Keskustelujen arkisto

If I understand well, there will be *two* comic conventions in Rome this
week: Expocartoon and Romics.
Anyway, I'm going to Rome tomorrow morning, and will meet at least one DCML
member.
I hope to see some other members too!

--Harry.
(Off-line till Monday Nov. 26)

Eulogy for an Owl

--

His name was Walter Elias, a city boy by
birth, the son of a building contractor.

Before Walter was five, his parents
moved from Chicago to a farm near Marcel-
ine, Missouri. And it was there on the
farm that Walter would have his first
encounter with death.

Walter was only seven that particular
lazy summer afternoon not much different
from other afternoons. Dad was tending
to farm chores, Mother was in the house.

It was the perfect day for a young fellow
to go exploring.

Now just beyond a grove of graceful
willows was an apple orchard. There
Walter could make-believe to his heart's
content: that he was lost, which he
never was, or that he had captured a
wild animal, which he never had.

But today was different.

Directly in front of him, about thirty
feet away, perched in the low-drooping
branch of an apple tree and apparently
sound asleep -- was an owl.

The boy froze.

He remembered his father telling him
that owls rested during the day so
they could hunt at night. What a
wonderful pet that funny little bird
would make. If only Walter could
approach it without awakening it, and
snatch it from the tree.

With each step, the lad winced to hear
dry leaves and twigs crackle beneath
his feet. The owl did not stir.

Closer ... and closer ... and at last
young Walter was standing under the
limb just within range of his quarry.

Slowly he reached up with one hand and
grabbed the bird by its legs. He had
captured it!

But the owl, waking suddenly, came
alive like no other animal Walter had
ever seen! In a flurry of beating
wings, wild eyes and frightened cries
it struggled against the boy's grasp.
Walter, stunned, held on.

Now it's difficult to imagine how
what happened next, happened. Perhaps
the response was sparked by gouging
talons or by fear itself. But at some
point the terrified boy, still cling-
ing to the terrified bird, flung it
to the ground -- and stomped it to
death.

When it was over, a disbelieving
Walter gazed down at the broken heap
of bronze feathers and blood. And
he cried.

Walter ran from the orchard but later
returned to bury the owl, the little
pet he would never know. Each shovel-
ful of earth from the shallow grave
was moistened with tears of deep re-
gret. And for months thereafter,
the owl visited Walter's dreams.

Ashamed, he would tell no one of the
incident until many years later. By
then, the world forgave him.

For that sad and lonely summer's day
in the early spring of Walter Elias
brought with it an awakening of the
meaning of life.

Walter never, ever again, killed a
living creature.

Although all the boyhood promises
could not bring that one little owl
back to life, through its death a
whole world of animals came into
being.

For it was then that a grieving
seven-year-old boy attempting to
atone for a thoughtless misdeed,
first sought to possess the animals
of the forest while allowing them
to run free -- by drawing them.

Now the boy too is gone, but his
drawings live on in the incomparable,
undying art of Walter Elias ...
Disney.

Walt Disney.

And now you know THE REST OF THE
STORY.

-- Paul Harvey, Jr.

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Thanks for your answer Armando."Paperinik should never lose".Why?I do not
like invincible heroes.Everybody is defeated from time to time.It is
interesting to know how a character prepares his revenge or accepts his
defeat.Paperinik should loose a few battles as long as he has worthy rivals.
You mention Super Goof stories as funny.I don't know.I never liked any of
them.Especialy the appearances of pale versions of Scrooge McDuck and The
Phantom Blot in some of them.They are much more inteligent than Super
Goof.His powers making him superior to them doesn't seem right to me.There
is,one whose title I can't remember in which Scrooge is transformed into
Super Scrooge.Scrooge in his underwear!Compared to that Fethry's stories are
masterpieces!
I don't know what you mean about Scarpa's Mouse.The best stories I have
from him are "Mystery of Tapiocus VI"(I TL 142-A,I TL 143-A)in which Pete
prooves superior to Mickey and the fine detective story "Kali's Nail"(I TL
183-A,I TL 184-A).The later's Mickey is one of the finest versions I have
seen but for a detective he jumps into conclusions too early.Not close
enough to "Monarch of Medioka"'s wise Mickey.
As for your references to Martina's work I don't know if aging was his
problem.I have the 1955 story "The Blot's Double Mysterie"by Martina and
Scarpa.The Blot's plan is to frame Mickey for attempting to kill O'Hara and
then frame O'Hara for embezzling police money so that both of them can end
their days in prison with their fames ruined.Fine plot but the story is
ruined by the appearance of Wonderland's Mad Hatter in Mouseton and Mickey's
savior being Eega Beeva.So Martina had strange ideas even in his earlier
stories.

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Thank you so much for sharing these scans. Very thoughtful, but I say, I
would sure prefer the smell of the ink and the feel of the pulp!

-- Wes

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Nice description of the Phantom Blot by Petri.That is what I like in the
Blot and in the storie.Though I wouldn't say my heart was bleeding for
Mickey.I was just admiring the Blot's masterplan.Murdering Goofy and
destroying O'Hara and Mickey he would have gotten rid of all his enemies.But
Eega Beeva appearing to save the day was too easy a solution.The Phantom
Blot and Mickey Mouse matching witts would be nice.A character with
super-powers appearing to save the day sounds like Super Goof to me.Even if
the story predates his creation.
Yes "Paperin Fracassa" by Martina(not Martini as Petri mentions) and
Scarpa has been reprinted in Greece.I have a 1973 version in an issue of
"Klasika" magazine and it was reprinted on 1999 in issue 155 of the same
magazine.
I had found this storie years before finding "The Blot's Double Mysterie".It
is one of the worst stories I have.
Its plot makes no sence.What is a castle doing in modern U.S.A in distance
from any citie?And what is Chesire Cat from Wonderland doing in it?I thought
the gate to Wonderland was in Britain.Donald meets Snow White and the Dwarfs
as if he had known them.But she is Princess Snow White,step-daughter to a
Middleages' Queen.I think she predates Donald by centuries.And the fox and
the cat you mention are "Honest" John Worthington Foulfellow and his partner
Gideon the two con-men from "Pinoccio"which takes place in 19th centurie
Italy.The timelines of the characters make no sence.After reading that you
probably know why I dislike the stories which blend 20th centurie Disney
characters with characters from Disney's animated films which seem to live
in different ages or countries.It all remind of this awful story and the
conception behind them all seems to be that every Disney character lives
together with all the others in the same time.Sounds terrible!(
At least the 1973 version I have has something different.Before the storie
there are 4 pages by a different artist which explain that this storie is a
dream Donald had after he fell asleep while watching television.The program
he was watching was too childish for Huey,Dewey and Louie!And it was about
fairytales explaining Donald's inspiration.At least that was a small
consolation.Then five more pages from the same,unknown to me,artist have
Donald waking up and then proceed to link this story with another which is a
parody of Cyrano de Bergerac.
(If Armando is interested "Paperin Fracassa" is from 1967 and Martina has
written better stories after this one).
That "Blot's Double Musterie" is much better than this one doesn't tell me
much.Most stories that I know of are.They respect the characters and the
readers' inteligence more.

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Hi All,

Well, the question below got my attention:

"What does "313" mean anything? A friend of mine said
that there is a hidden door with the number "13" on
the Main Street in the DisneyLand in Florida, you have
to look for it very hard. The door leads you to
upstairs of Wet Bar and card tables everywhere, not
suitable for the children. Is it true?"

There are two questions here. Unless I'm very much
mistaken, 313 refers to Donald's unofficial birthday
(June 9, 1934 is his official one) and also the
license plate number of Donald's 1934 Belchfire
Runabout.

The "hidden" door is actually refering to the entrance
to "Club 33" in New Orleans Square at Disneyland in
California. Club 33 is an exclusive, members-only
restaurant (and, yes, I believe alcoholic beverages
are on the menu). It is also upstairs from the
activity below; much in the way that the
open-to-the-public Disney Gallery, also in New Orleans
Square, is. I'm not certain if Club 33 was originally
open to public membership, but it is now and there is
evidently an unbelievably long waiting list and
membership is very expensive. The club's existence is
not exactly a secret, but neither is it advertised.
Disneyland opens it for special events. For example,
the couple of Disney-sponsored Disneyana Conventions
have featured events there, such as a breakfast (to
offer we lesser mortals a peak at the elegance - for a
fee, of course). Don't get me wrong, I would not pass
up an offer for a meal there; but this is an extreme
amount of elitism and exclusivity for the "happiest
place on Earth." (And please note that this predates
the current Disney management by at least a full 15
years!)

Hope the off-topic explanation helps.

Slinking back into lurk mode,
Chuck Munson

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Richard:
> In the 1980's, there was supossed to be a series of seven Scroog album
>series titles published under the general title of "Adventures from
>Uncle Scrooge's Treasure Chest." These were published in most western
>European languages. I have the first two: (1.) The Rain God of Uxmal
>and (2.) White Gold of the Matterhorn. However, I have never seen nor
>even heard of anyone who has any of the last five. If you have or have
>seen any of the following books, I would appreciate knowing that they
>had been definitely published for my records.

Since you are not specifying any country I assume you mean if
they were published in any country. The answer is yes. For
example in Finland and Norway they were published in an album
series that used to publish Barks-stories. In Sweden and Denmark
they got their own album series (in Sweden all ten of the Treasure
comics were published and not only the seven you mentioned).
According to Inducks many of the stories were also published in
the Netherlands and Germany one even in Italy and France.

For more information:
http://www2.ec-lille.fr/willot/coa/c1/comp2.php?lg=0&default_o=1&ser=Treasure

--
Ari Seppi (mani at iki.fi)
http://www.iki.fi/mani/
Eritt?in fanaattinen Harry Potter -kirjojen ja Disney-sarjakuvien palvoja