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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