DCML digest, Vol 1 #324 - 2 msgs

[Don Rosa]

> From: HoyMurphy at aol.com
> My family and I will be attending the Mid-Ohio Con in Columbus
Thanksgiving
> weekend, and I'm hoping we'll get a few moments to talk with you, but I
don't
> see you on the guest list!  Are you planning to be there this year?

I'll be there, but only as a buyer of old comic books. The convention
chairman is an old friend and still invites me as a featured guest (i.e.
pays all my expenses) even though no one in America sees my work anymore or
wants to see *me*, but still it would be a bit extravagant of him to do
that each year -- he lists me as one of the half-dozen main guests every
other year. In what I guess are the even-numbered years I always attend on
my own and he lists me as "one of the pack" of other guests. But this year
I guess I failed to send in my notification as an "attending pro" until it
was too late for him to list me anywhere -- I assumed by now he would know
I'd be there, but I guess that would be reckless of him to list my name in
his ads unless he was *certain* I'd be attending.
Still, I usually take my status as a listed guest too seriously and sit at
the table they give me so long that I miss lots of my own "quality time"
needed to dig out some old issues for my collection, so the fact that I
won't have a table at the convention might not be so bad. You (Hoy) will
probably be the only comic fan in Ohio looking for me by now, so you'll be
able to spot me wandering around the hall sometime during the 2 days.

This being a "celebrity of dwindling starhood" in America reminds me of the
interesting e-mail I started getting last Friday. I receive a few requests
from Europe each day for an autographed photo or comic, and I diligently
send out about a dozen a week to fans. But last week I suddenly started
getting *lots* of e-mail from Americans who would tell me how much they
LOVED my work and what a GREAT artist I was and how they've followed my
career for many years and blah blah blah. Actually, here's one of the
best-written ones -- as Casey Casem would say, from Darrin in Brooklyn
comes:
----------------------------------------------------------
Howdy!! Firstly, it is truly an honor and a privilege to be writing to a
talented and gifted cartoonist such as yourself.  I cannot even begin to
tell
you just how much I have admired your illustrious career. A career which
has
provided me with immeasurable joy, laughter and insight throughout the
years,
and from one artist to another, it would mean the world to me if you were
so
kind in granting me an autographed picture or sketch. Take care and keep up
the splendid work!!!
--------------------------------------------------------
... but even stranger, others congratulated me for my wonderful work as a
Disney animator, and at least one called me the world's best voice-over
artist. Huh?
Well, it took me just a few hours to determine what I suspected was true --
my name and e-mail had been freshly added to a "CELEBRITY ADDRESS" website
under the title "Disney artist". And I was suddenly the target of autograph
hounds. As I said, I am quite delighted to send my autograph to any comic
fan who requests it, but I find the collecting of autographs simply for the
sake of collecting autographs, autographs of minor "celebrities" you don't
know from a hole in the ground, to be a rather witless hobby. I e-mailed
back to each of these people thanking them and asking them what their
favorites were among my works. About 25% would reply with another shot in
the dark like "oh, my goodness, there are so many, I just can't choose!",
and when I insist, they disappear altogether and move on to their next
target. It's kinda fun.