Disney-comics digest #549.

DAVID.A.GERSTEIN 9475609 at arran.sms.edinburgh.ac.uk
Wed Jan 11 12:53:05 CET 1995


      Hi, all.

      HARRY:  I must have been nuts when I said Dutch stories don't 
exist in France.  I had completely forgotten that they had taken a 
fancy to Mau Heymans;  his work appears in most issues of PICSOU 
monthly as well as the special you saw.  Years ago, they also used a 
very occasional Verhagen story (c. 1985).

      PAULO:  I got the idea that Jose Carioca was the main Brazilian 
Disney character from that Dutch article.  Guess I was wrong.
      If Hard Haid Moe can have his own title not once, but twice a 
month, then Brazil must beat out even Italy as a place where 
absolutely everything Disney can sell.  (Of course, maybe the stories 
that they're doing now are excellent.  But what I mean is, that even 
the most obscure characters are very popular in Brazil.)
      I'd like to think that Disney would object to Jose dressing 
like a rap musician, but I'm sure they'd never mind.  >Sigh<  I've 
seen a recent record album that has Mickey dressed that way on the 
front.  It's just the old bit that because these characters are all 
just actors to Disney, it's not out of character to dress them in 
ways that comic fans know they'd never choose.
       If there are some relatively short (i. e. 8 pages or less) 
Jose Carioca stories by Cannini, maybe Gladstone could use one next 
year.  I'd be interested to see one.

      DWIGHT:  I have plenty of ideas for Br'er Rabbit, but the 
problem with Li'l Bad Wolf is that I almost feel like every good idea 
has been used already.
      I always thought it was interesting how Br'er Bear, while often 
at odds with Zeke, remains ultimately a friend of the Wolves.  Even 
more interesting is how Br'er Fox is a family friend in so many 
stories.  To everyone else, Br'er Fox is a homicidal maniac.  I guess 
the cream on the cake is how comfortable Li'l Wolf is with all of 
this (for example, in the "crane" story reprinted in Egmont's 
Christmas special last year).  His friendship with "preyed-upon" 
animals like the Pigs and Br'er Rabbit doesn't cancel out his feeling 
at-home in the Forest's "predator community".  He'll fraternize over 
the Thanksgiving table with someone who would eat other friends of 
his.  What a dizzy world!

      JORGEN:  You found me a Norwegian copy of "Two in One"???  
Gosh, thanks!  My address is Masson House, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood 
Park Rd., Edinburgh EH16 5AY.  I'll send you a British weekly in 
exchange, when I can.

      MY FINAL COMMENT ON THE LENTIL STORY is that upon looking at it 
again last night, I realized that no matter what anyone else says, it 
really does have too much dialogue in it.  I put about 25 words, not 
the usual 15 or so, in most balloons.  So I've gone through 
"Colossus" and trimmed it here and there.
      Disney did change a few things I forgot to note;  both here and 
in Part I, they took out every time a character told another to be 
quiet!  From the merely irritated "shaddap" to the sharp "can it, 
nephew," they were all taken out!  In the third part, I used "button 
your beaks".  We'll see if that stays in there.
      Disney also objected to any type of insult.  176-176, disguised 
as a ghost, referred to HDL as "fools" while trying to sound high and 
mighty, and that was cut;  I imagine US calling DD "lout" in the 
third part will be axed as well.
      I always thought one of the great things about US and DD was 
their tempers.  I know Russell Schroeder at Disney personally, so 
I'll send him a letter pointing out some of that type of language in 
the old Barks stories.  Maybe he forgot how common it was.  Remember 
that great last panel in WDC&S 141's Think Box story?

      David Gerstein
      <9475609 at arran.sms.ed.ac.uk>



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