Other stupid queries...

Gerstein, David DK - ECN DGE at ECN.egmont.com
Mon Feb 28 12:50:39 CET 2000


	Hi Arie!

>About Brer Rabbit, i heard the stories was somewhat forbidden to print in
US
>or somerhing like that??? It's because of the folktales if i'm not wrong.
>Can anyone please tell me what's it all about? And are there any new Brer
>Rabbit stories? Not his fan, just delighted to see one story of Brer every
>two or three issues.

	Regarding the USA...
	...Brer Rabbit isn't banned in the United States. But the classic
1940s and 1950s Disney Brer Rabbit comics *are* written in a thick Southern
dialect that is sometimes considered "politically incorrect".
	In 1989, Disney-Burbank made a rule that Brer Rabbit comics in the
USA had to use normal English, so the dialect would have to be rewritten for
American reprint.
	With Disney Comics Inc. (1990-1993), the rule meant that Brer Rabbit
stories were used with the Southern dialect removed or softened (although in
two cases, original stories did get through with the dialect intact).
	With Gladstone (1993-1998), the rule meant that no Brer Rabbit
stories appeared at all - because the Gladstone editors decided they'd
rather publish *no* Brer Rabbit than Brer Rabbit without his dialect. Brer
characters *did* appear frequently in the Wolf stories during this time,
though.
	We have yet to see what decision a future publisher will take.
Personally, I'd rather have a dialect-free Brer Rabbit than no Brer Rabbit
at all.

	Regarding Egmont (many European comics)...
	...we produced and published our own new Brer Rabbit stories until
recently, but we stopped making them lately because we found our readers
were tired of them. At this point, I have no idea whether we'll make more
stories with him in the future.

	Regarding GP (Dutch comics in particular)...
	...they're still making new Brer Rabbit stories now. Personally, I
think they're great, and very much in the spirit of the classics.

	Regarding Disney Italy...
	...they don't make Brer Rabbit stories themselves, but their
MEGA-2000 comic reprints lots of Egmont and W-coded ones.

	David Gerstein
	<dge at ecn.egmont.com>




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