+Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #144.

[Don Rosa]

	Well, I have lots of digests to read here. Should I read them
all then post one BIG comment... or lotsa little ones? I guess I'll do
lots of lil' ones since that will help me avoid taking notes or
forgetting something.
	COMMENTS TO #144:
	DG asks about the cover I say I'm doing for the Gladstone use of
the Lo$ (that will hereafter be my designation for "The Life and Times
of $crooge McDuck") and the German use. The German albums, BEING albums,
will use 2 or 3 chapters of Lo$ in each issue... and I don't know what
they'll fancy as a cover scene. For instance, for part two they
requested a scene of a poker game on board a riverboat; well, there IS a
poker game in that chapter but it doesn't take place on a riverboat --
and even if it DID, how could you tell it was on board a boat or in a
saloon or...? Anyway, that gives you an idea of how we sometimes need to
talk sense into editorial heads. They took my suggestion for a scene...
which was an almost exact copy (in my style) of the Dutch cover to that
story. (Why should I worry about stealing other peoples' ideas when, as
Disney stories, my work has a sign on it saying "open season on free
use"?) That German album will also contain part 1 (the riverboat stuff
being in part 2). I'll only be doing one cover based on part 1, but,
yes, there will be a Gladstone cover based on that riverboat chapter
also. Now, normally, Gladstone could just have free useage of my German
cover... but the Germans won't be publishing until around April or so
(it's probably not yet set) and Gladstone will need a cover BEFORE that.
Since they cannot use the German cover before the Germans do, I need to
do ANOTHER version for Gladstone which will be the EXACT same scene. Why
not? I try to pick the best scene in the story for the cover, so why do
a bad cover for Gladstone instead of the same good scene? I'm only lucky
that I get to do the same idea twice and get paid twice, the sort of
good deal that virtually NEVER happens in this Disney stuff. Actually,
Jippes has been doing it this way for years, copying his own or other
peoples' covers for various Dutch or whatever editions, getting paid
several times for the same idea. 
	I have never seen the German Barks albums. I know that they
never could use Barks' name in the actual TITLE since that would mean
that they might have to pay Barks a royalty -- probably not, being in
Europe, but they MIGHT... so they put his name in the sub-title. But
now, the new post-Gare style of the Grandey managed "Carl Barks Studio"
has demanded royalties of ANY mention of Barks' name in ANY context,
something they cannot legally do, but the Europeans are deciding "screw
this" and just deleting all mention of Barks from the publications. This
is probably the main idea behind Grandey's idea of Barks' European
visit, to deal with these royalty demands. Oh, well... But that's why
Barks no longer gets credits in Germany... Barks won't allow it.
	They know I'm not so cranky or greedy yet, so they know they can
exploit me for a few more years.
	And no, you won't see ads for the German albums in the German
comics since those are two totally separate companies, not even located
in the same cities. And I'm told they don't even get along very well.
This is the usual case among Disney licensees, a situation Disney helps
to keep agitated for the same reason the ancient European kings always
wanted their feudal lords to bicker among themselves rather than ever
build up to any united front and make demands on the Empire. Think about
it.