Keskustelujen arkisto

I didn't want to write a second comment on the same topic, because I'm
afraid that in these kinds of discussion it is almost impossible to
convince anybody of anything. But the way Don Rosa is mistreating the
name of our first German translator forces me to write another comment.
And it makes me believe that obviously I was not so wrong to change the
names of Taliaferro and Osborne. I mean, if an educated and
far-travelled man like Don Rosa can't cope with a quite simple foreign
name of a person he even is a bit familiar with, how could a 9-year-old
reader should have coped with a foreign name of an unknown person like
"Al Taliaferro"? Don Rosa makes our translator's name in his comments to
the ugly four-letter-word "Fuch" (and I do hope he doesn't mispronounce
it terribly!), whereas her name actually is written "Fuchs". That means
in English "fox" and is pronounced almost just like that, except for the
"o" becoming an "u" like in "butcher".
By the way, Don Rosa seems to be irritated because the Greek editor
is writing his name in a way that leads to some mispronouncement. But of
course the same is true for any European edition. For example, if Don
Rosa wanted the German readers to pronounce his name correctly, we would
have to write it somewhat like "Dan Rouse". Just because the letters are
the same in all Romanic and Germanic languages, doesn't mean they are
pronounced equally, too.
So, I hope we can finally agree that it's a very tricky thing, that
naming. At least as long as we don't have a single world-culture that
speaks all English (which I fear the world will be like in some future
century - but do we really have to speed up this process by not adopting
American stories to our own European culture and tradition?)

DON ROSA:
>>Germany is the only Egmont and/or Disney publisher in Europe who does
not send me copies of their Disney flagship
comic.<<

Maybe you don't notice them amongst the thousands of comic-magazines
that are sent to you every year, but we do send you the collected "Micky
Maus"-editions with your stories every few months. You find them in the
oversea-parcels of freelance-editor Klaus Strzyz (now try to pronounce
this name, guys!)

DON ROSA:
>>My solution would be for you to *not* use my stories if you intended
to "sabotage" historical references or harmless tributes... I'd lose no
(nonexistant) royalties and it would save us both grief. I wonder if
you, as an editor who does not work directly with the creators of the
stories you edit, can imagine how frustrating that is for those writers
or artists who put a *great* deal of love and care and thought into
their work?<<

Well, there is no grief at all on my side! Your best stories are real
highlights for our many young readers as well as for the older ones -
although they are all more or less "sabotaged"! By the way, we don't
merely eliminate jokes that can be found in the American original but
don't make much sense in our German Duck-Universe. Sometimes we even add
jokes that do fit into our Entenhausen but can't be found in the
original text. Is that sabotage, too? Anyway, I'm afraid the grief is
all yours ... But believe me, I do understand that it is frustrating for
you to see your ideas changed. I used to work as a freelance-translator
before becoming an editor, and sometimes I couldn't understand why that
foolish editor changed anything.
But now, sitting on the other side of the editor's desk, I believe
that any artist's work sometimes can be improved. Even the brilliant old
texts of Erika Fuchs in today's reprints have to be modernizes a bit to
make them understandable for our young readers. Fuchs, unlike some of
her old fans, always fully accepted these changes.
I believe that many artists don't understand their own work as good
as their admirers, because they don't have the right distance. Just like
someone who is standing ten inches in front of an elephant won't see as
much of the pachyderm as someone who is standing ten yards away.
Or let me try another comparison that I hope doesn't limp: Imagine
yourself as a father who loves his story-boy dearly and wants nothing
but his very best. Because the father is an intellectual with a deep
interest in history, he wants his child to become a historian. But the
smart little brat isn't that much interested in science, instead he
loves to fool around and to entertain his young friends. So they all
tell him that he should become a stand-up-comedian one day rather than a
boring historian. Of course the father will hate these friends, maybe he
will tell his child: "I know what's good for ya, cause I know ya better
than your friends or even than yourself" - didn't most of our parents
tell us something like that? Especially guys like us may have heard
serious warnings of their parents that they should rather learn a
serious profession than trying to make a living in the comic-trade. But
were our loving-ones right after all? I guess not.

ARTHUR FARIA JR:
RE: Witch Hazel's nephew
> Dennis Tzavaras, about Hazel the Witch's nephew:
> > She has a nephew?!?!?!? More info pls!!!

I have several comics with Witch Hazel's nephew in them,
probably two from American comics published during the
Gold Key era, and another couple from Brazil.

I have posted a picture of him at:
http://www.jps.net/xephyr/scans/witchis.gif
The scan is obviously from a Brazilian comic.

In the American comics his name is "Witchis Witch."
Which, I guess, is an attempt to play on the sound of
his name for a common phrase (namely: Which is which?).
His name also seems to presuppose that his aunt's
full name is actually, "Hazel Witch" (but it probably
doesn't necessitate that presumption).

Rich (xephyr)

hello
In Denmark we have a class about the ancient greece - We're reading the
Iliade (about the fall of Troja) - Today we learned something about
Hephaistos (the god of fire and blacksmiths) - He's called Vulcan in
roman. In the story Mythtic Mystery by Barks, Vulcan
appears. Here he has a hammer which can make iron into gold - does
anyone here know if that is something Barks made up - or is it a part of
the myth?
Thanks for any answers!
Anders Christian
(Email removed)

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Hi!
As I recall right Kari Korhonen has made many great-looking covers for
Aku Ankan
taskukirja (Finnish edition of Jumboboek, publishes Topolino-material).
I don't know if those covers been printed outside Finland. And he did
huge poster for one number (which I don't remember what it was)
presenting
Uncle-Scrooge with all his enemies. IMO he is much better artist than
writer, but
somehow he decided to do scripts instead of art. His style is like
combination of Barks
and best Italian Topolino artists. He did also cover for Finnish special
number of
Aku Ankka: "Pressisarjat" ("Press Comics" that is) which compiled
together few Tony Strobl's
Donald-Fethry-Scrooge stories, where they (try to) run Scrooge's
newspaper.
By now,
Timo

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Stefan:

>Great! Exactly the way it should be. Then again, it's often the Norwegian
>branch of Egmont that asks Don to make special stories on occasion... or am
>I wrong here?

I think you're right, it has happened sometimes
(From Duckburg to Lillehammer, Guardians of the Lost Library).

>If they do, it's a natural thing that they should put a little
>more effort into their own presentation of them.
>But why not encourage other branches to do the same?

I thought the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian weeklies were 100% alike
(except for the language).
Is that wrong? Do they only print the same stories?

>Hmmm... maybe that's what I should have done, after
>all... Is "Lydia" the correct name of the country in Norwegian?

Yes, it's Lydia... I don't know if it would have worked in Sweden.
Is Lydien a Swedish girls name?

O/yvind J. Karstad