Dia Dia Don Rosa is not a ripoff of Carl Barks.  He has done quite a few original stories.  He has written The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. That is something no other Disney Comics Artist would be allowed to  do.  He gave the stories a good sense of continuity  Yeah He is a fan of Carl Barks but he did some stories that are not Barks ripoffs.  He wrote two stories with The Three Caballeros. Carl Barks never did that.  I think Don Rosa had a great respect for Carl Barks.

I'm pretty sure that Mr. Rosa is a member of this forum.

If I'm reading this correctly, Dia-Dia, the biggest bone you have to pick with Don Rosa seems to be that he simply doesn't like to draw Mickey Mouse. It's his personal preference as a creator, and he's entitled to his opinion.

Now, I'm probably going to come under fire here, but... I don't disagree with him.

Don't misunderstand me, there have been some *excellent* comic stories told with Mickey Mouse over the years. But honestly, my feeling is that many of those stories could have substituted any character for Mickey Mouse without hurting the story much at all. Scarpa was a phenomenal storyteller, and still would have been had he used Mickey Mouse or not. He just wouldn't have been as famous.

Let me elaborate a bit...

As a character, Mickey Mouse is like... chicken. Chicken by itself is pretty bland, but you can come up with some truly *wonderful* recipes if you use the right ingredients to bring out its flavor.

Mickey Mouse stories generally aren't character driven... they're driven by events *happening to* an otherwise generic everyman character. Or Mickey is simply plopped into a genre, like a detective comic, sci-fi story, fantasy story, etc. etc. Honestly, you can often take the Mouse out of the story, replace him with some other character, and the story would probably be just as effective. (Blasphemy, right?)

Why? I'm only guessin' here, but I'm sure the Walt Disney Co. wouldn't been too keen on Mickey reverting to his roots... thumbing his nose at "the man" and being a bit of an ornery troublemaker. They've got a corporate image to maintain, and Mickey's (happy, non-threatening) face is the face everyone associates with that image.

Now, the ducks? Just like real duck, they've got a stronger flavor all their own.

Duck stories are often *character* driven. In fact, many a story has been told centered on Donald's or Scrooge's foibles -- usually to comedic (or catastrophic) effect!

As such, I can see the allure of picking Ducks over Mice from a creator's point of view. They're just more fully realized *characters.*

Just my opinion. And this certainly isn't meant to belittle the excellent Mickey stories that have been told over the years. I'm just of the opinion that Mickey happened to be along for the ride in most of those stories, as opposed to driving the stories along with his own personality.

I'm sorry Lars I wasn't trying to be negative I was just stating the facts.

Lars Jensen wrote:

Kneon, you're dead wrong. Mickey does have a personality and many stories have been character-driven. Just look at David Gerstein's stories, to pick one out of many examples. Are there stories where events drive the story and Mickey is just along for the ride? Yes, but then I could say the same about many Donald stories.

I said most, not all. And I also said it was just my *opinion* based on the majority of Mickey stories I've read. I will completely agree, though, that the same *can* be true of many Donald stories -- I just haven't seen it as often.

EDIT: I might add that it's not necessarily the Mickey writers' fault, as I get the feeling that Disney is probably much more protective of the Mouse than the Ducks. Who knows?

Personally, I think Mickey needs to be knocked off his pedestal once in awhile and dragged through the muck a little. Like the Ducks.

No one is required to like anything that rubs them the wrong way--de gustibus and all that--but the idea that Rosa (or anyone) has some sort of moral obligation to draw stories that he doesn't want to draw is just bizarre ("talibanesque?" Seriously?).  The ducks resonate with Rosa in a way that the mice don't, and there's is absolutely nothing what's wrong with that.  The man clearly got into Disney comics out of passion (it sure wasn't for money), so naturally he wasn't going to write about characters he wasn't passionate about.  QED.  Just as no one can force YOU to like Rosa's work, no one can force ROSA to like mouse stories.  Fair's fair.

And in any case, if you hold his work in such disdain, I fail to understand why you would even CARE if he branched out.

I have seen/heard in interviews with both Barks and Rosa stating that it is not the art that drives them, but the stories they write. I like it all.... appreciate it for what it's worth. If you don't like it, don't read it again.

Morequack wrote:

I wish we were all as "smug, self-conscious" and "overestimated" as Don Rosa.

Don, if you're reading this, I hope you pay no attention to your detractors—and they know who they are. By now it's self-evident that it's just class envy.

I don't get the comment "they know who they are". You're referring to Dia-Dia, right? I should hope he/she knows he/she is critical of Don Rosa. Just look at the first post in this thread. Not exactly subtle.

Mcduck_Enterprises wrote:

Perhaps, Morequack is referencing that there are more detractors than just this thread starter here - and they know who they are.

Hmmm... Maybe. But who?! Sigvald, Roger, Kneon, GeoX and you have to varying degrees defended Don, while Cacou, Charlie Brown and I have stayed out of it. I can't really see who the detractors would be in this thread (apart from Dia-Dia, of course). Perhaps Morequack is referring to another message board.

I suppose whom I believe to be Don-detractors isn't worth a lick; and is not an issue for which I really have the energy to engage in a debate—again. Sometimes the line is blurred. And so I took the easy road with my loaded observation of 'they know who they are.' But clearly, the instigator of the discussion is an 'evil-doer.' So, as an addendum to my original response, and as far as the players of this forum are concerned, my envy accusation applies to him alone.

I'm Frank and I'm a Rosa-detractor. And I know who I am.

sirredknee wrote:

I'm Frank and I'm a Rosa-detractor. And I know who I am.

That makes two German detractors who know themselves well enough (unless they're both one and the same). For anyone who's counting...