Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Don Rosa Interview



Mr. Moon, you will probably really enjoy this interview. I'm about half-way through it (eleven parts takes time). What is really sad is how Disney has completely gutted and destroyed the legacy that Carl Barks created and Don Rosa helped sustain. It saddens me to no end, actually, to realize there will likely never be another run of Donald and Uncle Scrooge comics in America the way they should be seen. Tragic.

The Wikipedia entry on Rosa states he has retired from the Duck stories as of this year. Eye surgery, poor treatment by his European publisher and countless copyright infringements have discouraged him from continuing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Rosa

Sad.

3 comments:

Mr Goodson said...

Poor treatment by European publishers would be tragic considering how he makes the point they are the only fantatical fans left.

So it's 110 minutes worth of interview in the guy's studio?

I think I'll just check the wikipedia.

I bought some of the Gladstone Duck books recently. Loved them

Surly Bird said...

The interview is a tad painful simply because it was a fan interview done for a cable access show. The interviewer is certainly no James Lipton - but he tries. It's kind of charming in that geeky way only comics nerds seem to know how to capture. Still, I was able to listen to it while I was working and it kept me interested. I'm guessing it was taped in the late 90's. I think Carl Barks was still alive at the time.

Tom Moon said...

Thanks for the link Ronnie. I've already watched the first part and hopefully will get around to the other ten in the coming weeks.

Yes, it's too bad that Scrooge and Donald and the nephews will never again return to their glory days, but as long as I have my shelf full of the entire run of Barks work, the legacy will endure for me.

Perhaps it's impossible to sustain that level of quality of work past a certain point working with the same set of characters and themes year after year. Barks himself said he felt his inspiration had completely played itself out after a while.