The Scrooge Mystery

The Scrooge Mystery, Blu-ray cover

The Scrooge Mystery, Blu-ray disc

The Scrooge Mystery is a documentary film about Don Rosa that got finished this autumn, and I received my copy in the mail a few weeks ago. This documentary started as a Kickstarter project, but now that the project is finished you can also buy it on the The Scrooge Mystery webpage.

The DVD version was sold out last time I checked the webpage, but when I write this it's back for pre-order so they probably ordered more copies to be made. But I recommend getting the Blu-ray edition if you have a player. It might be available for digital purchase at a later date too, at least the Kickstarter backers are supposed to get a digital copy but I have yet to receive any download link for this. But the downloadable (or maybe streaming?) version is probably not going to have all the extra features that the physical "Collector's Edition" has.
 

DVD edition

The documentary features interviews with both Don Rosa and fans and friends around the world. For example Tuomas Holopainen from the Finnish band Nightwish that created a solo album with music inspired by The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Katja Kontturi that wrote a doctoral thesis about Don Rosa's comics, and maybe the most interesting for me personally an interview with editor Byron Erickson.

And I recommend checking out the bonus features too, because some of the interviews didn't make it to the actual feature and was added as bonus material. Some of those are just as interesting I think.

Lots of bonus features on the disc

Deleted scenes (interviews) that didn't make it to the film

If you have been a Don Rosa fan for a while or read the autobiography and texts in Fantagraphics' Don Rosa Library, The Scrooge Mystery might not have too much new and unknown information. But there are some bits here and there, and it's still interesting to hear what other people have to say.

Compared to earlier films The Scrooge Mystery is a lot more enjoyable to watch than the 2010 Life and times of Don Rosa. That DVD is really depressing to watch, but Don Rosa talks about a lot of the same things in the two documentaries. We also had a DVD with The Don Rosa House Tour in 2011 (it's on Youtube too), that as the title suggest is a tour of Don Rosa's property and collections. We get to see parts of the house and his comic archive in The Scrooge Mystery too, but not as much as in the 2011 tour.

 

"Life and times of Don Rosa" (2010) and "The Don Rosa House Tour" (2011)

To sum up, I enjoyed watching The Scooge Mystery and can recommend it if you like Rosa's comic stories and want to know more about him and the people he has inspired.

Don Rosa's European Tour, autumn 2018

Don Rosa recently finished a busy signing tour in Germany, Finland and Norway. From his event page on Facebook, it looks like the trip went to:

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.

 

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!
 

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.

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.
 

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.

 

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.

 

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.
 

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 😊

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. ***

Action in Rundetårn (Round Tower)

IDW's Donald Duck #7 (legacy 374)

Donald Duck #7 (legacy 374) came out earlier this month. The main story is Truth or Consequences, written by Lars Jensen and drawn by Flemming Andersen. It's the 6th story in the TNT (Tamers of Nonhuman Threats) series, the first five were published in Gemstone’s Donald Duck Adventures about 10 years ago. The stories work fine as individual stories, but if you are unfamiliar with the series, I would recommend trying to track down the first story before reading this one.

In Europe we just got part 25 published, and you can find a complete list of the stories in the inducks database. But here is a list of the American prints:

• Story 1 – Blue Rain - Donald Duck Adventures #4 (Gemstone 2004)
• Story 2 – Return to TNT - Donald Duck Adventures #5 (Gemstone 2004)
• Story 3 – The Ghost Rats of Hamelin - Donald Duck Adventures #6 (Gemstone 2004)
• Story 4 – Mission: Sasabonsam - Donald Duck Adventures #15 (Gemstone 2005)
• Story 5 – Let's Get Kraken - Donald Duck Adventures #18 (Gemstone 2006)
• Story 6 – Truth or Consequences - Donald Duck #374 (IDW 2015)

It’s actually not the first time "Truth or Consequences" is published in English. Egmont in Europe have a series of pocket books in English that is published in several countries, and this story is in one of them. The purpose of the books is to learn English, the pages have selected glossary with translation at the bottom and the Norwegian edition of the series is offered as class packs to schools.

Some books from the Norwegian edition of Egmont's English pocket books.

Glossary at the bottom of the pages

I believe the text in these books is close to the original script, so I thought it would be fun to compare with the American print to see how the dialogue is localized. As most of the story takes place in Denmark and I actually have the Danish print of this story too, I did a couple of comparisons to that translation as well.

Different comics, all with "Truth or Consequences" inside

Not that much have been changed really, but here are some examples (the American print is to the right):

Can someone explain the "jumping jacks/jumpin’ jacksnipes" expression to me please..?

In the next example, I wonder what the original script is. Two street names in Copenhagen, "Landemærket" and "Købmagergade" are used the American and Danish text, but not in the European-English print. And it seems the text box have been slightly enlarged to make space for the names.

And the next example has a fun joke. I wonder if that is in the original script or not. The European-English version have "come on", but both the American and Danish print have the Danish text "kom så". That’s a common and typical Danish expression. Even we Norwegians that have almost the same language use to say "kom så" when we are making fun of the Danes :)
 

In addition to Rundetårn (Round Tower) where part of the story takes place, there are a lot of other famous real-life buildings in the story. But for a Disney fan, the last panel have the most important one, it’s outside the Egmont office in Copenhagen!

Outside the Egmont office in Copenhagen, Denmark

***

The week after "Truth or Consequences" was published by IDW more action happened in Rundetårn, both in real life and in the comics. The Danish comic festival "Art Bubble" was held inside, and one of the guests was Don Rosa. The tower was again used on the cover of the Danish weekly, with Scrooge, Magica and Don Rosa (!). And the poster for the festival also had the tower with various Disney characters.

All covers with Rundetårn

If that wasn’t enough the Danish weekly even had a story inside featuring the tower AND Don Rosa.

Scrooge and Magica running to the comic festival inside Rundetårn. Drawn by Marco Rota

Scrooge is meeting Don Rosa

And the "money shot", Don Rosa is shoving his homegrown chili in Magica’s beak.

 

Grandpa Beagle

Uncle Scrooge #6 (legacy #410) from IDW

Uncle Scrooge #6 (legacy #410) from IDW features "The Bigger Operator" drawn by Marco Rota. Uncle Scrooge gets worried when the most cunning con man in the world moves to Duckburg. But who can outsmart who? It's a fun story, if you haven't got it — go get it! :)

But I’m a bit surprised Scrooge survived this story, and not because of the architect. Louie should have looked up "dollar-hydrogen mix" in the Woodchuck’s Guidebook before trying to poison Scrooge with a mix of dollars and carbon trioxide. Looking at the chemical formula he obviously got the wrong tank!

I’m not sure what the original text say, but I have this story in a German "Lustiges Taschenbuch". There he is given proper treatment with gold dioxide according to the formula.

Probably the same mix as in "Up Against the Wall" where he gets "gold oxygen" (translated from the Norwegian print).

***

But never mind all that. What I’m going to talk about in this blogpost is Grandpa Beagle …or wait, did IDW just call him Blackheart Beagle in "The Bigger Operator"?



So Don Rosa is right, they really are the same person? I guess we’ll have to take a look at this from the beginning…

Grandpa Beagle in Carl Barks’ stories

We first meet Grandpa Beagle in the Carl Barks story "The Money Well". Here he is a bearded older guy, but otherwise he looks the same as the rest of the Beagle Boys, with the same clothes and a number tag (186-802)

That’s the only story Barks drew with Grandpa Beagle, at least looking like that and called "grandpa". We do see him in "Dime and Dime Again", a story based on a plot by Carl Barks. But the plot that can be read in Uncle Scrooge Adventures #42 does not mention Grandpa Beagle specifically, so he was probably added to the story by Geoffrey Blum.

From "Dime and Dime Again" (D/D 2001-004), script by Geoffrey Blum, art by Carlos Mota

In "The Fantastic River Race" we get to see a character called Blackheart Beagle in a memory from Scrooges youth. There’s no information in the story that directly tells us that this is the grandfather of today’s Beagle Boys. But if we assume Scrooge is about the same age as the "brawling sons", and use the fact that the steam boats engineer is Gyro’s grandfather; yes, Blackheart Beagle might be Grandpa Beagle, or at least one of the Beagle Boys’ grandfathers.

Grandpa Beagle in Don Rosa’s stories

In "The Master Of The Mississippi", Don Rosa tell the story about how Blackheart Beagle got to own the riverboat seen in "The Fantastic River Race". We also get to know why they started wearing masks and at the end we even see Blackheart Beagle use the term "Beagle Boys".

In "The Invader Of Fort Duckburg" we see Blackheart Beagle making a reference to what happened in "The Master Of The Mississippi", so we know for sure that this is the same character. But his appearance has changed. Now he has grown a beard and started wearing the prison clothes with the same number as seen in the Barks story with Grandpa Beagle. But he kept his captain hat.

Jumping further into the future, in "The Richest Duck in the World" Blackheart Beagle have grown older looking even more like Barks’ Grandpa Beagle. He is also introducing his grandsons.

We see him again in "A Little Something Special"

The scan above is from the first American print. But when Don Rosa’s collected works were published in Europe, all stories underwent a color revision with input from Don Rosa. Blackheart Beagle in his Grandpa Beagle look was then colored in all blue clothes, making him even more distinct from the other Beagle Boys (and all other Grandpa Beagles)

If anyone still don’t get the riverboat captain Blackheart Beagle and Grandpa Beagle connection, Don Rosa got it all explained one last time in "The Beagle Boys vs. The Money Bin". Here we can see all three generations of Beagles at the same time.

Examples of others using Grandpa Beagle

During Western’s run of Disney comics we can see other artists using the grandpa with different looks, both with a mustache and with full beard. But they are never called by a name other than "grandpa", "gramps" etc.

From "Gramp's Great Gift" (W BB   38-04), drawn by Bob Gregory

From "The Jillion-Dollar Diamond" (W US   77-01), drawn by Tony Strobl

From "Sentimental Journey" (W BB    3-03), drawn by Tony Strobl

In Brazilian stories, the grandpa usually has the chin strip and mustache look as the Strobl-story above.

From "Um Assalto Muito Louco..." (B 850094), drawn by Euclides K. Miyaura

We can see the same in this strange team-up in an "S-coded" story (American stories for the international market)

From "Crime Convention" (S 68006), drawn by Pete Alvarado

Grandpa Beagle is used in a ton of Italian stories, thus in several variants too. But the most common look is with a beard and a smoke pipe.

From "Zio Paperone e la montagna parlante" (I TL  695-A), drawn by Romano Scarpa

Before IDW’s Uncle Scrooge #6 I think we have seen only one single American print with the Italian grandpa. You can find that story in Gemstone's Donald Duck Adventure #19.

From "The Black Sheep" (I TL 2444-3), drawn by Silvia Ziche

Other than the Don Rosa stories, there are not that many Egmont stories with Grandpa Beagle. But the ones that exist use a character that looks kind of a mix between the original Barks grandpa and the Italian one.

From "Glassy-Eyed" (D 90272), drawn by José Colomer Fonts

From "Up Against The Wall" (D 90321), drawn by Tino Santanach Hernandez

To summarize; we’ve seen a lot of different looking grandpas. And looking at the examples in this blogpost they also have different number tags. But most of them are just called "grandpa". The only times we have seen a character named Blackheart Beagle is in one Carl Barks story and in all Don Rosa stories. But all Rosa stories have some kind of reference telling that this grandpa really is the riverboat captain. Any other random grandpas have never been named, at least not in any English translations.  So when IDW does this in "The Bigger Operator", that’s a first as far as I know.

Update from comments below

It was noted in a comment that Don Rosa had an earlier mention of Blackheart Beagle in Cash Flow, where the Beagle Boys tell us they are his grandsons.

From "Cash Flow" (AR 106), by Don Rosa

When checking up on "Dime and Dime Again" for this blog, I overlooked the fact that Grandpa Beagle actually is called Blackheart at the end of that story too. Uncle Scrooge first calls him Sherman, but that is a reference to earlier in the story where he pretended to be Sherman, the jewellers brother-in-law. So that’s not his real name, it’s just the rest of the Beagle Boys being stupid.

From "Dime and Dime Again" (D/D 2001-004), script by Geoffrey Blum, art by Carlos Mota

It seems IDW is not the only publisher that is starting using the name Blackheart Beagle for the Italian-looking Grandpa Beagle. In Nonna Papera e Nonno Bassotto la strana coppia, a story printed in the Italian Topolino (the same week as IDW printed "The Bigger Operator"), he tells Grandma Duck his name. Translated: "Bah! A long time ago I was also known as Captain Blackheart Beagle, but now everyone calls me grandpa."

From "Nonna Papera e Nonno Bassotto la strana coppia" (I TL 3123-2), script by Gaja Arrighini, art by Alessandro Perina