From Daniel van Eijmeren

Harry Fluks H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl
Mon Jul 11 10:41:30 CEST 1994


[
  I have been away for a week. I'll read all the mail tonight. So from
  tomorrow on, expect the usual Fluks messages on this list..

  I got a message from Daniel, which I forward here.
  --Harry
]

Hello everybody,

Here I am again with reactions to old dusty discussions and
old dusty letters. I have just read the digests from early
April to May 17, 1994. Normally I can be faster with my
comments, but I've had some troubles with my computer (and
with time) lately.   

For people who don't know why I'm so back-dated, I'll give
an explanation: Harry sends me digests via snail-mail. After
reading this I send Harry my reactions back, and then he sends
it to this list. It has to be done this way, because I don't
have a modem to send messages myself.


DON ROSA (A LOT OF QUESTIONS)
=============================

Do you ink the sketches on the same piece of paper, or do you
sketch on a transparent paper? What is usual (for example:
Barks)?

Once you said that you draw rather big balloons, and that the
published balloons are drawn smaller by the editor. Why don't
you draw smaller balloons yourself and so omit editors drawing
extra art on the whitened spaces? Do you want to be sure that
no art of you is whitened by a balloon of the editor?

Do you get any fanmail which is sent to the editor?

Do you keep *all* your work in private archives? (I mean with
"all" also scrapped pages or panels, changed panels, alternate
covers, etc.) I really hope you do, because one day there will
be the famous Don Rosa Library and I would hate to see art
missing.


HOW MUCH MONEY DOES UNCLE SCROOGE HAVE?
=======================================

Somewhere in April there was a discussion about how much money
Uncle Scrooge must have. I'd like to mention that in the Magic
Hourglass (sorry Don :-)) the exact amount is given to be
calculated:

Scrooge: "I can't go on like this - losing a billion dollars a
minute! I'll be *broke* in 600 years!"  

I think that must be (60 x 24 x 365 x 600) billion dollars. To
be exact: 315,360,000 billion dollars. (I ignored leap-years,
how much leap years does 600 years have? Year 2000 doesn't
count, for some reason that's no leap year.)
Barks shows us the total heap of money Scrooge has, in US 27
"The Money Champ".


WHERE DOES UNCLE SCROOGE KEEP ALL THAT MONEY?
=============================================

Important: This is not meant as an attack to you Don! It's
just me, thinking loud in public about things I read in old
discussion from April.

I, myself, don't like the idea of the money-bin being a piggy-
bank for money Scrooge earned himself. I think I won't enjoy a
moneybin-attack story if I knew that it wasn't all (or almost
all) of Scrooge's money. In Barks' stories there are many
situations in which Scrooge changes his beloved money into
banknotes to keep it safe from thieves. At the end of WDC 144
("Spending Money"), there's an employee who carries money
into Scrooge's office which is not earned by Scrooge
*himself*, but by his factories (he didn't even know the
existance of some of them) and all this money is meant to be
included in the moneybin. There's also WDC 171 ("Too Safe Safe",
money in plastic) where Scrooge learns that his whole money-bin is
sealed, even for him: he realizes that he is *broke*.
In WDC 130 ("The Trouble With Dimes") Scrooge sells coins from his
very first billion to Donald, so I think that Scrooge's self-earned
money means much to him, but not *that much* that he keeps it
when he has better things to do with it than just keeping it.
These facts are some of the reasons why I don't think that the
money-bin is a collection of self-earned money, but that the
money-bin has as much money as Scrooge can get from his
companies. I think there is money in Scrooge's fortune that
isn't in his money-bin, but not more than is nescessary. But I
certainly agree that Scrooge's self-earned money has more
value to him than other money and that's a reason why I don't
understand why he has sometimes changed his money into just
banknotes. I don't like those stories in which he does. 


WALT IS (may I mention the word?) DEAD
======================================

As part of a longer comment, Ronald said:

> It's about time that Disney Corp. realized that old Walt is
> dead, dead, dead & they should hitch their future on some warm
> bodies. [20 April 1994]

You can't say that often enough! I think that Disney must have
a stronger attitude to readers who complain about certain
things their "funny animals" do, at least in collectors items
like the "Carl Barks Library". I found it very weak and
insipid that they removed those little bones from the natives
in "Bongo on the Congo", for example. If Disney tries to be
everybody's friend, they're certainly not mine. They could at
least have a different way of approaching "fans" and
approaching "real fans". I mean, I bought the Library to have
*Barks's work* complete and soon I had to realize I have *only
the Library* complete! Very frustrating.
I hope that once there will be a time that I can read a comic
or watch a Disney cartoon without asking myself: "Is this
censored?"

But I'm afraid the only answer to this is: "Keep on hoping".

If I'm using Ronald's phrase out of its context, I'm sorry.
But I think that this phrase covers much (of at least my)
irritation to the way Disney is now operating.


WILMER ON PENNY WISE (April 27, 1994):
======================================

Wilmer, I found your comments on the possible love-affair
between Scrooge and Penny Wise very interesting. Don, what did
you think about it? Could this be a base for a new Scrooge-
story? It's very interesting to know your thoughts about this
theory.


WRITTEN-ONLY STORIES FOR DON IN THE FUTURE?
===========================================

RoC said (29-04-1994):

> All in favor say "AYE!"
> If Don is relieved from the hours of inking and blotting out superfluous
> details, it would leave him time for so many more *good* stories.

I don't think so. It would be just like Barks' Junior
Woodchuck-stories. Another artist wouldn't be good and devoted
enough to work out Don's written-only stories, those stories
would be "feelingless" and they would also miss all those
beautiful details. What would be the use many more good Rosa-
stories, without his devoted and beautiful artwork?


LO$ BACK-UP STORIES IN HOLLAND
==============================

Don asked:
> My Lo$ stories are now the BACK-UP stories in [Dutch] DONALD DUCK
> EXTRA???  Well, howcum?

Harry:
> I don't know the reason for it. Maybe Thom Roep had something to say about
> your artwork... 8-)

(Lo$ parts 3, 1, 2, and 4 *are* lead stories.)

I agree with the fact that the Dutch editor has/had a lot to
say about Don's artwork. But I like to add the fact that it's
very unusual in Holland that the continuing parts of a story
are being published as lead stories. Part 1 is always printed as
a lead-story, and the following parts as backup-story. I think
the reason is that people who didn't see the first parts, wouldn't
buy an issue with only a part of a story which is already going
on and which they can't buy complete anymore.
There are more than one part of Lo$ being published as lead-
story now, so I think that in this context it could be seen as
a compliment.


SPEAKING OF LO$...
==================

Don, I've read part 7 of Lo$ (the dream story) and I like to
know some motivations of what the story is about, because now
it seems to me that this story could be missing from the
serie. (I didn't see very much Barks-references.)


I've heard from Harry that many of you are on vacation these
days, so I hope that you will recieve my message. It is very
much fun to talk to you.


Very much greetings!

--- Daniel van Eijmeren


Date of writing: 3 July 1994

"Don't hate nothing at all, except hatred." -- Bob Dylan, 1965.




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