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Friday, January 31, 2014

Don Rosa quits Disney comics and decides to tell us why

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.

Terrytoons Mighty Mouse background Artwork

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.

Introduced as Super Mouse by Paul Terrys animation studios in 1942, there were exactly seven animated theatrical shorts before they decided to change the main character to Mighty Mouse, with the short The Wreck of the Hesperus in 1944. Between 1942 and 1961 eighty theatrical shorts were produced by Terrys studio, which was sold to CBS in 1955, making it possible for them to air the animated shorts on Television. In 1945 the short Gypsy Life was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to MGMs Tom & Jerry in Quiet Please! Production numbers for every short are mentioned in the top left corner of the artwork. The corresponding scene numbers for every background are mentioned in top right corners.

From Eliza on the Ice, June 16, 1944. Story by John Foster and directed by Connie Rasinski:

From The Green Line, July 7, 1944:

From Mighty Mouse Meets Jekyll And Hyde Cat, April 28, 1944:

Two backgrounds from At the Circus, November 17, 1944:

Two backgrounds from Mighty Mouse and the Pirates, January 12, 1945:

Three backgrounds from The Port of Missing Mice, Februari 2, 1945:

From The Wicked Wolf, March 8 1946:

Four backgrounds from The Jailbreak, September 20, 1946. In this short directed by Eddie Donnelly, Bad Bill Bunion escapes from Alcatraz and Mighty Mouse is the only one who can capture him again:

Three backgrounds from The Crackpot King, November 15, 1946:

From Aladdins Lamp, March 28, 1947:

From The First Snow, October 10, 1947:

Three backgrounds from A Fight to the Finish, November 14, 1947:

Below, two backgrounds from Swiss Cheese Family Robinson, released on December 19. 1947. In this short, directed by Mannie Davis, a family of mice float at sea on a raft of cheese that grows smaller each day as they eat it to survive. Mighty Mouse saves them after they land on a remote island that appears to be inhabited by cats who want to enjoy them as a feast. The second background is from the final scenes, when the island has become a successful tourist spot. It included a ride-along with rotating ponies, moving roller coaster cars and a moving ferris wheel (you can see the base on the background right).

From The Witchs Cat, July 15, 1948:

Suske Wiske 315

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!)