Keskustelujen arkisto

SORRY that so many nice folks were wishing me a happy birthday here on the
ML with me seeming to ignore it all! I was away on a 50th Birthday Trip!
Just got home last night! And there were several hundred e-mail birthday
greetings waiting for me. I had to resort to sending a "form letter" to all
the nice folks who sent my happy-birthdays, and I guess I might as well
post it on the ML as well. It is below. But anyway, I'm back now and won't
ignore any further messages or questions for at least a week... then I'll
be gone again, this time to a comic convention in Luxembourg, and
immediately thereafter to San Diego.
-----------------------------
Hello!!!
In the 15 years I've been doing this Duckwork and communicating with so
many Duckfans, I have never stooped to sending a "form message" out. Even
now,
when I get 30-40 e-mails each day, I still send a personal reply to each
and every one of them, though that takes 2 or 3 hours of my spare time each
day. But I think the Duckfans deserve it.
Now I am returning from a camping trip -- I'm actually not even home yet...
I downloaded my e-mail last night at a motel and I'm reading it and
writing this on my laptop while riding in a car back to Louisville... and
it's *very* hard to hit the right keys on a bouncing, moving keyboard! I
must back up and retype virtually every other word!
But this IS a form message! SORRY!!! When I downloaded my mail last night
there were several hundred "Happy 50th Birthday" messages from all over
Europe! Some were very short messages from friends I'd never heard from
before, and many were longer messages from very *good* friends -- but
you're all getting the same form-reply. My next messages to you "regulars"
will be in the normal "longer mode"... hope you'll forgive me this time!

I am obviously VERY flattered and gratified by the many greetings I am
receiving from so far away, and I never want to forget it's the same Barks
Ducks that I grew up with who are *still* bringing me happiness so many
years later! I owe it all to them. Thanks!!!

But I'm 50? That seems impossible for me to believe. I actually feel better
and healthier (and certainly wiser!) than I did when I was 20. I really
still feel the same as I did when I was 10. I don't know if other people
feel older as they *get* older... but I know I don't. It surely has a lot
to do with the fact I've made my life out of my hobbies and especially out
of
the favorite entertainment of my youth. And it surely doesn't hurt that
I keep myself thin and active, physically and mentally. But that's the
easier part -- it's not as hard as "old" people make it sound. Just a bit
of mental discipline and anything is possible. I actually recently lost 22
pounds in time for my 50th as I had gained about 5 pounds on each of my
last 4 trips to Europe where I get treated too well to resist the great
food!
Now the *impossible* part will be to be as healthy and sharp at 80 as Mr.
Barks was
at 98.

Since this is a form message, I can take some extra time (since I'm saving
so much!). Where did I spend my 50th birthday? Where have I been?
We went on a 6 day canoe-camping trip into the Quentico Wilderness in
Canada. This is a VAST wilderness area of tens of thousands of lakes
containing nothing but that and moose and bears and wolves and fox and
like that. And it is one of the most remote areas in North America because,
even though it's not that far north, it is not accessible by anything but
canoe... and even then by carrying the canoe and all your equipment across
"portages" which are anywhere from a short hike to up to a half-mile or
more. NO MOTORS are allowed in this wilderness, and planes are forbidden
from flying below 4,000 ft. So we penetrated deep into this wilderness
across many portages and lakes, and camped on some truly stunning rocky
points and islands surrounded by magnificent scenery and bald eagles in the
towering firs!

By the way, as you may have already surmised, this is the same area that
Barks' "Land of the Pygmy Indians" took place. And it is absolutely
possible that there could be a "lost civilization" or a million other
things on these land-masses between these lakes. I imagine that hundreds of
years ago the Indians and French trappers swarmed across all of this land
killing every single moose and beaver and fox they could find (that's why
there are none left to see unless you're lucky), but now that access is
only by canoe and the woods are so thick and there is no hunting allowed,
there is now NO earthly reason for anyone to want to penetrate into these
mosquito-infested woods beyond taking a short hike from the campsite on the
shore to poop in the woods. So, as I found when we canoed the Everglades,
there could actually be tribes of Peeweegah in the Quentico Wilderness who
would easily stay out of sight, just as there could be Gneezles in the
Everglades hiding in a remote mangrove lake.

Another thing -- you've seen Barks' stories about the *mosquitoes* in
Canada, as in his Yukon tales? They truly are that bad! It's always fun to
have a campfire after dark and sit out and look at the
stars or gaze at the lake and listen for wildlife.
But where we were, at about 9:35 (when the last wisp of light had
disappeared) you literally began to hear a whirring sound in the woods. The
first night I thought it was a distant airplane. Then they come at about
9:45... it takes them that long to find you. We learned to be IN the tent
by 9:30. When we were late, it would take about 20 minutes to hunt down the
10 or 20 mosquitoes that slipped into the tiny backpacker tent with you
since they cover you head to toe. Then it's sorta fun to watch them
crawling all over the tent trying in vain to get at you. But all night you
hear their buzzing as if they were right by your ear. When untold
BILLIONS of mosquitoes take wing from every bush and tree, there are so
*many* that their combined tiny buzzings can be heard very distinctly. It's
scary. It's also as bad sometimes when you port the canoe through a marshy
area and you disturb their sleep and they want a snack.
And during the day, the flies are also as bad. They will likewise cover you
head to toe, dozens at a time, when you come to shore to port or camp. But
they can be chased off by bug spray. The mosquitoes don't seem to notice
the stuff when they come in such numbers.

And on my 50th birthday I climbed the small mountain on the island I was
camping on (to access a distant com-tower in Thunder Bay, Canada) and I
made a cel-phone call to one Ray Foushee. He was the guy who started me
into
collecting comics (not reading them, I'd always done that) back in high
school, and who introduced me to comic "fandom" about 1967. He is a
lifelong pal...
but why did I call him on that night? He was also born on June 29, 1951, in
the *same* hospital maternity ward that I was. We are alike in many ways,
but quite different in others -- he decided that where he wanted to spend
his 50th birthday was in New York City, in the center of the thickest
population and civilization, while I chose the absolute opposite idea.

Anyway, that's where I was on June 29, 2001. I hope I can do that again on
June 29, 2051. Anything is possible in a world where I can talk to someone
in Times Square from the rocky summit of an island in a lake in the North
Woods on a device no bigger than a deck of cards. Or in a world where some
comic
book characters make me so well-known that I get birthday greetings from
around the world! Who knows what marvels the next 50 years holds? I can say
that just the past 15 years as been pretty amazing to me!

Thanks again for your birthday greetings!!!!!

Well, Olaf,

in Italian the jargon was particular: no Italian speaks that way. It's a
mixture of old Italian and some nonexistent words; some example (taken from
the "Io Paperino" book):

"Per Giova! Per Putifarre! Voi siete i pi? madornalmente buffi creaturi
che io abbia mai mirato coi miei pupilli!" /Table 7, strip 14

Should be in true Italian:

"Per Giove! Per Putifarre (though no one would say this)! Voi siete le pi?
strane buffe creature che abbia mai visto coi miei occhi"

(means By Jove! By Putifarre!!! You're the most strange creature I've ever
seen!)

Got the point?

Another example (2 strips forward)

"Fischiate i fischietta! Trombate i trombi! Chiamate il presidento!
Radunate il parlamenta!..."

Should be:

"Suonate i fischietti! Suonate le trombe! Chiamate il presidente! Radunate
il parlamento!..."

(means Play your whistles, play your trumpets! Call the president! Gather
the congress!...)

The language is a corruption of the original, with strange and very
enjoyable effects: they speak normally only when they sing in the southern
dialect, the one recognized by Donald Duck and nephews.

If it's not enough, write me: I can give you the whole translation of the
story (if you're interested in Italian, of course!)

Ciao

--
Antonio Maschio
<tbin at libero.it>

A silly question perhaps but when these early Disney cartoons were made,
were the cels painted with colour to get the same look as a live movie
would have or were they simply painted with different shades of grey ?
Does anybody know ?

Ola in still sunny Stockholm +30 and very warm to be here

In a message dated 7/6/2001 5:09:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Ola.Martinsson at uab.ericsson.se writes:

> A silly question perhaps but when these early Disney cartoons were made,
> were the cels painted with colour to get the same look as a live movie
> would have or were they simply painted with different shades of grey ?
> Does anybody know ?
>

the black and white cartoons were made in black and white
and interestingly enough, many of the movies and tv shows made in black
and white used black and white clothing, so they would know what they looked
like when filmed....

steven rowe

From: "Fluks, H.W." <H.W.Fluks at kpn.com>
>>>When exactly is that Luxemburg convention?

It's on Friday-Sunday, July 13-15... next weekend. Uh... perhaps it's only
the 14th & 15th... but I'll be there doing promotional stuff on the 13th.
The convention takes over the entire village of Contern outside Luxembourg
City.

From: Ola Martinsson
>>>Hi Don !
About one and a half year ago you wrote this on this mail list.
**************
when the Finns reprint the Kalevala story in their AKU ANKKA weekly
next year... and, another note -- at that time I will *add pages* to the
33 page story to flesh out the parts that I unavoidably had to truncate to
fit into that page-count. I estimate it will end up at just below 40 pages.)
**************
Was this ever done ? I can't remember hearing about it since.

NO! It was not! Sorry! And the story is *now* appearing in the Finnish
weekly (previously it had only appeared in that expensive hardback there). I
fully intended to add pages to that story once they told me that they were
going to reprint the story in the weekly, but they put it on their schedule
without telling me, and when I finally heard about it it was too late for
additions. But I see I exaggerated or lost count when I said I would make
the story just short of 40 pages in length... I would not have added more
than 2 or 3 pages. The additions would have just been a few pages of
slapstick hijinx while the Ducks searched for evidence of the "Misty
Headland". As it is, they find it much too quickly even though it says it
takes them "many weeks".

By the way, in reading that last Digest, I noticed I misspelled the name of
the wilderness area I canoed through -- it is Quetico (Provincial Park)
Boundary Waters Wilderness... not "Quentico".

ANDERS CHRISTIAN SIVEBEAK, 16-06-2001:

> [...] Sailing the Spanish Main - excuse me my perhaps utterly
> strange wievpoint but so far I always thought like this when
> I looked at that poster with the painting: Is there no story
> where they experience that?

As the painting shows too many ducks being cramped together
on a small vehicle, maybe the story behind it could be that
the little boat is a "floating version" of Donald's 313 car? :-)

QUESTION: What does "Sailing the Spanish Main" mean?

According to my dictionary it's a historical term for
"the coast and sea from Panama to Amazone".

What is the history behind this term and how is it used nowadays?
Why did Barks use it as a title for this painting? Is there a joke
or reference I should know to understand the paintings' title?

BTW. I think that Procol Harum's 1970s song "Pandora's Box" also refers
to the "Spanish Main". (If not, I possibly have a contribution to one
of the sites that collect "misheard lyrics".) I don't know what the
song is about, though.

- Daniel

DON ROSA to FERNANDO VENTURA, 16-06-2001:

> ["The Three Caballeros Rides Again"] Now we come to my real attitude
> towards using the material from the comics: see, we in America have
> never seen Jose Carioca or Panchito comic strips, none to speak of.
> There were short running comics about them in American newspapers
> back around the time the movie was out, to promote it. And there were
> some unmemorable promotional appearances in the Dell comics (even
> though one was by Walt Kelly, which I would not say was "inspired"....
> it seemed a bit "uncomfortable"). But these newspaper comics and such
> were long gone by the time I was even born, and they were never
> reprinted for me to see later.

If these newspaper strips were the Joe Carioca "solo" adventure series
published in the Dutch weekly in about 1982, then I think these might
be "the missing link" in understanding the Dutch Joe Carioca stories.

As I remember these newspaper stories, Joe is somewhat living like a
Gladstone Gander *without* his luck. I think that Joe, like Gladstone,
tries to live as easy as possible, without working. But in the case
of Carioca it only results in having a harder time than he already had.
In other words: Joe would have had a much easier, richer life if he
would try to get a job and give up acting like a prestigious gentleman.

Joe brags to rich people to hide that he is a tramp. He brags to pretty,
rich girls for the same reason, but also because he tries to get into
a love affair with them. I can't remember exactly, but I believe these
love affairs are also an attempt to get away from his tramp life.

When he gets into trouble with his bragging, Joe tries to explain old
lies by telling new lies. Sometimes he even manages to get more than
one girl, which results in even more lies because of both girls getting
suspicious about his behavior.

So far my memory of these adventure series. Please note that this is
just a brief description. I don't know how different these stories
are from the Dutch stories, because I've never compared them.

My thought is that the Dutch stories were heavily inspired on those
adventure series, but maybe there are other Dutch people here who
might know the answer?

Before 1982, possibly somewhere between 1977 and 1981, the Dutch weekly
reprinted a short Donald Duck story in which Joe Carioca and Panchito
visited him. I think this could have been an American story, published by
Western. Carioca and Panchito give Donald a hard time because they don't
know much about city life. I remember a scene of a rugby(?) ball
accidently breaking a window. As the police believes that Donald was
the one who threw the ball, Donald ends up in jail. Carioca and Panchito
(apparently still unaware of the mess they made) thank Donald for the
good time and they promise him to visit him again one day.

One of the reasons why I still remember this story is that Donald ends up
in jail in the last panel. When Barks did that in "The Firebug" (OS 108),
it was changed into a dream ending by the editors.

As far as I know, there have been no (or at least very few) Dutch stories
with both Panchito and Carioca in it. So, I doubt if this story has had
an influence on the Dutch stories.

The Dutch Panchito stories might be based on a series of one page gags
published on the back of Dutch weeklies in about 1980. I believe these
one pagers had a foreign origin. Maybe they came from America?

Dutch stories mostly (always?) use Donald, Panchito and Carioca as
"solo" characters. And if I'm right about that Caballeros jail story being
a very rare instance of a Dutch publication with all three of them, then
"The Three Caballeros Rides Again" might be the first Dutch publication of
such a story in 20 years.

But again: I hope that other Dutch members will correct any wrong
guesses in this email.

- Daniel

HALSTEN AALSTEBOL to me, 18-06-2001:

>> When did Donald's car appear for the first time?

> Wasn't that in an Al Taliaferro strip of the late 30s/early 40s?
> When Donald's previous car broke down. For a while he used a
> stubborn donkey for transport before shifting from donkey to 313.
> Am I misremembering here?

Francois Willot has informed me that the car debuted in the
1938, July 1 strip, and that the 313 number plate debuted in
the 1940, March 22 strip.

- Daniel