Disney-comics digest #255.

Geir.Hasnes@DELAB.SINTEF.no Geir.Hasnes at DELAB.SINTEF.no
Mon Mar 7 13:20:59 CET 1994


DAVID:

you wrote:
>        Fer gosh sakes!  I may not shout about it all the time, but
>*I* am, no-holds-barred, Mickey Mouse's greatest fan.  Well, okay, the
>greatest fan of _Gottfredson's_ Mickey.  And the Mouse of the earlier
>cartoons.
>
If anyone ever deserved that title, it would be Horst Schroeder of
Stockholm. Even though he is angry with everyone by default he has done
most to save all Gottfredsons strips from being kept safely in the vaults
of Disney. 

The reason he is so harsh is that he has fought alone for so many years
against Disney and all other mighty forces within the capitalist empire of
comics, including the political forces within Sweden, etc. He was the first
to embark on that Disney-indexing journey that Alberto Becattini was able
to finish. If there is one person who shouldnt be forgotten within
Disneydom it is him. I even think he should be named Barkses biggest fan
also, because of his struggle with Barks Portfolio, also against the will
of the mighty kingdom of Disney capitalists, and his struggle to have the
stories reprinted, uncensored, many years ago.


FREDRIK:

you wrote:
>About the brand of Donald's car; a couple of years ago it was
>concluded by one Swede and a group of Norwegians (of which I
>believe Geir was a member?) independently of each other came
>to the conclusion that Donald's car is an A-Ford Roadster.
>Recently, a friend of mine came up with some new information
>on the subject. In the January-February issue of "Classic
>Motor Magasin" (a Swedish magazine about old cars) there is
>an article about old Austins. It begins with a full-page...

Well, I never concluded this myself because I dont know that much about
cars. But the Norwegian American-Car people and the Swedish Donaldists made
a good job. I just picked all the illustrations. And we also found that a
Chevrolet model with Jumbo tires from that period had a terrible likeness
to Donalds car.

TO ALL:

If you wonder where I have been the last few months, I have simply been
reading through ALL the Norwegian Donald Duck comic books, and even made
some notes about them. For many reasons, really, but also so that I could
have something to say about the various artists and writers in future
discussions. Since I have sometimes been accused of being too harsh with
the non-Barks, non-Rosa stories. 

It is more than 4000 Duck stories alone, not to mention the rest of it.

The conclusions are too many to present here just now, so I will take them
as the themes appear on the digest. 

Carl Barks is superior, even more superior to the other writers than I had
believed before, except for Don Rosa.

Don Rosa is superior to all other contemporary writers, even William van
Horn and Daan Jippes. However, Don, your Olympics story was uninspired.

William van Horn is shallow and one-dimensional. He is completely
predictable and his stories follow the same patterns always. But I laugh at
some of his stories, yes.

Daan Jippes have done some good work, and also Fred Milton. However, there
is a deep misunderstanding in Miltons view on the Ducks personality.

I am sick and tired of Magica and the quest for the holy dime.

I am sick and tired of Donalds lack of luck.

I am sick and tired of the jealousy stories of Donald, Daisy and Gladstone.

I am sick and tired of the traditional story patterns that are used again
and again.

I have laughed at some of Vicars stories and even more at some of Brancas
stories. I am however sick and tired of their mindless copying of poses, of
cars, of houses, of landscapes, of all kinds of story patterns or details
taken from Barks, in short their almost total non-originality. Milton and
Jippes, and also van Horn, at least TRY to be original. I am so tired of
their copying parts of Barkses stories and make their own version (much
worse) of them.

The last few years the stories have become incredibly much more wordy than
before. Not that I dont like it when it is significant, like with Don Rosa,
but not at all in those Vicar and Branca stories.

It is obvious that not only within Don Rosa, but also within the other
artists, that the Ducks live in the 50s. The Duck Tales tales are an
exception, but they are nevertheless remakes of the usual patterns.

The stories besides Barks were terrible in the 60s, even more terrible in
the 70s, much better in the 80s and even better in the 90s. With this I
mean the ratio of good to bad. The Strobl and Bradbury stories of the 60s
and 70s make me ashamed, but they delivered good stories in the 50s and
very early 60s.

Donald Duck as a comic book in Norway is better than ever after the great
decline in 1962 / 63. The production is quite good. However, the problem is
shallowness. You can see it especially when the writers become ambitious,
then they fail much more.

And if you ask me why I read it, well, I am a Barks fanatic and a Rosa
fanatic. And now and then other stories read well. In fact, I love the
Beagle Boys stories of Egmont, they are intelligent although the follow the
usual patterns, so there are occasionally new twists that make me laugh.

I admit that Barks in the 60s declined. However, that was more by
inspiration than ability, for occasionally, his stories from the 60s rise
to heights far above even his own average. The structure of his stories is
much more dynamic and with much more twists than any Egmont story, even in
his later years, and he has a certain feeling for musicality in his mind
that makes him able to vary the dynamics in his stories like advanced
musical compositional structures.

Thats all folks. BTW, I enjoy Tom and Jerry more and more, but I never
enjoyed the kind of humour of Daffy Duck and his likes. Roger Rabbit, well,
saw him on video and laughed, but a little too nervous for me. I dont laugh
at people throwing cakes in faces either.

Geir Hasnes





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