digest #217

[Don Rosa]

> From: "Alex Bowman"
> But, come on...the Disney Universe IS one universe.  A Fantasy Universe.
>

That's strictly a matter of opinion and personal interpretation. Other
writers can do what they wish and other readers can read what they like,
but my stories deal strictly with a Donald Duck Universe where no other
characters exist except Barks Duckburg characters... and it is not a
"fantasy universe" in the fairy tale sense... my version of it is overly
serious, based on the real history and geography of the real world. It is a
fantasy world in the same sense that the world of Asterix seems to be a
past era of the world we live in, except there is a Gaul with an impossibly
tremendous nose and another with an impossibly huge gut, and many other
historical personages drawn in caricature fashion. In my interpretation of
the Duck Universe there are people who also are drawn as caricatures, but
they are still human beings, not ducks or dogs or pigs, and still live in
the normal world (well, hopefully maybe a bit funnier than normal).
Remember this Duckburg world  is not a "Disney World"... it was created by
Dell and by Barks. I find it's a bigger challenge and a more satisfying
accomplishment to produce (hopefully) entertaining stories under such
limiting parameters of logic and actual history. Plus, that's the way Barks
did it (unless ordered to do otherwise by his editors) and that's the way I
likes it.

Someone else might enjoy a universe peopled by all the Disney characters at
once where talking super-intelligent chipmunks meet living wooden puppets
and such, and that's fine, but they shouldn't expect anything like that in
*all* stories in a Disney comic, and certainly not in mine.