Disney-comics digest #827.

[Don Rosa]

AUGIE:
        What you so miraculously happened to see on that Italian TV station
seems to be something sweeping Italy just now. I wasn't going to mention it
on here (in case anyone ever noticed, I have a tendancy to only answer
questions, however elaborately, and never interject new topics for my own
purposes)... but thanks to some articles written by some loyal Italian Duck
fans, the interest of the Italian press and populace seems to have been
piqued in my "Lo$" series and my use of such characters as Donald and
$crooge's parents, and so forth. I just never can get used to how popular
Barks' Ducks are everywhere else but here! Anyway, a Duck fan wrote a nice
article about me and the Barks Ducks and my upcoming visit to Italy (based
on an interview we did here on the Internet), and this article appeared in
several regional newspapers in Italy about 2 weeks ago. This started a chain
of events which lead to the same article appearing on the front page of
Italy's biggest newspaper (so I'm told), which caught everyone's attention,
and now I'm being swamped by Italian reporters asking me about the "Lo$" and
my visit to Lucca. Yesterday I did three long phone interviews with American
correspondents of Italian news agencies, and they were saying that the info
in the article has now been picked up by Italian TV (which you saw). When I
arrive for the Lucca show, I believe I have to appear in several press
conferences and go on national TV, and no telling what else. This is fun,
but rather nerve-wracking for someone who stays home all the time like a
shut-in. How utterly strange to live in a country where these comics are so
totally ignored, and visit countries where the same characters are national
heroes!!!
        But this leads up to the fact that this will be my last posting on
here for nearly 3 weeks. I leave in a few hours for Italy, then to Norway,
then to Finland. I won't return home until mid-November. And I'm sure I'll
have a pile of interesting Digests to wade through by then... but excuse me
if I don't answer any questions put to me until such time as I return. And
I'll have a lot of lost work-time to catch up on (which is impossible, since
I always work at top speed). I'm still way short of a full ten Avatars in
this current project.
        Arrivederci, baby!