Lo$ 9 review (sort of)

Fredrik Ekman d91fe at metis.pt.hk-r.se
Thu Nov 18 15:44:40 CET 1993


Don: you said that you wanted input on the Life of $crooge 9. Well,
I've had two friends of mine who are not into your works read it
and say what they thought. The reactions, as you will se, was kind
of mixed...

The first guy made the mistake of suggesting, when I told him to buy
the last issue of Kalle Anka & Co, that he'd borrow my copy instead.
He wasn't serious, of course, but the next day I brought the book
and he really had no choice but to read it. He doesn't normally read
any comics, but as any Swede, he read a lot of Disney as a kid. When
I asked him what he thought, he replied:

"Well, that was no _real_ Donald Duck comic..." (note: Because of DD's
great popularity in Sweden, "Donald Duck comic" is in casual speach
often synonymous with "Disney comic")
"What do you mean, _real_?", I asked.
"Well, things like death. You don't have that in Donald Duck. And I
have never seen a graveyard in Donald Duck before."
"OK. But apart from that, what did you think of the story?"
"Well, it was kind of amusing, I guess."

The next day, when he returned the comic to me, the transaction was
witnessed by a classmate of ours. So I suggested that she could borrow
it too.

"No, I don't think so." (Obviously thinking I was completely nuts.)
"But it has a great story by Don Rosa."
"What's that?"
"He's one of the best Disney artists today."
"Oh, I thought it was a comic book character."

I didn't push the matter further, but I later had another friend read
it. One that is generally into comics and loves Barks' works, but only
used to know Rosa by name (since I have kept telling him). And when he
returned the comic he was quite enthusiastic, nearly extatic. Don;
you've got yourself a new fan. :-) He was especially fond of the grave-
yeard picture, thinking it was not only very unusual for a Disney
comic, but extremely beautiful as well.

When I see my sister in a few weeks, I'll let her read it as well. She
is more of the typical (Swedish) Disney fan. She loves the animated
movies, especially the new ones and she reads and enjoys the comics,
but doesn't know who Carl Barks is, not to mention Don Rosa.

By the way; the friend of mine who read the comic first says (and he
won't listen to reason) that the years on $crooge's mother's gravestone
is 18something - 16something. I guessed it is 1840 - 1897. What IS it
really?

Hope noone is disturbed by me sending this out to everyone, but I
thought it could be of general interest to see what a few people
besides us fans think.

  /Fredrik



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