DCML digest #906

[Don Rosa]

I just returned from my trip to be GOH at the Torino Comics fair in Italy.
Some folks say they want me to give reports on such events, but my mission
here is to only answer direct questions rather than create conversations.
And besides, a picture is worth a thousand words, so instead of saying
anything about the show, I'll give you some links to see scads of photos of
everything that went on. You'll also see some pics of members of this very
ML (and I'd expected to see some of them post reports of their own here, but
perhaps they were busy). By the way, these pics were taken by a person who
worked at the fair, so that's why many of the shots seem to show a deserted
convention center... he took many of the shots of the booths and exhibits
before the crowds came in to "clutter" up the view. Here are the links:
25 april 2002: www.fumetti.org/foto/TorinoComics2002
26 april 2002: www.fumetti.org/foto/TorinoComics2002b
27 april 2002: www.fumetti.org/foto/TorinoComics2002c
28 april 2002: www.fumetti.org/foto/TorinoComics2002d
Now, if anyone sees anything here that interests them, I (or the others?)
can answer questions about whathaheck is going on.

Meanwhile...
From: Kriton Kyrimis <kyrimis at cti.gr>
>>>Speaking of "The Big Bin on Killmotor Hill", which I re-read recently,
it would seem that it quite contradicts Don's Money Bin story: In the
beginning of the story, Donald shows the kids Uncle Scrooge's *new*
money bin, so this can't have been the building built by Frank Lloyd
Drake in the 1920s.

I've discussed this before, but you might not have understood since you say
this is the first time you have reread that story in a while.
As we've said, Barks was creating $crooge and his life and background
slowly, story by story, mostly between 1947 until 1952. The first use he
made of the Bin would naturally have to treat it as a new idea and introduce
all its features to readers. But thereafter, Barks had $crooge refer to the
Bin as having stood on that site for many years... in one story, $crooge
says "for 70 years" -- if 1951 is a date I regard as too recent for the
construction of the Bin, 70 years earlier is far too early! (That "70 year"
comment was made, I believe, in the other story you yourself mention, where
the Bin is being moved all over Calisota on a big tractor device.)
So, for my purposes (and mine alone, nobody else needs to agree with it), I
decided the most logical date for the Bin's construction is about 1902 (not
1920 as you say, by the way). And if I need to explain the comment that
Donald is making in that 1951 story about the Bin being "new", I can assume
that what he meant is that it had just been newly RENOVATED. In my version
of things, $crooge came out of retirement in 1947, so it took a few years to
modernize his 1902 Bin. That all works in a pretty logical manner, at least
for me, anyway.

By the way, I hear that my "Gyro Gearloose 50th anniversary" story is now
appearing in the Egmont weeklies. And the guy who gave me some of the ideas
for the plot, Sigvald Grøsfjeld jr., sent me a message saying that he
thought he'd caught me in a goof... and he DID. In the first part of the
story I have a small gag where $crooge sees a close-up of an ugly badger's
puss and says he thinks it's Flintheart Glomgold. But when that story should
be taking place early in $crooge's second (out-of-retirement) career, he
should not as yet have met Glomgold (not since the brief meeting decades
earlier in Africa). I don't perceive that my stories are taking place in any
specific order or specific year other than just in a mix of the mid 1950's,
but some stories are taking place before other stories, and this particular
tale should be occurring *before* $crooge ever met the modern Glomgold. But
it's a tiny gag that has nothing whatsoever to do with the story or even the
visuals, so perhaps I can replace it with other dialogue in future
printings. But this is why I LIKE readers to point out my errors (rather
than me being embarrassed by the idea)... it helps me make corrections!