Keskustelujen arkisto

>From: "Joakim Gunnarsson"
>But... *sometimes* I think it's neccessary to remove and change names of
>persons and places in Disney comics. The example I have in front of me is
>...Swedens largest island, that is called "Gotland".(That island exist.)
>Further; the people living on that island was portrayed as some kind of
>*nazi-vikings*!!!
>Now suddenly in this comic the people of Gotland and Sweden is portrayed as
>these vikings.In a Disney book!!!
>Do you think this was the right solution or should I have used the original
>script?

You mean that the story portrayed the people of an *actual* modern-day
island or place as all being such "nazi-vikings"? Then the writer (and
original editor) was inaccurate, reckless and irresponsible, and yes you
have a good reason to change it. If I ever made such an error in one of my
references to an actual place or person, I would hope Stefan or some of the
other translators I am in close touch with would alert me (as they often do)
and I would agree that a name should be changed, and I would understand why
he would do so if he could not reach me (though I am constantly reach-able
within minutes by e-mail). In fact, Stefan and other translators have done
this a number of times. This is obviously not a case of you changing the
name because, even though everything else was done responsibly and
accurately, you simply thought that "Fairyland" sounded sweeter than
"Gotland"... but I think you know that.

>From: (Email removed)
>OK, you're sarcastic as the change of details in your stories hurt
>you as a fan and author.
>But why putting further oil in the flames without actual reason?

You refer to my decision to request my name be changed on stories where I
think my intentions have been altered for reasons I do not agree with? No, I
was not being totally sarcastic, and I *am* trying to squelch the flames,
not throw oil on them. This decision has many precedents in literature and
movies. When authors, screenwriters and directors lose control over their
creations to others who change them against their strong wishes, they always
request (demand!) that their names be changed (as opposed to removed) from
the credits. Whenever you see "Cordwainer Bird" or "Alan Smithee" in a
screen credit, you'll know that someone's work was tampered with against his
will, and he did not want to be held responsible for the result, and wanted
the world to know that.
If the name of the "Cutty Sark" is changed in my story in which the Cutty
Sark is the centerpiece, there will be intelligent readers and history buffs
who will see that the ship has a screwy name for some reason and think it
was "Don Rosa" who made that historical blunder or insult to the readers. I
have no rights in how my stories are altered by the publishers. And I am not
interested in trying to convince them to change some long-standing-policy of
setting their stories in a fantasy-universe for kiddies -- I don't agree
with that idea, and I dislike it greatly, but that's none of my business.
But I do have a right in not wanting the readers to attribute that editorial
style to *me* when I definitely oppose it. If the editors believe strongly
in that stance, fine, they should have the courage of their convictions and
publicly take the credit/blame for it. And they can easilly do this by
alerting those readers who watch the credits that the author of a particular
story is in protest over changes they have made in his work. This is an
incredibly tiny matter... so few of their readers will even care or notice.
But I guarantee you it is of great importance to the author and to the older
readers and fans who want to know the truth. It would be a very simple
thing, if some editor is going to change my historical references against my
will, that he also change my name in the credits to "Ron Dosa". That is what
I am currently telling the editor to do, and it will be my "Alan Smithee"
code to tell the readers that my work has been tampered with to a degree
that I am in protest over its abuse. This should delight the editor since I
am giving him a way to change my intentions and do so in a manner to which I
will not object. Let the editor take the blame for the changes. Since he is
sure of his decision, he will be proud to do that. What could be fairer?

JOAKIM:

>The italian original script said that she story should take place on
>Swedens largest island, that is called "Gotland".(That island exist.)
>Further; the people living on that island was portrayed as some kind of
>*nazi-vikings*!!!

Actually the story takes place in an *alternative* universe, a parallel
dimension... where north Americans are native Americans, and the whole history
has had a different development...

... so, considering those aren't real Swedes, you might as well leave it all
like that... but I can see your point anyway.

>She is a living "bomb", or Ragnarok as the story says. And she explodes!
>A girl commiting suicide! In a Disney book!!! (Well she actually survives
>[don't ask me how], no-one is killed in that story except lots of
>swedes...)

Well, I find it a good thing if sometimes somebody dies... like in old times
where no damn censorship was cutting things...
(Don't think of'em as Swedes... think of'em as "the bad ones" !! :-)

>I hope this short summary of what was going on in the story makes you
>understand why sometimes changes are neccesary. (And to you Italians who
>bought Paperinik #24: More than 99,99% of the swedish people are *not*
>Nazis, in case you wondered after having read the story.)

Don't tell me! :-) :-) :-)

>With the risk of having a zillion phone calls from people living on Gotland
>I decided that we are going to replace all references to vikings, Gotland
>and Sweden in the story. Probably with all fictional stuff and names.

Couldn't you make it at least some other *real* place?
Finland, Norway, or even Italy who cares? :-)

Francesco

Helmut wrote:
> This month I have receipted the new catalog from Galerie Laqua.
> Galerie Laqua offer the following original drawings: [...]

You forgot one, small, thing...

Galerie Laqua also has Gottfredsons last strip from the Big Bad Wolf
Christmas story, dated 24/12 1963. It's soo beautiful!
Makes me wish I had those $1120 it costs...

/Joakim Gunnarsson,
Malmo, Sweden.

Joachim Stahl wrote:

>What we did change were the names of two
>funny-looking fictional characters in a comic story that were presented
>as the founders of the Junior Woodchucks in Duckburg.

This, to me, is the sum total of Joachim's argument. It's truly unfortunate
that Don Rosa's tribute to Al Taliaferro and Ted Osborne got garbled in the
German version, but if Joachim and his associates discerned no tribute,
then there is no reasonable argument that can establish that they should
have seen one.

I'm not sure Joachim needed to advance the nose argument, though. Bit of a
reach, that. I wouldn't know Al and Ted by sight myself, and whether or not
they had shiny black noses makes no nevermind to me.

Joakim Gunnarsson wrote:

>So my question to YOU my dear DcD-list fellows is:
>Do you think this was the right solution or should I have used the original
>script?

The "right" solution is for the original writer to have taken into account
every possible permutation of reader sensibility before setting a single
word down on paper. This, of course, is impossible. As is a definitive
answer to Joakim's question. He corrected implications that the original
writer likely did not intend but which, according to his own understanding,
could have genuinely injured the feelings of many readers. Is this
exercising censorship, or common sense?

To Don Rosa:

Changing the name "Cutty Sark" (if that is in fact what has happened) in
the German version sounds very much like a case of edict-from-on-high-itis,
such as we here at Gladstone - and you - have so enjoyed contending with
all these years. Kinda makes me wonder what my last name means in
German...or Spanish or Turkish or whatever. How many tender minds could I
conceivably destroy merely by introducing myself?

Gary

****************************
"Who Knows Whose Nose Sniffs the Rose I Chose" - old sourdough song title
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Gladstone on the Web: http://www.brucehamilton.com

ROB GIBSON:
Thanks for the info on the 1943 MM story introducing "The Bat" plane.
This is obviously another classic Gottfredson story we won't see
reprinted under the current Disney regime, not even in Italy.

I find it unlikely that the B-36 "Flying Wing" project was publicly
known at the time. Neither was the nazi Gotha 229, a jet bomber of
similar design and none of them saw active service during the war.

In Rota's version (I obviously can't comment on how it looked
originally) the arrowhead shape of the aircraft is also much more
similar to the modern stealth aircraft, especially the F-117 Nighthawk,
famous for it's participation in the Gulf War.

HARRY FLUKS:
>BTW, did Gladstone really call the cover artist MICHAEL Nadorp?
>(His name is MICHEL.)

My mistake: they had it all right this time, though over time they've
spelled both his first AND last name differently.
Thanks for the additional info on YM 057 and the Aswan Story too.
Likewise to Kriton, though I wish you hadn't beaten me to spotting
the typo in "terpsichore".

DON "HELLROT" (I swear, that's German for "Rosa". Really.):
>In a week or two, my story "The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark" will
>appear in all Egmont editions. This is a new episode in the "Life of
>$crooge", this chapter taking place in Java in 1883.

Hooray! Today it's been exactly half a year since the last of your
stories was published. It makes one wonder how you can make a living
when you only had four stories published this year (totaling 68 pages).
For a completely inappropriate comparison, mr. Vicar & co. had no less
than 42 stories and 322 pages in the same period. But then again you
also write and ink the stories, and don't have to pay electricity
bills and salaries for a studio.

I'm looking forward to some computer-related puns on the word Java
BTW, but will probably have to wait (make that: hope) for the
American version. Don't forget that Denmark was the other country
that thought Taliaferro and Osborne were inappropriate words in
a childrens' book. Why they chose to replace them with the names
of Danish translators that only die-hard donaldists would recognize
anyway is IMHO a good question.

JEFF CONNER:
>Seems that the Mickey strip has gotten continuity! Pete's sister Petula
>wants to get even with Mickey for all the unfair things he's done to
>Pete over the years. This story has been going on since November 30.

I just re-read most of this years strips, and they are really not all as
bad as I first thought, though there are many old, old jokes inbetween.
It's really exciting to see if Pete finally gets back at the mouse. :-)

>BTW, could any of you indexing folks tell me who did the art for this
>story and when it originally appeared, if it isn't original?

I'm positive that these strips are new material, but have no clue to
who is writing or drawing them. There's a slight hint of Jaime Diaz
Studio to them, but not enough to make me very sure.

This week the comics adaption of Mulan appeared across
Europe, and thanks to the Italian Disney site the credits are
known:
"Testo di Bob Foster e Greg Ehrbar - Disegni di Mario Cortes"

Is this a Disney production then: I had expected it to be an
Egmont Graphic Novel?

Ole Reichstein Nielsen

Read Rota's "Bat" story:
http://www.geocities.com/soho/museum/4289/5.htm

Today my wife bought eggs, and she came back with some eggs
labeled "Donald Duck & Co". The producers of the eggs
congratulates Donald Duck & Co on their 50 years in Norway
with a daily from the newspapers and a contest.
Now I only wonder what'll happen if I let the eggs hatch...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vidar Svendsen http://home.sol.no/~vidasven

And he said all those numbers
made him numb,
which (he thinks) is why
they're called numbers

Any answer to (Email removed) , thank you.

Hello you

particulary Italian ones.
I have a problem with a story that is identified
with "I 1877" in MickeyParade but it seems to be
a wrong TP number.

In this issue of Topolino, all duck stories seem to be
with DD. But DD doesn't appear in the story I'm talking
about.
So you can see the splash page and the page #8
at "altern.org/lassif", files named splash.jpg and
page8.jpg (fine, isn't it?)

The question is: can you identify it?
If you can, would you please send me the storycode,
artist, etc.

Thank you in advance
oliv

PS: short description.
Tea dealers force US to buy computers to improve
his accountancy. The BB sell a complete system to
him... which be used to steal the Scrooge's money.

--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V98 Issue #292
******************************************

Hello,

Sadly even in Italy the Disney company imposed its point of view
about the Gottfredson stories, lucky in the previous years there
have been many reprints of Floyd's work, including the
recently-discussed "MM in a secret mission", the story with the
nazis, that has been printed many times.

Too bad that there are just amatorial editions of another
Gottfredson period: from 1945 up to 1947.
I was hoping of a change with "I Maestri Disney", since it
published a couple of stories from that period in its first issue
dedicated to Gottfredson, but in the second one I found once
again Oscar the Ostrich... :-(

Maybe someone knows if there is an "official" listing of MM
stories that Disney doesn't want to reprint anymore?

---

On another topic, someone posted about a Disney story where
characters talk in a local dialect, I don't remember if it ever
happened in Italy (Luca? Marco?), even if we have a lot of
dialects, very different one from another, I can just recall of a
Perego page of advertising of Topolino libretto from the 50ties,
where boys from different cities of Italy were expressing their
opinion on MM in their dialect.

--

About PKNA and the nazi-Sweden, well, I still have to read the
story, but I don't think that Italians think of the Sweden that
way, I think of Sweden like the country of the long-leg, blondes
wonderful girls....(oink!)

Ciao,

- Paolo
http://www.confor.it:2222/disney