Keskustelujen arkisto

I wrote:

> "Wie ben ik? Wat doe ik hier? Waar is mijn Roddelflop?"

and people have been wondering what I mean there. In English, it's
"Who am I? What am I doing here? Where is my Roddelflop?".
Roddelflop is the name of a gossip magazine in Duckburg.
It's a quote from the story "Een geniale weddenschap", an excellent Dutch story by Kirsten de Graaf and Mau Heymans, which I hope Gemstone will be printing soon.

--Harry.

Harry Quickly -- TNO Telecom -- Digs -- The Netherlands
h.w.fluks at telecom.tno.nl -- http://dd50.inducks.org/xindexeng.html
"Look! A fact that's NOT in our Junior Woodchuck Guidebook and reservoir
of inexhaustible knowledge!"
(Huey in the library of Tralla-la)

Thanks David, Franco, Luca, et al.

Rich Bellacera
(Email removed)

---- Msg sent via CWNet - http://www.cwnet.com/

:-p :-p :-) ;-) :-( :-) :-D :-x :-)

I'm very envious at the Norwegians at the moment, they finally get to read
"A Letter from Home"! Very, very envious! Especially with the knowledge that
the earlier related story won't be published here in the United States until
an undisclosed time... >_<

To Mr.Rosa:
But I must say thanks to you Mr.Rosa. I just saw your cover for "A Letter
from Home" today. That coupled with a fan drawing of 'David the Gnome' I saw
has beat my depression down to where it belongs! :-)

http://duckman.pettho.com/sc_cover/v_dd200409.html - cover link

Oh, and your little funny didn't get past me...I see the hidden '@'. :-)
And Matilda McDuck looks miffed. Is it because she knows her brother is a
greedy money grubber (a redundant description)? She looks cool, like she has
a stronger inner spirit than before.
Thanks.

Ok, I've gone on long enough.

~*OchaGirl*~
Who will shave everything but her banks if the cover never makes it to print
here in America. And that's a quasi-promise! v_v

_________________________________________________________________
Click, drag and drop. My MSN is the simple way to design your homepage.
http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200364ave/direct/01/

Hi Geir. Although Barks used his immagination a slight bit in depicting a mini-
scooter race in the Western US desert, people certainly took their motorcycles
out to the deserts, and had races there, during the 1950s and 1960s. They also
raced jalopies and "midget cars", as clubs, and even professional races at race
tracks. Jalopy races were also very, very popular.
Yes, student truancy was a large problem, and city and countwide school
districts did, indeed, have truant officers hunting down the offending
students. Lots of "bad", "tough" boys did stay away from schools when they had
the chance, and truant officers did hunt them down, and return them to
schools. These were mostly the "incorrigible" boys, many of whom later became
crfirst sent to "reform schools" (schools for bad boys). Many of THEM later
ended up commiting serious crimes, and staying in prisons.

If I remember correctly, we even had truant officers in Canada, when I was a
youngster. Barks' depiction, is slightly romanticised, but reasonably accurate
for the 1900-1950 period. Of course, I and my friends didn't partake in such
antisocial behavior, but I did know some miscreants who "ditched school" (were
truant), and were caught by truant officers. Also I knew of others who were
sent to reform school for gang activities and adult crimes (and it was said,
even murder (although never proven)).

I'm sure that they didn't have a truant officer in Barks' rural valley when he
attended his one-room schoolhouse with 8-10 students. The County's police
force would have performed that service. But, I'm sure when kids in Barks
school missed a day, and their parents were contacted (and it was learned that
the student had not been ill, his father would have paddled the young man's
hind end, hard with his hand, or beat him with a switch. However, when his
family moved to Santa Clara, California when he was a teenager, he probably
would have learned what a truant officer was.

Rob Klein

---------------------------------------------
This message was sent using the LA Free-Net - LA's best kept secret.
http://www.lafn.org/

Hi and quack,

this is a slightly edited and roughly translated version of a mail I
sent to the Swedish Donaldist mailing list a few hours ago:

So, there it was at last - "The letter from home or the old castles
new secret". Part 1 of 3, at least. While reading, a lot of emotions
came running through my head. May I share them here?

* A prologue that runs for three pages! Have any of the duck-comics
had a prologue earlier? OK, there was an introduction to the first
Kalevala episode. But this makes me feel like the duck comics rises
itself to a higher level of literature, in some way.

* The style of Don Rosa keeps on developing! The characteristic,
strong inking that, in some cases have made the comic a little too
ponderous seems to have gone a little lighter. Although the settings
really invites to lots of shadows and inking, the balance is just
perfect.

* And the story! The atmosphere is there, right in the first panel and
it accelerates throughout the story. I feel in my bones that this is
going to be one of the best duck comics that I ever read. Yes, I
have not yet read half of the story, and it is already in the same
regions of my ranking as "Lost in the Andes" and "Vacation Times".

* On the whole, this comic got a very mature feeling, dealing with
elations, family ties, feelings of loss and attitude of life as with
adventures.

* In the prologue, I observed human beings along with the usual "dog
noses". Interesting.

* A Don Rosa cover on the weekly Kale Anka & Co! We (the Swedish
readers) aren't spoiled with that. :)

* Someone who have found the D.U.C.K.-dedication yet? I haven't.

* The editors at Egmont have yet again made a big goof. The story is
credited to "Story: Jens Hanseg?rd Artwork: Massaroli". On the other
hand, the cover says "New comic by Don Rosa", so there shouldn't be
any confusion anyway.

yours,

/ Magnus Bark (Farbror Skojskoj, en av de tjocka farbr?derna)

Previous text:
>2004-02-20 10:03:
>Subject: Reactions to Letter from Home
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>To list:
> I'm dying to know about "Letter from Home" as well. I saw the cover on a
>Don Rosa website. I love it, especially Don's drawing of Matilda, who has
>her own unique appearance apart from Grandma Duck and Glittering Goldie. I
>can't wait to read the U.S. version whenever that will be. If anyone has any
>opinions about Don's latest yarn without spoiling it so much, please feel
>free to write them here if you want. I'm interested!
>Sincerely,
>Anthony
>
>_______________________________________________
>http://stp.ling.uu.se/mailman/listinfo/dcml
>
>
> / Brevb?raren
>

Magnus, thanks for sharing your reactions....

>this comic got a very mature feeling, dealing with relations, family ties,
feelings of loss

This is what I'm longing to know more about....T_T

Mickey

> From: "Anthony Vuono" <avuono at UDel.Edu>
> Subject: Reactions to Letter from Home
>>>>If anyone has any
> opinions about Don's latest yarn without spoiling it so much, please feel
> free to write them here if you want. I'm interested!

My opinion is that it's a very interesting and very mellowdramatic and very
dull and very unfunny story.

From: "KUR" <ggk at wp.pl>
Subject: Re: Reactions to Letter from Home
>>>>I saw theat cover and now I'm very exaited I just must see dis story.
It's
relly look spooky (the cover). Matilda face change much and is not just
bicous she is much more older she just look difrent. I relly have great
expetatcion obaut it and the ony thing's I hope is theat Matilda character
and personality didn't chach at all (I relly like here the way she was in
"The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut")

("chach" = "change"?) Sorry to disappoint you -- I originally planned to
have both Matilda *and Hortense* in the story, Hortense being the bitter and
cranky personality with Matilda being the sentimental and gentle
personality. But I was told that I could not use Hortense. So I had to give
Matilda Hortense's bitter personality in most of the story since that's the
personality that made the sparks fly and the story progress.
Also, apparently you should not look for a story titled "A Letter from
Home". The publishers seem to have felt that was a dull title, and gave the
story a title like "The Search for the Knights Templar Treasure"... which
seems dull and too blunt to my ears... but then I wasn't crazy about the
title "A Letter from Home" either.

Other recent matters:
Someone seems to be mixing jalopy racing with midget racecar racing as
affordable ways for the "common man" to get into car racing. Jalopy and
stock cars are that. Midget racecars were quite professional -- they were
simply reduced scale versions of the full scale "Formula One" race cars...
they needed to be built from scratch just like the big versions. There
apparently was just some sort of thrill in seeing these tiny (dangerous)
cars zipping around a track. Perhaps it was also a way to fit a racetrack
inside a big city where more tickets could be sold? Anyway, it died out (or
was banned for all I know) sometime in the 40's or 50's.

Exclamation points: I don't only use exclamation points when a character is
***SCREAMING!***. Since there's nothing in between a period and an e.p.,
I'll often use an e.p. if the character is simply being emphatic or dramatic
or if I want there to be anything in his voice other than a deadpan reading.
But much of my humor depends on deadpan, so I only use an e.p. when it's
needed. I end many of the sentences in my scripts with simple periods. But I
have no control or influence on how my script is typed up, translated or
typeset. There are 3 or 4 more people who have the ability to change my
intentions before the punctuation reaches print.

Blum: Reading the quotes of his interviews, where he refers to Gladstone's
editorial decisions as "we" did this or "we" did that, tends to give people
the impression that he was in the Gladstone offices, privy to these
editorial decisions as they took place. Blum was the writer of the text
pieces, a "paid correspondent" who was situated in San Francisco, hundreds
of miles from the Gladstone offices. The information in that interview is
surely worthwhile, but it is not firsthand information as it seems to imply.
Another example in the last ML -- he (reportedly) says that I suggested a
story to Gladstone where HD&L go in search of their parents, but the editors
rejected it. The truth is that Bruce Hamilton and Byron Erickson called me
together (I recall it was a conference call, first I'd ever gotten) and
suggested the idea TO ME in 1988 for HD&L's 50th anniversary. I described
how there could be no happy ending for the story, and we mutually put the
idea off until some later date. As with the other things regarding my
stories that Blum refers to, he was never part of any of the discussion or
decisions and either later received warped info or created his own versions
of what was happening in far-away Prescott. I am not for a nanosecond
disparaging his great prowess as a Barks expert of the first rank... but
when it comes to a discussion of the background of the creation of my
stories, he doesn't know what he's talking about.