While I agree they should release both films unedited (or in the case of the latter, at all), I don't know about letterbox. I know for certain that Fantasia was Academy ratio, and I'm reasonably sure Song of the South was also Academy.

Let's not allow Disney to add "Tilt-&-Scan" to their list of crimes...

I ran into Ty Templeton picking up comics two days ago and we both checked out Howard The Duck #1. I actually put my copy back on the rack because Ty's so fun to bug.

I mentioned the old Disney lawsuit when I saw the new design and Ty said that was an urban myth. The new version of Howard is there because the artist wanted to redesign him. I guess he wanted to put his own stamp on it.

The fun fact here is that previews leaked on the net and there was a backlash against the new design. As a consequence Howard is going to morph back to his original design by issue four! No explanations. He just... is!

I can't wait to see that!

Remember that Wally Wood usually did the “Disney comic strip” parodies for MAD magazine so it gave him some practice doing the characters on model.

A fuller discussion of the creation and history of Wally Wood’s famous Disney Orgy poster can be found in this column by Disney Historian Wade Sampson: http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/wade_sampson/archive/2004/05/10/1212.aspx

Good point, Jim!

I should have mentioned that in the piece.

A fuller discussion of the creation and history of Wally Wood's famous Disney Orgy poster can be found in this column by Disney Historian Wade Sampson: http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/wade_sampson/archive/2004/05/10/1212.aspx

“Too mean?” I’ve got comics where Donald goes on an arson spree, so I don’t know what bug was up their asses.

The story to which I think you're referring is given a modicum of acceptability as Donald was (to put it mildly) "not in his right mind". It's been a while since I've read that story (I've got a copy somewhere, but just don't have the wherewithal to find it at the moment) but I seem to recall that he'd had some sort of accident (bump on the head) which made it clear that Donald wasn't really responsible for his actions.
I think the "meanness" in this particular story has to do with Donald's creating a disaster and then taking advantage of (profiteering off) those who'd been affected by it. That sounds like something we'd expect more of Scrooge McDuck, not Donald. (In most of Scrooge's get-richer-quick schemes, it's usually Donald and the Nephews who attempt to stop the scheme, or at least, minimize the profit that Scrooge realizes.)

And as you can see with those changes, the most noticeable one is still pretty much the pants, no?

* Feet couldn't be flat. They had to be thick and have rounded toes.

* Howard had to be a darker shade of yellow, not the cream/off-white color he had been.

• Howard's bill had to be thicker and more rounded.

there were a few others, but I am old and senile and it was a long time ago.

I THOUGHT the pants were the main point.

I had always assumed that if it was true, it was because the story had been written before the true horror of nuclear war was known and Disney later didn't want Donald Duck being shown as a monster who builds horrific weapons. I would never have dreamt it was because they didn't want to show him making money of others' misfortune.

The original story was weird enough. The truth is even weirder.

The Donald thing is inconsequential because it was written at a time before the true horror of atomic war had sunk into the public- and Donald WAS a big jerk before he was reinterpreted in modern times as short-tempered but mainly nice.

And yeah, the new Howard looks AWFUL. Not that I think it really matters since even its creator screws him up all the time.