Disney-comics digest #575.

[DAVID.A.GERSTEIN]

      Hi, gang.

      DON:
> I'm pretty sure this guy couldn't read and would have tried to 
> cheat me if he'd been brighter.
      So "being bright" + "being in the antique business" = "Barnum 
wannabe"?  Since when?  I've met plenty of honest antique dealers 
who were smart, but still knew that their customers deserved to be 
treated fairly.  And decently.  That's one of the ways of getting 
regular customers.  Of course, the number of those who would 
swindle suckers seems to grow with every passing year.  But so does 
the antique business, wouldn't you say?

      HARRY:
      When's Croesus landing in the U. S.?  USA 33 = "Horsing Around 
with History" + "Only a Poor Old Man".  USA 34 = some Jippes Junior 
Woodchuck story, and probably one of the Danish stories I rewrote, 
according to what Don once wrote to me.  "Two in One" was once 
scheduled for USA 35, but John informed me that it was pushed ahead 
to USA 38 (11 months away).  Van Horn sends John copies of his 
work before they're published by Egmont, so he can use them right 
afterward.  So I'm suspecting that USA 35, 36, and 37 may include the 
Croesus story and the new Van Horn two-parter (in one piece), in some 
order, as well as something else ("The Universal Solvent"?  Don's 
told us that he didn't tell John when it was coming, but maybe Byron 
did...)

      JORGEN:
      I've also read the T-coded Fethry story you describe.  It is 
longer than four pages, though.  DD doesn't actually call up Fethry:  
Fethry simply shows up at his house when he returns from grocery 
shopping, and begins causing trouble.  For example, Fethry makes 
dinner, but uses Bolivar's canned food.  The sleeping gags begin 
around the fourth page, I think.  I'll always remember that last 
panel of DD furiously chasing Fethry down the block.

      Stefan Printz-Pahlson is editing about half of Egmont's new 
stories, with Byron doing the other half, starting now.  Both were 
very disappointed that Anina left, but haven't yet tried to arrange 
for another U. S. editor.  Not that they don't need one.
      Those of you who work for Egmont need not bother to tell him 
about my predicament.  Through a stroke of luck I DID manage to reach 
him yesterday and explain everything.
      Stefan told me that the reason for the low number of MM stories 
being done this year is that they made far too many in 1992, before 
they kept tabs on exactly how many of each character they made.  They 
will continue to have a MM story every week, but a lot of them will 
be inventory for a while.  So it's not MM's popularity that caused 
the cutdown.
      Stefan's wife Unn Printz-Pahlson is a Duck writer, BTW.  She 
wrote "Adventures in Fantasyland" (DDAD 27) as well as a sequel to 
Barks' truant officer story.  I rewrote the latter story from German 
-- it should appear this year under the title "For School the Bell Tolls."

      JORGEN AGAIN:      I WOULD like a copy of "Pork-Barrel 
Politics"!  Thanks a lot!  The British chose not to print it.  >Sigh!<  I'd 
also like to know, from everyone, what the three pigs are called in 
various languages.  Since the story is partly a jab at Orwell's 
"Animal Farm," I named them Napoleon, Snowball, and Squealer.
> BTW, David -- when Donald gets the pig (Napoleon) to jump "through" the
> ring, did you have one of the nephews call him "Lord of the rings"?
      Nope. There are, however, dozens of awful puns elsewhere in the 
American version, which you'll all see when Gladstone eventually 
prints the tale.
      Vicar got very mixed up as to which pig was which, even though 
I specified quite clearly as to their appearances in the script.  
Napoleon is supposed to be the gray pig, Snowball the white pig, and 
Squealer the spotted pig.  But I don't think that's how it always 
ended up.
      Last -- thanks a lot, Jorgen, for your praise.  I'm very 
honored to know you like my stories so much!  The next you'll be 
seeing will be a Mickey story, "Digging Up Trouble," drawn by Noel 
Van Horn.  I can't say the plot is anything too special (MM and 
Horace go to Mount Fishflake to prospect for valuable minerals, but 
are thwarted by landslides), but I think you'll see right away how I 
like to characterize Mickey.  And Van Horn's art is PERFECT.

      That's all for now, folks.  Take care.
      David Gerstein
      <9475609 at arran.sms.ed.ac.uk>