Why are you so popular ?

[Søren Krarup Olesen]

On Friday 10 May 2002 21:07, 99E wrote:

> -And I agree. No doubt, Don Rosa is a great storyteller. As long as
> it comes to longer adventurestories - Barks, Rosa and Rota are, IMHO,
> the greatest tellers... Lots of other folk write great scripts for
> shorter stories - but not as consistently as the three mentioned
> above.

It's funny, that those three persons are always mentioned, considering 
that we have plenty of newer and IMO more skilled artists around. I 
think it was Ole, who once asked why Barks is called "Den Gode Tegner" 
(=the good drawer) in Denmark. He certainly--in his drawings--is 
surpassed by another CB, namely Carl Buettner. And in fact, I find e.g. 
Strobl's art in the 60s much more interesting and dynamic than Barks' 
art during that same period.

As for Don, he certainly is a splendid story teller spiced up with so 
much humour, a bit too strict and conscise in certain places, but 
that's his style apparently. However, the art itself...hmmm...can't say 
I dislike it, but clearly it doesn't come fluently and as natural as 
with

Rota, who is (in comparison to other Italians) a "mid-range" artist but 
nevertheless with a very personal style, that fits the universe 
perfectly. Still, I've often wondered why Rota would go be so popular. 
His stories are not *that* interesting (not in comparison with Don's 
anyway). Most of Rota's panels are sort of isolated "events" - each of 
them being brilliantly drawn, but that doesn't necessarily make a 
"fluent" (yes, that word again) story.

What I notice, while reading less good stories, is that most artists 
seem to have left the original cartoon background completely. A duck is 
now a character with both feet safely placed on the ground, perhaps one 
arm is lifted a little bit to show a gesture or whatever, the eyes may 
show a bit of anger etc..., but hey, where is the dynamic?! Who can 
draw a duck that runs (and I really mean RUN) nowadays? Who can draw a 
Donald sighing over his greedy uncle, without making him look like 
Garfield not having his morning coffee served properly? Nah.

Søren