Rosa rebuked in Germany... by whom?

David A Gerstein David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu
Mon Nov 15 01:48:59 CET 1993


	Dear Folks,

	The German article making gross generalizations and
out-and-out misrepresentations of Don Rosa's work came as a real
shock.  What's more, Don mentioned that he thought he knew who was
behind it.  The now-infamous Grandeys?  *Who*?

	To be 100% fair, I noticed a bit of resemblance to R. Crumb's
stuff in the very earliest Rosa stories, but then, I always viewed
Crumb as a combination of Barks and Ub Iwerks (take a look at Ub's old
MM strips if you want further backing -- they're reprinted in the
Disney ADVENTURES magazine on sale in a few days, due to MM's 65th
birthday), but of course with a very different sensibility, which in
my case isn't the kind of thing I like to read.

	Actually, I'd say that the Duck stories with the greatest
resemblance to underground comix have to be those that Bill Van Horn
did for about the first four months of his Gladstone tenure.  I was
actually uncomfortable with his style at the very beginning, though it
soon improved vastly.

	The complaints about Rosa in this article are virtually
identical to the few anti-Rosa letters I saw in the old Gladstone
comics.  (I saw no anti-Rosa letters in Disney's comics, although
there were a great deal of anti-Van-Horn letters.)  Nothing new under
the sun.

	But when Don's style has matured so greatly from its original
feel (I'd say that perhaps the Crumb-like feeling is strongest in
"Nobody's Business"), it doesn't surprise me that these letters are
fewer now.  Undoubtedly this very one-sided article is a last stand
from those who *don't* like Rosa.  I'm not one of this party.

	I don't think that the authors of that article would have
liked the version of Scrooge's biography that Disney might have done
had Don not taken up the project.  If they don't like the LO$, they
don't know how much worse it could be.

	For those of us who enjoy the LO$, things are subtly
different, no?


	* * * * *


	On a slightly divergent Kenoan track:

	The closest approximation of Rosa's style I've seen anywhere
else is Will Elder's MICKEY RODENT in MAD, ca. 1953.  Elder tries very
hard to draw Donald (or "Darnold" as he's called here) in a very
Barksish style, but cannot prevent his own more realistic feeling from
coming in, and eventually acknowledges that, when the characters in
the story notice his signature appearing on the panels and speculate
on it!  The lettering in the story looks remarkably like that which
John Clark would use for "The Son of the Sun" 35 years later.
Cooincidence?  Don, you've noted the similarity to Elder in your
style.

	For those of you who haven't seen the MAD story... it's about
Mickey (who's drawn in an approximation of Bill Wright's style)
realizing that Donald's popularity is now greater than his and
deciding to put a stop to it!

	What I'm wondering is...is *this story* perhaps your prime
influence in depicting the Duck universe, Don?

	BTW:  Things came full circle when CRACKED magazine parodied
"DuckTales" in 1988.  Their story -- "Yuck Tales" -- had panels based
on those in "Cash Flow" and "The Son of the Sun" with a clear attempt
at imitating John Clark's lettering.  How'd'ye like that?

	Your concerned friend,

	David.



More information about the DCML mailing list