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His Work and His Life |
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His Work and His Life |
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The Missing Cover by Stephan Ortmann In 1950 Barks drew his story later called "April Foolers" (1987) or "April Fools" (1991) for Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #127. On the first panel of the second page there is a book with the cover reading "Mein Kampf" Adolf Hitler's most infamous book. Carl Barks put this book on the trash dump, asserting that this is the right place for such a book. With it Barks made a statement about Hitler, bigotry and the culture of hate. All this belongs to the lowest of places, the trash.  This
small detail creates a small side gag that was intended for the older
readers in his audience. And yet when the German editor and translator
came
across this message they decided to cut it out. Why would this be the case, I wondered. At first I thought that it might be because of Germany's dark history. Hitler had done the unspeakable, he had slaughtered thousands of Jews and many more people in his death camps. After the second World War the Germans were so shocked that they immediately banned everything that was connected to Hitler's Third Reich. Not only is the purchase of Mein Kampf (amazon.com recently declared they would not send the book to Germany anymore) banned in Germany but also wearing Nazi clothes, displaying the Nazi flag, or other emblems of that time. People who want to use these symbols in movies or other art forms have to apply for permission from the authorities. And yet is that the only reason for erasing this book from this comic? Could it not be used as a way to deal with the past, which Germans have neglected for such a long time?  The editor of the German comic book "Micky Maus" confirmed my first assumption but gave me another reason. This cover has no place in a Disney comic, he said. I am of a different opinion. Why can't there be a place in a Disney story that can be understood by the grown-ups who will ne pleased by this little inside gag. As I saw it for the first time I thought that Carl Barks had found the perfect place for this book. The last reason worth mentioning is that this little cover is not suitable for kids. I doubt that. I think that many Germans feel badly when they see this cover. What would be if a child for example asked: "Daddy, what does Mein Kampf mean?" or "Daddy what is this book?" Then we grown-ups might have to explain something which is uncomfortable to all Germans. I don't know if it is a pretty good analogy if I say that it is like talking you a young person about sex. It definetly is very different but how can a person from another country understand?  What is surprising to me is that the British version of the comic also misses this small detail. One reason could be that all European comics come from the Gutenberghus Group and that they (the English) did not care to take the original. That can be substantiated by the fact that the British version of the story has a lousy translation. All "Americanisms" have been deleted and replaced by typewritten text. This naturally meant that Barks' careful hand lettering had also disappeared from the British comic book.
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