Disney Comics digest #237

[David A Gerstein]

	Dear Folks,

	A few things to comment on today.


	Gary Leach on WDCiC
	===================

	"We believed (as we once knew, back in the original 
Gladstone days) we could launch a new Disney title without having to 
get clearance from Disney. We made the mistake of attempting this 
while one of our more reliable and levelheaded contacts at Disney was
indisposed, and the temporary replacement saw we were doing a new
title and panicked."

	Does this mean that in a few months, when the then-indisposed
contact is back at work and things are as they once were, that you
might try suggesting WDCiC again?  *I'm* certainly for it.

	(And BTW Don, you asked why I revved up my juices on issues
like this and not Disney's refusal to pay royalties or return art.
The answer is simple... I know little of the legal technicalities
regarding these issues, and while you state Disney is doing illegal
things, I myself don't know exactly which United States laws are being
broken, and while busy in college, I cannot spend time finding them
out.  If you care to give me some ammunition, I'll be GLAD to roll the
presses on some folk songs of protest, as it were.  You have my
support on this, I just don't know WHAT to do...)


	Wrapping up a loose hair -- er, thread
	======================================

	"I still say all Ducks should, and always have had white
hair."

	That's Don Rosa speaking.  And I respond by asking, what color
was Donaldo El Quacko's hair?  (And don't tell me, "dyed".)  Or the
Ducks in Tralla La -- GOTCHA!  The Cannibal Ducks in WDC&S 34 have
black hair, too (although you'll no doubt argue that that story is
MUCH too early to mean anything, and I'll answer that you're right).


	That Olympic story
	==================

	John Lorentzen said, "[Don Rosa's story in DD 283] collides 
with your general stories that are set in the 50s, since the 
Lillehammer games take place in the 90s, and I think Donald would 
be a little old in 94 (in his 70s or 80s ?) to compete in the events."

	Actually, not ALL of Don's stories take place in the 1950s.
Once in a long, long, time, he'll break his rules when a particular
idea comes along -- like "The Duck Who Fell to Earth," which tries
very hard to stay in the '50s but includes a TV weatherman making a
report and pointing out an image from a satellite, something that
couldn't have been in the '50s.

	But actually, Donald *did* look substantially older in "From
Duckburg to Lillehammer."  I actually wish to tell you, Don, that in
the side views of all the Ducks in this story you made the *rear*
parts of their bills far too short!  This leaves a huge area of white
neck exposed at the bottom of the head -- and since you draw the Ducks
with short, thick necks anyway, Donald seemed far less svelte then
usual (again, only in those side shots).  You had a better side view
of Donald's head in "On Stolen Time," in the scenes where Donald
pretends to be frozen to decoy the Beagle Boys.

	"Not to mention HDL who should be about 50 at this time."

	Err... uh...


	Frank Dicapua on "Son of the Sun"
	=================================

	"Speaking of Son of the Sun...Am I the only one who saw the
resemblance between this book and the DuckTales 2 hour premiere?  
Granted, the stories are different enough, but a lot of the elements 
are similar.  Do you think that the writers borrowed any of 'Son of 
the Sun' for their story?"

	"The Treasure of the Golden Suns" was made in 1986 --
there's a long time between the production of a cartoon and when it's
actually finished.  Since that was one of the few episodes of the
series to use full animation in most scenes, it was probably in the
works for even longer than most.

	What I mean to say is that the similarities between this
cartoon and "Son of the Sun" are there, but couldn't be more than
cooincidence.

	While we're on the topic of _DuckTales_, let me please make my
view known on its depiction of Scrooge.  Four times out of five,
Scrooge was shown as too generous -- as Don often points out, that
makes him a "counterfeit" Scrooge, not the real one.  But there ARE
occasional episodes wherein Scrooge is *right* in-character, fuming,
sputtering, and being his miserly self.

	I draw your attention to the first section of "Golden Suns" --
particularly the bit where Scrooge stomps gloomily along a Duckburg
street.  He passes a woman outside a cheese shop giving samples.
Without missing a step, he whacks the plate of samples upside the
bottom with his cane and catches EVERY sample in his hat.  Then, later
on in his office, he tells HDL that after whatever they're doing for
the nonce "we'll have a nutritious lunch of cheese."

	There are other good episodes as well.  DT's adaptation of
"The Lemming with the Locket" -- they chose to use the beginning of
"The Pixilated Parrot" for it, however, so that the kids buy the
LEMMING at the docks and bring it to Scrooge as a pet, after which the
story is that of US 9 -- contains a very good rendition of Scrooge,
acting much as he does in the original story.

	Unfortunately, DT's writers seem to have relied for
inspiration character-wise mainly on the 1960s Barks stories.  Mike
Barrier notes how Scrooge changed in those stories -- "he was depicted
more sympathetically, and lacked the passion for money that it would
have taken to accumulate so much of it" (or words to that effect).
That could well describe the DuckTales semi-Scrooge, for the most
part... the REAL Scrooge -- or at least, the version that seems the
most "Scroogish" to my eyes, and I believe, Don's, is that of roughly
1950-1958.

	The best Disney rendition of Scrooge, and of the Duck universe
in general, is, believe it or not, a TV featurette called "Sport Goofy
in Soccermania."  OF COURSE Goofy doesn't belong in Barks' Duck
universe (which the makers of the show were trying to recreate, given
the use of a non-nerdy Gyro with his Helper, Grandma Duck, the Beagle
Boys all identical, and other such touches).  The show, from 1985,
DOES make the unforgivable error of using Goofy because management had
wanted a Goofy 1/2-hour.  But we have Scrooge in his RED coat, being a
stingy tightwad, going through Barksian histrionics and otherwise
acting JUST like he should.  This ONE film presents the finest
animated Scrooge ever done, despite its unforgivable errors in other
respects.


	That's all for today, folks.  Fer gosh sakes, what a LOOONG
message.  (BTW Gary, the letter about MM stories for WDCiC is
obviously irrelevant now... as you know, it was delayed.  Anyway, John
is planning exactly such things for next year after the Gottfredsons
used in albums run out... or so he's told me.)

	David Gerstein

	"I'm the Fuller Brush Man!  I'm givin' g'way free semple!"
	<David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu>