DCML Digest Issue 20

[Don Rosa]

> From: Tor Kinlok <tor at kinlok.name>
> Subject: Bolivar (was Re: DCML Digest Issue 19)
> Don, do I understand you correctly?  Are you saying that if you  
> personally missed reading an issue as a child, then somehow that  
> story never happened?

As far as I knew as a kid, no, it never happened. How could it have?
And even if I had read that 1951 story then or later, I never saw that dog
in the Duck household again. So in the Duck Universe I grew up with, there
was no family dog. But I *did* grow up with several stories where the
Nephews seemed to have controlling interest in a noble and brilliant
bloodhound named General Snozzie, the Official Woodchuck Hound. Therefore,
Snozzie *is* alive in my heart and mind. I have already used Snozzie several
times in important tales, one being a story showing how important Snozzie is
in HD&L's life soon after they came to live with Donald. Snozzie is not only
the dog *I* associate with the Nephews, but he is also a hound who looks
much more like the Basset Hounds that I adore (the only dogs I've ever owned
-- had 8 so far), so given a choice of dogs in a match between a Hound and a
big furry Saint Bernard, I would take the hound as both a pet and a story
character. Maybe I love Basset Hounds because of Barks' Snozzie (a
bloodhound). So, other writers use Bolivar when they need a Duck-dog, and
I'll use Snozzie. No difference. Something for everyone. And just because I
do it that way in my miniscule share of stories certainly doesn't make it
either right or official, it just makes it the way I do it, so no problem.