DCML digest #1275

[Don Rosa]

From: Eero-Pekka Halinen (e_halinen at hotmail.com)
>>>I bet you all know, but I don't (and that is why I ask): How much does
byrocracy slow the process in wich the stories from e. g Don Rosa get from
his table to Aku Ankka for me to read?

Again I'll make fun of an error in English (so that one person can again
think I'm being rude -- go ahead)... is "byrocracy" the interference by my
editor Byron? Yeah, I get that a lot!
Oh, you mean bureaucracy?
The Finns use as many of my stories as possible as soon as they can do so.
In the case of the last few stories, these were delayed a bit due to my
so-called (by others) "strike". "The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut" was delayed
a bit, but "A Dream of a Lifetime" was delayed until I was ready to draw a
cover and write a text to accompany the story. No "bureaucracy" is delaying
my stories... the only thing is my slow pace, even when I'm working full
time. These incredibly detailed eyeball-aching stories can't be whipped out
fast, especially not by someone with such an utter lack of proper training
as me!

>>> And how long does this take nowadays
when Rosa's stories are published (I think) ASAP?

At least 4-6 months. 6 months is standard. At 4 months they are really
rushing it through. But consider this: due to my "strike", I just sent the
next story after "Dream" off to Egmont this week -- that means it will be
4-6 months before you see it. Nothing in between. But you'll see it
*especially* in Finland as fast as they can get to it.

>>>And Rosa, you wouldn't take a plot for a story from anybody who sent you
one, even if it was REAL good?

I actually always plead with people NOT to send me stories! There are many
reasons for this. First of all, I can't pay for them, I can't afford to
share the fee I am paid (which is small enough due to my slow pace), but
also I am not the guy who buys stories -- that's the editor. And they don't
buy ideas, they only buy scripts. I can't take an idea for free -- first of
all it's not fair, secondly there's always *a chance*, especially
considering the fact that this is Disney stuff and people love a target like
Disney, that the person who says the idea is mine "for free" will later
decide that somebody cheated him and try to sue somebody. But thirdly, the
laws say that any idea or script or ANYTHING that is sent to me unsolicited,
sent to me without me ASKING for it, is MY PROPERTY. I don't have to pay for
it. I would never do that to somebody, but I don't want the whole unhappy
situation to come up.
In the case referred to here, a French reader sent me a two-sentence plot
idea, unsolicited. But I could see it was SO GOOD that I couldn't ignore it.
So I "paid" the party for the idea by "mutual agreement" (not involving
$$$), and also told him that I would *always* give him credit for the idea.
However, for reasons of his own, he did not want his name mentioned, but
would be happy if his initials were hidden in the splash panel... "F.S.M.".
Anyway, PLEASE don't send me any ideas! Not that I don't think I could use a
good one now and then, but it just can't work that way, not 100% safely and
100% happily. Send your ideas to the editors.

>>>I'm going to Paris soon. I guess I can get the local Duck-weeklies from
any
kiosk or so?

The French don't have weekly Duck comics like the rest of Europe -- they
have a weekly JOURNAL DE MICKY which is pretty juvenile and has not so many
comics (at least not the few I've seen). But they have the monthly PICSOU
(Uncle $crooge) magazine (that almost always has only Donald as the lone
cover figure). And you'll find PICSOU on every French newsstand. I even
found it on the single magazine rack on the French island of Bora Bora in
the South Pacific! (It's quite fun to know that the natives on tiny, remote
Bora Bora are reading my Duck stories under the palm trees next to the
encircling reef-rimmed lagoon!)(Bora Bora is the island which was the model
for the island in Barks' Christmas-volcano story.)