DCML Digest Issue 16

[Don Rosa]

> From: Victor <victor1717 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Bornworthy, Donald's dog.
> This dog was used by Barks some times.
> But I havn't seen Don Rosa using that dog.
> Have he ever used him in a comic (Or will use???) I know many 
> other artists use him.

I am a *major* dog lover and someone who actually seems to run a "nature
preserve for dogs" (I currently have three dogs who enjoy sleeping indoors
at night but during the day have on-site access to 25 acres of woods and
meadows, all fenced in and safe for their use in exploration and sniffing
and playing... the Rajah of Howduyustan's royal dogs couldn't have a happier
life). Therefore, I was VERY anxious to start using Bolivar (Bornworthy) the
dog!!! I had not used him at first since in American comics (which were the
only ones I knew) he had not been seen since the 1940's. I had never grown
up with Barks stories featuring Bolivar  -- he had disappeared from the
American stories before my sister started saving her comics.  But a few
years later when I went to work for Europe, I saw that Bolivar was still
being used as the Nephews' dog in new stories made in other markets, so I
wanted to start featuring him in my own stories. *Every kid should have a
dog!* Three special kids should have a very special dog!
Okay, but how would I suddenly begin using a dog as a household pet which
clearly had never existed before, either in my stories or in the comics I
had grown up with (which exist from moment to moment in my mind to guide
me)? Since the dog's name was "Bolivar", my solution was that I would do a
story set in South America (as the dog is named after the foremost South
American hero), and Bolivar would appear and become the hero of the
adventure, saving the Ducks and becoming their special pal whom they would
take home to Duckburg. So I designed the story "Last Lord of Eldorado" for
that purpose.
But the editors objected to my use of Bolivar in that fashion. It's been too
many years so I don't recall the exact reason... but probably they didn't
like how I would be presenting Bolivar as a new addition to the Duck family
(even though, to my American mind, he *would* be). So I was directed to
delete all reference to Bolivar from that story and rewrite it without a dog
hero. And that was that. Since I could not start using Bolivar in such a way
that implied he had always been an existing and active member of the Duck
household, any more than I could let myself suddenly start using a fourth
Nephew as if he had always existed, I had no personal choice but to ignore
Bolivar and deprive myself of having a dog in my Duck stories.
This is similar to the reasoning that the editors used in reverse when I
wanted to do a story featuring Donald's mother, $crooge's sister, Hortense.
They would not allow a story that would imply that Hortense has always
existed, if not living right in Duckburg, then certainly visiting her
children and grandchildren whom she had no reason to avoid as she was
avoiding $crooge. The editors rightly said that to imply that Hortense has
been an active member of the Duck family all this time but was simply never
mentioned in 60 years of Duck stories would be "cheating". And they're right
-- I don't know how to get around that problem. Hortense has to be
considered "officially dead" to explain this absence. Similarly, in my own
mind I must consider Bolivar "officially... gone" to explain his absence
from every Barks story I grew up with. (Yes, he apparently was used by Barks
in some 1940's stories that I learned of as an adult collector -- perhaps
this Bolivar was lost on a Junior Woodchuck rescue mission, or Donald did
him a mischief while backing 313 out of the garage in 1949? Whatever the
case, he was definitely not a Duck household member in the stories I knew.)
And this is certainly not the first or only instance where my strict
personal view of Barks' Ducks prevents me from doing things in my stories
that I would love to do. But I have no choice but to be true to the version
of these Ducks that has existed in my brain since my youth. And that's
nobody's problem but my own.
So, no, you'll never see Bolivar in one of my Duck stories...