Disney-comics digest #514.

[Don Rosa]

DWIGHT:
	Well, you're right. The last time they sent me one of those
German "Don Rosa Library" albums, they included a note saying "I hope
you're as pleased with this as we are". Normally, I stay completely OUT
of how they handle my stories at the various European publishers. I go
to great length to help the translators who care enough to contact me
with questions, but as to how the stories are translated by others or
colored, I keep in mind that I have no right whatsoever to dictate to
anyone anything about how my work is treated (since it becomes 100%
Disney's property foreverafter the moment I send it off) and I also
don't wish to ever come across as a prima donna or anything. But once
they ASKED my opinion, I told them.
	I brought up the way they carelessly left that sign off of album
#2, and how ALL the background lettering is awful (no matter what the
sound effect or sign is, all the lettering is the same as that in the
balloons, only perhaps bigger). And I especially told them that the
coloring is totally uninspired and lacking in any thought, even though
Egmont's coloring system is capable of vitually anything. 
	I'm surprised that you'd say the German albums' printing makes
the art look better; perhaps the black-ink printing is sharper (if you
say so) but Gladstone's coloring (and lettering) is such light-years
ahead of Europe, that my art always looks 500% better in the Gladstone
editions. Take that latest German album for example, and look at the
opening pages of "New Laird of Castle McDuck": in Gladstone's version
the photos in the McDuck album are sepia-tone, and the thunderstorm on
the moor is dark and foreboding. In Europe the photos are full color
and the thunderstorm looks like broad daylight. And the scene where
$crooge is drowning at the bottom of a peaty moat -- in Gladstone's
edition, he looks like he's at the bottom of a peaty moat. In Europe he
looks like he's on dry land at high noon. There's no excuse for this,
except that in Europe the stuff is colored at top speed by computer
technicians, while at Gladstone it's colored by artists who are trying
to enhance the art and story.
	Of course, it will probably not change in Europe. All the
Egmont coloring is done ONE time in Copenhagan. The individual
publishers use that coloring, good or bad.... they can't change a bit
of it. And the German albums, even though I should hope they realize
the coloring is completely blah, aren't going to recolor the stuff when
it's already colored. I think I convinced them to contact Gladstone for
their color film on future (post Lo$) stories, but I'm not sure how
that will work, especially since Gladstone's coloring film is based on
reshaped balloons and sound effects and other lettering -- if they
can't use the film exactly as is (and they can't) they can't use it at
all.
	But now... you must tell me what they did to that "Mythological
Menagerie" story. You can't stop there. (I also persuaded them to start
putting dates on those back-up stories, so readers would know why that 7
year old work looks so much worse than the Lo$ stories.)