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JERRY BECK
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AMID AMIDI
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Who was Walt Disney?
by jerry
June 30, 2009 12:05 am


Forget Barrier and Gabler, I found the real deal at the Columbus airport bookstore this weekend. The haunting cover art of Who Was Walt Disney? (above) was staring at me, mocking me, compelling me to purchase it.

This 106 page paperback, “not authorized, licensed or endorsed by The Walt Disney Company or any affiliate” as noted on the cover, is simply a children’s book. Author Whitney Stewart nicely condenses Walt’s life story, but this is strictly for Disney completists only - the ones who have to have everything. Amazon is only selling a Kindle download, a physical copy is apparently only available at the Penguin Group website - or at Paradies News & Gifts on Concourse C at the Port Columbus International Airport.

06/30/09  12:17am
Mike Caracappa says:

Walt kinda looks like Vincent Price.

06/30/09  3:10am
RODAN says:

Got that for my last birthday…. I was wondering how long it would take before you found a copy….9 months.

06/30/09  6:52am
Tim Rauch says:

random. leave it to the C-bus

06/30/09  7:13am
Katella Gate says:

The castle doesn’t look much like the Castle, and this “Walt” doesn’t look much like the real one. Fear of legal entanglements over likeness rights, or just bad art? You be the judge.

06/30/09  7:13am
uncle wayne says:

I still have my book (from mannnny decades ago): “Walt Disney: Magician of the Movies!” Also a “kiddie” (-like) book…..but a great one!

06/30/09  7:45am
BOYCOTT AMAZON says:

If u have dogs or love dogs, please stop advertising Amazon. Amazon is one of the very few online that supports dog fighting and sells dog fighting monthly publications and newsletters. I know Amazon is big and no other internet book store matches the variety of books they carry, but with some effort, we could find these books elsewhere.
thanks,

06/30/09  8:40am
Major Pepperidge says:

Wow, that is truly a horrible illustration! Apparently Walt was related to the bango-playing kid from “Deliverance”.

06/30/09  9:35am
Paul N says:

Walt’s hawaiian shirt is just disturbing…

06/30/09  10:18am
Melissa says:

Amazon IS selling paperback copies of the book for $4.99. The link follows:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0448450526/ref=ord_cart_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance

06/30/09  10:40am

Smilin’ Walt ought to be aware that that raised-eyebrow stare has been trademarked by Dreamworks.

06/30/09  11:16am
Rob T. is ambivalent about boycotting amazon says:

I don’t think a general-interest bookstore (online or otherwise) carrying publications on dog fighting is equivalent to “supporting dog fighting” any more than its carrying Mein Kampf or The Turner Diaries would be supporting racism. The whole idea of boycotting a book, music or video seller on the basis of what they choose to carry rubs the free speech advocate in me the wrong way.

On the other hand, I’ve been known to withhold my support of book dealers et. al. on the basis of what they don’t carry. Thus, in the wake of the “amazonfail” affair a few months ago (in which the listings for books on certain controversial subjects were inaccessible in searches on those subjects) I’ve been buying a lot less from amazon.com, ordering from locally based book, music and video dealers when possible.

(I do accept amazon’s apology and their claim that it was an accident. Even so, the mere fact that such a catastrophic accident can happen indicates to me that amazon may have gotten just a little too big for me to feel comfortable about using them as a default outlet. As a commenter on another blog put it, “Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.”)

06/30/09  11:20am
Trevour says:

Walt looks as if he’s saying a Goofy “Ah-Heeyuck!”

If this is the reference photo, the illustrator lost all likeness. Scary.

06/30/09  2:06pm
Jonah Sidhom says:

Trevour, that does look like the reference. It’s funny how they messed up the neck in the drawing. Looks like he has a tumor on the left side of his face.

Hey Jerry, you should tag this under “bad ideas”. I love that tag, and this one fits in nicely.

06/30/09  5:22pm

Walt had a few “choice” words he would use on the set when filming. After seeing that book cover, several of them come to mind.

06/30/09  7:55pm
Pedro Nakama says:

So how about a review?

06/30/09  9:34pm
David Breneman says:

If it wasn’t for the headline or the castle in the background, I’m not sure I could identify that charicature as Walt Disney. Maybe they should have put some mouse ears on him to seal the deal.

07/2/09  10:05am

Jim Korkis at least once wrote a column for my old Duckburg Times fanzine about the genre of bios of Walt aimed at the youth market. Also I think a few of them were in the list of Disney reference books Dave Smith annotated for an issue.

07/3/09  4:13am
steve w. says:

This biography is aimed at elementary school kids. As such, it does a good job.

07/4/09  9:34am

I recommend this entire “Who Was/Is…” series for elementary school kids. My daughter loves them. If the Walt Disney one is as good as the others, it will make for an entertaining and enlightening introduction to Walt Disney for kids.

09/3/09  12:06pm

Didn’t know my book was for sale in any airports. That’s nice news. Once it is out of the author’s hands, who knows where it goes. I wrote this book for elementary-school children. That was the point.

I don’t know the illustrator, but she was asked to do a caricature, not a serious painting. All the covers in the series are done that way. They are for KIDS.

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