digest #157

[Don Rosa]

From: "timo ronkainen"
>>>About the question, which currency symbol should be on Scrooges bin:
IMO the dollar sign is the only one, since Scrooge IS US citizen.

That all depends on what country you're in when you read the story. It
Italy the Duck stories (they tell me) have *always* taken place in America,
even the ones done in Italy. In other countries, it depends on what the
editor decided years ago when they started using the reprints. In Holland
the stories take place in Holland. In Germany the stories take place in a
fantasy world.
The matter in question was regarding how the French treat my stories,
putting the dollar sign on the Bin and the proper silver coins inside it,
because they know that's the way I (the author) want it. But what else can
they do? In the new "Attaaaack!" story (again, the one at hand), an army is
called on which visually, in uniforms and equipment, is *clearly* the
American army. And then in my "Lo$" stories, Duckburg is clearly in
America. I can't dictate that different countries adhere to the original
script and setting of my stories, and I appreciate it when they do. Whether
or not a reader in a foreign (to me) country is insulted that his editor
did something "to please the writer of the story" (if that's what
translating a script accurately is), I'm sorry about it but I can't worry
about that. One absolute truth I've learned in 13 years of doing these
stories: "YOU CAN'T PLEASE EVERYBODY. So don't try."

From: "Ole Reichstein Nielsen"
> BTW, talking about traditions: in this week's Dutch weekly, Scrooge is
Grandma's brother again. Now that *is* confusing...
>>>But possibly true? We've been over this discussion before, and that Don
Rosa finally decided
(based on the available information - or lack of it - in Bark's stories)
to the now commonly accepted family tree. It would however by fair to
grant that though Barks created Scrooge (and Gus Goose), and Taliaferro's
mother-in-law inspired him to Grandma Duck, it would be a third and unknown
writer who established the family relationship between them.

Maybe I didn't make my stance clear in that earlier discussion you refer
to. There have always been myriad different versions of Duck relatives and
Duck histories in the 60+ years of these stories. It's impossible to base a
set of stories on *all* previous versions, so I pick one. I pick Barks, not
because he was always first, but because (I think) he was always best. And
I had no "lack" on information on Barks' idea in the matter. His 1950's
Family Tree showed Grandma as no relation to $crooge, and the Family Tree
he created and sent me in the 90's, though slightly different in some ways,
still showed Grandma and $crooge were not related. And this is a better
idea, even if I had to pick one outta the blue -- why have a lopsided
Family Tree? All families have two sets of grandparents (well, except in
places like here in rural Kentucky, but enough about that), so why cram
$crooge and Grandma over into one side and leave the other side devoid of
noteworthy, interesting characters? Not to mention the other problems of
$crooge supposedly being of Scottish origin, and Grandma of "old pioneer
farming stock" and UN -Scottish.
Now, whether all this is "possibly true" is NOT my point. I've said many,
many times that no reader is required to accept any particular version of a
story-universe as jumbled by thousands of writers and artists as this
60-year-old Duck Universe. I'm just saying how and why things are in *my*
stories. Whether a reader accepts that version (or, again, whether it
insults another reader), I can't worry about that. I just do it all the way
I think best, and hope that pleases more readers than it angers.