A conspiracy theory

[Scrooge MacDuck]

So, the Fresh And New IDW comics are upon us, and, folks, it ain't pretty. The choice of stories is decent (Millions aside) but Erin Brady's localization is bland to the point of being horrific in how tasteless it is, not to mention the occasional bit of dialogue that's just clunky and bizarre. 

And I hope, I dearly hope, that this is just the new crew being horribly misguided about what makes good and marketable Disney comics. But it suddenly occurred to me that the situation may be much worse… what if some marketing department somewhere in the Walt Disney Company has decided that it's messy to have both the classic Ducks and the DuckTales 2017 verison out at the same time, but can't quite convince the higher-ups to cancel the Disney comics — so they're purposefully running them into the ground through innocuous-looking changes in the editing team? 

This may sound conspiracy-theory-ish in the extreme, I do realize, but it makes a disturbing amount of sense if you consider that they basically used that very same technique a few years ago to get rid of hand-drawn animation…

[pollux]

Back during the Cold War era some people (philosophers, intellectuals etc.) in the Eastern Bloc thought that the comicbook character of Scrooge McDuck was meant to indoctrinate children with capitalist propaganda and that Disney comics spread US imperialism.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Sept 27, 2018 20:47:28 GMT pollux said:

Back during the Cold War era some people (philosophers, intellectuals etc.) in the Eastern Bloc thought that the comicbook character of Scrooge McDuck was meant to indoctrinate children with capitalist propaganda and that Disney comics spread US imperialism.

…yes? What has this got to do with… anything?

(I will note that what you describe is of course kind of ridiculous, but also not entirely wrong. Perhaps it wasn't Barks's intent — probably not — but I know for sure quite a few young readers of Scrooge comics would rather unquestioningly dream to someday be billionaires and have money bins to swim in.)

[pollux]

Well, this thread is called "a conspiracy theory" and what I described was a conspiracy theory. Some "intellectuals" in the German Democratic Republic claimed what I wrote.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

…yes, but "A conspiracy theory" specifically referred to the one I created above and which I wished to discuss. If I had meant for this thread to be a collection of conspiracy theory I'd have said so in the opening post.

[pollux]

Well okay, sorry I got confused.

So, maybe thare totally right and "THEY" want to destroy the most successful American and European comicbook franchise, the Duck and Mice universe, to make it easier for Japanese anime and manga (invented by Imperial Japanese war criminals in co-operation with crazed WAK scientists during WWII) to take over the graphic literature community?

[deb]

To my knowledge, they want to reach younger readers and thought that the previous translations skewed too “old” (because, you know, kids don’t get wordplay and jokes).

[The KKM]

I think you might be hitting the general area but not the specifics. Seems to me more likely that instead of "Disney makes IDW bad to focus on Ducktales", it's "Ducktales' success brought the comics to Disney's focus and so they're being a lot more controlling".

[Horace]

Sorry that I missed the insider informations but can somebody enligthen me: What changes have been made to the editorial team?

Of course the thought that American kids suddenly get interested in Disney comics if they change the style of the dialogs is quite ridiculous.

[deb]

As I am not in the employ of Disney or IDW, take my words with a grain of salt, as I'm going by what I've heard and some of this post is speculative.
The editorial change boils down to: David Gerstein and his usual crew (translators/scripters Thad Komorowski, Jonathan Gray, Joe Torcivia and others) are off the monthly issues (but have a few specials and paperbacks coming out still). These people are still working with Fantagraphics on various projects, most notably "Disney Masters".
It is very possible that the success of IDW's DuckTales and Star Wars Adventures has caused Disney to once again take charge of the monthly magazines like they did back in 1990, as well as wanting to minimise production and approval turnaround time.  The theory with the writing is that they want to attract younger readers by simplifying the writing in the books.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Sept 29, 2018 16:49:20 GMT deb said:

The theory with the writing is that they want to attract younger readers by simplifying the writing in the books.

But… that doesn't explain why the dialogue is just plain bad. (Not ComiXology-bad, sure, but… I believe the panel above makes my point pretty well.) 

By the way, an update: ComicVine has nothing on this not-the-supermodel Erin Brady person. My vaguely-satirical suspicion that this is a pen name for a non-native-speaker is increasing rapidly. 

[thadwell]

To end speculation, the Erin Brady in question is most certainly this individual:link

An impressive translation resume to be sure... just not one that has to do with funny comics.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

…on my end all that's showing between your two sentences is "/", no matter what browser I use. Don't know why.

[thadwell]

Should work now... It’s a LinkedIn profile.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

…huh. Okay.

I will note though. Barcelona, Spain. My theory may not be entirely confirmed, but neither is it entirely infirmed.