Disney-comics digest #526.

Don Rosa 72260.2635 at compuserve.com
Mon Dec 19 06:12:28 CET 1994


I am replying to several Digests that have piled up...

J.K.HUNG:
	Sorry... I do Disney comics. That means I'm among the only
freelance artists on earth who are not allowed to retain their art
despite the fact that it is our legal property. This is possible for
Disney to do since there are so few freelancers doing Disney comics and,
of them, only ONE of them makes an issue of it -- therefore, the archaic
and cruel (and illegal) system is perpetuated since no one can afford to
sue Disney nor afford the ILL WILL that move would result in from a
corporation like that.
	In other words: no art for sale. No art for not selling. No art
period. Sorry.

MIKE P.:
	I regard Barks' "magic Hourglass" as a story that simply didn't
happen since there's no other way to explain away its incongruities. You
shouldn't say it was a "mistake" on Barks' part -- he simply did not
realize what sort of character he would later develop this new $crooge
into. And it's not that the story involved magic -- as you say, other
$crooge/Barks stories involve magic. "The Magic Hourglass" stated that
$crooge owed his entire fortune to magical luck, whereas the key part of
$crooge is that he EARNED every cent he ever made and owes not a penny
of it to luck. (This also shows you how wrong-headed is the popular
stupid idea that his #1 Dime is a "LUCKY dime" to which he similarly
owes his success... that started with that "DuckTales" show, but I blast
the idea to smithereens in the last chapter of the "Lo$".) There are a
scant few other old Barks stories that I similarly regard as
non-existant... one is "Island in the Sky" if that's the one that opens
saying that Duckburg is a city advanced FAR beyond all other Earth
cities, with it's own space station and where rocket travel to the stars
is commonplace for everyone... that Duckburg is tantamount to a city
from the 23rd century or something. That's plain silly and I'm sure
resulted from a very dry idea period for Barks, or perhaps an order from
his editors to try to make the comics more like the SF or super-hero
comics that were slowly passing the Disneys in sales in the 60s.
	Why do I set my stories in the 50s rather than shrug off the
glaring chronological impossibilities by saying that $crooge McDuck is
just a cartoon character? You mean, just say he's living in "Toontown"
or something? Ugh! 'Scuse me, but I have far more respect for these
characters and comics than that, and I hope you do as well! I would
never insult $crooge or Donald like that. Besides, that seems far more
contrived than simply saying (if asked) the stories take place many
years ago. No other writers make references to $crooge's past history so
they don't need to deal with the problem, which is fine for them; I'd
never expect them to model what they do after my stuff... why should
they?
	Look back at that story where I mentioned a satellite... as I
recall, it was the "Curse of Nostrildamus". I specifically said a
"Brutopian Sputnik", Brutopia being Russia. That puts the story in 1957.
Now, I HAVE made a reference to a "lot" of satellites being in orbit in
another tale, but if you want to try to hang me on that one, I can
always simply say I've decided that story never happened (as I decided
about the Lillehammer Olympics story I did at Norway's request -- since
it had to have taken place in 1993, it was obviously an "imaginary
tale").

STEPHEN F.:
	I think Gladstone might use my Donald Duck Family Tree in WDC&S
#600.

BOB W.:
	The "D.U.C.K." on the cover of U$#290 was in the antelope horn
in the lower right corner, just above where you should see Mickey Mouse
poking his lil' head up (though I notice that MM is almost missing from
many covers due to the way the presses cut the cover pages).
	Why wouldn't $crooge recall Flintheart later in life? You
should know better than to ask me a question that, as the writer, I can
always be free to come up with all manner of contrived explanations
for. But this one poses little problem. Do YOU think that young
Flintheart with his short hair and no glasses and cheap clothing looked
much like the 1950's Flintheart? And consider how briefly $crooge was
involved with him -- several hours on one day, then several minutes the
next... then never saw the guy again for over 70 YEARS! Naturally he
wouldn't recognize him!

HARRY:
	Well, prepare to be offended, but I used Amsterdam simply
because there wouldn't be a single other city I could name that would
alert an American reader that I was referring to the Netherlands.
Actually, I'll bet 90% of younger Americans would never have heard of
even Amsterdam... and never be able to find the Netherlands on a map IF
they've ever heard of IT!
	Anyway, surely there's someone somewhere in Amsterdam who grows
a few Tulips. I never said the guy had a huge farm. And besides that...
that story was taking place in 1886. No tulip fields near Amsterdam even
in 1886? (Probably not -- I'm just struggling to explain a poor choice
for a city where the guy is growing his tulips.) Should I have said
Rotterdam? Maybe .01% of Americans might know that name.

ED:
	Before you go to a lot of trouble to get prices on your comic
books, be sure you understand how your insurance works. Insurance of a
comic collection, or ANY sort of "collectible", is NOT covered under a
standard home-owner policy as I often find that people assume. You must
have a special separate policy for such crazy stuff, and those policies
are VERY expensive... perhaps 1/10 of the full value per year. It stands
to reason that insurance companies will not allow policy holders to come
around and say "my house burnt down and I lost my vast collection of
used comic books that were worth "$175,000 according to the Overstreet
Price Guide" -- the adjuster would laugh in his face. Insurance policies
don't cover "alleged" values placed on silly stuff like used comic books
by wacky collectors. Now, if you have a rider on your policy that says
the "contents" of your house are covered up to umpteen thousand dollars
and you have a small comic collection which fits inside that umpteen,
you have a CHANCE of recovering some of it. But otherwise you'll need a
separate policy.

DAVID:
	Was that the first time you'd read "Horsing Around with
History"? I thought they were passing it out in San Diego.
	Other questions people at Gladstone mentioned:
	What did the albatross have to do with anything when that fake
button on $crooge's coat was doing all the transmitting?
	Is there a slight similarity to "Treasure Under Glass", with
the pumping out of the water so the site can be inspected as if it were
dry land?
	Why would $crooge think the Trojan Horse would be "the most
valuable treasure in the world"? After all, it was just wood. But LATER
he discovered that the shipwrecked sailors, rather than use the wooden
horse to construct a raft to save themselves, instead spent the rest of
their lives sheathing the thing in gold to "amuse themselves". Huh?!
	Rather than immediately take the thing to his Bin upon reaching
Duckburg in order to protect it, $crooge left the golden horse, the
"most valuable treasure in the world", unguarded on a public dock to
convince would-be thieves that it was worthless. Huh?!
	And right -- the main question... once the Beagle Boys had
their hands on "the most valuable treasure in the world" and could have
gotten away with it scott free, they instead simply use it to sneak
into the locked and guarded Money Bin, from which they would STILL need
to devise a means of escaping with even a few bags of money. Huh?!

FABIO:
	I just learned some (alleged) facts about my family in Montiago
that maybe you have a means of checking for me! I'm told that my
relatives on the Mazzoli side of the family own a "multi-million dollar"
printing / publishing company there named "Lema". Why there would be a
major book or magazine publisher in such a remote village sounds dubious
to me, but that's what somebody is telling me. Ever hear of "Lema"???

About DAN SHANE:
	I feel like telling you people something about this new Dan
Shane guy you've seen leave a few messages here. He lives here in
Louisville, is one of my dearest pals, and frequently gives me advice
on my stories and inspects the unfinished art for corrections. By gad,
he had DINNER here just a few hours ago! I'm not suggesting that puts
him in any sort of enviable position, but I noticed he wasn't popping
off about the fact, so I thought I'd do it for him. (Gosh, maybe it's
supposed to be secret? Oops.)

ALSO:
	I hope I don't seem to ignore any questions when I disappear
from here for about a week after this Tuesday.





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