A few years earlier the comic books had moved to new offices, but the Kalle Anka & C:o (Donald Duck & Co.) production archive from the old "Centralateljén" was still there in a storage room on the third floor.
Since I work part time at Egmont I usually go home at 12.00 on Fridays. But this particular Friday in July I had stayed until three and was on my way home when someone told me that it had been ordered that the old archive should be thrown in the dumpsters.
I grabbed a colleauge and went to the old offices. Luckily they hadn't started to throw it out yet.
I made sure it got packed down in boxes instead and thus a piece of Swedish Disney history was rescued. Most of the material ranged from the mid 70's to the mid 90's. Original art and production materials. Comic books and black and white films. Stickers and posters. Invitations to social events and business cards. etc. etc. An unique insight to the production of Swedish Disney comics during these 20 years.
After a wile I and two colleauges were able to sort through the boxes during a span of a year. Some was junk and was thrown away. Other stuff like printing films were returned to Copenhagen and a big chunk was donated to Svenskt Seriearkiv. (the Swedish Comics Archive.) So the important stuff survived. This time. I've heard so many "horror stories" about archives beeing thrown away I'm happy that I was able to save this one.
If I had went home early as I should that day it would all have been landfill now.
Before it was put in boxes I managed to take a few snapshots. As you can see on the pics the storage room was full of paper ready to fall down on you when you entered the room. (Wich you, by the way, couldn't do because the floor was all filled with boxes and comic books.) Well you can see for yourselves...
3 comments:
Det ser ut som hemma hos mig!
Tyvärr så ser det ut precis som hemma hos mig också.. inklusive saker som ramlar och lådor på golvet som hindrar mig från att nå sängen.
When I was a kid, you could order back issues of the duck magazines by sending stamps to the publishers (some quite old issues even). I've wondered sometimes what the publisher's stock room looked like, with these huge treasures of comic books collected in piles. Maybe it looked something like this. In that case I'm a bit disappointed. Great work saving the stuff though!
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