Don Rosa
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Keno Don Hugo Rosa (), known simply as Don Rosa (born June 29, 1951), is an American
comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
writer and illustrator known for his
Disney comics Disney comics are comic books and comic strips featuring characters created by the Walt Disney Company, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge. The first Disney comics were newspaper strips appearing from 1930 on, starting with th ...
stories about
Scrooge McDuck Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 by Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company. Appearing in Disney comics, Scrooge is a Scottish-American anthropomorphic Pekin duck. Like his nephew Donald Duck, he has a yellow-orange bill, l ...
,
Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
, and other characters which
Carl Barks Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McD ...
created for Disney-licensed comic books, first published in America by Dell Comics. Many of his stories are built on characters and locations created by
Carl Barks Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McD ...
; among these was his first Duck story, "
The Son of the Sun "The Son of the Sun" is the first Scrooge McDuck comic by Don Rosa, first published in ''Uncle Scrooge'' #219 in July 1987. It is a well-known comic book story that features Disney's Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and his three nephews. This story ...
" (1987), which was nominated for a Harvey Award in the "Best Story of the Year" category. Rosa created about 90 stories between 1987 and 2006. In 1995, his 12-chapter work ''
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck ''The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck'' (''Lo'') is a serial of 12 comic book stories written and drawn by Don Rosa, lettered by Todd Klein (American editions), first published by the Danish publisher Egmont in the magazine ''Anders And & Co.'' ...
'' won the
Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are List of Eisner Award winners, prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Acad ...
for Best Serialized Story.


Early life

Don Rosa's grandfather, Gioachino Rosa, lived in
Maniago Maniago ( fur, Manià) is a town and ''comune'' located in Friuli Venezia Giulia (north-eastern Italy), in Friuli. It is known principally today for production of steel blades used by producers of knives, scissors, and shears, exported worldwide. ...
, a town at the foot of the
Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
in
Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative region ...
, in the province of
Pordenone Pordenone (; Venetian and fur, Pordenon) is the main ''comune'' of Pordenone province of northeast Italy in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. The name comes from Latin ''Portus Naonis'', meaning 'port on the Noncello (Latin ''Naon'') River'. H ...
. He immigrated to
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...
, the United States, around 1900, established a successful tile and
terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bind ...
company, then returned to Italy to marry and start a family. In 1915 just after the birth of his son Ugo Rosa, Gioachino returned to Kentucky with his wife, two daughters and two sons. Ugo Rosa grew up and was later married in Kentucky. His wife was born to a German-American father and a mother with both Scottish and Irish ancestry. Don Rosa was born Keno Don Hugo Rosa on June 29, 1951 in
Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
. He was named after both his father and grandfather. Gioachino was called "Keno" for short. Don's father was named Ugo Dante Rosa but used the name "Hugo Don" Rosa in America. Rosa was exposed to comics at a very early age, as his only sibling, an 11-year-older sister, Deanna, was a comics hoarder and had a large number of comics, which made it possible for Rosa to discover comics literally from birth as a storytelling medium by just "reading the pictures". Rosa also began drawing comics before being able to write. The characters he would typically draw were a large cast of stick figures which he usually featured in comedy/adventures of a Barksian style, since the Carl Barks' stories were the ones Rosa was most fond of. Rosa stuck to drawing simple stick figures for these stories since these were mere illustrations as a means of getting the story told. The story was the pinnacle to him, not the actual drawings. Rosa kept drawing the stick figure stories until he attended High school at
St. Xavier High School (Louisville) , motto_translation = Let God be our light. , established = , type = Private, college-preparatory school , gender = Male , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic Xaverian Brothers , president = , principal = , streetaddress = 16 ...
, Kentucky. Rosa's favorite comic books while growing up were ''
Uncle Scrooge ''Uncle Scrooge'' (stylized as ''Uncle $crooge'') is a Disney comic book series starring Scrooge McDuck ("the richest duck in the world"), his nephew Donald Duck, and grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and revolving around their adventures in Du ...
'' and ''
Little Lulu ''Little Lulu'' is a comic strip created in 1935 by American author Marjorie Henderson Buell. The character, Lulu Moppet, debuted in ''The Saturday Evening Post'' on February 23, 1935, in a single panel, appearing as a flower girl at a wedding ...
'' comics from
Dell Comics Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1974. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium.Evanier, Mark" ...
, as well as his sister's collection of
MAD magazine Mad, mad, or MAD may refer to: Geography * Mad (village), a village in the Dunajská Streda District of Slovakia * Mád, a village in Hungary * Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, by IATA airport code * Mad River (disambiguation), several ...
s. When Rosa became 12 years old he also discovered and started to enjoy the
Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book '' Action Comics'' #1 ( cover-dated June 1938 and pu ...
titles of
DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. ( doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with the ...
especially from the editor Mort Weisinger's period, drawn mostly by his favorite Superman artists
Curt Swan Douglas Curtis Swan (February 17, 1920 – June 17, 1996) was an American comics artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans call the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 195 ...
and
Kurt Schaffenberger Kurt Schaffenberger (December 15, 1920 – January 24, 2002) was an American comics artist. He was best known for his work on Captain Marvel (DC Comics), Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family during both the Golden Age of comic books, Golden Age an ...
. Shortly after Rosa started to collect Superman comics, he also began to trade in the comics he had inherited from his older sister for old Superman comics. The reason behind this action was that a comic book shop in his living area offered to trade two used old comics for one new, a sound deal for the young Rosa. By the 1970s Rosa's comic trading had ended up with him only having two Barks duck comics issues left from the collection his sister originally passed on to him. One of them being ''
Dell Comics Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1974. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium.Evanier, Mark" ...
'
Four Color ''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', was an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic ...
Comics #386'' (also known as Dell Comics' One shot's) issue titled: ''"Uncle Scrooge in
Only a Poor Old Man "Only a Poor Old Man" is a 32-page Disney comics story written, drawn, and lettered by Carl Barks. It was published in ''Four Color'' #386 (March 1952) as the first issue of ''Uncle Scrooge''. Scrooge McDuck had already made his debut as a suppo ...
"'', which was unknown to him to be the first issue of the new Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge Title. The second issue is his other favorite Barks Comic from his youth, Dell's Donald Duck in "The Golden Helmet". Later when Rosa became a serious collector of all comics of the post-war years, he particularly enjoyed and collected the classic
E.C. Comics Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s ...
of the horror and science fiction genres published in the early 1950s,
Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series ''The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was not ...
's '' The Spirit'', Walt Kelly's '' Pogo'', and virtually all other comics from 1945 and onward. Rosa entered the
University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...
in 1969. He graduated in 1973 with a
Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
degree in
civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...
.


Career

In 1969, while still in college, Rosa won an award as "best political cartoonist in the nation in a college paper". "I'm not really an editorial cartoonist. I'd much rather be doing comedy adventure. But I must have done something right, for at one point ''
The Journal of Higher Education ''The Journal of Higher Education'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering higher education. The journal was established in 1930. It is published by Taylor & Francis. Previously, it was published by Ohio State University Press. Th ...
'' named me one of the five or six best college newspaper cartoonists in the nation." Blum, Geoffrey (1987). ''Portrait of the Artist as a Duck Man'', ''
Uncle Scrooge ''Uncle Scrooge'' (stylized as ''Uncle $crooge'') is a Disney comic book series starring Scrooge McDuck ("the richest duck in the world"), his nephew Donald Duck, and grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and revolving around their adventures in Du ...
'' #219, July, 1987 (editorial to introduce Rosa to the readers, as part of the original publication of Rosa's very first Duck story, "The Son of the Sun").
Rosa's first published comic (besides the spot illustrations in his grade school and high school newspapers) was a comic strip featuring his own character, Lancelot Pertwillaby, titled ''
The Pertwillaby Papers ''The Pertwillaby Papers'' is an adventure comic drawn by Donald Duck artist Don Rosa in the 1970s. The comic is about the adventures of Lancelot "Lance" Pertwillaby and his friends and colleagues around the world. History Rosa started drawing ...
''. He created the strip in 1971 for ''
The Kentucky Kernel The Kentucky Kernel is the student newspaper of the University of Kentucky. The ''Kernel'' is distributed free on and around the University of Kentucky campus. It claims a circulation of 8,000 and readership of more than 30,000. Its sole source ...
'', a college newspaper of the
University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...
, which wanted the strip to focus on political satire. Rosa later switched the strip to comedy-adventure, his favorite style of comics, and drew the story ''Lost in (an alternative section of) the Andes''. (The title is a reference to ''
Lost in the Andes! "Lost in the Andes!" is a Donald Duck story written by Carl Barks and published in Dell Comics' ''Four Color Comics'' #223 in April 1949. Donald and his nephews go to South America to find the mythical chickens that lay square eggs (actually, they ...
'', a Donald Duck story by Carl Barks, first published in April, 1949.) The so-called ''Pertwillaby Papers'' included 127 published episodes by the time Rosa graduated in 1973. Meanwhile, Rosa participated in contributing art and articles to comic collector fanzines. One contribution was ''An Index of Uncle Scrooge Comics''. According to his introduction: "Scrooge being my favorite character in comic history and Barks my favorite pure cartoonist, I'll try not to get carried away too much." After attaining his bachelor's degree, Rosa continued to draw comics purely as a hobby, his only income came from working in the ''Keno Rosa Tile and Terrazzo Company'', a company founded by his paternal grandfather. Rosa authored and illustrated the monthly ''Information Center'' column in the fanzine ''
Rocket's Blast Comicollector ''Rocket's Blast Comicollector'' (''RBCC'') was a comics advertising fanzine published from 1964 to 1983. The result of a merger with a similar publication, ''RBCCs purpose was to bring fans together for the purpose of adding to their comic book co ...
'' from 1974 to 1979. This was a question-and-answer feature dealing with readers' queries on all forms of pop entertainment of which Rosa was a student, including comics, TV and movies. He also revived the ''Pertwillaby Papers'' in this "RBCC" fanzine as a comic book style story rather than a newspaper comic strip from 1976 to 1978. By now having become a locally known comics collector and cartoonist, Rosa accepted an offer from the editor of the local newspaper to create a weekly comic strip. This led to his creation of the comic strip character Captain Kentucky for the Saturday edition of the local newspaper '' Louisville Times''. Captain Kentucky was the superhero alter ego of Lancelot Pertwillaby. The pay was $25/week and not worth the 12+ hours each week's strip entailed, but Rosa did it as part of his hobby. Publication started on October 6, 1979. The comic strip ended on August 15, 1982 after the publication of 150 episodes. After three years with Captain Kentucky, Don decided that it was not worth the effort. He retired from cartooning and did not draw a single line for the next four years. Years later, as his fame grew, his non-Disney work was published by the Norwegian publisher Gazette Bok in 2001, in the two hard cover "Don Rosa Archives" volumes, ''The Pertwillaby Papers'' and '' The Adventures of Captain Kentucky''.


Gladstone

In 1986, Rosa discovered a
Gladstone Comics Gladstone Publishing was an American company that published Disney comics from 1986 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1998. The company had its origins as a subsidiary of Another Rainbow Publishing, a company formed by Bruce Hamilton and Russ Cochran to ...
comic book. This was the first American comic book that contained
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
characters since Western Publishing's discontinuation of their Whitman Comics in the 1970s. Since early childhood Don Rosa had been fascinated by Carl Barks' stories about
Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
and
Scrooge McDuck Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 by Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company. Appearing in Disney comics, Scrooge is a Scottish-American anthropomorphic Pekin duck. Like his nephew Donald Duck, he has a yellow-orange bill, l ...
. He immediately called the editor,
Byron Erickson Byron Erickson (born February 3, 1951, in Tucson, Arizona) is an American editor and writer in the comic book industry. He works at Egmont on Disney comic books, and was formerly Don Rosa's editor. Erickson began working at Another Rainbow Pub ...
, and told him that he was the only American who was born to write and draw one Scrooge McDuck adventure. Erickson agreed to let him send a story, and Don Rosa started drawing his first Duck story, "The Son of the Sun," the very next day. "The Son of the Sun" was a success and Rosa's very first professional comic story was nominated for a Harvey Award "Best Story of the Year". The plot of the story was the same as his earlier story, ''Lost in (an alternative section of) the Andes''. As Don Rosa explained it, he was just "(...) turning that old Pertwillaby Papers adventure back into the story it originally was in my head, starring Scrooge, Donald, the nephews, and Flintheart Glomgold." Rosa created a few more comics for Gladstone until 1989. He then stopped working for them, because the policies of their licensor, Disney, did not allow for the return of original art for a story to its creators. This was unacceptable to Don Rosa, since a part of his income came from selling the originals, and the original art is the property of the freelance artists, unless otherwise agreed upon. Without that extra money, he could not make a living drawing comic books. After making some stories for the Dutch publisher Oberon, the publishers of an American Disney children's magazine called ''
DuckTales ''DuckTales'' is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. The original cartoon series premiered on syndication and on Disney Channel on September 18, 1987 and ran for a total of 100 episodes over four sea ...
'' (based on the animated series of the same name) offered Rosa employment. They even offered him a much higher salary than the one he received at Gladstone. Rosa made just one script (''Back in Time for a Dime''). The publishers never asked him to make more, and due to problems with receiving the payment, he did not care.


Egmont

After working with the ''DuckTales'' magazine, Rosa found out that the Denmark-based International publisher
Egmont Egmont may refer to: * Egmont Group, a media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark * Egmond family (often spelled "Egmont"), an influential Dutch family, lords of the town of Egmond ** Lamoral, Count of Egmont (1522–1568), the bes ...
(at that time called Gutenberghus) was publishing reprints of his stories and wanted more. Rosa joined Egmont in 1990. Two years later, at Rosa's suggestion,
Byron Erickson Byron Erickson (born February 3, 1951, in Tucson, Arizona) is an American editor and writer in the comic book industry. He works at Egmont on Disney comic books, and was formerly Don Rosa's editor. Erickson began working at Another Rainbow Pub ...
, the former editor at Gladstone also went to work for Egmont and has been working there ever since as an editor and later as a freelancer. In 1991 Rosa started creating ''The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck'', a 12 chapter story about his favorite character. The series was a success, and in 1995 he won an Eisner Award for best continuing series. After the end of the original series, Rosa sometimes produced additional "missing" chapters. Some of the extra chapters were turned down by Egmont, because they were not interested in any more episodes. Fortunately, the French magazine '' Picsou'' was eager to publish the stories. From 1999, Rosa started working freelance for Picsou magazine as well. All of these chapters were compiled as ''
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion ''The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion'' is a 2006 trade paperback by Don Rosa published by Gemstone Publishing for The Walt Disney Company. It is a companion to '' The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck'' volume that was made in 2005. ...
''.


On strike

During early summer 2002, Rosa suddenly laid down work. As an artist, he could not live under the conditions Egmont was offering him but, he did not want to give up making Scrooge McDuck comics either. So, his only choice was to go on hiatus and try to come to an agreement with Egmont. His main issues were that he had no control over his works. Rosa had discovered too often that his stories were printed with incorrect pages of art, improper colors, poor lettering, or pixelated computer conversions of the illustrations. Another matter was that his name was used in promotion of these flawed books and collections of stories without his agreement. Rosa has never, nor has any other artist working on Disney-licensed characters, received royalties for the use or multi-national reprinting of any of his stories worldwide. Rosa came to an agreement with Egmont in December of the same year, which gave him more control over the stories and the manner in which they were publicized.


Quitting

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 proved to be only partially successful. Further surgery in both eyes made drawing even more difficult. On June 2, 2008, during an interview at the Danish Komiks.dk fair, Rosa stated that he would not do any more 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. In 2012, Rosa wrote an essay about his retirement for Egmont's 9-volume ''Don Rosa Collection'', which was to be published in Finland, Norway, Germany and Sweden. Rosa says that Egmont agreed to publish the essay, but Disney refused to allow them to print it under their license. Rosa arranged with Egmont to post the essay on his own website and publish a link to the essay in the collection. The essay, posted at
career-end.donrosa.de
', cites the above reasons, with special emphasis on the "Disney comics system" for paying writers and artists a flat per-page rate, and then allowing publishers around the world to print the stories without payment to the creators. Rosa is more popular with readers in Europe than in his native United States. According to him, even his next-door neighbors do not know his profession.


Personal life

In 1980, Rosa married Ann Payne. Payne is a retired social studies middle school teacher.


Character

Don Rosa describes himself as an introvert due to being socially isolated as a child. Also, he thinks of himself as a
workaholic A workaholic is a person who works compulsively. A workaholic experiences an inability to limit the amount of time they spend on work despite negative consequences such as damage to their relationships or health. There is no generally accepted ...
. Rosa suffered from depression during the years before he quit. He believes that it was caused by working hard while taking little time for leisure, a result of his self-imposed work regimen due to his enthusiasm for Barks' characters.


Hobbies

Rosa is an avid collector of many things, including comic books, ''
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corporat ...
'', ''
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...
'', and movie magazines, fanzines, books, White Castle memorabilia, pinball machines and movies and more. Rosa also grows exotic chili plants and tends nearly 30 acres of a private nature preserve with wildflower fields and numerous forest trails. That and taking semi-annual European signing tours to visit his fellow BarksDucks fans, takes up all of his time. He is also working to complete his collections of All American comic books published between 1945 and 1970.


Work

In Europe, Rosa is recognized as one of the best Disney comics creators. Carl Barks and Rosa are among the few artists who have their name written on the covers of Disney magazines when their stories are published. Rosa enjoys including subtle references to his movies and comic as well as his own previous work. He normally uses about twelve panels per page, instead of the more common eight. Rosa has an especially large following in Finland, and in 1999, he created a special 32-page adventure featuring Scrooge McDuck for his Finnish fans called; ''Sammon Salaisuus'' (translates to ''The secret of the
Sampo In Finnish mythology, the ''Sampo'' () is a magical device or object described in many different ways that was constructed by the blacksmith Ilmarinen and that brought riches and good fortune to its holder, akin to the horn of plenty (cornucopi ...
'', but it is officially named ''
The Quest for Kalevala "The Quest for Kalevala" is a 1999 Uncle Scrooge comic book story written and drawn by Don Rosa. The story was first published in the Danish '' Anders And & Co.'' #1999-48; the first American publication was in ''Uncle Scrooge'' #334, in October 20 ...
'' in English), based on the Finnish national epic, the
Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and ...
. The publication of this story created a national sensation in Finland where Donald Duck and the Kalevala are important aspects of culture. It was published in many other countries as well. The cover for the comic book was a spoof of a famous painting by
Akseli Gallen-Kallela Akseli Gallen-Kallela (26 April 1865 – 7 March 1931) was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the ''Kalevala'', the Finnish national epic. His work is considered a very important aspect of the Finnish national ident ...
. The latest work that Rosa has worked on is a cover for the album ''
Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge ''Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge'' is the first solo album by Finnish songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, best known for his work in the symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was based on cartoonist Don Rosa's ''The Life an ...
'' by Tuomas Holopainen from
Nightwish Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee. The band was formed in 1996 by lead songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former lead singer Tarja Turunen. The band soon picked up drummer Jukka N ...
who is a fan of Rosa's comics.


Drawing style

With a Bachelor of Arts degree in civil engineering as his only real drawing education, Rosa has some unusual drawing methods, as he writes: "I suspect ''nothing'' I do is done the way anyone else does it." Because of being self-taught in making comics, Rosa relies mostly on the skills he learned in engineering school, which means using
technical pen A technical pen is a specialized instrument used by an engineer, architect, or drafter to make lines of constant width for architectural, engineering, or technical drawings. " Rapidograph" is a trademarked name for one type of technical pen. T ...
s and templates extensively. He applies templates and other engineering tools to draw what other artists draw freehand. He usually drew just under a page per day, but that depended on the amount of detail he puts in the picture. Rosa's drawing style is considered much more detailed and "dirtier" than that of most Disney artists, living or dead, and often likened to that of
underground artists Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...
, and he is frequently compared to Robert Crumb. When Rosa was first told of this similarity, he said that he "drew that bad" long before he discovered underground comics during college. He went on to explain these similarities to underground artists with a similar background of making comics as a hobby: :"I think that both my style and that of Robert Crumb are similar only because we both grew up making comics for our personal enjoyment, without ever taking drawing seriously, and without ever trying to attain a style that would please the average comics publisher. We drew comics for fun!"


Carl Barks

"I want to take everything Barks wrote and forge it into a workable timeline. My original dream was to become the new Carl Barks. I wanted to write, draw, and letter all my own stories. People tell me that my pencils look just like Barks, but my inks are pure Rosa, and I can't letter properly! So I'll have to settle for being Don Rosa." – Don Rosa in 1987
"Don Rosa has often been called the heir of Carl Barks, especially for the way in which he has carried on the Ducks' Family Saga. But I don't think so: in my opinion Don Rosa ..is an author who has used Barks' characters to make stories that are completely new, 'Donrosian' rather than 'Barksian', just like Barks can't be considered the heir of Al Taliaferro only because he has worked on the Ducks after him." – Carlo Chendi, Italian Disney comics writer
Rosa's idol when it comes to comics is Carl Barks. Rosa builds almost all his stories on characters and locations that Barks invented. Many of Rosa's stories contain references to some fact pointed out in a Barks story. At the request of publishers in response to reader demands, Rosa has even created sequels of old Barks stories. For example, his '' Return to Plain Awful'' is a sequel to ''
Lost in the Andes! "Lost in the Andes!" is a Donald Duck story written by Carl Barks and published in Dell Comics' ''Four Color Comics'' #223 in April 1949. Donald and his nephews go to South America to find the mythical chickens that lay square eggs (actually, they ...
'', where the Ducks return to the same hidden country. To add more to his admiration and consistency to Barks and Barks' stories, Rosa makes all his ducks' stories set in the 1950s. This is because Barks writes most of the stories about Scrooge, Donald and all people of Duckburg in the 1950s (it also conveniently resolves potential continuity problems, such as Scrooge's age). As explained in text pages in the ''Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck'' and its companion volume, Rosa does intense research of time periods to ensure not only that he gets the physical details right, but also to ensure that all characters could have been present. Barks either created most of the characters used by Rosa or is credited for greatly developing their personalities. Rosa thus feels obliged to make his stories factually consistent. He has spent a lot of time in making lists of facts and anecdotes pointed out in different stories by his mentor. Especially ''The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck'' was based mostly on the earlier works of Barks. Rosa admitted however that a scene of the first chapter was inspired by a story by
Tony Strobl Anthony Joseph Strobl ( ; May 12, 1915 – December 29, 1991) was an American comics artist and animator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and attended Cleveland School of Art from 1933–37, with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who actually g ...
. As most of the characters Rosa uses were created by Barks, and because Rosa considers Scrooge rather than Donald to be the main character of the Duck universe, he does not regard himself as a pure Disney artist, nor the characters really as Disney's. "Rosa prefers to say that the characters he uses are Barks's, Barks having reshaped Donald Duck's personality and creating everything else we know of Duckburg while working as a freelancer in 1942–1967 for an independent licensed publisher (Dell/Western Comics). Barks even claimed to have also created
Huey, Dewey and Louie Huey, Dewey, and Louie are triplet cartoon characters created by storyboard artist ( screenwriter) Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company from an idea proposed by cartoonist Al Taliaferro and are the nephews of Donald Duck and the grand-nephe ...
while working as a writer on Donald Duck animated cartoons in 1937." Because of his idolization of Barks, he repeatedly discourages his fans to use an absolutist way of saying his clearly different drawing style would be better than Barks's, and he found that notion confirmed when Barks himself spoke about Rosa's style in a critical tone though it is uncertain whether those comments were Barks's or those of his temporary "business managers" who filtered his communications.
"I usually don't like my stories. I mean I try really hard, but I know I don't draw that well. I know people like it because it's got lots of extra details, but art directors know good artwork, and they know mine is not good artwork. Now, people always say, 'You're being too modest, you're being too modest', and I say, 'What?' They just have to ask me the right question. I know it's not good artwork and I don't know if it's well-drawn, but I know it's entertaining." – Don Rosa, Torino Comics Festival, April 2011
"Don Rosa has a style that is a little bit different from the Disney style. I know that there is a great deal of people that like that style, which is extremely detailed. So, there is room in the business for artists like Don Rosa and for others like Van Horn. They have a different style. But if they have a good story and tell it properly, then people are going to like it." – Carl Barks, interview given at Disneyland Paris, July 7, 1994
Beside Rosa's constant effort to remain faithful to the universe Barks created, there is also a number of notable differences between the two artists. The most obvious of these is Rosa's much more detailed drawing style, often with many background gags, which has been credited as being a result of Rosa's love of the
Will Elder William Elder (born Wolf William Eisenberg; September 22, 1921 – May 15, 2008) was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art but is best known for a frantically funny cartoon style that helped ...
stories of ''MAD'' comics and magazines. While Barks himself discouraged the use of extreme grimacing and gesturing in any other panel for comical or dramatic effect, Rosa's stories are rich with exaggerated facial expressions and physical slapstick. Barks had over 600 Duck stories to his name while Rosa only created 85 until his eye trouble set in, but whereas Barks made many short one and two-pagers centred around a subtle, compact gag, Rosa's oeuvre consists almost exclusively of long adventure stories. Andrea "Bramo" Bramini identifies the following four differences between Barks's and Rosa's way of storytelling: * Rosa follows a very strict continuity, while Barks paid very little attention to continuity between stories. * Rosa's characterization of Scrooge is that of a much more sentimental person for often relishing his memories of past adventures. * Barks situated his stories in the present day of when he was creating them and had a penchant for satire. Rosa strictly writes stories taking place in an era at least half a century prior to their creation, and mostly abstains from any political or social commentary. * With his engineering degree, Rosa often goes to great lengths to give scientifically plausible explanations within his stories, whereas Barks never cared much for any detailed scientific rationalizations to his stories.


D.U.C.K.

Most of Rosa's stories have the letters D.U.C.K. hidden within either the first panel or, if Rosa has created the cover art, within the cover art itself. D.U.C.K. is an acronym for "Dedicated to Unca Carl from Keno" (Carl being Carl Barks and Keno being Rosa's given first name). Due to Disney's refusal to allow artists to sign their work, early Rosa dedications to Barks were deleted as they seemed to be a form of a signature. Later Rosa began hiding the dedication acronym from his editors in various and unlikely places within his drawings. Rosa has drawn covers for reprints of Carl Barks stories and has included his D.U.C.K. dedication within them as well.


Mickeys

Another curiosity is his
Hidden Mickey A Hidden Mickey is a representation of Mickey Mouse that has been inserted subtly into the design of a ride, attraction, or other location in a Disney theme park, Disney properties, animated film, feature-length movie, TV series, or other Disney ...
s. Rosa is only interested in creating stories featuring the Duck family, but he often hides small
Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
heads or figures in the pictures, sometimes in a humiliating or unwanted situation. An example of this is in the story '' The Terror of the Transvaal'' where a flat Mickey can be seen under an elephant's foot. This is mostly a gag done for the fun of it. Rosa has admitted to neither liking nor disliking Mickey Mouse, but being indifferent to him. In the story '' Attack of the Hideous Space-Varmints'', the asteroid with Uncle Scrooge's money bin on it crashes into the Moon along with two missiles, creating a large Mickey Mouse head on the surface. When
Huey, Dewey and Louie Huey, Dewey, and Louie are triplet cartoon characters created by storyboard artist ( screenwriter) Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company from an idea proposed by cartoonist Al Taliaferro and are the nephews of Donald Duck and the grand-nephe ...
tell Donald that the missiles hit the "dark" (far) side of the Moon, Donald is thankful no one is going to see it  — "For a minute there, I thought we were going to have some legal problems." In the second Rosa story featuring The Three Caballeros, Donald Duck is shocked by the sight of a
capybara The capybaraAlso called capivara (in Brazil), capiguara (in Bolivia), chigüire, chigüiro, or fercho (in Colombia and Venezuela), carpincho (in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) and ronsoco (in Peru). or greater capybara (''Hydrochoerus hydro ...
standing on its hind legs, with shrubs, leaves and fruit in front of its body, coincidentally making it look like Mickey Mouse.
José Carioca José "Zé" Carioca (; ) is a cartoon anthropomorphic parrot created by the Brazilian cartoonist José Carlos de Brito (J. Carlos) and shown to Walt Disney in his trip to Rio de Janeiro in 1941. The Walt Disney Company then incorporated the id ...
and Panchito Pistoles, never having seen Mickey Mouse, ask Donald what is wrong, but Donald replies he is just tired. Later in the same story, the Caballeros free several animals from a poacher. One panel shows the animals fleeing; Mickey can be seen among them. In ''
The Quest for Kalevala "The Quest for Kalevala" is a 1999 Uncle Scrooge comic book story written and drawn by Don Rosa. The story was first published in the Danish '' Anders And & Co.'' #1999-48; the first American publication was in ''Uncle Scrooge'' #334, in October 20 ...
'' this running gag can be seen on the original,
Akseli Gallen-Kallela Akseli Gallen-Kallela (26 April 1865 – 7 March 1931) was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the ''Kalevala'', the Finnish national epic. His work is considered a very important aspect of the Finnish national ident ...
-inspired cover art. In the original work,
Louhi Louhi () is a wicked queen of the land known as Pohjola in Finnish mythology and a villain of the ''Kalevala''. As many mythological creatures and objects are easily conflated and separated in Finnish mythology, Louhi is probably an alter-eg ...
is depicted as bare-chested, but the Disneyfied version has been drawn a top, of fabric patterned with Mickey Mouse heads.


Awards

His work has won Rosa a good deal of recognition in the industry, including nominations for the Comics' Buyer's Guide Award for Favorite Writer in 1997, 1998, and 1999. Heidi MacDonald of
Comics Buyer's Guide ''Comics Buyer's Guide'' (''CBG''; ), established in 1971, was the longest-running English-language periodical reporting on the American comic book industry. It awarded its annual Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards from 1983 to circa 2010. The publ ...
also mentioned Rosa's 1994 story '' Guardians of the Lost Library'' as ''"possibly the greatest comic book story of all time"''. In 1995, Rosa was awarded the Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story for ''The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck''. In 1997 he won an Eisner for Best Artist/Writer – Humor Category. Rosa's story '' The Black Knight GLORPS Again!'' was nominated for the 2007 Eisner Award in the category Best Short Story. While '' The Prisoner of White Agony Creek'', Rosa's latest Duck story to-date, was published in 2006, he was also nominated for the 2007 Harvey Awards in five categories (more than any other creator was that year) for his Uncle Scrooge comics: "Best Writer", "Best Artist", "Best Cartoonist", "Best Cover Artist", and "Special Award for Humor in Comics." In 2013 Rosa received the
Bill Finger Award The Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing is an American award for excellence in comic book writing. The awards committee, chaired by Mark Evanier, is charged each year with selecting two recipients, one living and one deceased. ...
which recognizes excellence in comic book writing for writers who have not received their rightful reward and/or recognition. International "Best Cartoonist of the Year" awards include: *Germany: International Grand Prize 2005 (Frankfurt Book Fair). *Denmark: ORLA Award (DR Television Network). *Sweden: **Svenska Serieakademins (Swedish Comics Academy). **Seriefrämjandets Unghunden (Swedish Comics Association). *Norway: Sproing Award (Norsk Tegneserieforum / Norwegian Comics Forum). *Italy: **Yambo Award ( Lucca Comics Festival). **Premio U Giancu Award (U Giancu & Rapallo Comics Festival). *Spain: Haxtur Award (Gijon Comics Festival).


Biographies

In 1997 the Italian publishing house Editrice ComicArt published a lavish volume about Rosa's biography and work related to the Disney characters. It was titled ''Don Rosa e il Rinascimento Disneyano'' ("Don Rosa and the Disneyean Renaissance") and written by famous Disney and Rosa scholars, Alberto Becattini, Leonardo Gori and Francesco Stajano. This work not only discusses all of Rosa's creative life up to 1997, but it also gives a comprehensive biography, lists up to that date his Disney work and presents an extensive interview with Rosa. In 2009, Danish director Sebastian S. Cordes shot a 75-minute documentary called ''The Life and Times of Don Rosa'', consisting of exclusive interviews with Rosa himself on his farm near Louisville, Kentucky. According to the project's
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
group, the English-language DVD was released in Denmark on April 16, 2011. In 2011, Italian Disney fan forum ''papersera.net'' published ''Don Rosa: A Little Something Special'' (edited by Italian Rosa fan Paolo Castagno), a large folio format, bilingual (Italian and English) book about Rosa's life and work, containing interviews with Rosa and articles by many Italian and European Disney artists, Disney scholars, and established art critics commenting on Rosa's work and career, also including many exclusive, rare Rosa drawings and illustrations. The book was originally made as a gift by ''papersera.net'' for Rosa himself upon the occasion of Rosa's April 2011 visit to
Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, Italy. In 2017 the book, ''I Still Get Chills!'', featuring text by German journalist Alex Jakubowski and photographs by Lois Lammerhuber, was published by Edition Lammerhuber in honour of Rosa's 66th birthday and the 70th anniversary of the first appearance of Scrooge McDuck. A feature documentary about Don Rosa and Scrooge McDuck by French director Morgann Gicquel titled ''The Scrooge Mystery'' was released in December 2017 and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2018.


Comic collections


United States

*''The Don Rosa Classics —
The Pertwillaby Papers ''The Pertwillaby Papers'' is an adventure comic drawn by Donald Duck artist Don Rosa in the 1970s. The comic is about the adventures of Lancelot "Lance" Pertwillaby and his friends and colleagues around the world. History Rosa started drawing ...
'' *''The Don Rosa Classics — The Adventures of Captain Kentucky'' *''The Don Rosa Classics — The Early (So-Called) Art of Don Rosa'' *''The Don Rosa Library of Uncle Scrooge Adventures in Color'' Vols. 1–8 * ''
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck ''The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck'' (''Lo'') is a serial of 12 comic book stories written and drawn by Don Rosa, lettered by Todd Klein (American editions), first published by the Danish publisher Egmont in the magazine ''Anders And & Co.'' ...
'' * ''
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion ''The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion'' is a 2006 trade paperback by Don Rosa published by Gemstone Publishing for The Walt Disney Company. It is a companion to '' The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck'' volume that was made in 2005. ...
'' * '' The Barks/Rosa Collection'' Vols. 1–3 * ''Walt Disney Treasury: Donald Duck'' Vols. 1–2 * '' Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Don Rosa Library'' Vols. 1–10 * ''Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: Artist's Edition'' Vols. 1–2 * ''The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck'' Vols. 1–2


Other countries

Apart from the ''Don Rosa Collection'' in Germany and ''Don Rosas Samlade/Samlede Verk'' and ''Don Rosan kootut'' in the Nordic nations, the following collections only contain Rosa's work for Disney.


See also

* List of Disney comics by Don Rosa * Donaldism *
Donald Duck universe The Donald Duck universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting of stories involving Disney cartoon character Donald Duck, as well as Daisy Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Scrooge McDuck, and many other characters. Life in the Do ...
*
Clan McDuck File:Glasgow 1877 by Don Rosa.jpg, 329px, ''Glasgow 1877'', Clan McDuck portrait by Don Rosa; left to right: Jake, Matilda, Downy, Fergus, Hortense, Scrooge (age 10), and Angus; wall portraits: Malcolm, Eider, Quackly, Roast, and Hugh (Clicking o ...
*
List of people from the Louisville metropolitan area This is a list of people from the Louisville metropolitan area which consists of the Kentucky county of Jefferson and the Indiana counties of Clark and Floyd in the United States. Included are notable people who were either born or raised ther ...


References


External links

*
Don Rosa
at the
Comiclopedia Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum, ), though since 2007, his son Boris Kousemaker is the current owner. From 1968 to 2015, it was located ...

DuckMania
German fansite
Don-McDuck
German fansite
Duckhunt
German fansite

Finnish fansite


Life and Times of Don Rosa
Documentary (2010)
The Scrooge Mystery
Documentary (2018)
Don Rosa's official Facebook page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosa, Don 1951 births Living people 20th-century American artists 21st-century American artists 20th-century American writers 21st-century American writers American comics artists American comics writers American people of German descent American people of Irish descent American people of Italian descent American people of Scottish descent Artists from Louisville, Kentucky Writers from Louisville, Kentucky University of Kentucky alumni Disney comics writers Disney comics artists Eisner Award winners for Best Writer/Artist Bill Finger Award winners