Best Comic

Heres the artwork to issue no. 18 from October 1966. It featured the story Sleep no more, Sir Thomas and a chapter of Captain Venture titled Trapped, both drawn by Dan Spiegle.

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.