Keskustelujen arkisto

Hmmm. I see that EuroBooks offers Archie comics in both English and Hindi. Archie in Hindi: now *there's* a concept. Somehow, Duckburg seems a bit less culture-specific than Archie's high school...maybe partly because Duckburg has already been "localized" to various European countries (and probably Brazil).

The issue of LT English Edition which I got for myself is #5. I got it because it has a Marco Rota story in it: The Return of Zampata Duck. (I then had to buy a French comic with the first Zampata story in it!) The Zampata stories are better than average, for stories written by Rota. He's of course a terrific artist, but usually I most enjoy the stories with his art which are written or co-written by someone else (e.g. Paul Halas, who provided plots for The Incredible Shrinking Duck, Rugged Island and Screen-Struck). I do like both Zampata stories, though, and the Return has the added attraction of sympathetic female characters with active roles.
Issue #5 also has a fun Byron Erickson story (Where's Donald?), where HDL have to trace Donald's trail of disaster around the world, a story with Cavazzano art that is visually memorable (A Question of Color: Duckburg has been grayed out, and Donald and Gyro have to travel the world to find vivid sources of the three primary colors to re-establish a full-color Duckburg), and a Sarah Kinney story (Off the Beaten Trail) I would have loved as a young child, where surveyor Mickey stumbles onto a hidden, magical Sprite Kingdom. (This includes the rather cool concept that if the magical kingdom were mapped, it would cease to exist!) I must say, though, that Off the Beaten Trail in this book has the worst coloring job I've ever seen in a Disney comic. Not just poor or unattractive coloring, but coloring that's really *wrong*. Even though the text specifies a "purple fountain", the fountain is bright red, making it appear to be a fountain spurting blood. Worse, the sprite princess has a pet which is clearly supposed to be a wolf, but is colored to make it look like a lion! A classic case of "the colorist didn't read the script".
"Powerplay on Killmotor Hill" has, of course, been published in the USA. There's also a Rawson/Fecchi story (Weird Science) which has been published here.
So, my overall recommendation is that this issue is worth buying, especially for the Rota and Cavazzano-drawn stories. But I'm not personally tempted to get the other English Edition issues published so far, based on the artists represented and the INDUCKS ratings of the stories therein. Mostly it's stuff similar to what was published in Gemstone's pocketbook DDA and MMA (some stories actually were published there), which I enjoyed reading once but didn't keep to re-read. I am going to keep checking, though, to see what stories are in future issues. I would choose more on the basis of art than writing, because the script in these stories is generic and simple, not rich with allusion and humor the way a well-localized dialogue can be. Perhaps it is simplified to make it easily readable for kids learning English; or perhaps the original English script of the Egmont stories is indeed this simple, with the intent that it will be enriched when localized. What say, David?
In terms of these volumes representing the average EU pocket book...I can only say that the German-language volumes of Lustiges Taschenbuch Spezial (as opposed to the regular Lustiges Taschenbuch) have much more interesting stories, often longer ones, by creators including many of the best. It was those that I was thinking of when I wished we could have themed pocket books with room for long stories.

Quote from user: Robb_KSo, English speakers have at least a few books to obtain... now that there is no American publisher. And, even when Marvel starts up...
Rob, please don't use the word "when." We don't yet know if Marvel is really going to start publishing Mice and Ducks, so please don't treat it as a certainty.
All we've seen thus far is a lot of fan speculation.

I hope that Marvel publishes Mice and Ducks.

Does anyone know how I can get any of those books that are in English or at least partially?