Copenhagen (quite long and hardly on-topic..)

[Fluks, H.W.]

Last weekend we had a meeting of Disney comics fans in Copenhagen. I'll give
a brief report of who were there and what we did.

First of all, this meeting has mainly been made possible by David Gerstein.
Thanks again, David, for giving me a wonderful time! Also: thanks to all the
others for showing up! 8-)

Last Wednesday, 24 January, I travelled by car from Groningen (in the
Netherlands) to Germany. I met Brix Lichtenberg in Hamburg, and we visited
two comic shops there. After that, we had dinner in a wonderful restaurant
in a greenhouse in Bad Oldesloe. Then I got to see Brix's collection of
comics books. I stayed the night in a nearby hotel.
Some photographs of this day can be seen on:
http://members.tripod.lycos.nl/bolderbast/p01-01.html

On Thursday I drove to Copenhagen. I took the ferry (Puttgarden). That took
only 45 minutes, which was not enough to finish the book "You are here".
Brix gave me the book to read, but wanted it back later. This had two
advantages: 1. Brix made sure I would *read* the book, and 2. I would be
sure that Brix would go to Copenhagen too, or else he wouldn't get his book
back.
The book "You are here" is indeed wonderful to read. It's non-Disney, but
I'm sure Brix can tell more about it to anyone interested.

I arrived in Copenhagen late in the afternoon. This gave me some time to
meet David's colleagues at Egmont. Some of them I met before, and some of
them for the first time. Unfortunately, Byron Erickson was on holiday - I'd
love to have had a chat with him.

In the evening David and I had dinner with Martin Olsen, in a Chinese
restaurant. Martin couldn't be with us on Saturday, so I was glad to be able
to meet him now!
When we were discussing a Fethry Duck story involving Feng Shui, we couldn't
avoid the restaurant owner to give us a little demonstration. I think I lost
some energy there...

Friday was my "day off" to see the touristic sights of Copenhagen. I walked
for 5 hours, passing by all the interesting (and some less interesting)
buildings. Fortunately, Egmont's office is in the middle of the centre, so I
could take a lunch break there.

In the evening, Brix joined us again, as well as Kjell Croné (from Sweden)
and Kristian Højsteen (a real Dane). We had a nice dinner (chili con carne)
at David's appartment. We were quite an international group: 5 people, 5
nationalities.
A photograph of Kjell, taken that evening, can be seen on:
http://members.tripod.lycos.nl/bolderbast/p01-02.html
(For the rest of my stay I used an old-fashioned, non-digital camera. So it
takes a bit longer before other photos are on the web.)

At night, Kjell, Brix, and I stayed at David's for a good sleep. That didn't
quite work out, though - which will explain the sleepiness the next day. Too
much interesting comics, cartoons, and people!

Saturday was the big event: the meeting with a dozen of people from Denmark
and Sweden. Unfortunately, some people couldn't come, but we ended up with
10: David, me, Brix, Kjell, Søren Krarup Olesen (from Jutland), and 5 more
Swedes: Olof Siverbo, Joakim Gunnarsson, Germund Silvegren, Jakob Hallin,
and Ted Johansson. Some of them I knew by e-mail, some of them were totally
new for me.

After a fast-food lunch at the train station, we went for a visit to two
comic shops: Faraos Cigaren (or something like that) and Fantask. Especially
the former (the cigar) had many interesting things. Since I can't read
Danish well enough, I mainly talked with the others, while they bought a lot
of stuff. One thing I noticed was that everyone has different ways of
collecting things. Some people collect *everything*, while they don't know
if they will ever read it. Others collect something just to be able to index
it. 8-)

After the 2 shops we went for a drink and a chat. It became a sort of "round
table conference", with all 10 of us sitting in a cosy corner of a pub. Both
interesting (Disney comics) and boring (ftp sites 8-) subjects were
discussed.

Then we were heading for a look at David's office. David had prepared two
boxes of comic material that were his doubles. It was a nice view to see
people get what they wanted from those boxes. Of course, I already picked
what *I* wanted the day before! 8-)

Evening dinner was without Ted, but Kristian joined us again. The 10 of us
had a wonderful dinner in an Indian restaurant. With lots of conversation,
for instance about the people that were not there. 8-)

After dinner, everyone was very sleepy (see also my remark above). Half of
the group went to a nearby pub for a drink, and after that, Kjell, Brix, and
I went to David's house again. We looked at some videos from David's
collection. Among them were the Br'er Rabbit sequences from "Song of the
South". Beautiful cartoons that I had never seen before. After that, we
almost literally fell asleep.

On Sunday, we went up at 12 or so. During our stay we continously looked at
and discussed Disney comics. Brix had brought some interesting stuff from
Germany. I brought my Dutch doubles, and David had an interesting collection
at home. We hardly had the time to sleep or eat...

Sunday afternoon, Brix and Kjell joined David for one more visit to Egmont,
while I headed back home. I planned to have a good rest in a hotel, but at
the time that I was near Hamburg, I decided to go straight home in stead.
23:00 on Sunday evening I was home, 950 km from Copenhagen, and at the end
of a well-spent trip.

Already looking forward to a next time!
--Harry.