Birthdays

[Don Rosa]

From: Lars Jensen (lpj at forfatter.dk)
>>>I don't really understand this discussion -- I fail to see why it would
be puzzling that fictional characters' birthdays are celebrated on the
same day they debuted in print or on screen.

You don't?
Let's say that the first time you might see and meet me is on a June 9.
Would you insist that my birthday is June 9th? Why should you insist that
the first day you ever saw me was, by some great coincidence, my birthday? I
don't mind if someone wants to decide what various characters' birthdays
are -- maybe it's just for fun or it's needed in a plotline. But I certainly
don't understand why their birthdays should be on the same day that they
debuted in a film or comic. You seem to be confusing the birthday of the
character as an entity in stories with the first appearance of a character
as a copyrighted entity. You can mark the anniversary of the first time I
appeared to you as June 9, but you can't tell me that's my birthday.

>>>It's a fictional character. Donald doesn't really have a birthday.

Lost me again. Donald is a fictional character. He doesn't really have a
birthday. Likewise, he doesn't really have a hat on his head. He doesn't
really have an Uncle $crooge. Or three Nephews.
But he has a hat and an uncle and Nephews *and a birthday* if I or some
other author says he does.