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Rosa

Keno Don Rosa is a big fan of Carl Barks who eventually got promoted to write the official Donald Duck stories in the spirit of The Good Duck Artist. He is one of those rare few writers who have managed to make an excessive use of Continuity Porn into great stories, and is widely regarded as one of the best things that ever happened to Disney comics.

Up until his retirement, he had executive power over the Duck family canon, and brought the world some seriously great Arc Welding in the process.

He grew up as a fan of the Donald Duck comics made by Carl Barks. When he grew older he submitted self drawn comics to Donald Duck fanzines, as well as letters to some debates. He even corresponded with Carl Barks from time to time. Eventually he quit being a hardcore fan, but he never quit being a fan of Carl Barks. Years later a new Donald Duck publication arrived, and Don Rosa applied for the job as an artist. He wrote a letter there he told how much he wanted to be the artist, that he would write the stories in the spirit of Carl Barks and that he was born to make it. (Indeed, in the 1970s and 80s Rosa had done two comics for newspapers in his hometown of Louisville, The Pertwillaby Papers and The Adventures of Captain Kentucky. He later reused several Pertwillaby storylines for his Scrooge stories.)

He got the job, and he created Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck comics from 1987 to 2005. Because he was a great fan of The Good Duck Artist, he created what can be considered an Expanded Universe based on the Duck-master's works. That is to say, he used Continuity Porn, lots of Continuity Porn. Even Carl Barks told him he did too much Continuity Porn, but he didn't listen. He even dedicated all his comics to Carl Barks by hiding the word D.U.C.K. (Dedicated to Uncle Carl from Keno) on the first page of each story.

Rosa is known for his quirky drawing style and epic storylines, best exemplified by The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, his personal Magnum Opus. Since Uncle Scrooge is his favorite character, Rosa's longest and best stories deal with the complex and Badass elder duck.

For those who consider Disney comics childish stories for five-year-olds, Rosa's style of making comics may be a surprise. The artist is known for doing ridiculously extensive research, basing much of his adventure stories on real historical factlets and making sure all the possible science in his comics is valid. In Life and Times, he drops famous people from the late 19th and early 20th century to Scrooge's life here and there, but always makes sure they were around that area around that time.

Another notable feature of Rosa's work is his unveiling of the Duck Family Tree, based on random Remember the New Guy? characters from Barks' stories.

As of 2009, due to fading eyesight, and after years of disagreements over low pay and royalties from publishers, Rosa is more or less retired from comics.

Rosa also wrote two Tale Spin episodes, "I Only Have Ice for You" and "It Came from Beneath the Sea Duck".


Tropes used:[]

  • Arc Welding: Life and Times as a work
  • Ascended Fanboy/Running the Asylum
  • As You Know: Lampshade hung in The Last Lord of Eldorado.
  • Author Appeal: Rosa's love of classic Hollywood movies pops up in quotes and other forms of tribute from time to time.
  • Badass: Don't. Fuck. With McDuck..
    • Sometimes Donald, too, gets this treatment. Most notably, in The Magnificent Seven (Minus Four) Caballeros, Panchito and José Carioca think that Donald is a real Badass and treat him accordingly. The fact he ends up mentioning some of the various treasure hunts he's been on with Scrooge and his nephews, namely the discovery of El Dorado, Atlantis, the Lost Mines of the Incas, King Solomon's Mines and the Forbidden Valley (a valley in the Amazon rainforest filled with dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals) particularly impresses them. See here, here and here.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: The last panel of The Island at the Edge of Time has Scrooge telling the narrator to shut up.
  • Bungling Inventor: Gyro Gearloose.
  • Celebrity Paradox: Some of Don's Hidden Mickeys refer to Mickey's real-life status as a fictional character, while the Ducks are "real" people. Take into account that Donald started off as Mickey's co-star in the cartoons, and you see how this fits.
    • That's nothing. Scrooge has a Ducktales comic as bathroom reading.
  • Chew Toy: Donald.
  • Comic Book Time: Averted, Rosa set all of his stories (at least, the ones in the "present") sometime in the '40s or '50s, to be consistent with Barks' stories. He's even stated that the time line of his stories isn't the same as the order he wrote them.
  • Continuity Porn: Oh yeah!
    • Carl Barks himself thought that Don Rosa made too much Continuity Porn, and he encouraged Keno to write original stories without the influence of his stories that were made in the 50s. One of the main reasons behind this is that Carl Barks' m.o. was to make all his stories original, and that he was ashamed of reusing elements from earlier stories, even if those stories turned out to be great.
  • Cool Old Guy: Scrooge, all the way.
  • Creator Insignia: "D.U.C.K."
  • Creepy Twins: Phishkisser brothers, the owners of "Oolated Squigs" fish company, whose heads are fish-shaped, with big lips, dog-ears resembling pelvic fins, and remains of hair resembling dorsal and tail fins.
  • Dan Browned: Although Rosa did research for his works, there are instances where he gets his facts wrong. He falls into this because he is proudly declaring that he was doing research for any real facts and that all references to the real world and events were true.
    • You could consider this subverted, since not only Rosa's mistakes happen once in a blue moon, but when he realizes he made one (or is told about it by fans), he instantly recognizes it. The guy's human, even if he worked with ducks all the time.
    • He also isn't shy to admit that if reality and his artistic vision clash, he'll go with the latter for the sake of the Rule of Cool. His stories are often published alongside with his commentaries, where he explains how certain details are wrong, and why he decided to leave them that way.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Scrooge. Donald and the nephews have their moments as well.
  • Death Trap: In "Treasure of the Ten Avatars", Scrooge and Donald have to get out of an entire series of these. Among other things there's a Descending Ceiling and Fake Platform with Spikes of Doom, The Walls Are Closing In, Fed to the Beast, and a Snake Pit. Donald even lampshades it by the end when he points out that they've already been through every B-movie cliché.
  • Dramatic Thunder
  • Durable Deathtrap
  • Every Car Is a Pinto: Mocked.
  • Extreme Omni Goat
  • Fandom Nod : The Quest for Kalevala for the Finnish fandom
  • Funetik Aksent: Scrooge's family in Life and Times as well as Arpin Lusene.
  • Fiction 500
  • Funny Background Event: In the spirit of Barks.
  • Funny Foreigner: Arpin Lusene, together with Funetik Aksent.
Cquote1

 Arpin Lusene: Ah am truly ze master thif!

Donald: "Thif"?

Arpin Lusene: Not "thif", you iddy-ott! Thif!

Cquote2