In the last panel of Janet Gilbert's Duckburg Ice Festival, HDL-as-JWs are finally able to sell their hot cocoa to the people who've been soaked with freezing water. In the Gemstone printing, their sign still says what it said in an earlier panel: the original price and the sale price are both crossed out and it says "FREE!" It seems to me this has to be a mistake. For one thing, it's only a happy ending if they finally succeed in making money for the JWs. They'd actually be *losing* a fair amount of money if they had to provide the ingredients for cocoa for all those people. For another, Scrooge is shown unhappily pulling money out of his wallet, presumably to pay for the cocoa!
In the printing in your country, what did the sign in the last panel read?
Yeah, that doesn't make sense. In the version I have they've doubled their initial price (and no cent less!). If that wasn't a mistake it's the same weird change/censorship as the ending to "Donald Duck's Atom Bomb!" in the Carl Barks Library, where Donald gave his hair tonic away for free instead of making money off it.
"Duckburg Ice Festival" is one of my favorite childhood stories, by the way. It's definitely one of the standouts from the Egmont weekly opening stories by Vicar from that period.
Yeah, that doesn't make sense. In the version I have they've doubled their initial price (and no cent less!). If that wasn't a mistake it's the same weird change/censorship as the ending to "Donald Duck's Atom Bomb!" in the Carl Barks Library, where Donald gave his hair tonic away for free instead of making money off it.
"Duckburg Ice Festival" is one of my favorite childhood stories, by the way. It's definitely one of the standouts from the Egmont weekly opening stories by Vicar from that period.
Thanks! Probably just a mistake, then, akin to the two screw-ups in the first American printing of "The Duck Who Never Was" (the birthdate on the form and the family tree). Who does that sort of thing (verbal/numerical info on signs etc.)? The letterer or someone else?
Yeah, that doesn't make sense. In the version I have they've doubled their initial price (and no cent less!). If that wasn't a mistake it's the same weird change/censorship as the ending to "Donald Duck's Atom Bomb!" in the Carl Barks Library, where Donald gave his hair tonic away for free instead of making money off it.
"Duckburg Ice Festival" is one of my favorite childhood stories, by the way. It's definitely one of the standouts from the Egmont weekly opening stories by Vicar from that period.
Thanks! Probably just a mistake, then, akin to the two screw-ups in the first American printing of "The Duck Who Never Was" (the birthdate on the form and the family tree). Who does that sort of thing (verbal/numerical info on signs etc.)? The letterer or someone else?
Yes, I have The Groot Winterboek from 1997, and seem to remember that that price wasn't free. But, I'm in Germany now for another month, and can't look to confirm. But, I'm sure that's just a one-country translation error.
I checked and in Finnish the sign had originally said '1 mark' then that was crossed out and it said '2 mark' and that had been crossed out too and it said 'for free' and that too had been crossed out, until the final price they were selling it was 5 marks.