Disney-comics digest #808.

[Don Rosa]

JAMES:
        Well, maybe $crooge did get off light in both Barks' "Voodoo Hoodoo"
and in my chapter XI. But don't expect me to ever address that incident
again! I think my use of that story at all was a tricky step -- my better
judgement told me to ignore it. But then, I'm afraid the dark aspect that
episode puts into the series is the only thing that gives some special
meaning to the final chapter. Otherwise the story would have ended at White
Agony Creek or with the building of the Money Bin. And I'm sure that many
readers will say that's where it SHOULD have ended. Could be. I never say
that what I do is good, or right. Those readers can decide that chapter 10
was the final chapter, and I'll be defending their right to do so. My
problem, of course, is that I view these characters far too seriously. I see
the stories as comedy-dramas rather than comedies. Oh well -- one man's meat
is another man's poison.
        The one part of the story that I also liked the most was Donald's
first encounter with $crooge. I think I did that just right. And one of the
panels I just added to part XII completes that moment.
        I never recalled that it was also Ebenezer Scrooge's loss of his
family that was partly what turned him sour. And I'm quite familiar with
that tale! No doubt it was in my subconcious mind.
        Which of my stories have yet to see print in America? We do this
about once a month: "War of the Wendigo", "Of Ducks and Dimes and
Destinies","The Treasury of Croesus","The Universal Solvent","The Incredible
Shrinking Tightwad","The Lost Charts of Columbus","An Eye for Detail","The
Once and Future Duck", and "The Tenth Avatar". Maybe another that slips my
mind -- I don't keep track of it all.

MARK:
        I am always so careful about anachronisms! When I copied Barks'
panel showing young $crooge shining shoes with elastic suspenders, I first
went to great trouble to see when elastic was invented, and determined that
it was long after $crooge's youth (but I used the panel anyhow). And yet, I
don't recall checking to see if I had Lincoln on too early a coin. It's the
sort of thing I'd do, and since it just barely was correct, I'll assume I
checked. But did I actually say Washington was on that "quarter dollar", or
do I just have $crooge refer to the figure as "chief"? I don't have the
comic here to check.
        I don't know if my original script said "man" or "duck", or what the
official script said... but "man" would be the only possible correct word in
that case, since there was only one other Duck on that "roster", Flintheart
Glomgold, but that was a scene cut from the final version. (Glomgold also
appeared in a cut scene.) I think it would sound odd to say "richest mammal
in the world" or "richest creature"... so it has to be "man". Besides, I
really see the Ducks as humans, same as those dog-people.

GEIR:
        "Back in Time for a Dime" was done for an early issue of that
"DUCKTALES" children's magazine. I was unemployed at the time, just having
been compelled to quit working for Gladstone in 1989, and decided to write a
story for them even though it had characters in it like "Webby" and "Bubba
Duck" simply because they called me and offered a nice fee. But I had some
difficulty collecting that fee, so I didn't try to do any further stories
for them.

        I keep using far more than the space I should be allowed on here
before I get to that list of closet-junk in "The Incredible Shrinking
Tightwad". Next time, maybe...?