Rosa in Europe

Mark Mayerson mayerson at sidefx.sidefx.com
Wed Apr 6 15:25:29 CEST 1994


Don Rosa:

The least Egmont should do is pay you for the week of lost work in addition
to footing the cost of the trip.  They wouldn't be bringing you over
unless they saw some tangible (i.e. financial) value to your presence.
If you're willing to pass up the trip, you can risk losing it by demanding
the week's pay.

As to your situation as a whole, I'm afraid you're stuck unless you're
willing to play hardball.  That means that you have to be prepared to
walk away from the duck comics.  

If you had a particular set of demands, there are lots of ways to press
for them.  You've got this list of people who'd be willing to write to
Egmont, Disney, Gladstone, etc. on your behalf.  There are parts of the
fan press (The Comics Journal, for instance) that would report your
demands and probably champion your cause.  The same newspapers in Europe
that write articles about you would probably jump all over a press release
saying you're leaving the Ducks because of unfair treatment.

These things might lead to a better situation for you.  Of course, they
might lead to Disney and its licensees never hiring you again.  That's
why I say that unless you're prepared to take a risk, you don't stand
to gain anything.

While you've said in the past that you don't wish to do characters of your
own, I think this is a huge mistake.  Even if you only do one or two
stories of your own characters a year and get them printed, it does give
you leverage.  Egmont, etc. would be aware of two things.  First, the more
time you spend on your characters, the less time you spend on ducks.  This
takes money out of their pocket and it's an incentive to make the duck
work more financially attractive to you.  Second, if you've established
a following for characters of your own, any demand you make is backed up
by the implicit threat that if you don't get what you want, you'll devote
all your time to your own characters.

Don, you've managed to build up an international name for yourself based
purely on the quality of your work.  Not due to hype, not due to advertising,
just quality.  You've got to capitalize on it.  There's got to be a 
European publisher somewhere who would jump on the chance to publish
original Don Rosa material.

Barks was lucky that after he retired Disney permitted him to sell
his paintings.  If they hadn't, who knows if Barks would have been financially
secure?  There is no guarantee that Disney will be as generous to you.
Please, Don, take your skills and reputation and do something for your
own benefit with them.
___________________________________________________________________
Mark Mayerson				Side Effects Software Inc.,
Internet:  mayerson at sidefx.com          Toronto, Ontario, Canada
					(416) 366-4607	  



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