Don Rosa · @donrosa
13th Apr 2023 from TwitLonger
Statement from Don
Don says: "I think I have a Duck-related post for you now. No mentions of puppies or cole crops or mowing or wildflowers or Chiles.
I have not commented on this banning of two of my stories other than to keep trying to correct the various misinterpretations of what I had accurately reported in February. The fact was always that the two stories WERE BANNED, not that a “possible ban was being discussed”. The only attempts at discussions were on the part of the publishers who first told me of the situation and who thought they could reason with the licensing company. The obvious preference was to continue to use the two stories but with a disclaimer as is often done with other comics or movies or TV shows of a similar nature. The licensing corporation does this very thing with its own productions of the past.
But that corporation’s American home office has no interest or respect for comics, so refused to discuss the matter.
Furthermore, the licensed publishers are forbidden to mention the situation to their readers or publicly mention it in any way. They are only allowed to state that a new reissue of a book has been “edited for content” but cannot be specific as to exactly what has been changed or omitted. There is NO discussion of the matter allowed. Or at least none given any credence.
So HERE is the situation as it was, is and as it will remain:
“The Dream of a Lifetime” has only THREE panels of its 25 pages in which Bombie appears. Rather than ban this entire story forever due actually to only TWO of those three panels, the publishers suggested that I allow them to have Bombie redrawn. I would not allow art-tampering if my name is on the book. (I can tamper with my own art in reprints if I made some error, but I won’t allow changes forced on me.)
So, I suggested that in those two panels that were causing the banning of the entire 25-page story, that Bombie appear as he did in the FIRST panel of the sequence… as a featureless black shape. Like the Phantom Blot. Who or what Bombie is has *nothing* whatsoever to do with the plot of the story, only that he represents something or someone whom Donald remembers and is causing him to panic. Readers know who Bombie is, so how he is perceived in the dream sequence is not important to the story.
The 11th chapter of the Lo$ is rather a different problem. Bombie is the central character of that most important chapter of the series; he represents the just punishment for the one greedy & malicious act that $crooge commits in his lifetime, a crime which haunts him for decades and finally causes him to reevaluate where his life is headed and causes him to change its course. Chapter 11, in literary Shakespearean terms, is the CLIMAX of the Lo$ epic. Chapters 1 – 10 are the “rising action”. Chapter 11 is the “climax” to everything. Chapter 12 is the “falling action” leading to the final scene, completing the narrative. As such, any future publications or reprints of the collected Lo$ series as a book unto itself are now impossible.
As regards reprints of the DON ROSA LIBRARY, currently in-print in numerous countries, volume 5 will either no longer be reprinted OR there will be 25-30 missing pages due to the banning of “The Empire-Builder from Calisota” and my discussion of the creation of that story. In its place there will be a “bonus feature” of… something. Perhaps storyboard-script pages from (obviously) one of the *other* Lo$ chapters. The tricky part will be HOW the publisher can explain what’s going on since NO explanation is allowed. They can only state something like “this is a reprint of an earlier edition. Some editing has occurred”. That’s all.
My original preference was that volume 5 simply no longer be reprinted, or be reprinted with expurgated content, but without my name and texts on or in the book. That would result in there being a DON ROSA LIBRARY vol. 1-4, 6-10 and an UNCLE $CROOGE AND DONALD DUCK - volume 5. But I was convinced that would make DuckFans (as well as the licensed publishers) less happy than the other idea of replacing the banned story with some "bonus" feature.
Not allowing that entire volume of the DRL to ever be reprinted would be as extreme and unreasonable as the original problem. But of course the readers of the DRL are adults and not stupid ones. They will know what’s going on.
So… I guess that’s the best option.
And there you have it. As well as my last word on the matter."