Disney-comics digest #699.

[Don Rosa]

HARRY:
        I was also looking for that issue of TEMPO when I first arrived in
Germany, but they told me it was not out yet. I had thought it was intended
to coincide with my tour, but I guess not. I also found out that the German
publisher sent the art photostat to them uncolored and they planned to use
it in B&W -- I never intended they do that and I'll be very disappointed if
it doesn't appear in full color. But the way these things go, I guess I'll
be lucky if they put all the correct text into the balloons and
sound-effects and signage.

        Yes, I read ALL the Digests sent to me while I was gone, and, along
with my Compuserve mail, it took me about 4 hours! I either saw nothing
there that needed my comments, or I was to pooped to make any by the time I
was done reading. My "whew" might have referred to that moment rather than
my mad dash through Germany, top to bottom.

KNUT:
        Yes, there is definitely a "D.U.C.K." in the splash panel of chapter
8. Look for it somemore before I give you a hint. And there was supposed to
be one in the first panel of "Of Ducks and Dimes and Destinies", but it was
mostly cut off when they chopped the bottom off that panel (as they always
do to my splash panels in Egmont countries due to their policy of putting
the logo above and outside the panel).

        I didn't know about "luve" being the proper dialect version of
writing Brown's poem word... but I wouldn't have used it even if I had. One
scholar in Scotland would have understood what it was, and the entire
remainder of the readership would have thought it was a spelling error.

        And what's this about you thinking the Italians will get the "Lo$"
in one great compilation? Where did you hear that?


        When I finally finished opening my mail today, I stumbled onto a new
COMICS JOURNAL with a lengthy review of my $crooge bio series in it. I
thought it was a completely accurate and fair review... it basically praised
how I did my series but questioned the necessity of it (which I understand,
though I wonder what the "necessity" is for any $crooge story or any comic
book story, period). The writer decided the reason was purely financial,
which I felt was so off the mark that I'm sending a letter to explain that
fallacy, while agreeing with the review otherwise. I mean, when I collect no
royalties and the difficulty of the series resulted in a drop in page
production for me for those 2 years, the financial result for ME was to lose
income! And the Disney comics already sell too well in Europe that 12
stories would never make a whit of difference to circulation. No, the
really-and-truly reason was that we all wanted to prevent the impending
threat of a "Lo$" written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by the Haime Diaz
studio. I also corrected the inference made from some inaccurate quotes
attributed to me by Geof Blum in ancient text pieces. But read the review
yourselves, and see if you don't think it was on the mark otherwise. It was
also good attention for Barks' Ducks, which I always like to see in America,
especially after again returning from Europe where Barks' Ducks are
universally regarded as the supreme comic, along with ASTERIX and TINTIN.