Don and Robert

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

DON:

> Yes, it was based on the cover for my "Last Sled to Dawson" story on 
> UNCLE $CROOGE ADVENTURES #5 from 1988, and the reason I was anxious 
> to try the cover again was the fact that even back then it hadn't 
> come close to the way I'd intended (notice, for one thing, that 
> there was no Northern Lights in the first version, though it had 
> been on my artwork).

So, you mean that the editor cut away the background of that cover? 
Does the original cover still exist?


ROBERT:

> Wes is toooooo kind.  The European stories are all pretty lame
> compared to even the most mediocre material produced by the
> American Disney writers and artists--including  that originally
> published by Dell and the recent Gladstone material by Rosa, Van
> Horn, and Block/Fernandez.  Europeans tend to manufacture padded
> stories with predictable plots, unsatisfying characterization, and
> very little humor.  But then, what can you expect? Disney himself
> was a uniquely American phenomenon.

Well, I agree that it's very hard to compete for Europe when the 
U.S.A. has artists like Carl Barks and Don Rosa. ;-)

I think that with "European stories" you are referring to the Egmont 
stories. In Holland we're overloaded now with these stories in the 
Dutch weekly. IMHO the stories from Egmont certainly look like mass-
production. It's not that the art is bad or something (in fact it's 
good), but the stories seem to show a certain *routine* instead of 
showing a *heart* in them. 

I'm glad that we still have some artists with an unique style here in 
Holland, like Jippes (although he doesn't live here) and Maurits 
Heymans. We also have the scripter Jan Kruse. Unfortunately the Dutch 
weekly doesn't publish much stories of them now.


Greetings,

--- Daniel