Sunday, November 29, 2015

Action in Rundetårn (Round Tower)

IDW's Donald Duck #7 (legacy 374)
IDW's Donald Duck #7 (legacy 374)

Donald Duck #7 (legacy 374) came out earlier this month. The main story is Truth or Consequences,
written by Lars Jensen and drawn by Flemming Andersen. It's the 6th story in the TNT (Tamers of Nonhuman Threats) series, the first five were published in Gemstone’s Donald Duck Adventures about 10 years ago. The stories work fine as individual stories, but if you are unfamiliar with the series, I would recommend trying to track down the first story before reading this one.

In Europe we just got part 25 published, and you can find a complete list of the stories in the inducks database. But here is a list of the American prints:



  • Story 1 – Blue Rain - Donald Duck Adventures #4 (Gemstone 2004)
  • Story 2 – Return to TNT - Donald Duck Adventures #5 (Gemstone 2004)
  • Story 3 – The Ghost Rats of Hamelin - Donald Duck Adventures #6 (Gemstone 2004)
  • Story 4 – Mission: Sasabonsam - Donald Duck Adventures #15 (Gemstone 2005)
  • Story 5 – Let's Get Kraken - Donald Duck Adventures #18 (Gemstone 2006)
  • Story 6 – Truth or Consequences - Donald Duck #374 (IDW 2015)

It’s actually not the first time "Truth or Consequences" is published in English. Egmont in Europe have a series of pocket books in English that is published in several countries, and this story is in one of them. The purpose of the books is to learn English, the pages have selected glossary with translation at the bottom and the Norwegian edition of the series is offered as class packs to schools.


Some books from the Norwegian edition of Egmont's English pocket books.
Some books from the Norwegian edition of Egmont's English pocket books.


Glossary at the bottom of the pages

I believe the text in these books is close to the original script, so I thought it would be fun to compare with the American print to see how the dialogue is localized. As most of the story takes place in Denmark and I actually have the Danish print of this story too, I did a couple of comparisons to that translation as well.

Different comics, all with "Truth or Consequences" inside

Not that much have been changed really, but here are some examples (the American print is to the right):







Can someone explain the "jumping jacks/jumpin’ jacksnipes" expression to me please..?



In the next example, I wonder what the original script is. Two street names in Copenhagen, "Landemærket" and "Købmagergade" are used the American and Danish text, but not in the European-English print. And it seems the text box have been slightly enlarged to make space for the names.



And the next example has a fun joke. I wonder if that is in the original script or not. The European-English version have "come on", but both the American and Danish print have the Danish text "kom så". That’s a common and typical Danish expression. Even we Norwegians that have almost the same language use to say "kom så" when we are making fun of the Danes :)
 


In addition to Rundetårn (Round Tower) where part of the story takes place, there are a lot of other famous real-life buildings in the story. But for a Disney fan, the last panel have the most important one, it’s outside the Egmont office in Copenhagen!


Outside the Egmont office in Copenhagen, Denmark
Outside the Egmont office in Copenhagen, Denmark

***

The week after "Truth or Consequences" was published by IDW more action happened in Rundetårn, both in real life and in the comics. The Danish comic festival "Art Bubble" was held inside, and one of the guests was Don Rosa. The tower was again used on the cover of the Danish weekly, with Scrooge, Magica and Don Rosa (!). And the poster for the festival also had the tower with various Disney characters.


All covers with Rundetårn

If that wasn’t enough the Danish weekly even had a story inside featuring the tower AND Don Rosa.


Scrooge and Magica running to the comic festival inside Rundetårn. Drawn by Marco Rota
Scrooge is meeting Don Rosa
Scrooge is meeting Don Rosa

And the "money shot", Don Rosa is shoving his homegrown chili in Magica’s beak.



Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Happy Birthday Mickey sweepstakes



I made a post about Mickey’s birthday party September 28th. But that’s not the official date for Mickey's birthday, so I guess I’ll have to make another post today. Steamboat Willie premiered November 18, 1928, and that makes Mickey 87 years today!

I’ll celebrate that by sharing this rare birthday story:

Happy Birthday Mickey

It’s printed on a sweepstake folder with a coloring game and a coupon on one page, and the comic story on the other page. The back is blank.

 

I found it on eBay a while ago and got curious about what it was. The seller called it a “Walt Disney World Premium”, but after a bit of google searching I think I found out what it really is. In the Billboard magazine July 1, 1978 I found this article:

Billboard magazine July 1, 1978
From Billboard magazine July 1, 1978

And the details about the competition described in the article fits perfectly!



The size of the folder (when folded in two) is about the same as a LP record too. So according to the article, this little comic story was bundled together with a cardboard display prepack with Disney records to be sold. And it was probably given away to customers in record shops in 1978.

I don’t think this story was produced in Europe. In USA in 1978 Román Arámbula did the daily strips,  Manuel Gonzales the Sunday pages, and Paul Murry used to make most of the Mickey stories for the comic books. But the art doesn’t look like anything from those.  My guess is that this story is drawn by someone at Jaime Diaz Studio, that used to make (S-coded) stories for the international market at the time. They also used to team up Clarabelle with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy in a lot of stories. But I have to admit I’m not always that good with art recognition.

If anyone know who made this story, or know more about this item, please let me know! 

***

One last fun-fact related to this item. The happy birthday logo above the rules can also be found on Disney covers from Western, published from August to December the same year. Slightly edited but still the same. Now you know :)


1978 issues of the "core four", all with the Happy Birthday logo


Sunday, November 1, 2015

Minnie’s BILLY bookshelf assembly instruction

The Norwegian Donald Duck & Co #45/2015 and an IKEA instruction manual
The Norwegian Donald Duck & Co #45/2015 and an IKEA instruction manual

What do a Donald Duck comic and an IKEA instruction manual have in common? And now that I have the comic, can I get rid of the manual?

This week’s Norwegian weekly Donald comic has a story about Mickey and a magical mirror. It’s written by Olaf Moriarty Solstrand and drawn by Massimo Fecchi. At the end of the story while Mickey is doing the yak-yak-yak, Minnie is busy assembling a bookshelf.


From "Mirror, Mirror" (D 2015-005), by Olaf Solstrand and Massimo Fecchi
From "Mirror, Mirror" (D 2015-005), by Olaf Solstrand and Massimo Fecchi

As I have half my comic collection in BILLY bookshelves from IKEA, I immediately recognized the design! I don't think I really need any instructions if I'm going to set up more shelves. But if I do, I’ll use this story the next time :)

Distracted by Mickey, Minnie is about to put the top shelf the wrong way!


Minnie’s BILLY bookshelf assembly instruction

But it looks like she figured it out.


Minnie’s BILLY bookshelf assembly instruction