Big artists and plain nuts (Rosa's own li'l Universe)

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

KAI SAARTO to me, 03-04-2004:

> In your opinion, Don obviously crosses some invisible line somewhere 
> when compared to everyone else. Are the dates and references to earlier 
> stories what bug you?

I don't like continuous structures of dates and references to earlier 
stories. Even less if they're made to Barks stories. Don Rosa happens 
to be an artist who's doing that. It's nothing personal. I don't know 
the man himself. And he doesn't know me. I'm just interested in Disney 
comics, and in this mailing list. That's all.

>> Why does a person need to be "resentful" or full of "envy" if he 
>> thinks that Rosa is raping the Barks universe? I really don't get 
>> that point.

> Okay, I think now you said clearly what you think: "Rosa is raping the 
> Barks universe". I'm sorry, but that does sound resentful to me.

I didn't say that. I was *reporting* that opinion, as I made clear. It 
was mentioned to me in an off-record discussion of Disney comics, in 
real life. And it's nothing really special, using this word in an 
opinion on art. At least not in The Netherlands. 

"Dit is een verkrachting van..." ("This is a rape of..."), is a common 
expression here in The Netherlands. I only translated it, as part of a 
report.

> Its quite a nasty thing to say to someone of their life's work.

I look at the comment as being just a strong opinion. Nothing more. 

> Obviously you have frighteningly strong opinions on this subject. Maybe 
> you should be more careful about them?  You'll get no sympathy to your 
> cause by making such comments.

I certainly won't get *everybody's* sympathy when I get so critical. But 
I'm not subscribed to get everybody's sympathy, even though it would be 
very nice.

If people decide to carry a grudge against me, because of my opinion on 
Disney comics and artists, then I'll have to live with that. There are 
much worser things in life.

> But why on earth do you have to state your opinions in such a rude way? 
> Can't you just ignore messages and stories that don't fit to your 
> personal views?

I'm not subscribed to a mailing list to intentionally ignore messages. 
And maybe also some of my own words sounded a bit rude. But then, look 
at all the *compliments* and *praising* in those very same messages! 
They were written by me, too!

> I'd call anyone who's a fanatic of any kind crazy.

If people would want to call me crazy about Barks, then I guess I take 
that as a compliment.

It's my own fault. I should have listened to my parents when they told 
me to finally throw away those childish comics. But I didn't. I secretly 
kept them in a hollow tree in the garden. And since then, everything went 
berserk. I got sleepless nights because of all those adventures I wanted 
to read. I didn't do my homework. All my sane friends turned me down when 
they heard about my fascination for ducks without pants. My once promising 
future had detoriated. And since then I'm destinied to rant about my 
interests, on a virtual public forum...

Which is to say: Always listen to your old folks. They know what's best 
for you. :-)

--- Daniël