- Considered by some people as the best alive Duck comics author -
( Born 1951 )
* List of the stories
and drawings
he appears in :
- D 96089 : "The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff", from 1996, by Don Rosa (by name only) ; - D 98202 : "The Dutchman's Secret", from 1999, by Don Rosa ; - D 2000-191 : "The Beagle Boys Vs. The Money Bin", from 2001, by Dan Shane and Don Rosa (by name only) ; - FC PM 333D : "Les Inédits de Don Rosa #3" (an illustration for "Dangerous Disguise"), from 1997, by Don Rosa ; - FC PM 333D : "Les Inédits de Don Rosa #18" (an illustration for "The Coin"), from 1999, by Don Rosa ; - Qus/DIEGO2001B : "Carl Barks's 100th Birthday / The Money Bin Blueprints", in an article from Comic-Con International - San Diego 2001 Souvenir Book, by Dan Shane and Don Rosa (by name only). |
* His biography :
Keno Don Rosa
was born on June 29th, 1951, in Louisville, Kentucky, and grew up reading
his older sister Diana's collection of Carl
Barks comics, which made a great impression on him.
In 1969, he started his studies
at the University of Kentucky, where he eventually graduated civil
engineer. During these college years he works on the school paper,
The
Kentucky Kernel, where his work consists of editorial cartoons,
advertisements, graphics, and eventually a daily strip, the Pertwillaby
Papers, which he eventually transitioned into Captain Kentucky
for the Louisville Times.
In 1980, he married to Ann Payne,
a schoolteacher.
In 1987, after he realized, while
seeing a Gladstone comicbook, that drawing Ducks is what he had
been waiting for, that he was born to write and draw Uncle Scrooge comics,
his first Disney story "The Son of the Sun", an old Pertwillaby
adventure transformed into a story about the Disney Ducks, was published
in the USA.
In almost all of his stories, she
hides a D.U.C.K. dedication, whic means "Dedicated to
Uncle
Carl
from Keno"
It became a big hit and Gladstone
asked for more... The next two years, he worked for Gladstone, and also
did the art in a few Dutch stories for the Dutch company Oberon.
In 1990, he started working for Danish Egmont, with "The Master
Landscapist", and stopped working for Gladstone.
In 1995, Don Rosa receives the Eisner
Award - Best Continuing Series for "The Life and Times
of $crooge McDuck", a 12 parts series about Scrooge's youth, and
two years later, the Eisner Award - Best Writer/Artist, Humour.
In 1998, he eventually met his great
idol Carl Barks, at his home in Oregon
In 1999, because of Egmont's lack
of interest for certain of his stories and ideas Don Rosa starts working
also for French Picsou Magazine. "The Coin", a story previously
rejected by Egmont is thus eventually printed in Picsou Magazine.
He uses to draw stories which take
place in the same universe tha Barks' Ducks' one (he consider other authors
as apocryphal), and so he often draws sequels or prequels to Barks' stories,
or stories with tons of references to Barks' stories. The only exception
is "The Three Caballeros Rides Again", in which he reintroduced
two of his non-Barks Disney heroes José "Joe" Carioca and
Panchito
Pistoles.
He is a member of the Disney
Comics Mailing List. One of his good friends are Byron
Erickson, his publisher and advisor, and Dan
Shane.
* His place in the Barks/Rosa stories universe
:
First, in The Vigilante
of Pizen Bluff", we can see his e-mail address, in Scrooge's scrapbook
: donrosa@iglou.com.
In "The Dutchman's Secret",
when Scrooge howls a very bad word, which sounds a little bit like "@
#*%¤!"
(sorry about my awful French accent), we can see Don Rosa and his wife,
sit on a rock nearby the Montains of the Superstition, who hear echos of
the bad word, and tell they understand why some say that these Mountains
are hauted, but that if these are ghosts, they're illmannered.
In "Les Inédits de Don Rosa #3", an illustration
for Barks' "Dangerous Disguise", he drew himself among the crowd of the
arena.
In "Les Inédits de Don Rosa #18", an illustration
for Don Rosa's "The Coin", we can see many coins with Scrooge through his
life on them (when he was a shoe shiner in 1877, when he was a grumpy old
man in 1947, with the Crown of Genghis Khan in
1956, as a Cow-Boy in 1882,...), and on one coin is Don Rosa's head, dated
1999. It seems that the head of Don Rosa replaces his signature on the
drawing.
In an extra panel for "The Richest Duck in the World"
(Lo$#12), on a wall in Scrooge's manor, we can see a trophy in $crooge's
collection which would have been sorta impossible for 1947 : Don's 1995
Eisner
Award. About this, Don Rosa told "I'm somewhat torn about the addition
of this -- there's no denying that it's a cute gag, but it steps out of
the realistic framework that I so carefully create around my stories. But
perhaps my attitude is sorta like that scene in WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT
where Roger was unable to slip his "toon" hand out of some handcuffs until
such time as it was funny to do so. Same with me, I guess; I take my Duck
comics far too seriously and I will never, never, never compromise the
realistic aspects of my $crooge stories, ever, not no time, not no how...
until it's funny to do so. But the Eisner Award is hanging on a wall, right?
And those background pictures hanging on the wall in Donald's home in the
old Barks stories have frequently had impossible things happening in them,
right? So, the precedent was already set! Yeah! "
On "Carl Barks's 100th Birthday
/ The Money Bin Blueprints", and in a poster of the blueprints published
in Sweden, the designer is said to be a "K.D. Rosa", while in the
final version of the blueprints, in the story "The Beagle Boys Vs. The
Money Bin", it has changed into "F.L. Drake", F.L. meaning Frank
Lloyd, obviously a pun for the famous architect Frank
Lloyd Wright. In all of the versions, on the second blueprint is mentionned
"Mosaic tile design to be supplied by Keno Rosa Co. of Louisville",
except in the Polish version, in which it's translated "R. Obol"
("robol" is an unpleasant word for worker). In all of the versions, the
drawer is said to be D. Shane.
Don's e-mail adress
In "The Dutchman's Secret"
![]() In "Les Inédits de Don Rosa" #3 |
![]() |
The Eisner Award...
The blueprints
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