Disney-comics digest #796.

[Don Rosa]

DAVID:
        Why was there a different cover for "Lo$" episode VI in Germany
(though unused) than in America? Hm. I can't recall -- that was over a year
or so ago... even longer when I did the German one. I just had another idea
when the time came to do Gladstone a cover. I recall sending them three
different scribble ideas, one was the German idea... the third one was
$crooge roping the water buffalo that had Glomgold on his horns.
        Coincidentally, today I drew the cover for Gladstone's "Lo$" part XII.
        The "Treasury of Croesus" cover that was used in Europe will be on
WDC&S #602.

GEIR:
        How did you know there'd be a special cover on the Norwegian edition
of my "Lost Charts of Columbus"? Well, actually, that cover was done for any
Egmont publisher who wanted it... though that is assumed to be Norway and
Denmark at least. (The Norwegian and Danish editions are the same now...
well, except the writin'). I would guess they'll use it in Germany on my
album series. Surely (?) they'll use it at Gladstone, I guess...
        The "D.U.C.K." dedication was, indeed, in the last panel of "The Son
of the Sun", but Disney told Gladstone to take it out since it looked too
much like it might be a signature of some sort... an idea that should have
occured to me when I placed it there. But somebody was right -- I was
surprised to see it in one foreign edition, meaning that when Gladstone
ships out photostats of "tSotS" the "D.U.C.K." is still there in the art.
        Soon after that I started hiding it so it wouldn't be spotted by
editors. Then when I was once interviewed by the Danish editors and they
found out about how I placed that in all my splash panels, they thought that
was a nifty bit of trivia and included it in their article in the weekly
comic; however, the next story of mine they printed happened to be one of
the few that I'd forgotten to place the "D.U.C.K." into the splash, so the
editors simply wrote it into the first panel in plain sight, presumably to
prevent their readers from going nuts trying to find what wasn't there. And
the reason I tell this meandering tale is that I just got the first chapter
of "The Incredible Shrinking Tightwad" from Denmark... and I see the editor
has REMOVED the "D.U.C.K." from the splash panel. I don't know whathahecks
goin' on. Editors are sure whacky critters.

WILMER:
        "The Man Who Would Be King" is one of my very favorite movies (in
fact, there is hardly another movie made in the past 35 years that I like as
much as that one). Thank gosh John Huston didn't make it in the early 50s as
he originally planned, using Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart instead of
Connery and Caine. The former are slightly unBritish; I guess the story
would have been drastically rewritten for American soldiers-of-fortune, but
nothing can beat the Connery-Caine version, eh?
        Was I thinking of it when I did "Ten Avatars" the way I often think
of movies while doing stories? Not exactly... and you finally answered your
own question. I knew there was that Alexander the Great connection. But the
Huston movie involved them going through the Khyber Pass into the barren
mountains near Afganistan to a city built by Alexander. My story involves a
city that licked Alexander in the upper jungles of the Punjab. Plus,
Huston's story is about 100,000% better.

KNUT:
        Whoops -- you're about to see CITIZEN KANE? Forget anything anybody
said about sleds and Rosebuds! (I wouldn't talk so openly about filmdom's
greatest surprise ending if I didn't think everyone on earth had SEEN that
movie by now.)
        What did I do before comics? My college degree is in civil
engineering, and I owned & operated a construction-finish company, though
this job actually involved very little of my engineering background.