Naples report

[M.J. Prior]

Okay, here's a retry without the HTML-thingamajigs (or at 
least I hope so).

Sigvald, Harry's comments to accompany the photographs 
were posted a week before on this mailinglist. 
(Monday March 10th)

Harry Fluks wrote:

> Here's a report of my short holiday to Napoli of the past
> week. I went to the Napoli Comicon, where Don Rosa and 
> many Italian DCML-members met. I hope the following is 
> not too boring for people who weren't there. 8-) 

Don't worry Harry! Imho, yours was one of the most 
pleasant and interesting mails of the past few weeks.

> Still, I heard something new there: Don included a hint 
> to HDL's parents in the "Return to Xanadu" story! 

Puzzling! Any ideas on this subject, anyone? The only clue 
I can think of is that both "Return to Xanadu" and "The 
Crown of the Crusader Kings" have an ending that points 
forward to a possible sequel in which $crooge might return 
to his ancestral castle in Scotland.

"The Crown" seems thus in more than one way to be a sort 
of sequel to "Xanadu"! 
(The crown of the crusader kings being also the 
counterpart to the crown of Djenghis Khan, which got lost 
in Tralla La.)

Still, I think it's a good thing that Don Rosa won't be 
allowed to do a story about the "Return of Donald's Lost 
Sister" or something like that. 
To me, part of the charm of this lost-sister-thing lies in 
the fact that nobody knows exactly what happened, so 
everybody can think of his own story. 
Of course, even when someone like Don Rosa *does* a story 
about what happened, we don't have to accept his version 
as the 'truth', if we don't like it. 
But I'm afraid that's not exactly how it would work out. 
Somehow, all other possible versions of what happened 
would seem less possible (or even less 'legitimate'*), 
once one particular version will have been shown in a 
story.
Especially a story about such a fundamental thing as 'why 
HDnL don't live with their parents'.

*) Yes, that's an ugly term.

I like my own Della better than Don Rosa's :)!

And maybe the same applies to 'what happened between 
$crooge and Goldie when he kidnapped her for a month in 
the Yukon'. Telling that story might spoil it. And yet, it 
takes a good and careful storyteller to get it just right, 
so Don Rosa might very well be the right man on that job.
Don, I'm looking forward to it! 

Michiel Prior.