Don Rosa (was Re: gender stereotypes and relationships in duckburg)

[Frank Stajano]

Christoffer Vedberg wrote:

 > Btw: since Don's eye surgery and retirement, has he stopped using
 > the internet and posting on dcml? I sent him an e-mail a while back
 > where I expressed my gratitude for all his stories and retold some
 > of my favorite memories since I wanted him to know how much he's
 > meant to me, but he never got back to me. Is his condition making it
 > too hard for him to read anymore? I ask this because I sent many
 > e-mails to him in 2001 and 2002 and he always wrote back, so I'm
 > thinking it has to do with the surgery.

Having spoken at length with Don on this matter face to face last
year, even before his retinal detachment of March 2008, I'll take the
initiative of saying something about it. But please note these are my
words, not his: I won't pretend or attempt to be his spokesman, and I
have not run this email past him for checking or approval before
sending it off. He might see things differently.

When I visited him in January 2008, for the first time in eight years,
the most burning question I had was: why no new stories over the past
few years? Are you ever going to do any more? But this was a somewhat
delicate question so I felt that, after not seeing each other for so
long, we first had to recreate the right mood before I could actually
ask it. I was his guest for a few days and initially we didn't even
speak that much about comics. I did however tell him that I wanted to
spend some time with him in his study and have a good chat him about
his comics in front of a recorder, if he liked, so at one point we did
go up there and we started our interview. By then, however, the answer
to that unasked question had already come out on its own: the feeling
I got just by being around him was that Don had had enough of that
unfair publishing system (about which several other Disney creators
are also unhappy) that was exploiting him without much respect for the
effort he put into what he did (for example with inadequate
translations or even plainly WRONG comments about his work, printed in
the comics without any kind of quality control and without giving him
a chance to review what was being said so that he could at least help
them rectify the most blatant mistakes---especially when they made HIM
look incompetent or stupid or vain).

Don is one of my most sincere and dedicated friends. While I am well
aware that not all readers like his peculiar artwork or his insistence
on building a strictly coherent universe and timeline out of all the
"Barksian facts" from the comic books he grew up with, what I can
certainly say without fear of being contradicted is that he always
wrote his comics with the heart of a fan, of a loyal reader, of "one
of us".  He always told his stories because he enjoyed it, not because
one more was needed to get that month's paycheck. On the contrary, he
even did comics when it was plainly uneconomical for him to do so:
just because he liked it. Because he had something inside that he
wanted to say.  Because we're all here on Earth for some purpose, and
for him that's what he felt was his purpose: telling yet one more
Uncle Scrooge story.  One memorable quote from one of our best
interviews (must have been around 1996, by email) was when he
expressed his enthusiasm about this opportunity to do the comics he
loved by telling me of a fantasy of him being at some very posh
reception party. Some imaginary character introduces himself to him
saying "Hello, I am the personal physician of the Queen of England!"
and Don, unimpressed, proudly responds: "So what? Me, I write and draw
Uncle Scrooge comics!". This really sums it up. He did it because he
had this burning passion inside, and because it was what he had dreamt
about all his life. And what happened, sadly, is that "the system" he
(and his fellow Disney authors around the world) had to fight against
eventually managed to suck this enthusiasm out of him. It took twenty
years but eventually he found he had had enough. Of course his
deteriorating eyesight was also a factor, but I wouldn't rate it as
the main cause.

Now, for as long as Don did comics, he assiduously contributed to this
mailing list (once the focal point of Disney comics lovers from all
over the world, now sadly almost defunct; gathering places go in and
out of fashion, I guess) and made a point of replying to all his fan
mail, public or private. That's because, as I said above, he really
started as "one of us" and knew from first-hand experience how much it
matters, to a reader who writes to his favourite author, to receive a
reply from that author. He didn't do it because it would promote sales
of his comics (on which, as is well known, Disney authors get no
royalties) but because he felt he owed it to his fans. "If someone
reads my story and they're kind enough to take the trouble to write to
me to let me know that they enjoyed it, I'm going to write back and
say thank you, because I know it would have meant a lot to me to
receive that reply had I been in their shoes." (These are not Don's
own words or even a paraphrase: it's just my best rendition of what I
perceive his attitude was.)

One thing he understandably couldn't stand, though, were those coming
to him for an autograph or a sketch just because they wanted the
souvenir from the celebrity, or even worse because they thought it was
something valuable that they could later resell on eBay (and believe
me, there were legions of them). But he somehow took the view that
these were the "greedy Americans"; so, while he refused to do drawings
at US conventions, where he felt that most people who came up to him
didn't even know who Uncle Scrooge was (perhaps an unfair
generalization), he kept on doing them for his fans abroad, whom
rightly or wrongly he perceived as more genuine.  He did frequently
take (unpaid) time off to travel to all these European conventions
that invited him, even though this technically made him worse off
financially (the publishers being the only ones profiting from the
extra publicity), because he appreciated and wanted to reciprocate the
love and affection and enthusiasm that his numerous fans were
showering on him.

The decision to retire from storytelling was essentially already
taken, even if not officially announced, but the retinal detachment
sealed it.  Yes, it is now technically a lot less comfortable than
before for him to stare at a computer screen; but that's not really
the point. Answering fan mail was part of the previous chapter of his
life that is now sadly closed. He told Uncle Scrooge stories for
twenty years, with earnest passion, and now that's up to someone
else. He told all the stories he wanted to tell. He felt exploited and
treated with such disrespect that he had no further intention to put
up with that system, and now he needs some time off. And I consider it
very dignified of him to call it quits now, after White Agony Creek
and Dream of a Lifetime which were the last stories he HAD to tell,
rather than continuing to write further stuff, in an unsatisfactory
contractual position, just because that's the easy way to bring in a
paycheck. He never wrote stories that way and I'm glad he never won't,
though of course I'm really sad that the resentment for this unfair
treatment ended up killing off his motivation and inspiration. (Once
again I stress that, while I believe I am honestly interpreting the
situation, these are my own words and not his.)

Rest assured that, if you write to him to tell him how much you
enjoyed such-and-such a story, he'll be pleased to hear about that
once he gets round to reading it. Same if, instead of writing to him
personally, you write it on this list, on your blog or on some web
forum or other that may have replaced this list as the core meeting
point for English-speaking Disney comics lovers: when he gets round to
reading it, which may not be immediately but is likely to happen
sooner or later, he'll be pleased to read it. I remember one morning
at his home, I had just woken up and he called me at his computer in
his library, which was the room next to the guest bedroom, to show me
a blog post he enjoyed immensely written by some guy who had just
discovered one of his Goldie stories (perhaps one of the two above)
and really "got it". It gave him a thrill to see someone who really
appreciated the story in the spirit in which he wrote it. In the old
times, I'm sure he would have even replied to that. Not any more, but
he was definitely grateful that this chap wrote that. (I tried
googling for that blog page but sadly could't find it. Who knows where
it was... but it was around 20 Jan 2008, if you're better than me with
a search engine.)

So that's that, at least as I personally see it. If you're after a fan
drawing, forget it. But if you're just burning to let Don Rosa know
that his stories have given you so much, and that you're grateful that
he wrote them, you can still reach him at his old email address and I
guess he'll eventually read you. Just don't demand or expect a
reply. If you're writing in order to get a personal reply, you will
most likely be disappointed. But if you want to write simply because
you think he deserves it, with no ulterior motives, then do it all the
same, without expecting a reply: your good deed will be its own reward
and rest assured that it will brighten his day. This would be, in my
view, the most respectful way of allowing him to retire from
storytelling (and from answering fan mail) if he so wishes. If we are
grateful to him, for the priceless "presents" he gave us as one of the
most inspired and talented Disney storytellers worldwide since Carl
Barks's retirement, let's express this feeling to him for the sake of
gratitude itself, without asking for anything in return.

As my own "thank you" to Don I have at last published one further
piece of our interview on http://comicspodcast.blogspot.com/ . As it
happens, this piece in itself is the best example of the attitude
above, as it shows how Don put so much dedication into his latest work
(the twelve posters) solely to offer his most devoted thank you to a
great man from whom he is definitely not expecting a reply.

-- 

   Frank Stajano     http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/fms27/