An oversize artist’s edition of Don Rosa’s devoutly worshipped The Life and Time of Scrooge McDuck?
You’ll have to wait until April, true believers.
Rosa’s epic biography of heroic skinflint McDuck is considered a modern classic, and in Scandinavia, it is mandatory for homes to have a small shrine to it.* This volume will take a proud place in those shrines, I’m sure.
“Don Rosa’s stories are as fresh and entertaining today as they were when I first read them 25 years ago,” said IDW Special Projects Director, Scott Dunbier. “They are timeless treasures.”
This Artist’s Edition will measure 14” x 20” and come packed with 160 pages of high quality scans of the first 6 chapters of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, covers, and layouts by Rosa. Two additional volumes will complete this epic saga with release dates still to be announced. This Artist’s Edition will set the precedent for something truly special for Disney, and Art fans.
Look for the newest entry in the Artist’s Edition library April 2015 available through your local comic shop or from IDW’s webstore: http://www.idwpublishing.com/shop/
I know I’m being exceptionally greedy here, but after these THREE VOLUMES (! Holy Cow !) are complete, I hope they have enough interest to maybe do a “Best of Don Rosa” volume, just so I can have “His Majesty, McDuck” in this format. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the next five years.
At least this time Don will benefit from an edition. In Europe Don’s work is a bestseller and is constantly in print, but only Disney gets the financial benefit, not Don. The only reason Don stopped doing Duck stories is because everyone was heaping huge financial rewards from them (the publishers, Disney) but Don was paid a flat rate and that’s that. Disney pays royalties to people who make their movies, but not to the people who make their comic books. Marvel does because those arrangements were in place before Disney acquired them, but Donald Duck comics are left out in the cold.
Here are Rosa’s reasons for retiring:
http://career-end.donrosa.de/
(Yup… he’s known as “the author” in some markets!)
For a long time, the artists could not resell their artwork. I believe that restriction has been lifted, as there are some lesser artists appearing on Heritage Auctions. Rosa did sell a complete story (!) recently.
http://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/complete-story/don-rosa-uncle-scrooge-adventures-9-complete-12-page-story-fortune-on-the-rocks-original-art-gladstone-1988-total-12-original-art-/a/7093-92158.s
Now… when will someone publish a deluxe slipcased “Money Bin” edition of The Life and Times?
One volume with the original twelve issues. One volume with the other six chapters, plus essays and annotations, and ancillary material. (Place a footnote icon in the margins, which refer to the annotations. Include panels from Barks’ work noting the inspiration.) Endpapers? Use the Duck Family Tree.
I want an edition with all the B-chapters intermixed in one volume with the main stories AND the ancillary material — and it comes with a podium to hold it while you read. :)