Keskustelujen arkisto

Hi Gary,

My money is on Steve Geppi/Diamond Distributors/Gemstone Publishing being the
next license-holders. Let's look at the rumors, wild speculation, and educated
guesses fueling this belief, shall we?

(1) There was a rumor floating out there a couple of months ago that Geppi had
bought Diamond for $1. I've heard no confirmation of this, and nothing about
it since then, but it makes you look in that direction.

(2) Geppi is a known Duck fan, with plenty of money, power, and resources to
commit to this.

(3) In the latest issue of WDC&S (or is it U$? I forget already) there's a
photo spread of a meeting of a large group of Duck fans and aficionados,
including Bruce Hamilton and Steve Geppi. And the last paragraph of the
article accompanying the pictures mention that it's too early to talk about
what as discussed there. . .

(4) We know that a potential publisher might be already lined up.

That's my best Holmes impression for this month, thanks.

So for now I just sit back and wait for the good news to roll in. =)

-Augie

I just got home. I was "cut off from the Internet" by virtue of the fact
that I went on another of my backpacking trips to far-off tropical climes,
as I sometimes do at Xmas -- this time I went to the remote beaches and
rainforests of Costa Rica.
There seemed to be very few Digests awaiting me here... I guess there's
naturally a lull over the Holidays, as there should be, with people doing
more interesting things than sitting at a keyboard. I know *I* was, and it
got a bit *too* interesting at one point...

From: "Tarjei Kidd Olsen
(re: "Cowboy Captain of Cutty Sark")
>>>>>>There is some
particularly good artwork here some places, particularly on the large Cutty
Sark picture. Looking at part 2, I see that the first frame (the large
intro-frame) contains that same picture, and two other frames, one
containing another picture from the last page of episode 1, and one new
picture. Don, is there a different one-part version?

Yes, in the one-part version there is an extra half-page of gags and
chit-chat aboard the evil-Sultan's steam-yacht in that spot. You notice that
a scene on board the yacht is sorely missing at that point of the story in
the 2-part version -- in a properly done continuity, we should have a peek
at the villains right about then, but I didn't have space for that "luxury".
I'm way behind on receiving recent Gladstones... did they use that story in
their final U$? If so, you'll see that extra half-page there.

I... uh... feel like imposing an off-topic report here... simply because
I've already written this as e-mail to some friends and I can
simply copy it over to the ML with a fingerstroke, even if I normally try to
limit myself to only answering questions here. Well, this has nothing to do
with comics, so you can skip over to the next message...
Yes, I was backpacking in Costa Rica, with the coata mundis and howler
monkeys and toucans and tapirs and so forth... camping in rainforests and on
remote beaches on the Pacific coast.
As is my favorite pasttime on tropical trips, I try to do as much snorkeling
as possible... I've done *lots* of that on trips to the Caribbean where the
waters are clear and warm. The Pacific is much colder and rougher than what
I'm used to, and not anywhere near as much fun to swim or snorkel in. Too
many waves and fine sand kicked up... you need to swim out to rocky points
to reach even slightly semi-clear water.
One day I decided to snorkel to a rocky shoal about 1/2 kilometer? 1/4 mile?
out from the beach. On the way out the water was so cloudy with sand that I
couldn't see past my fingertips which I had to extend forward for fear I'd
hit a submerged rock. Finally I reached the end of the shoal and the water
was still cold and cloudy... visibility of about 12 feet (4 meters?) or so,
so that I could barely see the bottom. Wasn't very interesting compared to
the Caribbean which has so many more fish and clear, warm water. But it
suddenly got much more interesting when, as I was paddling along looking
down, something caused me to look over to my left -- and there about 10 feet
away in the gloom was a rather large shark casually passing me by on the
surface going in the other direction... he was about 6 - 8 ft. long... about
2.5 - 3 meters? And it warn't one of them skinny-ass sharks... this was a
big, hefty, stocky boy with a thick side-view and stubby snout. I'm quite
used to swimming with large fish -- I've mingled with vast schools of tarpon
that were all bigger than me... and I play with barracuda and moray eels and
harmless nurse-sharks and octopuseseses there in the Caribbean... they
aren't any danger unless you managed to grab aholt of them and molest them,
which would be tough to do as they are all too shy. And yeah, I know, the
odds are slim that this big shark was interested in me or I would never have
known what hit me... and if I could *see* where I was going in that deep,
cloudy water it might have been different... but all I knew was that I
didn't wanna be in the same bay with that monster in those conditions, and I
was up on that rocky shoal as fast as my flippers would move me.
Once out and realizing I had all my appendages, my only reaction was to
laugh and hoot at the thought that I'd just missed colliding head-on with
that beast... but then I saw that my rocky point was not connected to the
rest of the shoal and the tide was coming in. Now the shark couldn't swim up
into that shallow area of about 6inches to 1 foot of water that I needed to
cross, but you can't walk on those shark rocks in your bare feet, and you
can't stand up in the rough surf wearing big flippers. So I had to get on my
belly and drag myself over the several sections of shoal with big waves
surging all over me, knocking me back and forth and trying to drag me back
into the sea, and getting my hands and knees quite scraped up and bloodied.
Then I had to walk all the way back to the beach across the shoal which
would have been a funny sight (if anyone was there to see other than the
shark) because I had to keep on my flippers as well as my facemask which is
made of prescription eyeglass so I can see. I'm still not sure how
everything would have turned out if I'd been out there about a half-hour
later when the incoming tide completely covered the shoal with surging
waves... and I woulda had no choice but to swim across the bay with that big
hunter there in the murky water somewhere.
Knowing the shape and color of the shark I saw (burned into my brain!) and
looking up various possibilities in my fish-books, seeing which sharks are
that size, color, shape, and which inhabit inshore Equatorial Pacific
reefs... I see that my shark was probably a Bull Shark ("very dangerous" sez
the books), or the ever popular Great White Shark ("MOST dangerous", but
probably not one o' them, simply because that would have been too...
"dramatic"). It might also have been a Reef Shark or Sandbar Shark, but my
books seem to indicate those are Atlantic critters. I've always feared
encountering one, but in the Atlantic/Caribbean where I normally swim sharks
stay well off-shore... I guess they don't like the warm water. But I think I
shan't snorkel in that cold, murky Pacific again!
Brrrr....
Okay... sorry for the digression...

If there is a strange place to a picture of Mickey Mouse, this is it.
Some people have been opening up *computerchips* and photographing them.
Guess what? They found pictures imprinted on them. One of them has
picture of Mickey inside:
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/pages/mickey.html
No Donald though...

Happy 1999,
Teme

Holiday Greetings fellow Quackeroos!

The Xmas break gave me a chance to catch up with Disney comics reading. Here
follows a pot-pouri of notes and observations:

1) KOMIX #127: A Xmas issue featuring the following:
a) "The Poetry of Cinema"--an article that had originally appeared back in
1938 in the literary journal "New Letters" and written by Odysseus Elytis,
the 1979 Literature Nobel Laureate on the (then) new art of cartooning and
the phenomenon of Walt Disney.
b) Carl Barks' "Christmas on Bear Mountain", from DDOS #178, 1947.
c) "Santa's Helper"--unknown artist and writer. It's a 12-page story, where
Goofy is assigned by Santa Claus to be the guardian of his rein-deer. Goofy
finds out that one the rein-deer, Thunder, is missing, and with the help of
Mickey and Dumbo they follow a trail to the castle of Willy the Giant. Willy
has taken Thunder as a Xmas present he always wanted! Goofy, Mickey and
Dumbo are captured by Willy and are also put as Xmas presents in a sock
above the fire-place. As it turns out, Willy is afraid only of one person:
his aunt who's very tiny. She frees the trio, despite Willy's protests and
wails. In the end, Dumbo ends up as Santa's helper in delivering the Xmas
presents. Anyone knows more about this story?
d) Carl Barks' "The Persistent Postman", from WDC&S #209.
e) "World Times", a two-page editorial on the printing of the story "The
Monarch of Medioca".
f) "The Monarch of Medioca", Part I. It's an adaptation of the classic story
by Floyd Gottfredson and Ted Osborn. KOMIX credits Paul Murry to be the
artist who re-drew the story, but it's obviously NOT Murry. The drawing
style points to Bill Wright, and someone more expert than myself can either
concur or correct me.
g) "The Man Next Door"--a one-page editorial on Neighbor Jones.

2) I read a story published in a venerable Greek Disney comic book,
"KLASSIKA". This comic-book has a 30-year history, and used to print great
stories in the past, but in recent years such worthwhile stories are few and
far between. Anyway, I happened upon a back issue of KLASSIKA from 1996 that
printed above average stories. One was by Romano Scarpa and Osvaldo Pavese ,
"Zio Paperone e l' usanza dei Kuang", ("Uncle Scrooge and the Kuang
tradition"), TL #479, 1965. This story belongs to a period when Scarpa
starts to draw mainly other people's scripts.

The leading story in that issue of KLASSIKA is one I couldn't trace in terms
of artist and writer. It has no code, and a Greek title "The typewriter
chase". The story is printed in two parts, part I with 20 pages, and part II
with 19 pages. Here's a synopsis of the story: Uncle Scrooge trades a very
old typewriter (manufactured in 1837!) to a collector in return for a new
typewriter that costs $500. Scrooge soon finds out that the 1837 typewriter
is worth in the collector's market $50,000 and sets out to corner the market
of similar 1837 typewriters. With the help of Donald they round up all
existing 1837 typewriters from all over the globe. The last two are found in
Germany and South America. When the collector is about to reveal to the
world the "unique" 1837 typewriter, Scrooge draws the curtain to 30 such
typewriters. When he offers to sell them at a price of $80,000 each, he soon
finds out what he should have expected from the beginning: the big increase
in supply decreased their market price considerably. The market now values
each at $1,000! At the end, Scrooge realizes that it's probably for the best
to destroy all, but one, but even this wouldn't be very likely to "save"
him: the 30 typewriters had cost him $300,000 to acquire! The story ends
with Scrooge chasing Donald, as it was his idea to get all these 1827
typewriters.

Does this story ring a bell? The art style at some points looks like
Scarpa's, but at others like Carpi's. Any help would be welcomed.

3) Giorgio Cavazzano draws Asterix and Obelix! I picked up the other day, a
one-shot publication originally titled "Le Dessinateur d' Asterix, Uderzo,
croque par ses amis". The volume collects short, gag stories, puting Uderzo,
in various funny situations with his artistic creations, Asterix, Obelix,
and the rest of the Gauls. An august group of writers and artists pays
tribute to the great creator, and some of the gag-stories are really funny.
The group includes Achde, Adam, Arleston, Bourgne, Carrere, Cheret, Cornen,
Corteggiani, Coutelis, Crisse, Fauche, Formosa, Franz, Glaudel, Janvier,
Juszezak, Kraehn, Manini, Meynet, Mourier, Plisson, Rodolphe, Rouge,
Stalner, Tranchand, Widenlocher, AND CAVAZZANO!

Cavazzano's entry is a 3-pager telling the story of Uderzo living in the
Gaulish village and having a nightmare, where he's captured by a pack of
wild boars while walking in the forest, and faces a wild-boar tribunal for
putting the wild boars to constant danger in the hands of the "crazy" Gauls.
Uderzo awakens just when the boars are ready to roast him, and accepts an
invitation by Asterix and Obelix to go hunting. As they enter the forest
he's dumbfounded to realize that Asterix and Obelix hunt rabbits while
behind the bush a couple of boars are laughing at him wildly!

Well, that about it for now! A Happy New Year to all--with lots of
comic-book reading!

Holiday cheers,

Archontis

I just skimmed the TV programme today, and found a "50 Years with Donald
Duck" on Norway's TV2. It's probably a repeat, but since TV2 is a
satellite channel, you all (at least the Europeans) may have a chance to
watch it. At 8 p.m. CET today! You got 2 hours to adjust your antennas
:-)

S=F8ren

--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V98 Issue #302
******************************************

Anders Chr. Sivebaek:

>Well, I was thinking there are a lot of charecters we don't see often
>anymore:
>Ludwig
>Gilbert
>Newton
>Millie, Tillie, Melodie and Minnies other nieces... in the weekly it
>actually said in a quiz that Minnie has no nieces...
>Moby Duck
>
>Do we miss these or some of them?

Except for the irritating know-it-all, Ludwig Von Drake, whom I can easily
identify with,
I don't miss any of the characters you mention. Especially Newton, a
child-version of
Gyro seems especially redundant. Gilbert at least works as a counter-weight to
Goofy's
dumbness. There's a nice story (and by Murry too!) where Goofy dresses up as
Gilbert
for a costume party and gets confused with him by another scientist.

>What about the cat Donald had once, what happened to him?

Tabby? Bolivar ate him: he thought he was a cookie. :-)

Don Rosa:

>I've already written this as e-mail to some friends and I can
>simply copy it over to the ML with a fingerstroke, even if I normally try to
>limit myself to only answering questions here. Well, this has nothing to do
>with comics, so you can skip over to the next message...

It's not entirely off-topic: I kept thinking of your cover for "Treasure Under
Glass",
when you told about your underwater adventure.
Lucky-lucky you, that the shark didn't feel for a little snack, but if there's
any
truth to the laws of karma, you're more likely to end your days trampled by a
mob of angry rodents.

I've now read your Cutty Sark story, and it's as good as they come.
But, as usual, I'll only tell you where you blew it (***SPOILER TO COME***):

I showed the story to my father, who's a boat-buff, and he immediately
complained
about the way Cutty Sark survived the tidal wave. Being an avid (no, make that
a
fanatical) kayak-paddler, he said that while it's possible to surf on such a
wave,
it's a lot harder to pass from the front to the back of it, and if it's really
as steep as
the image shows, which suggests low water depth, with a crest(?) on top of it,
it's
impossible. The bow of the ship would get underwater and stop the forward
motion
of the bow while the stern would continue and tip over the ship.
The fact that the wave travels at a very high (transsonic?) speed makes it very
hard
for a ship to surf it for a very long time, but you were obviously aware of
that, and I'll
just assume that it's remotely possible. Which is probably the most one can say
about the amazing antics of the surprisingly sturdily built clipper.
Well, I got a few laughs, and that's what it's about.

A question: what's the background for the mute Java lords? Is this a real fact?

Archontis Pantsios:
>2) I read a story published in a venerable Greek Disney comic book,
>"KLASSIKA". This comic-book has a 30-year history, and used to print great
>stories in the past, but in recent years such worthwhile stories are few and
>far between.

It sounds like this is the Greek equivalent of the Danish Jumbo, Swedish
KA Pocket, French Mickey Parade, German Lustige Taschenbuch etc.
They were originally based on the Italian Classici di Walt Disney, reprinting
stories from the weekly Topolino, but now contain much Egmont material and
reprints from other Italian titles too.
Recently an issue, for the first time ever, had NO stories from Topolino proper
at all, as Soeren K. Olesen has pointed out.
For indexes of parallel titles which may correspond to your version, check our
database's listings for the abovementioned titles.

>The leading story in that issue of KLASSIKA is one I couldn't trace in terms
>of artist and writer. It has no code, and a Greek title "The typewriter
>chase".
>[...]
>Does this story ring a bell? The art style at some points looks like
>Scarpa's, but at others like Carpi's. Any help would be welcomed.

As Francois said, it's "Zio Paperone e il clavicembalo scrivano" from
Topolino #357, and indeed drawn by Romano Scarpa.

>3) Giorgio Cavazzano draws Asterix and Obelix! [...]
>The group includes Achde, Adam, Arleston, Bourgne, Carrere, Cheret, Cornen,
>Corteggiani, Coutelis, Crisse, Fauche, Formosa, Franz, Glaudel, Janvier,
>Juszezak, Kraehn, Manini, Meynet, Mourier, Plisson, Rodolphe, Rouge,
>Stalner, Tranchand, Widenlocher, AND CAVAZZANO!

Corteggiani is well-known in Disney circles too, having written several stories
with Cavazzano art, including some with Basil the Great Mouse Detective for
France.

It's a pity that the book you mention forgot to include some very attractive
Asterix
pages drawn by... Daan Jippes!

Happy New Year to all, and don't let that big ball hit you when it drops!

Ole "RoC" Reichstein Nielsen <(Email removed)>
http://www.geocities.com/soho/museum/4289/

Ole to Archontis:

>>3) Giorgio Cavazzano draws Asterix and Obelix! [...]
>>The group includes Achde, Adam, Arleston, Bourgne, Carrere, Cheret, >Cornen, Corteggiani, Coutelis, Crisse, Fauche, Formosa, Franz,
>Glaudel, Janvier, Juszezak, Kraehn, Manini, Meynet, Mourier, Plisson, >Rodolphe, Rouge, Stalner, Tranchand, Widenlocher, AND CAVAZZANO!
>
>Corteggiani is well-known in Disney circles too, having written
>several stories with Cavazzano art, including some with Basil the
>Great Mouse Detective for France.

Right! There's also Gilles Formosa, who inked one French story in the
beginning of the 80s, drawn by Claude Marin.

Francois

Hi all,

I guess it's time for me to catch up with about a months worth of digests now but first I just wanted to wish you all a happy new year. As I write this it's about 26 hours left of 1998 where I'm located, so if I'm going to read all those digests before 1999 kicks in I guess I had better get going now. (oh no, I havent made any plans for the evening, drat!)

/Martin Berglund
Malmoe, Sweden