SV: RE: "Life of Pete" again!

Sigvald Grøsfjeld jr. sigvald at duckburg.dk
Sat Aug 16 00:05:00 CEST 2003


David Gerstein wrote:

> Michael refers to "tying together... 'facts'
> given in classic stories". I think when
> Michael says "classic stories", he MEANS
> Gottfredson and Murry tales.

Probably yes, but also remember his embracing of the Italians could lead to
another conclusion.


> By the way, I ask you again please not to treat
> Murry stories as being by Murry only. Murry is
> an artist. He didn't write them. Carl Fallberg
> and Don Christensen, among others, wrote many
> of the best Pete stories drawn by Murry.

That's off course true. However once I got heavy critics in DCML for asking
if Murry's status as a great artist should be reconsidered because he didn't
write stories like Barks, Rosa, Gottfredson, etc. After that I have thought
much about Murry and have also read many Murry stories - like when I visited
AC in Denmark this summer. As a result of those studies I have concluded
that Murry should still be respected as a great artist because he tied
together many people's stories by giving them one great standard look. Even
one of the huge white Italian books "Vi Mikke og Langbein" presents stories
by Murry, just like other books presents stories by Gottfredson and Barks.


> Romano Scarpa is another great Pete story
> creator.

OK, he is very well known and respected anyway.


>> I am not sure if that would be smart. Marco
>> Rota once tried to write about Donald's life.
>> Many people, even here at DCML, think that
>> he failed because he didn't knew enough about
>> Barks' views about the relations in the
>> Duck-family
>
> I know a lot of people who think Marco's story
> is UNUSUAL, and they may not agree with all the
> points in it, but that's not the same as calling
> it a total FAILURE.

I have never called it a "total failure". I have only stated that some
poeple might think that he faild to respect Barks as a true Barksist.


>> Furthermore I think that, even though most
>> often undeserved, Italian Disney comics has,
>> due to the high output, got an assembly-line
>> mark on it. I would therefore prefer that a
>> well qualified American, like our friend
>> David Gerstein, to do such an important job
>> - but that's just my thoughts.
>
> You could say ANY high output of stories has
> an assembly-line mark on it to some degree.
> S-codes, D-codes, H-codes, W-codes, B-codes...
> the list goes on and on. But all of these
> production units also make, and have
> made, a large number of good, classic stories.

100% correct. I didn't mean in any way to criticize the italians. They
produce, and have also produced a lot of great stories.


>> Anyway the most important issue here IMO,
>> is that whoever selected to do a "Life of
>> Pete" should care as much about the works
> of Gottfredson and/or Murry
>
> ...and Romano Scarpa, who IMHO contributed as
> much to Pete as the other creators you cite.

OK, even though I like to think of him as an artist that works with the
Duck-universe.


> My Egmont colleagues Byron Erickson and
> Andreas Pihl have also done some excellent
> Pete stories in recent years.

I don't doubt that. The question is only how many excellent artist can such
a tale be based on before the whole project suffers from contradictions and
chaos?

I don't know if a project like "The Life of pete" will ever be actual, but
perhaps you can enlighten us all on how you might have solved such a task if
you were asked to do it?

Sigvald


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