I have an image of the great Disney artist, Don Rosa, hunched over his drawing table, working in a brilliant pool of light, losing track of night and day. He hasn't slept or eaten for days, and his face is pressed close to his work: "I must . . . get . . .more detail . . . I must . . ."
No one, ever, put more in a comic panel than Don Rosa. His pages are like the insides of some finely jeweled watch. Here is a sample of his legendary work, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Rosa wrote the story as well, and his scripts are on a par with his art. What can one say? Gaze in wonder.
This is from Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge No. 290, February 1995, and it goes out to two friends: Sebina of Classic Maiden, and Lolita of Lolita's Classics, both of whom requested some of Mr. Rosa's ornate stylings. All scans are from my own comic. Just click the image for the big picture.
No one, ever, put more in a comic panel than Don Rosa. His pages are like the insides of some finely jeweled watch. Here is a sample of his legendary work, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Rosa wrote the story as well, and his scripts are on a par with his art. What can one say? Gaze in wonder.
This is from Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge No. 290, February 1995, and it goes out to two friends: Sebina of Classic Maiden, and Lolita of Lolita's Classics, both of whom requested some of Mr. Rosa's ornate stylings. All scans are from my own comic. Just click the image for the big picture.
Posts
14 comments:
I couldn't agree more that Don Rosa is one of the great duck artists. I've seen him in person at several shows over the years and always gotten signed prints and original sketches.
I recently read that even though Don's health has declined somewhat, one of the other reasons that he's no longer drawing Disney comics stuff is that he finally discovered just how little compensation he had been receiving based on his output and compared against normal industry pay rates.
"The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" was a real gem when it came out and I picked up every issue. It deserves to stand up there with the great all-time comics stories.
Chuck: I hope one day to meet Mr. Rosa. I believe him to be one of the great stylists to work with the Disney characters. His scripts are always laugh-out-loud funny and his pages are always instantly recognizable. He's one of those artists that just make me shake my head in wonder. Like on that first page when Scrooge is looking down on the town of Kimberley, down at the huge diamond mine/pit. The detail of the town, sure, but how about the tiny people working around the lip of the mine? These tiny figures are all doing stuff. Some are digging; some are bending over or walking, etc. Absolutely amazing work. -- Mykal
Most of the Disney writers and artists have been working for the European publishers for the last 15 years or so (primarily Egmont in Denmark). I'm pretty sure Mr. Rosa has been writing and drawing for them this whole time. We in the USA are actually getting reprints of work done first for that market. I think Boom! Comics was going to publish the Don Rosa Library series now that they have the Disney license, but I'm not 100% sure about that.
Ever since I read my first Rosa story years ago ("Sun of the Son") I still don't know how he managed to get past the art watchdogs. His art has a great underground feeling to it, you almost expect the Freak Brothers to wander through at any moment. It must be a testament to his storytelling ability that they let him draw his own stories!
Doug: Absolutely right. Rosa worked for Egmont and in fact had a terrible falling out with them over the very issue you mention - artistic control (or so I have read). He also has been plagued with terrible eye problems of recent years. I am posting the American reprints here as they appeared in the Gladstone publication.
He was such an anomaly for an artist doing Disney characters - as you say an underground feel. I have often heard him compared to R. Crumb in his ability to draw and pack a panel with astounding detail.
I have always felt his art overshadowed his amazing storytelling abilities, and yes, I have heard the same thing regarding a Don Rosa Library ala the Carl Barks Library from Another Rainbow, but I have heard that feel through? Can't say for sure. I have also heard the The life and times of Scrooge McDuck is going to get a big, hardback treatment. All we can do is hope.
I would love to post some of the great Disney/Egmont artists of recent times - like Noel Van Horn (who is my favorite).
Thanks for your thoughts! -- Mykal
Doug: P.S. - I have also heard scuttlebutt about a Floyd Gottfredson Library multi-volume set which, frankly, I am hoping for even above the proposed Rosa set. -- Mykal
The Floyd Gottfredson volume one was solicited a couple of years ago...I finally cancelled my pre-order at Amazon because it had no publication date. It wouldn't be complete, though...they'll never reprint the earliest strips with bad racial stereotypes. It was supposed to be a "Best of" series, though, which would be perfectly fine by me!
The thing you mention about the HC edition of "Life and Times" may be what I was thinking of when I mentioned Boom! I'm hoping they also follow Egmont's lead and publish creator collections, if only to get my hands on a nice hardback of William van Horn's great Duck 10-pagers! (although collections of Romano Scarpa and Marco Rota in English would be welcome too)
Doug: Ditto with the Amazon cancellation. With regard to the Van Horns, I have always preferred the son over the father, but I seem to be in a minority of one. You mention Rota and (my beloved) Scarpa! I love Romano Scarpa so much, I bought two hardback collections of his work in Italian (The I Maestri Disney Oro series, printed, I believe, in Milan) even though I don't speak a work of the language. Believe it or not, I run the text through the Google translator, panel by panel (the translations are quite choppy, though, but hey, what are you gonna do?). It is slow, but what magnificent work!
You don't know how many times I have cruised eBay, hoping for a Scarpa collection in an English translation in hardback! -- Mykal
Don Rosa lives about 100 miles from where I'm at. Years ago just after Don's first Duck story, I wrote him about maybe doing a signing at my Waldenbooks store I managed since we carried his comic. Here's an excerpt from a piece on my own blog 3 years ago:.
I would write to Don and ask if he would like to do a booksigning at my store.
In a long, rambling but interesting letter rejecting the idea of a signing, Don said that the response to the story had been gratifying. "After wanting to do this for 35 years," he said, "it woulda been kinda nasty if I’d flopped right off."
As he put it, he was still unsure about his "place in the cosmos" and feared "…mothers bringing their children to see the funny man who draws Mickey Mice…" or typical comics fans who preferred "crap like mutants and trolls and turtles" and who were a few years away from realizing that "those beautifully-drawn mutant comics are the ones that are pretty childish."
Years later when he was doing signings all the time I reminded him of this and he remembered me. He said he never would have believed he would have been so successful!
Booksteve: Thanks so much for these great memories of your experiences with the man. It really gives a great deal of insight into Rosa's character. I, along with many others I'm sure, believe that his stature will only grow in years to come - here and in Europe. -- Mykal
Booksteve: Thanks so much for these great memories of your experiences with the man. It really gives a great deal of insight into Rosa's character. I, along with many others I'm sure, believe that his stature will only grow in years to come - here and in Europe. -- Mykal
Oh, wow! You're the best! I can't remember how many times I've read The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck and its sequel, "Companion". I think that Don Rosa is the one to thank (or blame) for my childhood crush on Scrooge McDuck - something everyone I've told about it too have thought to be entirely weird and sick. But please... my other friends were in love with the Hanson brothers!
Lolita: Since you admitted to your crush on McDuck, I guess I'll fess up to having a crush on Magica De Spell and often wish her luck in her pursuit of Scrooge's Number One Dime!
You prove yourself to be a woman of exceptional taste (as usual)! -- Mykal
Many of my favourite Disney stories were done by Don Rosa and I've been collecting his stories since the early 1990s. This is such a great example of his work and I loved re-reading it.
Scrooge McDuck has always been my favourite Disney character too and Don Rosa wrote him with such clarity and understanding of who that character is.
Thank you Mykal as always :)
Sebina: My pleasure, as alwyas! -- Mykal
Post a Comment