Best Comic

Comic artist Don Rosa has built quite a following in the international comics scene. For most of his life he has been creating stories for Disney, and his most famous stories are about Uncle Scrooge. His work was published all over our little blue planet. Now however Don quits comics and explains why.

Recently Egmont published the Don Rosa Collection in Sweden, Finland and Norway. For the nine volume series Don had to write several autobiographical texts, which he wasn t happy about doing, as he wanted to be sincere about his experiences. Although painfull, Egmont decided to go ahead and publish his words as part of the last volume. At the very last moment however, the Disney Company stepped in and refused to allow his personal experiences to appear publicly.

Now Don Rosa tells us his story, honestly and names six reasons why he quits comics...and he does so personally through the internet on a private website:

Here are some quotes of his personal story:

"...How many people know how the “Disney system” of comics works? When I describe this to some fans when asked about it, they often think I’m kidding them or lying. Or they are outraged. But it’s an unfortunate fact that there have never been, and I ultimately realized there never will be, any royalties paid to the people who write or draw or otherwise create all the Disney comics you’ve ever read."

 "... My depression was a direct result of reasons #1 & 2, as you will see. Depression is a seriously debilitating problem, and hard to understand. I’ve learned that either you don’t know that you are gradually falling victim to it, or you are in subconscious denial that you are. I would never have imagined that I had a mental problem without knowing it."

"I thank Carl Barks for creating the comics that I loved so much that I serendipitously fell into the blessed work of paying homage to those great comics for over 20 years. And I thank you for receiving that work so graciously and making me feel very special… until they broke my spirit. But if you’ll excuse me… I think I’ll now go back to being only a fan."

To read Dons entire story please Check Here.

I think its sad that such an enthusiastic and eager artist feels forced to quite the love of his life. Sure, he could persevere, but that would probably cost him his health. Its a shame to see people care more and more for making Millions of Dollars and less about developing a healthy climate for artists to flourish and pass their skills on to new, hopeful generations. This is not exclusive to the comics industry by the way, but also felt in other areas of the entertainment industry (movies, videogames, animation, VFX).

Don, I wish you all the best and hope that someday we will hear and see more great stories of you yet again, in any form.

Today Ill post a series of original background artworks created by the New York based Terrytoon studios for their Mighty Mouse theatrical animated shorts between 1942 and 1961. Paul Terrys studio also created animated shorts featuring Heckle and Jeckle and Gandy Goose. Ill do a seperate post on those next. Make sure to click any image to see it in full view.

Following up on my last post here in which I showed you the cover and some artwork of the new Suske & Wiske comic book, to be released on September 21 this year (volume 314: Het Lijdende Leiden) the team at Vandersteen Studio has released the cover artwork for the next volume 315, which will be published on November 9th and is called De Bananenzangers (which more or less translates as The Bananasingers....okay thats just weird!)

The plot involves an expedition through the African jungle and a search for a special tree that grows blue Bananas, needed to sing a magical chant that will cure the African king from a neverending hiccup! The story hasnt been published in the Belgium newspapers yet, as theyre still running the previous story about the city of Leiden.

Check the cover for 315 beneath, along with a small report by Stefan Tetelepta of  Het Leidsch Dagblad (The Leidsch Newspaper) featuring Thijs Hemmes of the October 3rd organisation on their cooperation with the Vandersteen studio and the origination of volume 314: Het Leidende Lijden (video is in Dutch only, sorry!)

I wonder how many kids fell to their deaths after reading this comic and replying to the ad below (from Romantic Hearts issue 2, September 1953).

Some interesting original artwork from Hergé and his studio was recently presented among a collection currently sold through Piasa in France. Interested collectors may enter their bid online on December 1st. If not, well, at least enjoy a look at all this marvelous, classic artwork.

Below are three unpublished original drawings by Hergé which he created while designing Professor Calculus shark shaped submersible, that would help Tintin in his search for Red Rackhams treasure in the comic book by the same title. The story, published in Le Soir between February and September 1943 first introduced the professor in the series and continued the story that began in The Secret of The Unicorn in 1943. Estimated at € 20.000 Euro.





Here is the original coloring for pages 33 and 34 of  Tintin en Amérique or Tintin in America, the third comic book in the series, first published in Black & white in 1932 after Le Petite Vingtieme had serialised the story between September 1931 and October 1932. The story was partially redrawn and coloured in 1945 and published in color for the first time a year later.