Disney-comics digest #564.

[Don Rosa]

BJORN:
	Thank you for your comments on the Croesus thing!
	I encourage comments about where I may have made mistakes -- this way
perhaps I can correct things when stories like this'n appear in a Gladstone
issue (which I regard as the OFFICIAL publication, regardless of the lack of
American readership).
	I only wish this job afforded me the opportunity to do more extensive
research, but there are two problems here: first is that I must do the best
research I can in a limited amount of time, then go with what I've got, good or
bad; second is that Louisville is a very anti-library, anti-education city in a
similar part of the nation. Our libraries are very poor. I should be doing my
research at the University of Louisville, but that is far from my home and I'm
pretty sure I can't check books out as a non-collegian.
	I myself was very upset just a few days ago while watching a new series
on an educational satellite channel about the 7 Wonders of the World, and I was
naturally anxious to see the parts about the Artesian Temple. I saw several
things mentioned in the show that none of my many reference books hinted at, and
also did NOT see things mentioned that I would think should have been. My books
spoke of the site of the temple as being far from any town, in a marshy
wilderness -- the show suggested that there are villages all about. Yes, I know
that today there is a single column stacked up by archaeologists just "for
laughs" -- but this was done since the 50s (when my story takes place). By the
way, there were several hints that my story is taking place in the 50s, unless
the translators removed them. One is that $crooge says he obtained his permit 50
years ago from Sultan Abdul Hamid (Sultan circa 1900), and he also says he was
part of the dig that unearthed the temple's foundation (1905).
	Something not mentioned on the show was anything about the dismantling of
the Temple by a Leo the First and the removal of what he missed by British
colonials. I was stunned to see the TV special not show the columns that are (my
sources claim) stacked by hundreds at the British Museum and Hagia Sophia.
	And you added a new bit of news yourself: my research did chance to
expose me to some pictures of the Cistern in Constantinople, but no mention was
ever made that some of those columns were used there. Those would have been hard
for $crooge to remove! But the TV show did speak of the fact that many columns
can be seen in other ancient constructions in Turkey -- they showed the one
thing I avoided mentioning: that while these ancient columns were employed like
this, and $crooge could have hunted them down (with impossible research), the
fact is that the columns were naturally not used as column-sections, but cut up
into tiny bits to be used as blocks.
	I'm afraid I didn't catch what you're trying to say as regards my story
depending on how much money $crooge has IN his Bin. Did the translator suggest
this fact was important? My point was that $crooge was richer than Croesus ever
was; and this would not alone depend on how much cash either one of them had in
their Bins. It would depend on their total worth. Heck, maybe Croesus DID have
more money just in his Bin than $crooge has in his. Good for the Turkish
government at the end of the story, eh? Speaking of the Turkish government, I
wonder why Egmont screwed around with the Turkish flags I had in the army-attack
scene! I wonder what they did to my text! You never know what you're actually
getting when I can't inspect it for you! Just wait for the TRUE version in a
Gladstone issue someday.
	And what's this about the Tomb of Alexander. I understood they put him on
display in the Library of Alexandria, and I've already found him in my Lost
Library story. Did he leave some dough laying around somewhere else?

EVEN:
	And thank you as well for the kind remarks!

NISSE:
	I wish I could get a copy of that CB & CO., in English no less, eh? I
could actually read it!
	But are you saying that Van Horn wrote an article about Barks' European
tour? What would he know about it? I suspect this may be planted propaganda from
The Weasel.