In defence of Rota's "Life of DD"

[Fredrik Ekman]

And NOW my messages from the beginning of this month start coming
through! AARGH! By the beginning of next month, I will probably even
be starting to catch up with the rest of you.

Don wrote:
> All I know is I hope my DD story or
> ANYBODY'S DD story can prevent them from possibly using that nicely
> drawn (Marco Rota) but idiotic "Life of Donald Duck" epic that the
> Italians did some years ago. Actually, I've never read the whole story
> which I think deals with Donald's past life on the basis of his old
> Disney cartoons rather than his comic-book career -- but I do know the
> story opens with brother and sister $crooge McDuck and Grandma Duck
> (!!!! -- my family is Italian so I can vouch for the fact that, even in
> Italy, one's uncle is not the brother of his grandmother) ...

You're right, of course. On the other hand, before Barks' family tree was
"re-discovered", there was quite some confusion about the relationships
between the ducks. For example, since Grandma is called that by everyone
(even non-relatives), whose grandma IS she really? It is true that
Taliaferro clearly states in her first appearance that she is Donald's
grandma, but Taliaferro was never as well-known as Barks and when Barks
started to use grandma he made her look quite a lot younger than she did
in Taliaferro's original version.

The fact that she seemed to be about the same age as Scrooge made some
people assume that she was perhaps Hewey, Dewey and Louie's grandma. And
then she could quite possibly be Scrooge's sister. The only problem then
would be to explain how she could possibly be raised in America and
Scrooge in Scotland. In one Italian "flashback" the first meeting between
Scrooge and Grandma is depicted and there it is actually clearly stated
that they are sister and brother and also that they were not brought up
together nor, indeed, knew of each other's existence. Of course, if the
above-mentioned Rota story was to be used today, it would have to go
through some serious re-dialoguing.

And I agree with the rest of Don's criticism of the story, although I
still think it is quite good. I especially remember one sequence in a
bus. That sequence must contain some of the best Swedish translation ever
with more puns than I have ever seen just a few panels!

  /F