DCML digest #912

[Don Rosa]

From: "Anders Christian=?ISO-8859-1?Q?_Siveb=BEk?=" <anders_sivebaek at nns.dk>
>>>As we tell on the duckhunt page on upcoming stories we're proud that our
friend and fellow duckhunter Sigvald gave Don the idea for this story.

Awk! When I added a note about that story to yesterday's ML submission, one
reason I did so was to again remind folks of Sigvald Grøsfjeld's
contribution to that story. Sorry! Yes, it was his idea to combine the
"Christmas for Shacktown" sequel with the "Gyro's 50th" story, and his idea
to... well, as to what "Gyro's First Success" was and how it would fit into
the plot.

From: "Francesco Spreafico" <frspreaf at tin.it>
>>>After the conference there was antoher sketch session, this time (On
Don's "orders" we've been told) with no "pre-sale" tickets... tickets
were given at the begininning of the session, so it worked out much
better and I got my sketch after a while

Yeah, the people manning that booth made several errors in how to handle the
lines, and they've done this before so I'm puzzled as to why they still
didn't know how to run such things. Want an insight into how I've learned to
operate after 15 years of fan drawings?
When I do drawings for a crowd, doing the drawings is the *easy* part... my
adrenaline will keep me going for 3 or 4 hours nonstop as we did at each
session in Torino, and even much longer such as I've done elsewhere. The
trick is how to make sure everyone gets *something* and how to be fair to
everyone in the process. At Torino they gave numbered tickets to people,
which is very good since they don't need to stand in line thereafter, and
can either form a "loose mob" to see what's going on, or just go off and
come back later. Nothing worries me like seeing a long queue in front of me
waiting in discomfort while I draw as fast as my lil' fingers will move. I
estimated how many drawings I could do in the time I had, then they'd give
out that many tickets... I would never have time to do the number of
drawings I'd estimated, but I could always stay until I'd get them done by
extending the session for another hour or so since, well, that's the reason
I'm there... not to go sightseeing. (And anyone left over at the end when
time is running out gets autographs, as many as they wish.)
But the first day after they stopped giving out tickets I noticed one of the
booth people making a list of names and I asked what she was doing -- turns
out she was giving out tickets for the NEXT day's session! This is obviously
grossly unfair to the people who won't even show up until the next day! She
would have filled the next day's entire list! I stopped it, but I was
naturally obligated to still start the next day's session with those people
to whom she had already promised drawings (since to refuse what they had
been promised would also be unfair to them as it wasn't their error).
Then the next day they started giving out the tickets 15-20 minutes BEFORE
the session was scheduled, and the 40 or 50 tickets were gone instantly.
This is obviously unfair to the people who did not show up until when the
session was scheduled. So I stopped that method as well.
I say this to express how the main difficulty is how to be fair to
everyone... but it's really impossible. When so many nice people want
drawings, and when I'm only human, I can't do as many drawings as people
want even if I wish I could. I can only find the way to be the least UNfair.
Another way I deal with it is to also only do sessions during the last 3 or
4 hours of the show each day... that way I can keep doing drawings as long
as people want them until they are chased out by the convention center
guards. I just don't have the courage to stop doing drawings as long as
someone still wants one, so I let the clock be my savior.

From: "Fernando Ventura" <fernandopventura at uol.com.br>
>>>Ok, and Don did the Fethry's he's asked to do or not? ;-)
I presume he didn't!!!

You presume wrong. I would first make sure that the person knew that Fethry
did not exist in my "Universe" and that I would need a reference to know how
to draw him, but if the person still wanted a Fethry, I would give it a
shot. I think I drew the second and third Fethry's I've ever drawn there in
Torino (the first was on that Duck Family Tree poster 10+ years ago).
The only time I refuse ("decline") to do a drawing for someone is when they
want Donald or $crooge or someone "dressed as Wolverine" or "dressed as a
Green Bay Packer football player" (this sort of @#$&% only happens at
American shows, of course). I'll simply tell the person that I'm there to
draw pictures for Donald Duck or Uncle Scrooge fans, not Wolverine fans or
Green Bay Packer fans, and that if they want a drawing, they'll get Donald
as Donald or Scrooge as Scrooge or nothing. And then there are the Americans
who think "it's all about THEM", and that everything is unfair just to THEM.
But I can always refuse to draw for these types just because I don't like
their attitude... after all, I'm no one's slave or even employee, I can do
whatever I wish.

>>>>If I was there probably I'll ask a José Carioca! :-)

That would have been fun!
What I dread are the people who ask for Magica because of all that jet black
hair! That takes time, slows me down! But it's a fair choice and that's what
they get if that's what they want.
My favorite drawings to do? Surely you know! Runner up is $crooge in the
Yukon. But my favorite is Glittering Goldie! (Who, by the way, is in the
story I should be completing and sending off in just a few days... in that
story I create an "alternate version" of what could have happened at the end
of "Hearts of the Yukon".)