Keskustelujen arkisto

David wrote:

> IMHO, giving Ellsworth a nephew was one of the few Scarpa
>decisions I disagree with. Why was this done, when the two almost neve=
r
>appear together and when Ellsworth himself is already as rowdy and
>rambunctious as any "kid" character?

There's a wonderful story (I TL 1048-B) where Ellsworth introduces
"Bruto" as his son. Ellsworth explains to Mickey how he found "Bruto" i=
n
the desert when he was a legionnaire.

In France, the editors made no difference between Ellsworth and Bruto
(or Gancetto or Geninho) - both called Genius - except in the stories
where both characters appear (Gancio being "Genius" and Bruto "F=E9lix"=
).

Something very weird though is the fact that Bruto actually flies in
these Italian stories. That's very strange for a Disney character.

In Hachette's Mickey weekly you can even find stories featuring
Ellsworth as a super-hero just like Goofy or Donald. He's called Super
G=E9nius and he was invented by Corteggiani. Corteggiani is the writer =
of
most of the French Ellsworth stories. He made him a quite different
character, a sort of anti-Genius, who only believes he's a genius!

Hachette recently published a 44 pages "mystery" story with Mickey,
Minnie, Chief O'Hara and Prof. Enigm. It's a very good story, done in a
sort of Gottfredson-Murry style, but very interesting. The art is by a
new artist, Angel Rodriguez, whose work is also very good. I
particularly appreciated the descriptions and the views of different
parts of Mickeyville in the story.

Francois

Hi.

Has anyone got any scans from Musse Pigg-tidningen?

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Hallo.

Sometimes I find answers on a letter on the same one as the letter. Is
there any way to find the next list on the Internet?

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First off, welcome back Don! It's nice to hear what you're up to
again...

Secondly, I found a little oddity at my local used bookstore today--

its a book, a novel, from something called "Whitman's Tween Age Books"
series... It's an illustrated novel titled _Donald Duck and the Lost
Mesa Ranch_. Has anyone heard of this before? It's dated from 1966 I
believe, and features Donald, HD&L, Uncle $crooge, Mickey Mouse,
Mickey's nephews, Goofy, Grandma Duck, & Chip -n- Dale to name as many
as I could find. The author of the book was a Mary Carey, and the
interior illustrations were done by Al Andersen & Tony Strobl...

I haven't gotten into the plot yet, but it appears to have something to
do with investigating a "haunted" ranch that $crooge inherits from an
old friend... But it certainly has a large cast of characters!

anyone know if whitman made any more of these? (it's interesting to note
that Whitman was headquartered in my home town of Racine, Wisconsin...)

-matt-

DON/DAN:

I just visited your web site about the Lo$, and it doesn't seem to
have been updated for a while. I was just wondering if you'll be able
to add some information about the "B-parts" soon.

==
Danny Coenen

Visit me on the World Wide Web!
The Foreign Exchange Student Homepage at
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Breakers/5042 or
http://surf.to/saturnpage
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LUNA:

RE: Bonifacio
>I think Eta is right, since Bonifacio appeared even in one of the first
>italian stories: "L'inferno di Topolino" (Mickey's hell) by Martina and
>Bioletto, where Mickey and Goofy meet almost all Disney characters.
>Sorry I can't scan the page, but I don't want to ruin that issue (I'm
>that kind of collector who has all his comics in plastic bags, checks
>them every month, etc...)

Can you give a description of "Bonifacio" as he appears in this tale?
I reckon since it was, as you say, one of the first Italian Disney
stories, it could very well have been "Bertie" who indeed appears there,
since the three tales involving "Bertie" (a.k.a. "Calfie") would possibly
have been known by these Italian writers.

Bonifacio, on the other hand doesn't seem to make his first appearance
until the late 1980s.

I would categorize Bertie as a malicious prankster, while Bonifacio
appears to be more of a pariah because of his inherent bad-luck (sort
of likeJonah [as Franco/Eta Beta says] from the Bible).

ALSO:
>At the moment I don't recall of any "Calfie", could
>you tell more about him?

I'm not currently an official Disney Archivist, though I seem to be
striving for such a goal, so much of what I have to say is second hand
or speculation, extrapolated from what I've seen, read and learned
along the way. I must also admit that while I do possess many of the
tales I mention, they are written in Italian, Portuguese and such, which
means I must rely on the interpretations of native speakers of those
languages or from using an Italian-to-English dictionary (etc.) to
interpret the stories, thus, of course, the subtle nuances replete in each
tale are lost to me, and I must take my cues from the actual art as
presented. That having been said, for those not able, or not yet inclined
to check out what I've written concerning Bertie & Bonifacio, here is my
impression:

BERTIE COW (a.k.a. "Calfie"):
Clarabelle Cow's young cousin Bertie Cow first appeared as "Calfie" in
the Sunday "Silly Symphony featuring Pluto the Pup" from September 8,
1940, where he manages to terrorize poor Pluto by Hubie Karp and Bob
Grant. Next he appears in "Walt Disney's Comics & Stories" #36 in the
tale called "Cousin Bertie" (Sep. 1943, recently reprinted in WDC&S
#622). Bertie comes to visit his older cousin Clarabelle and mounts
reign of terror starting with an unsuspecting Miss Bovina (who
unwittingly blames Clarabelle for her injuries). He appears again in the
very next issue of WDC&S in the tale "Bertie the Jinx" when he focuses
his malicious mischief on poor Horace Horsecollar whom Clarabelle
believes to be the culprit. These strips were drawn by Ken Hultgren and
Vivie Risto.

BONIFACIO:
Clarabelle's Cousin Bonifacio appears to be a Brazillian creation whose
origins are unclear. He appeared in a few stories from 1985 through
1986 (such as TL#1637, Mickey Mouse: "Topolino e i numeri del Lotto"
TL #1676, Mickey Mouse: "Topolino e il passaggio in auto", TL #1682,
Mickey Mouse: "Topolino e gli ossicini della fortuna", and TL #1703,
Bonifacio e la sorte che non demorde"). Bonifacio appears to be a
grown-up version of Bertie, although rather than playing mean-spirited
pranks, he seems to be a simple, but good-natured man, sort of a
Goofy-esque character whose neivete unfortunately leads to havoc. His
main Brazillian artist was probably Roberto Fukue. There must have
been some major influence from Bertie in Bonifacio's creation, perhaps
even a borrowing the concept of Bertie's nick name "The Jinx" and
applying it litterally to the character of Bonifacio. On the surface
Bonifacio appears to be an unnecessary duplication of effort, and the
writers must have intended to use him in "Bertie-like" scenarios, but
must have felt Bertie, himself, was too young for their plans. It is easy
to see Bertie & Bonifacio as possibly being brothers (sharing a common
genetic trait), though it would appear that while Bonifacio's *bad luck*
is a naturally occurring phenomenon, Bertie's are intentionally
inflicted. From the few stories I've seen, Bonifacio appears very genial,
but by contrast, Bertie is a mean-spirited little brat, complete with
angelic facade. Bertie calculates his michief, and enjoys seeing the harm
he causes. On the other hand, Bonifacio seems too simple minded to have
planned any of the *natural disasters* that occur when he is around. In
fact Bonifacio seems to be just as much of a victim as others. Apparently
he is, along with everyone else, fully aware of his being a naturally
occurring bad luck charm. It would seem the writers intended for
Bonifacio to be an oxymonronic character... even his name, Bonifacio,
can be understood as meaning "congenial," even while he unwittingly
brings a barrage of misfortune where ever he goes. Should a writer
become inspired, posing a tale with both Bonifacio and Gladstone Gander
together would be interesting. While Gladstone's Good Luck only relates
to himself, could it possibly be countered by Bonifacio's Bad Luck which
apparently is projected out onto others?

I imagine that since these are NOT official profiles for the character(s)
they are open to correction or to the inclusion of supplimental data.
Please feel free to comment where you feel appropriate. I appreciate
this sort of criticism because it helps me to make the profiles as
accurate as possible.

Anyone interested in seeing the PHYSICAL differences between Bertie
and Bonifacio can do so by checking out:
http://www.jps.net/xephyr/rich/dzone/hoozoo/bertie.html
where you can read about other relatives of Clarabelle's and click on
"Bertie's" portrait for more art, or you can go directly to the image at:
http://www.jps.net/xephyr/rich/dzone/hoozoo/images/bertie2.gif

-Rich (xephyr)
http://www.jps.net/xephyr/rich/disney.html

David:
> *SPOILERS*
> In "The Flying Scot," we're asked to believe that a single ghost
> ship has scared the entire world's population of sardines all into one
> part of the ocean, and that only one sailor ever saw this going on. The
> ducks also spend an *awful* lot of the story searching for a single
> sardine for their sandpiper bird, before the serious business of
> Danblane McDuck actually gets moving.

This is exactly what I like about Scarpa stories: the insertion of extra
gags before coming to the actual point of the story. It's like in Barks'
Atlantis story, where the Ducks first use half of the pages to get a
quarter, and *then* go to the sunken continent.

This way of story telling is (IMO) clearly inspired by the Mickey
newspaper stories (especially the Walsh ones). It's also visible in some
of the early Murry Mickey stories (not written by Murry, I guess). One
of those stories is currently being reprinted in Holland, and I like it!

Concerning the "unbelievable" things you mention: it never occurred to
me that these things are a bit unbelievable. Probably the story is told
in such a perfect way that the occasional reader (or I, at least)
doesn't notice!
(The thing I *did* notice was the too easy explanation of why the ship
could fly...)

--Harry.

DON ROSA --
Your point on "damned if you do, damned if you don't" is
well taken. But there's a more subtle point to be made here, as
well -- namely, that it takes TWO sides taking things too
seriously to produce the irritation you speak of. And YOU are
taking this sort of criticism too seriously. I mean -- who
cares? You make stories that amuse yourself, and apparently they
amuse editors as well because they keep getting published, and
apparently they amuse a LOT of others too because they keep
flying you to Europe where people stand in line for your
autograph. If a FEW folks pick nits, that's their problem, not
yours.
Anyway, I think Harry was mostly just calling attention
to his own powers of observation, not claiming you'd done
"wrong". I know if I noticed an inconsistency between a story of
yours and one of Barks, I'd feel pretty smug about it, and might
be motivated to brag.
I'll admit that this sort of thing CAN drive one crazy --
I've felt it even with stories I had nothing to do with, when
American superhero fans go to great lengths to adjust the stories
they read, making the "reality behind" the stories (whatever that
is) consistent. The fact that such folks form such a large part
of the U.S. comics audience is, if you ask me, one prominent
reason the U.S. comics industry is in such trouble -- where are
the people who can simply enjoy a story on its own merits? Be
thankful this vocal minority is such a relatively SMALL part of
your own audience!
Of course, one of the reasons this bothers me is that
there is a nit-picking continuity freak lurking in the depths of
my own soul. Fortunately, I've come up with an easy way to
appease it -- I simply tell it the author changed a few minor
details of how it "really" happened, so as to make the story
better. In the present case, that would mean Barks "adding" a
bit about Scrooge discovering the tunnel, because the tunnel had
not previously been introduced to the reader.
There's a similar situation in the Sherlock Holmes
stories -- in "The Final Problem", the opening of the story is
where Watson first hears of Professor Moriarty, and by the time
the story is over, Moriarty is dead. But in "The Valley of Fear"
(written later but occurring earlier in continuity), Watson knows
all about him. The nit-picking continuity freak says the author
"added" the bit about Watson learning of Moriarty's existence as
an easy way to introduce him to the reader. But the guy who JUST
reads for pleasure says, who cares? They're both good stories.
In any case, "the author changed it a little" covers
EVERY glitch in continuity, so you never need to look for
another explanation. (In some ways, it's like explaining rules
to children. No matter what reason you come up with, they have
something to counter it. Eventually, it comes down to "because I
said so", the ONE thing they can't contradict -- which is
possibly why they hate it so.)
Anyway, the best and truest answer to such criticism is
"I think it made for a good story". And since that answer is
known to and understood by everyone here, there's really no need
to respond at all.
In any case, it's good to have you back. The place is
livelier with you here.

JONATHAN MARKOFF --
Actually, the only regular Junkville resident seen in the
"Mickey Moosebug" story who was not in the "Flood" story is the
Mayor (who, by the way, is Bucky's father-in-law), and he appears
only briefly, at the end.
There aren't very many supporting characters in the
series to begin with. Other than June (Bucky's wife, Mayor's
daughter), Bootle Beetle (who is not seen at all in these six
stories), and Junior (June's kid brother), there are only a
couple of very minor ones that were used toward the end of the
original WDC&S run, whose existence can be (and as far as I know,
is) more-or-less ignored.
In fact, I suspect even Bootle and Junior have been
dropped in the Dutch series, making Bucky, Bo, June and the
Mayor the ONLY continuing characters. They do, tho, seem to have
added Soldier Ants (who appear twice in this series) as
continuing antagonists, which I like. I don't recall any
recurring villains in the WDC&S series.

MARC CHAPMAN --
>> "over a long period of time the 1950s will be filled with
>> Scrooge stories and there will be no chunk left to fit another
>> story."
Oh, Barks filled that time period already. It stretches
the imagination to think that a single individual could have as
many lengthy adventures in a single decade as Barks produced
DURING that decade. The fact that Scrooge continues adventuring,
and (according to SOME writers) continues having those adventures
in undefined niches of that same decade, is just another triumph
of fiction over reality. Lucky for us, fictional time is
infinitely stretchable, so we don't have to worry about running
out of it.

KRITON KYRIMIS --
>> "This is like adding up the number of Enterprise crewmen killed
>> in Star Trek stories."
I (being a little older than most here) think of it as
adding up the number of murdered corpses discovered by Perry
Mason. While anyone may discover one or two during the course of
a lifetime, it surpasses credibility that anyone could find as
many as Perry Mason, unless he's directly involved in their
production. And yet, all of his clients are innocent.
Fortunately, when we read each individual story, we don't have
to dwell on how often this has happened in the past -- we simply
enjoy the events that unfold with THIS corpse's discovery. Same
with Ducks. We don't mark off the days in 1950s calendars, and
when they're all full, stop writing stories about them -- if we
did, we'd probably ALREADY have found Scrooge visiting Tralla-La
in the morning and vanquishing Magica deSpell in the afternoon
of the same day.

RICH BELLACERA --
>> "If Don's only exposure to Scarpa has been through Gladstone,
>> then that might explain some of the mediocre impression of his
>> work. I think there was about 8 or more Scarpa stories
>> printed in Gladstone comics, but, I believe some of them were
>> editted down, removing story and art content."
I only know about the one Scarpa story I worked on for
Gladstone, "The Man from Oola-Oola". I can say with some
assurance that it was NOT "edited down" -- what I got to work
with seemed to be the complete story, and was never represented
to me as anything else. And **I** certainly didn't take any
panels out!
What you might be referring to is some discussion here on
the List a year or two back, about the Italian vision of Scrooge
vs. the American (the latter being more congruent with that of
Northern Europe, and, if you ask me, Barks). There were some
glitches in characterization (as perceived by Americans) that
had to be covered in dialog. The example I've given once or
twice in the past is a scene where Scrooge, in a fit of
exasperation, throws a coin into a river -- his motivation for
doing so made little sense to one who knows the Scrooge of Barks,
and had to be changed. There were several little glitches like
that, in both characterization and other elements of story logic.
Great stuff -- but with some flaws, at least in the English-
language version I saw. Maybe those areas were covered in the
original Italian; or maybe they just have a different concept of
the characters. In any case, I polished up the English version
and MOST DEFINITELY did NOT leave anything out. It was a
terrific story (with flaws) when I got it, and still a terrific
story when Gladstone published it.
(And to anyone who might criticize my sacrilegiously
changing ANYTHING in the already-translated version I started
with, let me point out, once again, that the original version,
as published in Italian, is [all together, now] STILL THERE.)
Dwight Decker touched on this point a couple of months
ago, when he said something about gritting his teeth when he
sees the dome on top of the Money Bin. That merely scratches the
surface of the modifications that have been made in the Italian
version of Scrooge.

TO ALL CONTINUITY FREAKS --
How can you possibly allow Carl Barks to get away with
such intolerable liberties with the Canon? In one of his
relatively recent stories, he makes a point of it being
established knowledge that ALL the Beagle Boys like prunes!

Quack, Don=