Keskustelujen arkisto

OLAF:

> Can anyone tell me the difference between a D-code, a D/D-code, a
> D/E-code etcetera?

D-code: normal stories, in the sense that they are written and drawn by
"established" artists. D/D-code: Development stories written and/or
drawn by less "established" artists. D/E-code: Experimental stories,
that introduce new concepts, like e.g. Scarpa's non-dialogue story D E
2000-003.

> Until two minutes ago, I thought my story had story code D 2001-013.
> It doesn't - it's D/D 2001-013. I'm curious what this means.

But didn't David post a message about that here on DCML?! Hmmm...

S?ren

> Olaf the Blue
> "You realize what you've done when you find your name in INDUCKS"

Yes. Don't be blue :-)

Nils:
>
>So we need to learn in other ways about the comics convention (?)
>Don Rosa will visit in Italy next week (for example). Where,
>when, what kind of meeting?

On that I can help:
Got this mail from the Torino Comics Staff:
Dear Webmaster, We wish to inform you that Don Rosa will be Guest of Honor
in "Torino Comics" (a italian Comics Convention and fair) from April 25th
to 28th. More info (in italian) at http://www.torinocomics.com Thanks.
Silvano Beltramo The Torino Comics Staff

But I too would like the upcoming events page on DCML to be more updated.

Hilsen/Yours
Anders Christian Siveb?k
Donaldist

From: jyri lehtinen <jyri_85 at yahoo.com>
>>>>Since I read the story one thing has been bugging me.
On page 2 panel 4 gyro reads helpers instructions and
a bridge is shown. Later when gyro's on the bridge it
doesn't look same. Is it the same, if not, why not.

Maybe there are two bridges in Duckburg?

From: Arne Voigtmann <ArneVoigtmann at gmx.de>
>>>>What I am really wondering about is that all the bubbles seem to have
been redrawn by somebody (between the version in the Barks' Library
and the one in the "DD Sonderheft"). Their sizes have been changed and
some of them have even moved to another corner of the panel.
But why would someone do that? Is there some mysterious reason behind
this?

Hah -- it's been a long time since I remembered that.
I did that story for Holland, as with about 3 or 4 others. They did not want
me to put word balloons into the art... they added those themselves to the
photocopies I sent. So, whenever you see that story reprinted, you'll see
different balloons.
(For Egmont, I put blank word balloons into my stories, guessing at the
approximate shape they should be to hold my words.)

From: "Olaf Solstrand" <harryklein at hotmail.com>
>>>I don't know about you, but to me, this sounds like a funny gag to that
Hameln-magic-flute-player-tale, where the flute player (flutist?) uses his
magic flute to get all the rats out of Hameln, and when the town does not
pay him, he starts playing his flute to get the children out of Hameln

Well, obviously -- we all know what the Barks story is based on. The title
alone tells us that -- "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" / "The Pied Piper of
Duckburg". That's the only "Pied Piper" I know of... by george, that's the
only "pied" *anything* I know of! I'd need to check a dictionary just to see
what "pied" means! But what would be funny about Gyro simply doing what the
piper in the original tale did? Where's the twist in that? If I knew *one*
thing about what Barks' lost plot was, it was that it should not duplicate
the original story.

From: "Lunnan & Hjort" <brit.lunnan at chello.no>
>>>So we need to learn in other ways about the comics
convention (?) Don Rosa will visit in Italy next week.
Where, when, what kind of meeting?

On Apr. 24-28 I will be guest-of-honor at the Torino Comics Fair in Turin
(Torino), Italia. I've been to the Lucca and Rome (Expocartoon) Festivals in
Italy, but never this one... but from all indications it is a very
professionally organized affair in a nice convention center. I look forward
to being back in the homeland and seeing all my friends from past visits!

Apostolis> * Vicar's "Euro-Go-Round", first published on... Komix! 12 pages.
Code: D 2001-085.

Timo> This was published in Finnish Aku Ankka January 2nd, in n:o 1.

And in Holland too, last January.

I guess this is one of the few Egmont stories that was *not* printed in
Denmark, Sweden, or Norway (because they don't want to have the euro as
currency)!

--Harry.

Some elements of answer:

Closely related to the question of the legend's origins is the problem of
ascertaining
which of the known variants of the story preceded the others. The earliest
written
documentation of the story is found in a chronicle of events in the Hamelin
area dating
from the middle of the fifteenth century. It should be noted that there is
an inevitable
time lag between the genesis of a legend in folkloric tradition and the
first time it is
recorded in writing. Carl Zuckmayer, whose last play, Der Rattenf?nger,
presents a
modern interpretation of the Pied Piper, argues that the story as told by
the inscription
on the Rattenf?ngerhaus antedates all other extant versions. His view is
consistent with
the following considerations. First, no other version of the tale refers to
so early a date
as the 26th of June, 1284. (The source Browning drew upon when composing The
Pied
Piper of Hamelin makes reference to the 22nd of July, 1376). It is
interesting to
speculate whether Browning knew of the date cited in the first story, as the
year in
which he composed this poem is a numerical anagram of 1284. Second, myths
and
folktales commonly grow from simple fables to complex stories incorporating
strands
derived from various sources. Research indicates that the story of a
ratcatcher who rid
Hamelin of its troublesome rodents goes back to the time of the Black Death.
In his
article A Plaguey Piper in The Lancet, D. Wolfers suggests that the Pied
Piper's "gipsy
coat of red and yellow" in Browning's famous poem points back to the skin
discolorations produced by the bubonic plague. By the late Middle Ages the
Piper had
merged with the figure of Death as the leader of la danse macabre or the
Dance of
Death. Prosper Merim?e betrays his awareness of the Piper's negative
associations in
his historical novel Chronique du r?gne de Charles IX (1829). A gipsy girl
retells
the story of the Pied Piper to a company of German soldiers bound for Paris,
where trouble
is brewing. The tale ominously portends the massacre on Saint Bartholomew's
Eve in
August, 1572. Is it a coincidence that both Merim?e's story and the original
tale recount
what happened on a saints' day?

(From an article in Wascana Review, English Department, University of
Regina, Canada, 1985)

HARRY WROTE:

> I think the poem re-tells a much older legend. And the German place is
> actually called "Hameln". English-speaking people changed that to
> "Hamelin",
> because they can't pronounce it otherwise.

AND I REPLY:

Indeed. I used the English spelling since I live in America and referred to
the English language poem that most American kids have grown up with. But
you're quite right -- "Hameln" is the German name of the real town on the
river Wessen, and the legend dates back to a real event in 1284 when most of
the children of the town "disappeared." There are many theories about the
missing kids, from simple emigration to Transylvania (alluded to in the
poem's epilogue) to a quarantine of banishment because the children suffered
from a dread disease.

AND TO DON:

"Pied" is similar to "piebald," meaning patches of color. This obviously
refers to the piper's unusual garment.

Hi! I am going to being taking a trip to Paris in the near future. I
collect all kinds of Disney Duck items (toys, figures, timepieces, plates, mugs,
etc.) I was wondering if anyone on the list could give me some information on
places I should go while in Paris to find such items (other than the obvious
choices of the Disney Store and Disneyland Paris)? Since this is an off topic
request, please feel free to email me at my private address. Thanks in advance!

Dean Rekich

Rob Klein wrote:

> Duckburg was clearly at least a middle-sized city (based on an
> amalgamation of all the long-range (overall) views of that city.
> In several stories Duckburg had a large seaport, large railroad station
> and industrial area, as well as a large financial centre with tall
> skyscrapers. If Duckburg appears to be a small town in a few of his
> stories, it must be assumed that the small-townish area portrayed in
> those panels is meerly a portion (district) of Duckburg, which is
> suburban or semi-suburban. That portion is located near its east,
> northeast or southeast (inland) boundary, adjacent to the beginning of
> areas of opened farmland.

When I chatted with Carl Barks he was adamant that in his view Duckburg was a state
of mind, deliberately a place of endless invention where any story could be told,
unconstrained by what had gone before, and that he was deeply opposed to any
canonical anointments which, he said, was a limitation of super-hero comics and that
he likewise feared that canonization would lead to a similar constricted downfall of
duck storytelling.

I think the endless variations we see in Barks' stories are simply a reflection of
his stated conscious philosophy. When he needed a mountain to serve his story, he
made one. When he needed a bridge, he made one. Whatever served his story, in his
Duckburg, he would just make.

Bob Foster (champion of many a new Disney storyteller and the man who gave me my
start) once told me that he thought that many duck storytellers were mistaken to base
their efforts on Barks canon, but rather should seek their own interpretation.

Similarly, I've read here of Italian readers who lament the many artists who cloned
their styles from the brilliant Cavazano, instead of developing a unique style of
their own.

Indeed, in the arts themselves, we see that success always spawns imitators more
often than innovators.

I think Barks understood this challenge. He certainly transcended what was handed
him and stood apart as his own man.

The challenge of every creator is to honor what has come before and then to journey
beyond it into new realms of imagination.