. In this case, it
S> even constitutes the whole "story". There are several similar one-pagers
S> as well - "raining cats and dogs" and others.

This is the "Million Dollar Shower" gag (WDC 297) in which the English
expression "raining cats and dogs" is used. To translate the gag, the
Dutch editors decided to redraw the cats as dogs so the Dutch expression
"hondenweer" (dog-weather) could be used. This solution made me wonder,
because we also know the expression "beestenweer" (animal-weather) and
that would have solved it without any redrawing.

> I would look everywhere in the story to find something I could allude
> to that might make some kind of gag in context with the central element
> - in this case, the spinning-top, which would be hard to ignore.

As Harry already told, in Holland the top was replaced for a stamp.
Maybe the top could be left in if Scrooge would offer *buzzing* wages?
(In Holland that would be "suizen".) Buzzing is the sound tops make
while spinning and (if I use the term right) it can also be something
sensational (the wages, in this case).

This is just a rough quick idea, because I now already object to it
myself: The top isn't spinning/buzzing in the gag itself, so that might
not make a clear enough connection with the wages to the reader.

Another objection is that "top wages" is an often used expression and
replacing the "top" for another adjective does the gag harm in that way.
In this case I think one should draw a line and go for an as good as
possible other connecting adjective. "Buzzing" is just an example here,
maybe there's someone here who can find a much better connection?

Greetings,

--- Daniel

KLAUS HARMS:

>> Once someone here wrote a list of Barks-stories referring to World
>> War II.

> Is it available somewhere in the archive? If so, where?

It was sent by Matthias Hallin on 24 April 1992 and 'reprinted' on
11 September 1997. (The stories mentioned are WDC 31, WDC 35, WDC 43,
WDC 48, WDC 51 and WDC 56.)

> "Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! ... Beierhund das Oder
> die Flipperwaldt gersput." <I>Thomas Vorwerk falls laughing out of
> tree.</I>

Is this from a Mothy Python episode (a sketch about a joke that is so
funny it is dangerous for one's health)?

Greetings,

--- Daniel (likes Monty Python)