Dear America, Don Rosa Is Awesome



(Don Rosa, pictured, being awesome)

It’s recently come to my attention that BOOM! Studios is putting out two new collections of rereleased material from my all time favorite comic book artist, Don Rosa . For those of you who don’t know, Don Rosa is amazing. I know this and, if the Internet is to be believed, it looks as though most of Europe knows this too. But, for some strange reason, it seems most people in America don’t.

In fact, here is a direct quote from Don’s Wikipedia page:

“Rosa is popular with readers in Europe. He considers himself rather obscure in his native United States. According to him, even his next-door neighbor does not know his profession.”

This man is one of my art heroes! It saddens me so much that he is so unappreciated at home. However, my serious case of disappointment doesn’t end there. Don Rosa’s Wikipedia page is littered with things that absolutely break my heart.

According to Wikipedia, Don Rosa has never received any royalties for the comics and stories that have so greatly enriched my life over the years. In fact, his treatment by many of his publishers is absolutely appalling.

I still have some of the comics he published with Gladstone in the late 80s. Wikipedia mentions that Gladstone refused to give him back his artwork for these issues, thus preventing him from making money by selling the original drawings.

Gladstone paid their artists next to nothing for their work, and selling off original art was the best way for a freelance comic book artist to actually make ends meet. Since Don Rosa couldn’t do that, this policy effectively made it impossible for him to make a living. I must admit, knowing that made flipping through those comics this morning feel slightly bittersweet.

Another publisher, Oberon, apparently never paid him for any of his work at all; not even his promised salary! As a freelancer myself, I know all too well what it feels like to do a job and never get paid.

SPOILER ALERT: it feels terrible.

In 2002, while working for Egmont , Don Rosa went on strike. He cited that he had no control over his work, that his stories were often improperly printed, that his name was frequently used without his permission and that he never received any royalties for his work.

Actually, Wikipedia says “Rosa has never, to this day, received a penny in royalties for a single use of any of his stories worldwide.”. However, below that it does say that he and Egmont reached an agreement at some point. Although, it does not elaborate on the royalty situation.

Upon starting this particular blog entry, I was all set to whole heartedly endorse this new BOOM! collection. But, after reading through all of that on Wikipedia, I decided to do a little digging. After hours of searching through insanely long comic book threads, and even attempting a page translation or two, I have come to an ugly and inescapable conclusion.

From what I gather, it would seem that not only does Don Rosa not get a dime of royalties or compensation for this new collection, it’s barely even legal for BOOM! to be put his name on the book!

Their license does not allow them to put out single creator collections, which is why Don Rosa’s name does not appear anywhere on the cover. This is also why, if you look very closely at the cover art of the first volume, you will notice that the strips behind Donald are actually the work of Al Taliaferro . It seems this was done to give some plausibility to a legal claim that the book is a compilation and not a single artist collection, irrespective of the fact that the inside of the book is entirely composed of Don Rosa’s work.

I also noticed from user posts on Don Rosa’s wall on his Facebook page, that he was politely refusing to sign copies of the BOOM! collection at his last comic book convention appearance. It does not state why he refused, but I have to wonder if it has to do with a certain amount of well justified indignation over what looks like a giant end run around BOOM!’s licensing boundaries.

Hang on. All this is forcing me to pause this blog for a quick moment of NERD RAGE.

*Accidentally chucks an issue of Comics And Stories at the cat, quickly apologizes*

As if everything I just mentioned wasn’t enough to tear my heart in half, Don Rosa has also lost a great deal of his eye sight and can no longer draw the way he used to. I’m going to quote Wikipedia on this, since I might just go to pieces if I try to rewrite it myself:

“Rosa’s eyesight had been very poor since his childhood. In 2006 and 2007 he began having new difficulties which made drawing a very slow and tedious process for him, even more so than normally. In March 2008 Rosa suffered a severe retinal detachment and underwent emergency eye surgery that ultimately proved to be not completely successful. Further surgery in both eyes made drawing even more difficult. On June 2, 2008, during an interview at the Danish Komiks.dk fair, Don stated that he would not do any more Disney comics, citing eye troubles, low pay, and the constant use of his stories in special hardback or album editions by international Disney licensees without any payment of royalties or requests for permission for the use of his name.”

For further elaboration on his eyesight problems, I found this video on YouTube of Don explaining the situation himself:

I kid you not, when I say I cried watching this video. Knowing that my favorite comic book artist may never again bring the characters I know and love so much to life is an extremely sad revelation for me. It’s as if I just watched Batman having to give up crime fighting because he injured his spine in a car accident. It feels entirely wrong and unfair.

Still, all that said, there isn’t much I can do to help him besides try to bring him some of the attention, appreciation and respect he deserves; which brings me back to the title of this article.

It boggles my mind that this man is so unnoticed in his own country. So, I would like to submit a few short and sweet arguments for my fellow Americans (and the world at large) as to what makes Don Rosa so awesome.

Exhibit A:

I don’t think any other Duck artist has achieved the level of super villain badassery seen in the above picture. Flintheart Glomgold is giving off total Indiana Jones vibes here, and I love every second of it.

Exhibit B:

Scrooge says it all; “Brother, that’s action!”

Exhibit C:

Nobody draws Scrooge McDuck fighting a bear quite like Don Rosa.

Exhibit D:

Notice how the dinosaur fossil essentially has a duck bill, much like Scrooge? I love it. Also, you can never go wrong with Scrooge McDuck and a dinosaur, as those are two of my favorite things in the whole world.

Exhibit E:

I love these exaggerated expressions.

Exhibit F:

At heart, Don Rosa is as much a duck fan as he is an artist. His version of Donald Duck ‘s family tree is an example of how Don always goes above and beyond to pay tribute to the series and maintain a certain continuity between the original work of Carl Barks and his own continuations and additions to the duck universe. Also, I adore his sense of humor. The bird covering up Huey, Dewey and Louie ‘s father makes me smile every time I see it.

Exhibit G:

Scrooge as a cowboy. Enough said.

Exhibit H:





Can you tell me a panel like this wouldn’t suck you into the story in front of you? It’s got me!

I encourage comic book fans everywhere to give Don Rosa a shot. If I haven’t sold you on his awesomeness, you can check out (a lot) more of his work HERE. I wouldn’t normally link to a site that gives so much of an artist’s work away for free. But, since it’s clear to me that Don Rosa won’t see the money no matter what I endorse, I am linking to it in the hope that he might gain a few new fans this way.

Still, I would also encourage people to buy the BOOM! Studios collection, as suspect as the details surrounding it may be, if only to keep interest in continuing to publish the duck stories alive. Also, there is something about having a nice print edition of my favorite comics that (for me, anyway) the Internet has not yet managed to fully replace.

Last but not least, I would like to point everyone in the direction of Don Rosa’s official Facebook page. It’s run by a fan, and is not his personal page. But, as far as I can tell, it’s the closest thing out there to a way to contact him.

I myself rather hate Facebook, and generally don’t spend any time on it besides giving occasional updates about my website. But, for Don Rosa, I made an exception. Thus far, Don Rosa’s page is the only thing I’ve ever “liked” on Facebook, and I hope that this article will encourage some of you to like him (on Facebook or, even better, in real life) too.

Keep reading and enjoy, comic book fans!

Speaking of which, I know I’ve been procrastinating a lot lately. But, I promise, I will work a new Arcade Recall soon. Follow me on Twitter to get updates on all things DetRiotGirl as they happen!

You can purchase some of Don Rosa’s work through these widgets I put together from Amazon and eBay:

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