DCML Digest Issue 43

Don Rosa donrosa at iglou.com
Tue Sep 23 21:09:36 CEST 2003


> From: "Daniel van Eijmeren" <dve at kabelfoon.nl>
> Subject: Re: Barks letter to Rosa
> Apart from some story ideas, these letters contain two 1990s family trees
> made by Barks for Rosa. A first version, and an updated version. This
> updated version was made after Rosa sent Barks a xerox of Barks's 1950s
> family tree. Only the first version is shown in Blum's article.

You cause me to go back through my stack of Barks correspondence and again
recall how closely I was working with him while constructing my Family Tree
and my Life of $crooge. I submitted all my ideas on both for his comments
all the way up until at least episode 8 of the Lo$... that is the point at
which I lost contact with him and started reading alleged quotes that he
"hated" my $crooge biography... but you all know or should know the story
and people behind that.
It has been 12 years and I had forgotten that I had submitted all of my Tree
diagrams and Lo$ outline to him, and then sent him advance copies of each
episode, all of which he expressed general approval in his letters (though I
think he always seemed naturally puzzled as to why I would want to tackle
that sort of difficult and constraining project rather than simply telling
all new stories).
One thing he sent me was a hand-drawn Family Tree that seemed to indicate
that he did not recall or have a copy of the Family Tree he created (for his
private notes) in the 1950's, and which had long been circulated among us
fans. Barks had probably given the original (as it's in his own handwriting)
away to a fan years earlier, and that's why he no longer had a copy? This
new Tree eliminated the unfortunate 1950's part where Gladstone is orphaned
in a bit of black comedy that would never have been allowed into an actual
comic (parents died of overeating at a free picnic), perhaps at my
suggestion to help eradicate that bit, or, as I say, he had forgotten that
earlier version. So I then sent him a copy of his 1950's Tree to show him
his earlier notions.
The revised Family Tree he then sent me was the same as the one you see in
that album #42, only he eliminated Gus Goose and Grandma's second daughter
from the Tree, and added "Old Scotty" McDuck and $crooge's two sisters
back -- so this apparently acted as a reaffirmation of the 1950's Tree with
the elimination of that aforementioned complication involving Gladstone. I
followed his revised Tree, adding the other Barks relatives used over the
years, and using an actual name for $crooge's father (as "Old Scotty" would
obviously be a nickname). One extra element in my Tree that Mr. Barks did
not like was the inclusion of Ludwig Von Drake, a character for whom he had
a low regard for some reason. But it wasn't until Egmont informed me that
LVD was "officially dead" that I had to eliminate him from the Tree... as
always, it's the publisher, not the creator (neither me or the real guy),
who has the last word.

> Some questions for Don Rosa:
> - Are there more Barks letters than the ones I've mentioned?
> - Is there more material than what I've mentioned? (Sketches, notes, etc.)
> - Do you still have all versions of Barks's 1990s family trees? And would
>   you allow them to be published or xeroxed?
> - Do you still have copies of your own letters to Barks?

There are many more letters from Barks to Rosa and Rosa to Barks during
1975-1998 and I have copies of them all, but if I can help it, no one will
ever see them. I think it's the world of too-easily-shared e-mail and the
activities of some very foul blots that made me realize how private and
sacred personal correspondence is!!! I would NEVER have shared Barks'
letters with anyone but Blum since he and he alone was the writer on Barks
matters for Another Rainbow... it seemed okay... but now I even feel that
was wrong. I never knew he would later submit this private correspondence
for publication .... and he may have requested permission later, and if I
agreed it was before I would later realize, as I say, how WRONG this is. I
mean, you can imagine how... "soiled" I feel knowing that all my
correspondence to and from Barks, not to mention all of the correspondence
to and from him to everyone else, ever, has been violated by certain parties
and possibly even stolen for all we know. Apparently other private papers
and photos are now showing up on eBay. Violating private correspondence is a
very dirty business.
But the specific item you desire to see can be imagined easily enough -- the
second revised Tree that Barks sent me was a xerox of the first new one he'd
sent, only with "Old Scotty", Matilda and Hortense penciled in on one side,
and Gus Goose and his mother scratched off the other. There were no names
for Grandma's children added... I obtained/interpolated those from old Barks
stories involving relatives which we fans all knew.

> > From: "Madame Jennifer Inantaz" <madame82 at hotmail.com>
> > To Mr..Rosa:
> > Did you do the scripting for TaleSpin the animated series? (I
> > saw that in the article)

Katie answered this very well.
I can add that I took this job when I was morally forced to quit working for
Gladstone when Disney told them to no longer return artwork to the artists
who owned it. But I had already liquidated my construction company and had
no other work. Disney Animation had wanted me to do something for
"DuckTales" when that was in production, but by 1989 it was "TailSpin" that
was underway. I went to Hollywood and had some meetings with the Studio
folks and returned home to write those episodes that Katie mentions. One
thing that she couldn't know, however, was that those two episodes were the
FIRST episodes written and filmed/made, at least that's what I was told. The
series went on the air when many more had been completed, and my two shows
were added into the body of completed shows. The head writers created the
5-part "origin episode" of the series well into the series' production -- I
guess by then they had a much clearer idea of where the storylines were
going and how the characters would be developing, so they could "create"
them after they already had many adventures in-the-can.
I quit that screenwriting job as soon as I found out that I could work for
Egmont rather than Gladstone (who had been put outta business by Disney by
then, anyway).
But it always struck me as funny that there are so many people who want so
much and study so hard to break into writing/drawing comics *or*
screenwriting... and I accidentally stumbled into both jobs without ever
having had the intention of doing either one for a living... doesn't seem
quite fair.



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