Gottfredson in Gemstone

[Jonathan H. Gray]

>From: "Olivier" <mouse-ducks at wanadoo.fr>
>To: "x DCML" <dcml at stp.ling.uu.se>
>Subject: Re: Gottfredson in Gemstone
>Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2005 17:09:41 +0100
>
>Hello everyone!
>
>
>Mads:
>
> >>> However, publishing all of his stories will not be possible, since 
>lots
> >>> of stories were censored, and include scenes, that were accepted when
> >>> they were first published, eg. all the jokes about the nazis.
>
>First, I really don't understand how depicting Mickey fighting the Nazis
>could be bad.
>And now that Disney has been releasing its short feature sin unedited form,
>with an introduction by Leonard Maltin regarding the touchy passages, the
>same ought to be done for Gottfredson's strips.


Disney has always been VERY WONKY when it comes to releasing uncut versions 
of anything. I dont know how they are overseas, but here in the states 
theyve always had a tight leash on censorship of thier own material sadly. 
:(

Personally I would KILL for a Gottfredson library done in the vein of the 
Carl Barks library (I'm one of those people who looks at the Gottfredson 
universe over Barks almost. He's my hero. XD), but I guess thats wishful 
thinking. I know MANY people who discovered his work far after Gladstone's 
wonderful Mickey Mouse comic run, myself included, that fell in love with 
the mans work. As far as all the material itself goes its not necessarily 
the nazi material and otherwise that would probably pose a problem, but the 
rampant stereotypes that go along with them. I remember reading in one of 
the old MM Gladstones (i cant remember which one) that they couldnt print 
the original Trigger Hawkes story like they had planned because of the 
questionable African-American steotypes that were in it. I'm a black male 
myself and having read the story (which I loved) via one of those 
obnoxiously crammed Abbeville Press books, I could see how someone with a 
less open mind could see it as being very racist without understanding that 
back in those days such a thing was perfectly acceptable.

The same would go for the Japanese stereotypes as well, especially during 
the Nazi era. Then youve got Bill Walsh's Mickey stories which have an 
unusually darker tone to them than most (which IMO makes them awesome), but 
then we go back to Disney's very tiny mouse leash in the states. What I'm 
saying pershaps when Gemstone acquires the newspaper liscence, a library 
format for the Gottfredson material would be the best way to see this stuff 
or perhaps random printings of previously unseen stories in the Take Along 
books (I'd prefer the Bill Walsh stuff as they had only JUST begun to tap 
it). But unlike the Barks library, I think they should provide certain 
stories with a Leonard Maltin-esque disclaimer and maybe an article on the 
history of the story (Gladstone/Gemstone is REALLY good at that kind of 
stuff already) so maybe they can appease Disney should problems arise. You 
have to look at every angle and nip problems in the bud before they even 
arise.

......

This post was much longer than I'd originally intended. ^_^;;;;

Jonathan H. Gray
Artist of Archie Comics' Sonic The Hedgehog

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