DCML Digest Issue 13

Don Rosa donrosa at iglou.com
Wed Oct 13 15:28:54 CEST 2004


> From: "Mickey" <mickey at iol.it>
> Subject: Re: DCML Digest Issue 10
> Nothing buy your comics.

Hm? Did you mean "nothing BUT your comics"? They did not use my name on the
book? Maybe not, as I say I haven't seen it.

> However, they have the rights for your stories, so they can print them (or
> make them print, like in this case) how, where and when they want, aren't
> they?

Oh, of course, any Disney licensed publisher can use my stories without
telling me, much less paying me. (Whether or not they have a right to
publish an entire book or album series of *only* stories that I've written
or drawn, and using my name, without my knowledge or permission is another
question.) But some non-Egmont publishers seem to think they have blanket
protection to find ANY writing that I (or YOU) have done concerning Disney
comics, copy them out of other books, magazines or websites, and publish
them without permission or payment to the authors... or use the name of
authors and artists in high-profile promotions without seeking permission.
But there's nothing we poor writers/artists can do about that sort of thing,
even if we happen to see it.

> > The last Italian book of my Lo$ used lots of unauthorized
> material, wrong
> versions of the art, and included, with no
> > explanation, "The Dutchman's Secret"
>
> Well, that book wasn't officially a collection of the Lo$...

It wasn't? Why not? It reprinted the first 12 chapters plus all the
additional "Lo$" chapters, but just inexplicably added "The Dutchman's
Secret". I figure the editors just saw that the "Dutchman" story began with
the same framing sequence of $crooge doing something with his old chest of
memorabilia and tossed the story into the book (i.e.: ordering it to be
translated and inserted) without bothering to actually read it themselves.
The book, PAPERDINASTIA, was clearly supposed to be a "Lo$" compilation. Are
we talking about the same book?
But use that book as an example: It reprinted my stories, but also took
texts I had written for other purposes, took photos from websites, used my
autograph, took many texts written by other comics scholars, and printed it
into a new compilation without seeking permission from any of the writers.
But beyond that, since it was otherwise certainly a nice looking book, other
publishers around the world, such as in Portugal, Brazil, Greece, perhaps
Germany and France, maybe others I don't even know about, used the exact
same material, same texts, coloring, etc., and published "Lo$" compilations
in their own countries, I assume paying the Italian publisher for the use of
the material... though the creators of all that material were still not
consulted. Is that fair? I don't claim to know, I'm just telling you what
happens.

> You can be quiet, Boschi himself cared about (if I'm not mistaking) and
> wrote an introduction for the book.

Well, I'll need to check on that. They might have, as I say, just lifted his
text from some other source and there'd be nothing Luca could do to stop
them. Or maybe he did write it directly for them... I hope so, that would
show some level of editorial respect even if I didn't hear from them. I have
an overnight message from Luca in my Inbox right now -- maybe I'll find out.




More information about the DCML mailing list