Keskustelujen arkisto

A question: does anyone remember HL&D ever showing their teeth?

And now for something completely different...
Some time ago collection of Rosa's stories was published here in Finland
in a book named "Kadonneen Kirjaston Vartijat" (or "Guardians of the
Lost Library"). Rosa wrote comments to each story on that book and I was
wondering whether anyone had the actual english versions of these
comments (Don Rosa: maybe you kept them?). Have they even ever appeared
anywhere? (the book contained "Guardians of the Lost Library", "Mythical
Menagerie", "Island at the edge of Time", "Incident of the McDuck
Tower", "War of the Wendigo", "Master Landscapist", "Super Snooper
Strikes Again", "On Stolen Time" and "Return to Xanadu").

If you know *anything* please let me know

Teme

ANDERS SIVEBAEK, 13 September 1998:

> In W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.O.F.J.A.R.G.O.N. (Hope I got the tittle right)

Nearly right! :-) It's "W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N".

> there is a m,entioning of Al Taliaferro and Ted Osborne, could someone
> (Stefan, Don or anyone who has read the swedish or american edition
> please tell me where that mentioning is?

It's on panel 2 of page 2 and the dialogue is: "We are thrilled tohave
with us today the *first two* Junior Woodchucks under founder Clinton
Coot! Retired grand marshal...*Osborne* and retired exalted overseer
*Taliaferro*!"

They get the very special title of "W.H.A.T.F.O.R.A.N.Y.W.A.Y." which
stands for "Woodchucks Honored As The First, Original Recruits, And
Notables You Will Acclaim Year-round".

> I don't think I saw it in the danish edition, but I must say I laughed
> when HD or L was told not to call his grandma grandma!

According to Barks/Rosa, Grandma is not HDL's grandmother. She's their
*great*-grandmother.

Greetings,

--- Daniel
http://www.caiw.nl/~dve/barks/index.html

ON EXCLAMATION POINTS:

One of the first explanations I ever heard on the universal use of
exclamation points in comics was that in the early days the etching process
used to create the metal plates weakened the metal to the point that the
thin upraises created by periods would break off very easily, leaving no
punctuation mark at all. The exclamation point created a much sturdier
upraise, so it was adopted as the "kludge" that overcame the inherent
technical problem.

I'm dubious as to the validity of this myself, but I figure it's worth
passing along.

STEFAN, DON:

>The next topic is sadder, and I wouldn't want to pursue it much longer,
>either... but... sigh...
>
>>The whole point of the story was to commemorate
>>Taliaferro/Osbourne's creation of these characters. It's inconceivable that
>>the editor would not be told this.
>
>I'm sorry... but surely you mean to say, "It *ought to be* inconceivable"...
>
>
>> I know the editors of the Disney comics
>>are sometimes not hired because of any particular knowledge or interest they
>>have in the material, but they should still know what's going on in their
>>own special editions and commemorative stories, eh?
>
>Oh, we should all wish... sigh...

Double sigh...with whipped cream, fudge sauce, and slivered almonds. Would
that the job of editor was to make sure a story was perfect in every detail
before it goes to the printer, but it isn't. The editor's job is to get the
story in the best shape possible by the time the printer needs it. It's
called "scheduling," to which editors, printers, and even creators are
subject. And the least flexible part of the schedule is the printer,
without exception. Presses earn money when they're rolling, and lose it
when they're not, so scheduling, and strict adherence to same, is not
merely important, it is the pivot around which all other aspects of
publishing spin. No editor interested in continued employment ever wants to
cause the printer to call the publisher and ask why the material for a
scheduled press run hasn't arrived.

So editors work under a lot of pressure, pressure that can sometimes force
editorial material into odd and unappealing shapes. It can force editors
into odd and unappealing shapes too, sometimes, figuratively speaking.

I've made a new Carl Barks page containing a random collection of
rare / unpublished work. It can be found at:

http://marcobar.cce.unifi.it/comics/daniel/index.html

The site is also linked from Marcobar's comic pages. Many thanks to
Marco Barlotti for the diskspace and the link!

Greetings, "Streaming through the starlit skies,
travelling by telephone
--- Daniel Yippee! You can't see me but I can you."
(Syd Barrett, 1967)

JONATHAN MARKOFF:
> Bucky Bug in "Juggerpede" and Scamp in "Choosing a Leader."
.....
> After all, have there been ANY memorable comics stories with
> these characters?

For Bucky (or "Buckey" as he was known before) I'd say that his
introductory tale, accompanied by a naming contest, was pretty
interesting ("Silly Symphonies" newspaper serial called "Buckey
Bug" [Jan. 10, 1932], which was reprinted in a recent issue of
WDC). And another memorable issue was WDC&S #28 when Buckey &
June married, but that tale hasn't been reprinted for decades.
In fact, to me, I've always regarded Bucky as the bugworld's
version of Mickey Mouse, though I haven't felt that way lately.

As for Scamp, I can't really think of any memorable tales. The
character himself is very endearing, though. I wish there was
more substance to him. There is rumor, however, that Disney is
planning a Direct-to-video sequel to "Lady & the Tramp" which is
suppose to feature Scamp. L&tT is my alltime favorite Disney
animated film, which is probably why I like Scamp, and I would
certainly welcome an animated feature based on him. Also, the
artwork for the early Scamp strips (by Al Hubbard, right?) is
actually some of the best comic art I've seen, especially from
that time period. The later stuff (by Paul Murry, right?),
during the Gold Key era, wasn't of the same quality (IMHO). The
scripts during the Gold Key era lacked a lot of the playful
quality of the ones produced earlier. I didn't appreciate the
irony of Scamp becoming a superhero a la Super Goof. Those
types of tales ruined Scamp for me.

Rich (xephyr, xavier, pegasus, etc.) :-)

From: Silvio Peter:
>>>>Flipping through the DCD #227 I've found something that I think is based
on a misunderstanding:
I looked it up in the german Micky Maus #44/97 - the names in question in
the german translation were "Willibald" and "Waldemar", two beautiful,
old-fashioned german names in the tradition of the german duckburghian
universe, as it was formed by the legendary german translator Dr. Erika
Fuchs. They are *not* the names of any translators nor editors.

So the only misunderstanding is that it must have been the Danish edition
that had the names of Taliaferro & Osborne replaced by that of a translator
and editor, and it was the German edition that sabotaged the purpose of the
tribute by replacing the names of the writer and artist with "two beautiful,
old-fashioned German names" that had nothing to do with anything. We still
have a case of an editor who either had no idea what was going on in a
specially commissioned story in his/her own special issue (note that this
"tribute" idea was Egmont's idea, not mine), or an editor of Disney comics
who incredibly has no knowledge of the names of two of the half-dozen (or
perhaps four?) most famous Disney comics creators, or purposely deleted
their names because... well, I can think of no logical reason to do so.
Even if some editor decided that the kiddie readers would not see any
significance in the names of Taliaferro & Osborne, would it drive the little
sweethearts stark raving mad to see two names that they saw no special
significance in but which would not conflict with the plot??? The people who
were intended to see the tribute would have still seen it, no kiddies would
suffer brain hemorrage, and the story's purpose would not have been
sabotaged.

From: "Teme"
>>>>>Some time ago collection of Rosa's stories was published here in
Finland
in a book named "Kadonneen Kirjaston Vartijat" (or "Guardians of the
Lost Library"). Rosa wrote comments to each story on that book and I was
wondering whether anyone had the actual english versions of these
comments (Don Rosa: maybe you kept them?).

I should chicken out and simply ignore this question, but it is addressed to
me, so I must face the music: yes, I surely have copies of my texts for
those stories someplace. But... I "pass" on finding the time to dig them out
and type them all up for inclusion here. Forgive me?
If it will distract you while I slip away, I'll mention that I am currently
talking to the nice people at Helsinki Media about what stories will be
included in the 1999 Rosa-hardback (160 pages). Maybe when I write those
texts I'll save it on disk so I can shoot it through this ML, if requested.

Rich:
> the
> artwork for the early Scamp strips (by Al Hubbard, right?) is
> actually some of the best comic art I've seen, especially from
> that time period. The later stuff (by Paul Murry, right?),
> during the Gold Key era, wasn't of the same quality (IMHO).

Yes, the best Scamp stories are Hubbard's.
I don't think Murry ever drew a Scamp story. Pete Alvarado and Mike
Arens did the Scamp stories in the 60s and 70s. Quite bad, IMO too. But
there also has been a Scamp newspaper strip, drawn by Manuel Gonzales.
And his drawings are very good.

--Harry.

Hi, boys!

Fluks, H.W. wrote:

> I don't think Murry ever drew a Scamp story.

I'm sure he didn't.

> But
> there also has been a Scamp newspaper strip, drawn by Manuel Gonzales.

Indeed, many of these strips were drawn by Roger Armstrong (former
Li'l Bad Wolf's artist) who did an "average" work.
Bye!
Luca