Disney-comics digest #808.

[David A Gerstein]

	ARTHUR:
	Quartieri and Bat do work for the Jaime Diaz studios.  Since
Disney Comics went belly-up, they've been drawing Bugs and Daffy stuff
for DC (including Dave Rawson's "Toot Suite", published last spring),
for whatever that's worth.
	The story in Disney Comics DUCKTALES 17 and 18 is absolutely
NOT related, in any way, to Don Rosa's short DT story (which I haven't
seen, a unique case among Rosa stories).

	DON:
	Glad to hear that Grandma Duck's husband got his correct name
in WDC&S 600.  But if they spelled it Humperdinck (as you said),
there's been a mistake.  There's no "c" in the name... it's
HumperDINK, as I wrote in my letters to you on the topic.
	I'll have some comments on LO$ 11 and WDC&S 600 when I
actually see them... which ought to be Monday in these parts, when a
package from Mark Semich will probably arrive here.  Thanks Mark!

	THE NEW FERNANDEZ AND BLOCK STORY (DDA 35)
	is now in my possession.  I think the art in this one is Pat
Block's best so far (the first two pages, however, aren't as good as
the others... but it gets better as it goes along).  I like Scrooge
kicking Donald to emphasize the points he's trying to make, too...
call me an old-line slapstick fan, I guess.  Block drew those pictures
extremely well, I thought.
	The characters' personalities were very well-done for the most
part.  Lawyer Sharky, being a lawyer, had one weakness -- he didn't
think about how much money his activities cost (typical, for a
stereotypical lawyer).  I didn't mind this Achilles-heel being added
to Barks' character, since it was well-presented as a side of him we
hadn't seen before.  I also liked Scrooge's warm grin as he figured
out how HDL were planning to trick him into liking Halloween again.
He clearly knew something was up when the devil-costumed nephew led
him through Grandma's "haunted" house, but played along with it in a
spirit of increasing warmth.  I liked that.
	The downside of the story was, as has been mentioned, its
disjointedness.  There were, I think, too many strands in the story
for its 28-page length.  Although I loved the Beagle Boys subplot,
maybe it should have been removed;  instead, we could have had a more
detailed explanation of Scrooge's plans at the start of the tale.
	Some of you asked why Scrooge, supposedly to save money, would
buy all the Halloween trimmings in town -- which, of course, would be
a lot more expensive for him than the normal holiday expenses he
griped about.  Actually, as Pat Block has told me, Scrooge hoped to
wipe out the Duckburg Halloween market FOR GOOD -- so that nobody
would bother trying to sell Halloween stuff in Duckburg EVER again.
But this wasn't made very clear in the story.
	Still, I enjoyed this effort, and I look forward to more from
this team (the next one will be a 16-page story in DDA 37, I'm told).

	David Gerstein
	<96dag at williams.edu>