I have a special attachment to the French Minnie comics of my childhood... and I realize some of my favorites were written by Alain Clément, and drawn by Maximino Tortajada Aguilar with the Comicup studio.
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Why does Inducks keep listing the French name of Reginella as "Pulcinella" even though this name has never been used in any French prints of her stories? Even the recent reprints keep calling her Reginella in supplementary articles.
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I'll post again some questions I wrote that remained unanswered. In case someone missed them...
- Rockerduck becomes the ruler of a kingdom, but he is forced to fight a dragon that was recently set free from a cave. Rockerduck asks Scrooge for help - after he humiliated him in a competition - and Scrooge has to be convinced by Huey, Dewey and Louie to help him, although Scrooge admits he wouldn't mind Rockerduck to be burnt to ashes by the dragon.
Either Donald or one of the nephews keeps suggesting to give the dragon a "ball of wax", and they react like it is an old stupid myth...
And then it turns out the dragon loves to eat wax, so they keep feeding it wax to keep it tame, becoming a tourist attraction.
Published in an old 80s French "Picsou Magazine".
- Scrooge, Donald and the nephews go venture in the Wild West. They take a ride from a Native American biker, and after Scrooge is stingy and refuses to pay him for the ride, the biker shows him his collection of scalps, and tells him it comes from all his customers who didn't want to pay. So Scrooge is convinced to pay.
They meet a local duck called "John Deuff" (pun on "jaune d'oeuf" which means "egg yolk"). And then another local who looks suspiciously like him and directs them to their destination.
Later, the ducks visit an old ship stranded in the desert. They are confronted by a ghost duck pirate who shakes chains, and throws a sword at them.
HDL later deduce the ghost is fake, because the sword is made of "good steel". They trap the ghost and reveal he is John Deuff, who disguised himself for reasons I forget (because he wants to protect his family's legacy or something). His talent at impersonating a ghost is remarked by the ducks, and the story ends with him turning the stranded ship into a tourist attraction/haunted house.
Published in an old 80s French "Picsou Magazine". And I am also looking for a story where Donald and HDL go in a junkyard with many piles of trash and metal where there is a mysterious person wrapped in old clothes "haunting" the place, with an old radio telling ominous things about how he is a threatening force...
Donald and HDL try to fight and escape this junkyard phantom, and when he falls and is unmasked, they are surprised to find out "he" is a woman.
Donald: "you... you're..."
Junkyard phantom: "Yes, a woman, so what?"
And then she explains herself and why she did this, and at some point puts on a record that reminds her of an old lover.
I think this story was published in a 90s "Journal de Mickey" or a 90s "Super Picsou Géant" and the art on the woman kinda felt like Romano-Scarpa. (Scarpa stories were rarely published in the Journal de Mickey). Thank you for your help!
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So, in that story, does she get a proper first name? What kind of names do they use for her family here? Is "De Sortilège" canonized?
Here's an earlier comment by juicymcduck, on the thread "origin stories for Magica":
For the record, in the French version, Magica's mother is "Annick" (presumably "Annick De Sortilège", but we're not told), and her aunt is "Monique." Both names were obviously chosen because they rhyme with "Tick," which is Magica's first name in French (much to my chagrin). >end quote<
So, the "De Sortilège" surname is not used here, though it may be used in other published French stories, if that's what you mean by "canonized"--not that there's really any operative canon here apart from editorial decisions in the various publishing houses, but I take your meaning.
I think the "De Sortilège" name is exclusive to the French dub of that old DuckTales episode, to translate "Magica... Magica de Spell" and go with the lip dub. "Miss Tick... Miss Tick de Sortilège".
Has it ever been used somewhere else, officially? The French "Picsou Wiki" uses that episode dub as reference for the "De Sortilège" name.
I also like to think that her "Miss Tick" is actually her full given name. Nobody has ever referred to her as just "Tick" in French releases, including her family. Right?
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The plot is about Donald who visits a futuristic house full of simulated traps and aliens, that is meant to test astronauts. Donald only gets there by mistake (expecting a regular job/house), and isn't aware of what he is facing, seeing the "aliens" only as minor annoyances that he disposes off easily.
The scientists who run the house are proud of the aliens created by their tech guy, but in the end, it is revealed that their tech guy is on vacation, so it is implied that at least some of those aliens are real.
The first panel shows a human woman on a space bike, and she only reappears in the last panel, in the sewers next to the aliens that were implied to be real.
I don't know... her design looks too specific for her to just be a one-off character.
If she was supposed to be an alien herself like the others, I think she'd look more alien and more threatening.
I have the feeling the authors were referencing a celebrity, another comic or even a special event at the time.
Would anybody have any idea? Thanks.
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Oh yes, there are a few French names I find insufferable.
And finally, there’s Magica De Spell, a.k.a « Miss Tick de Sortilège ». Traditionally, she was called just « Miss Tick » in the French comics, a pun on the word mystique, and the « de Sortilège » part was only added because the French dub of DuckTales did so. Therefore, what I had always assumed to be a surname became a first name. Does « Tick » even sound like a first name to you? They could have given her a vast array of funny first names ending in -a (Drama Tick, Erra Tick, Fantasma Tick, Numisma Tick), but nope.
Total agreement here--I also used to assume that "Tick" was her surname, and I like your suggestions for a first name, especially Fantasma and Numisma. Blast that DuckTales dub!
Your more reasonable naming scheme would also have led to better familial names in the French version of Magica's origin story by Maya Astrup. Could have had Fantasma *and* Numisma.... I wonder what names those characters will get in English, if that story is ever published in English.
Also: if Tick is her first name, it is a first name she shares with the German version of Huey, which I find extremely amusing!
So, in that story, does she get a proper first name? What kind of names do they use for her family here? Is "De Sortilège" canonized?
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Say, I am trying to remember a Mickey story, drawn I think by Cesar Pelaez, and that was published in France in the early 90s, in "Journal de Mickey".
Where Mickey is staying at a scientist base that has an artificial environment. It has a beach and a small sea. Mickey sees the scientists having fun in the water, he asks them if it is fun, but the scientists suddenly leave and act somber, saying they don't have fun. And most of the story is about Mickey interacting with the base's sentient computer who speaks with a lisp. One panel has Mickey playing chess with the computer, with it using a robot arm to move its pieces (and winning).
Also, I am not sure if it was answered already but... is the name "Kildare" (Sgrizzo) official? None of his stories seem to have been officially published in English.
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Say, I am trying to remember a Mickey story, drawn I think by Cesar Pelaez, and that was published in France in the early 90s, in "Journal de Mickey".
Where Mickey is staying at a scientist base that has an artificial environment. It has a beach and a small sea. Mickey sees the scientists having fun in the water, he asks them if it is fun, but the scientists suddenly leave and act somber, saying they don't have fun. And most of the story is about Mickey interacting with the base's sentient computer who speaks with a lisp. One panel has Mickey playing chess with the computer, with it using a robot arm to move its pieces (and winning).
Anyone knows it? Thanks.
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Hey, I actually have this one! In Minnie Mag 9, which also has the best story starring Clarabelle ever written (Le soda se boit sec), not to mention Amelia fatina per un giorno, which makes no sense in French because Magica is mistaken by the kids not as Befana (rides a broom, dresses in black) but as “la femme du Pere Noel”! Famous Failures in Cultural Translation.
But it’s been years since I read this, and I’d forgotten the Helper story. It has one of those stretches where Helper is on his own in the world, always fun. I like that he has his own independent desire & motivation which drives the plot. Cute final panel!
Ah yeah, the Befana is virtually unknown in France, so it was kinda forced. And I remember those "Roaring 20s Clarabelle" stories, they were made in France but never got mych of my attention. The Helper story was cute, not just for Helper, but also for actually showing some romantic development between Donald and Daisy, instead of the usual toxic "hate-you/leave-you/make-you-jealous" dynamic.
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I remember a comic where Donald is so angry at Gladstone that he "curses" him and wishes him bad luck. Daisy scolds him, he feels guilty and he sees Gladstone is getting into unlucky situations, so he tries to save him from each of them, without being noticed. Turns out, at the end, that