Rosa books/albums

[Oyvind J. Karstad]

Søren wrote:
>What do you mean "not again"? Is this an opinion you
>do not wish to hear or does it offend you in any sense?
>Did I miss some kind of natural law telling me or anyone
>else never to critisize (or give critics to) art and stories etc.

I admit I didn't make myself clear at all in my original mail.
My apologies.

I was referring to his argument, and to the fact (or my impression)
that this same argument seems to pop up every time somebody 
for some reason want to state that they don't like Don Rosa's stories.

Quoting Per Martinson:
>He is a good donaldist, but he doesn't write anything
>really new and innovative, he only uses things that
>Barks created.

I'm tired of this argument, that doesn't seem to make sense at all.
Of course Don Rosa is writing all his stories.
None of Rosa's plots can be recognised as "taken" directly from Barks stories,
(at least no more than Vicar and others use certain "standard-stories" again and again,
for example those with Donald as an expert in some profession).
More than that, one of the main reasons that I like Rosa's stories,
is that they are so *innovative*, besides intelligent and often hilarious.
Stories like "His Majesty, McDuck", "The Island at the Edge of Time",
"War of the Wendigo", "Hearts of the Yukon" and "The Black Knight"
just to name a few examples, all add totally new dimensions to the Duck universe.

That Don Rosa chooses to use a Barks-inspired "framework",
doesn't confine his creative prosess at all.
In a way it was very *innovative* of him to get up with the idea
of such a "framework", based on his own view of the Barks universe.

Martinson also wrote that "other writers should get more space".
This is another argument I marvel at.
What "space" is there that Don Rosa occupies,
that could have been given to other writers?
Currently he's only producing three or four stories a year.
We have seen very few reprints of Rosa stories in Scandinavia.
But Egmont are reprinting a lot of Vicar and Branca stories from the 80's.


Of course, I'm not offended by anyone stating that they don't like Rosa's stories.
I'm not even offended by Per Martinson's suggestion,
that because he doesn't like Rosa's stories, Rosa should stop making them.
I do think that it's a silly statement, but I'm not offended.

And if you're offended by any of the above written,
I probably haven't managed to express myself properly this time either...
:-)

Øyvind