Disney-comics digest #457.

DAVID.A.GERSTEIN 9475609 at arran.sms.edinburgh.ac.uk
Mon Oct 10 12:48:55 CET 1994


      Dear Folks,

      Someone mentioned the Mickey/Goofy "Zoom Transport" stories.  
It may interest you that production of these will soon grind almost 
to a halt, because Egmont's managment has come to regard them as 
formulaic and just not that good.

      And there's been another change over there.  Just for fun, I 
came up with a Donald story idea involving Fethry.  But they told me 
that I could not use Fethry, because they had decided that he was no 
longer to appear in their stories.  Turns out that for years they 
have asked their writers to use him, and for years their writers have 
not wanted to.  In fact, I personally have only seen a handful of 
Fethry stories from Egmont, all of them 1-pagers.

      By the way;  I also found that 1992 "Secret of Shark Reef" 
story (in German) that includes Eli Squinch.  Weird art.  I think it 
was drawn by Esteban during his "recent" period (that is to say, 
Asterix-style art trying to burst out of a very straightlaced, 
forced-Murry style).  Squinch was drawn in 1930s style complete with 
pie-eyes, while everyone else looks c. 1975.  I can't say I really 
would like to see this one in English.

      By the way, next year Egmont's 8-page Mickeys are curtailled 
and regular production of 10-page Mickeys will take their place.  The 
Mickey push continues over there.  I'm all for it -- a tale of mine, 
with Sylvester Shyster as villain, may be the first I do in the new 
format.

      That's all for today, folks -- gotta be off.  But I'll be back 
soon.  BTW:  I've seen Barks' recent painting "Picnic at Memory Pond" 
(or whatever it's called) for DD's 60th.  What a mess.  The hen from 
"Wise Little Hen" is included, but is only the size of an animal hen, 
not a person-hen, for some reason.  Then Clarabelle and Horace are 
both included, presumably because Barks had thought they must have 
been in "The Wise Little Hen" as well (the foreword Barks wrote to 
one of the big white books indicates he never saw the cartoon).  
Barks sure can't paint very good versions of Clarabelle and Horace.  
And if he included them, why aren't Mickey and Minnie in on it too?  
(Yeah, Don, I know what you're thinking... ;-)

      All the best, folks.

      David Gerstein



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