US 285/285

[Tryg Helseth]

Don Rosa wrote:

>UNCLE $CROOGE #286:
>	I hope folks here will be nice enough to discuss, along with
>that singing flea, this new American edition of "Master of the
>Mississippi" (Lo$ #2) which just came out in U$#286;

Hi Don:  

I just read US 285 and 286 this morning.  It took me a month to get around 
to 285, but I finally did it.  Your drawings are very detailed, which make 
them both a joy and a pain for me to read.  (The pain comes from my 
deteriorating eyesight in recent years--it is often an eyestrain for me to 
read at all, and I didn't want to miss any of those details in those busy 
panels.)

I really enjoyed these two installments; its obvious you've put a lot of 
work into collecting and sorting all the facts that Barks left scattered 
like breadcrumbs throughout his stories.  I didn't remember all those 
references to the Louisville area though--you must have searched the local 
archives for some of that info.... :)

I was wondering about a couple of things in the story.  First, you mentioned
that $crooge arrived in Louisville during the time of the 6th Kentucky 
derby.  Now I don't know Derby history, and I didn't see a date 
mentioned--what year was that?  Second, Ratchet mentions wanting Lily 
Langtree's autograph after confusing Scrooge's depth sounding (Mark Twain) 
with the presence of the author.  Was there a particular reason Lily 
Langtree was mentioned, or was it just around the time she was in the US?

>At first glance-through, I'm STILL greatly disturbed by seeing the Ducks
>with all that brown hair, but I trust that will END with this chapter!

Brown hair on Scrooge really looks stange--especially since he didn't 
have it in the first chapter.

>I was somewhat disappointed in a few panels where many shots of
>riverboats or figures are all colored a blanket yellow or blue... maybe

I kind of liked that effect.  It helped separate the forground action from
the background.  For me it made the panels much easier to read.  As for 
the loud sound effects, I didn't hear a thing... :)

Tryg Helseth  <trygve at maroon.tc.umn.edu>   Minneapolis, MN, USA
          or  <tryg.helseth at tstation.mn.org>

"I wish they all could be Calisota Ducks!" -The Beach Drakes