OCT.16 Germany: Sammlerecke Comics und Romane, Esslingen
OCT.18 Germany: Neunte Kunst, Osnabrück
OCT.19 Germany: Comic Combo, Leipzig
OCT.21 Germany: Comicbörse, Berlin
OCT.23 Finland: Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, Turku
OCT.24 Finland: Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, Oulu
OCT.25 Finland: Helsinki Book Fair (Suomalainen kirjakauppa booth), Helsinki
OCT.26 Finland: Akateeminen Kirjakauppa, Tampere
OCT.27 Finland: Suomalainen kirjakauppa Kamppi, Helsinki
OCT.28 Finland: Helsinki Book Fair (Suomalainen kirjakauppa booth), Helsinki
OCT.31 Norway: Outland, Trondheim
NOV.1 Norway: Outland, Bergen
NOV.2 Norway: Outland, Stavanger
NOV.3 Norway: Outland, Oslo
NOV.5 Norway: Outland, Oslo
In addition, there was a private signing event in Oslo, Norway October 29 and October 30. While the regular bookstore/comic shop signings are free to enter, the private events had an entry fee. On the regular signings you could get up to two items from you own collection signed in addition to any prints bought on place. You couldn't get any head sketches or dedications on the regular singing, just on the private ones – but Don had prepared some sketches in advance that was for sale.
I went to one of the signings at the Outland comics shop in Norway, and here you could get a photo with Don too.
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| Practical information sign |
I think most (if not all) signings in Norway had a long line where a lot of people didn't make it. The Norway signings went on for about 5 hours during the afternoons and in this period Don managed to sign for about 200-250 people. A ticket was handed out to the first 200 while the rest had to wait in line for a lucky chance to get in at the end. In Trondheim, Norway the signing even made it to the local news on TV, where you can see a line far down the street outside the comic shop!
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| Sreenshot from NRK Midtnytt 31.oct 2018 |
But from what I saw, Don was super effective and not taking any breaks. And sometimes it almost looked like he was more eager to get the next books in hand for signing than the people waiting in line. So I have to give him props for his effort to speed tings up and sign for as many people as possible during the limited time! The thing that slowed down the signing the most was the sale of prints right before you got to Don Rosa. Helping with this he had Stefan Brenner from comic-spielzeug.de, but some people were slow on deciding on what to buy – and some bought a hole stack of prints! And most people I saw bought something from the stand. Stefan also brought a book "Don Rosa Parodies" collecting the various parody covers created by Don Rosa.
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| Book with parody covers (sorry for the bad image) |
The book is still in work and not ready for pre-order or anything yet. It was a bit busy so I didn't get to ask much about the book, but Stefan gave me his business card and said I should check www.comic-spielzeug.de for updates on the work.
In addition to the prints on the stand, the comic shops also had stuff for sale that needed to be bought in advance or while you were standing in line if you wanted to get it signed. In the shop I went to the majority of the people in line bought one of the Norwegian Hall of Fame books with Don Rosa stories or the Norwegian Life and Times collection from the comic shop for signing. Both are still in print in new editions.
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| The most commonly signed books in Norway this year |
My comic shop had a whole pallet of the Life and Times collection, and I think they sold most of it! But the comics shop also had a small number of books from the Fantagraphics collection that I saw people buying, and a lot brought their own comics too. Surprisingly I saw quite a few people bringing the first Norwegian edition of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. As the American 1st edition, the Norwegian one is getting quite hard to find these days and goes for a lot of money.
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| 1st edition of the Norwegian Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck |
If you brought a hardcover Don Rosa would usually sign one of the blank pages inside the cover, while if you had a comic book he would sign the cover if he did the cover artwork. If he didn't do the cover he would sign inside the comic where his stories are printed.
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| Example of inside signature (images taken from a FINN sale listing) |
In Norway pretty much everyone that can read have read a Donald Duck weekly once in their life and everyone knows who the classic Disney characters in the comics are. And there's no need to have a "not DuckTales" sign like he use to have at American conventions.
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| 3 different signs used at Don Rosa's American signings |
But not everyone knows of his work, they just know he's a famous "Donald artist" (a synonym with "Disney comic artist" here in Norway). And if you bring a Disney comic without any work by Don Rosa, he won't sign that. I heard of several cases of this and I observed one in my line too that tried to get a random Disney comic signed. The result was Don Rosa giving him a small lecture about the whole point of signing was to sign his own work 😊. The guy in front of me brought a French publication where Don pointed out that the publisher had used his name in marketing the comic without his permission, but he signed it anyway. I know Don has refused to do this on some books in the past.
My own first choice of items to get signed was "Don Rosa's Comics and Stories #1" that I've been wanting to get signed for a long time. It's a collections of Don's underground comic "The Pertwillaby Papers", published by CX Comics (Fantagraphics) in 1983. I also told Don that Fantagraphics should do a hardcover collection with The Pertwillaby Papers and Captain Kentucky, but he didn't think anyone would buy that 😊
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| My own signed copies |
For my second item I wanted to go with a recent Norwegian comic, and not the Life and Times collection that "everyone" is getting signed – and I decided to bring one of the "Donald Extra" comics where all have Rosa covers. But when I was about the catch the bus downtown I just couldn't locate my collection of this series! …that's what you get for having too many comics laying around. A bit in a hurry I had to decide on something else and ended up with the first issue of the Barks+Rosa collection pictured above. I immediately regretted this as Don only did part of the cover art and it's also taken from the story and not a real cover drawing. But that's what I ended up bringing.
I usually don't buy any prints when I go to conventions, festivals or signings – but this time I actually got a print too. I decided to go with a Donald Duck poster created in 2004 for the 70th Anniversary of his animated debut (The Wise Little Hen)
The European signings are quite hectic and you don't get a lot of time to chat with Don unless you go to one of the expensive private signings. I also have a stack of those blank covers from IDW that would have been fun to get a sketch on. But I guess I have a better chance to get one of those if I go to one of the smaller American conventions than to one of the European signings.
*** Thanks to the forum posters on the KVAKK! forum for info and ideas for this blog post. ***
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