DCML digest, Vol 1 #573 - 12 msgs

[Don Rosa]

> From: "Fluks, H.W." <H.W.Fluks at kpn.com>
> Do I really need to answer this? You must know better.

Sure I do. You must know I know better. I knew you knew that I know better.
Don't you know that I know that you know that I know better? Y'know?

> From: "Fernando Ventura" <fernandopventura at uol.com.br>
> Finally I read "The Three Caballeros Rides Again"! Very nice job, Don!
> Only two thing's is "strange" to me, since I'm so familiar with the =
> brazilian artists was doing with Jos=E9 and Panchito's character since =
> the 60's:=20
> The absence of Panchi'to's serap=E8

You seem to have hiccupped -- you mean his serape? If he was wearing one
all the time in the movie or comics (which I'd need to go check), I'm sure
I figured it would just be hard to draw in each pose and that I preferred
to
see all of his body in every shot.
I thought you were going to ask about the horse he has in all the comics. I
saw that steed but I can't bring myself to draw horses that are that
cartoony... I prefer to use semi-cartoony hosses like in Asterix. But I
still used the hoss' name from the comics.

> ...and the fact of Jos=E9 becaming sad for losting =
> his job! The "brazilian" Joe really hate the WORD work! :)

Now we come to my real attitude towards using the material from the comics:
see, we in America have never seen Jose Carioca or Panchito comic strips,
none to speak of. There were short running comics about them in American
newspapers back around the time the movie was out, to promote it. And there
were some unmemorable promotional appearances in the Dell comics (even
though one was by Walt Kelly, which I would not say was "inspired".... it
seemed a bit "uncomfortable"). But these newspaper comics and such were
long gone by the time I was even born, and they were never reprinted for me
to see later.
But friends sent me many examples of the Brazilian and Dutch Jose and
Panchito comics for reference before I did that story. These were useful
artistically, but I found that I did *not like* the interpretation of
Jose's personality that I saw in these comics. At least in the examples I
had, Jose was some sort of bum who, yes, hated being a "productive member
of society", swindled people out of free meals and seemed to spend all his
time in other con-man antics (judging by what I could tell not being able
to *read* the comics). As with drawing cartoon horses, I could not enjoy
making a hero out of this Jose in my own stories.... the same way I must
change $crooge from being greedy and nothing but greedy for money if I can
tolerate making a hero out of him. To me, greed and selfishness is the root
of all evil and the Republican party. So, I just figured that I would be
basing my Jose on the one in the movies and interpolate from that point,
and I interpolated in a different direction than did those newspaper comic
writers. I turned him into a mediocre itinerant night-club entertainer. I
was treating him and Panchito like the characters Hope and Crosby played
throughout their "Road" pictures. Yeah, if I spoke in the parlance of a
modern American movie producer, I'd refer to my "Three Caballeros Ride
Again" as "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" meets "the Road to Bali".