Don Rosa and DCML

[Fluks, H.W. (Harry)]

3 weeks ago, Frank Stajano wrote a message about his visit to Don Rosa. Because of the length of the mail, I filed it and now I finally read it.

Thanks Frank! Your message was very enlightning and it quite matches the impressions that I already had.
I'll just add some comments.

> But please note these are my
> words, not his: I won't pretend or attempt to be his spokesman, and I
> have not run this email past him for checking or approval before
> sending it off. He might see things differently.

When I read this, I thought "yes, he probably *does* see things differently, after his retinal detachment".
(I hope you'll all forgive me for this bad joke.)

> When I visited him in January 2008
> I was his guest for a few days

That's probably the only way to be a guest at Don's: stay over for several days.
In 2005, I proposed to meet him at his home, but he wrote that he didn't have time for that. At that time I found that a bit strange: why wouldn't he have a few hours, or even only one hour, time for a visitor? I realise now that he must have meant that he had no time to have a visitor stay overnight.

> Now, for as long as Don did comics, he assiduously contributed to this
> mailing list (once the focal point of Disney comics lovers from all
> over the world, now sadly almost defunct; gathering places go in and
> out of fashion, I guess)

Yes, and interests of people change. I remember trying to keep all Disney comics discussions on DCML, to keep this list as interesting as possible. For instance, by asking people to post interesting news from other mailing lists and bulletin boards also here. But the number of "gathering places" grew a lot in the past few years, so I stopped trying.
It's a pity, though, that I now only see interesting stuff by coincidence. They are too often hidden on weblogs that no-one seems to be able to find back.

There were times that I especially asked Per Starbäck to forward the DCML mails to a different mail address, for instance when I was a week on a course where I couldn't read my own mail. He would then send the DCML digest to a colleague who printed it and I would read it on paper.

But in the last years, the DCML mails pile up in my mailbox. There is still an unread mail from March 2008 and I don't seem to care...

Anyway, I *still* care about all the nice *people* I met during the past decades, mainly thanks to DCML. I hope to meet many of them in a few weeks in Italy, and maybe later this year in Denmark.

And a final comment: my e-mail address (at tno.nl) will be unavailable in a few weeks time.
I'm not even sure I will be able to read DCML mail (or any mail) on a regular basis.
In case anyone tries to reach me, send a mail to: h.w.fluks at wxs dot nl.

Thanks,
--Harry.
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