Keskustelujen arkisto

In March 2005, I made a assumption that sadly went
unnoticed. Yet I feel it was a good assumption which
deserves another chance at its moment in the sun.

Don Rosa's story "The Crown of the Crusader Kings" starts
with a scene in $crooge's Trophy Room. At the bottom of
the
first page Donald dusts off a golden statuette of a
falcon,
encrusted with jewels. Several readers may have been
wondering from which Barks-story this falcon might be.
Several other readers may have recognized this falcon as
the Maltese Falcon from the 1941 movie of the same title.

I saw this movie just yesterday and I realized that the
Falcon's presence in the Trophy Room is not just a random
funny reference, but something slightly more meaningful.
"The Maltese Falcon" starts with a text screen which
explains the Falcon's history:

"In 1539, the Knight Templars [sic] of Malta paid tribute
to Charles V of Spain, by sending him a Golden Falcon
encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels -- --- but
pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token
and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to
this day ---"

The similarities between the Falcon and the Crown are
obvious: both are treasures of the Knights Templar, both
are made of gold and encrusted with rarest jewels, both
are sent away on a ship as a tribute to please a foreign
monarch. It looks like Don has taken this text from "The
Maltese Falcon" as a starting point for his story about
the Crusader Kings. The Falcon's presence is not just a
reference, but homage where homage is due.

# Question to Don Rosa: Don, did you really add the Falcon
because of connection to the Knights Templar? And did you
create these similarities on purpose or are they just
coincidence? (Which they very well could be - maybe
they're strong, but they're not *that* strong.)

# Totally unrelated other question to Don Rosa: Will you
someday add the Sampo's handle to the treasures shown in
$crooge's Trophy Room? I've been waiting for that one to
turn up one day, but it didn't.

# Yet another question, while I'm still at it: While
working on your Duck Family Tree, you decided to ignore
the dismal fate of Gladstone's parents and his subsequent
adoption by Matilda McDuck, as it would only unnecessarily
mess up the tree and also, or maybe in the first place,
because you considered the story of Gladstone's parents
dying from overeating too gruesome. You made this decision
together with Carl Barks.

Did mr. Barks also disapprove of his earlier anecdote
about the free lunch picknick? Or did he just agree to go
without the adoption?

I've been wondering about this, because I seem to be one
of the few people who actually think the picknick-story
was funny, while currently every mention of it is
accompanied by the statement that it's now considered
false. I'm also puzzled by the fact that Sir Roast's death
from overeating *did* made it into canon and apparently
wasn't considered too gruesome. (But then he's nobody's
parent.)

I hope you will find time to answer my questions, on some
of which I've been brooding for quite some time now.

Greetings from Michiel Prior.

> We're talking about a book featuring full frontal nudity (both male and
> female) and explicit discussion of sexual acts being given to a 9-year-old
> boy and/or his 6-year-old brother... personally, I look forward to the CBLDF
> losing this one.
>
> // Travis Seitler

Shame on you Travis...

> As a comic store owner myself, you need to realize this is a case against
> the store owner who is on trial Not the artist or publisher who produced the
book.
I am sure he did not intentionally give this comic to a minor.
Free Comic Book Day is to get comics out to customers, but certainly not
adult material. We BUY comics from publishers to give out. I usually allow
customers to pick what comic they want. Young children pick comics they know and
would be suitable for them. I fault the publisher for even supplying this material
on FCBD.
I am pulling for the CBLDF because losing the case means a store owner who
through a generous act, would be punished.

Barry Branvold

**************************************
See what's free at http://www.aol.com.

On 21.6.2007, at 22:03, Travis Seitler wrote:
> We're talking about a book featuring full frontal nudity (both male
> and female) and explicit discussion of sexual acts being given to a
> 9-year-old boy and/or his 6-year-old brother... personally, I look
> forward to the CBLDF losing this one.

Huh. And, though I fully expect to be grilled for saying this (and
knowing that this mailing list isn't intended for arguments about
legal/moral/political issues): What's so bad about that? How is that
material "harmful to minors"?

Okay, fine. We don't want children to learn about the secrets of the
adults. That, however, would only cover the 'discussion of sexual
acts'. How, though, do you stretch full-frontal nudity (whether male
or female) into something that's harmful to minors?

Dear Ole,
I appreciated your gesture of scanning the letter column for Uncle Scrooge # 345.

From,

Adel. K

Any chance these are available as individual posters as well?
Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick Premo <pmpremo at gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2007 5:30 PM
To: dcml at nafsk.se <dcml at nafsk.se>
Subject: New Don Rosa Posters/Calendar

Hello,

I am a long time Disney Ducks fan. I recently discovered that Don Rosa has completed 12 Duck posters -- and that these posters are to soon be available in a calendar. (I know, where have I been???)

This is great news! Does anyone know where I can purchase these posters and/or calendar?

I live in the US.

Thank you for any assistance and information.

Pat

Patrick Premo
Allegany, NY, USA

Niels asked:

"Is the word "parade" to be taken literally (as in a "circus parade"), or
does it simply mean a "series" of comic book stories?"

And Barry answered:

"I never really took the word literally as a parade with floats and bands
etc.
We have lots of words in English that don't always mean what they should.
There is a magazine just called "Parade" and it is likely Disney adapted the
word with Vacation and Christmas which in both cases the comics are just a
series of stories and activities (Puzzles and mazes, etc.)."

In addition to Barry's fine answer, I'd also point out that there was a time
in comic books where the publishers seemed to "create" new titles for
existing characters just by tacking on another pleasant sounding or otherwise
appropriate word. "Parade" is such a word, as it conjures up good feelings
though, as Barry indicated, no parade actually occurred in its pages.

In the early days of Gold Key, there were such titles as "Hanna-Barbera Band
Wagon". Though the characters were depicted marching with instruments on the
cover of #1, and actually PULLING a band wagon on #2, the cover of #3 had a
skating/skiing theme, and none of the interior stories were about
marching/playing music/pulling wagons/etc. It was just a pleasant sounding word/name
that helped sell the book.

There was also "Bugs Bunny Showtime", where the "put on a show", "have a
ball" type of images were reflected on the covers, but the stories were mainly
typical of the Warner Bros. comics of the time.

No publisher was better -- or at least more prolific at this -- than Harvey
Comics, where things like Casper's Ghostland", "Little Dot's Dotland", and
"Richie Rich Dollars and Cents" would sprout wildly to accompany the characters'
"regular" titles on the newsstands of the 1960s-1970s.

The idea is largely gone today, unless you count concurrent titles like
Gladstone's "Uncle Scrooge" and "Uncle Scrooge Adventures" and the like -- and
such variations in super-hero titles like "Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight"
and "Superman: the Man of Steel", where the "tacked on" words and phrases are
more "heroic" than "pleasant". ...And the title characters actually had
"adventures", were "legends", and were (figuratively) made of "steel". If
nothing else, we gained some accuracy in advertising!

Joe Torcivia

************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.

Herbert Snorrason:

> How do you stretch full-frontal nudity (whether male
> or female) into something that's harmful to minors?

Minors may get pregnant before they are ready for it. I guess that's the
major point.

Of course, weapons are also harmful (minors may get dead before they are
ready for it), but that still seems to be less of an issue in the USA...

This is getting off-topic indeed.
--Harry.

This e-mail and its contents are subject to the DISCLAIMER at http://www.tno.nl/disclaimer/email.html

Joe:
>In addition to Barry's fine answer, I'd also point out that there was a
time in comic books
>where the publishers seemed to "create" new titles for existing
characters just by tacking
>on another pleasant sounding or otherwise appropriate word. "Parade"
is such a word,
>as it conjures up good feelings though, as Barry indicated, no parade
actually occurred
>in its pages.

Thanks to Joe (and others) for answering my question.
I thought that maybe the "Parade" books were called this because there
was an American tradition of making parades (with band waggons etc.) at
Christmas time, but it seems that it was a clever commercial gimmick.

Kind regards
Niels