Disney-comics digest #518.

[Don Rosa]

DAVID:
	Good eye! I didn't notice that ghost thought balloon tail in
that panel! I checked my original script -- the FULL balloon was "McDuck
had a rifle in here somewhere! I'll give it back to him... one bullet at
a time!" Disney undoubtedly thought this sounded "too dangerous".

WILMER:
	Good questions!
	McDuck riding a lion was not intended as a "tribute" to BLAZING
SADDLES, and if I'd thought it might be interpretted as such, I probably
would have left it out. I rather detest BLAZING SADDLES. And Mel Brooks
movies in general. They seem like lots of effort and expense to produce
r-rated skits for the Carol Burnett show (since Harvey Korman is usually
there somewhere. Just real tacky borscht-belt humor. And BLAZING SADDLES
was a major disappointment for me after Mel Brooks launched his movie
career with a piece of genius like THE PRODUCERS... something that
seemed genuinely clever to me.
	The stable owner. Yes, I realized that he shouldn't allow
someone to snatch stuff out of Flintheart's cart, that's why I tried to
explain it away by having $crooge say that he was going to "discuss" the
ownership of the guns with the guy who brought the cart, suggesting that
he was going to go offer to buy the guns. Still, right, the stable guy
shouldn't have trusted him; but by then $crooge already had the guns ON,
so maybe he thought he'd better keep quiet. By the way, the Dutch stable
owner, in my script, had an OUTRAGEOUS accent which, naturally, Disney
nixed. Granted, I have no idea what a real Dutch accent would
sound/look like in print, but, for instance, his line of "Certainly.
That's my job" was, in my script, "Zertanly! Dot's mine chobe!"
	Yes, the "Do not forsake me oh mah" was in memory of the MAD
parody of "Hah Noon!" But did you notice that they left off the
"darlin'"? I'm trying to recall now, but I think Disney would not allow
it because there was some danger of copyright infringement if the entire
line were used, believe it or else.
	Correct, Disney will not allow guns to be pointed AT people
("too dangerous"). But $crooge was not trying to hit FG, just scare him.
I guess.
	No, I wouldn't have shown T.R. in Africa since he wouldn't be
going there for years, maybe decades yet. This story was set in 1885 or
1886 when T.R., if he wasn't still a rancher in the Dakota Territory,
was just restarting his political career. But don't worry... he'll be
back as a major character in part 10, my favorite chapter. (No, this
chapter did not take place in 1887 as shown on the cover... that's when
the cover portrait was "taken", after $crooge had been in Africa a year
or two, so I could get him into the clothes shown in Barks' flashback
scene in that U$ #49.)