Most of you probably know of Carl Barks, the man who created Uncle Scrooge and who for years wrote and drew the comic books of that rich old duck and also of his nephew, a poorer duck named Donald. Barks produced delightful, timeless stories which are reprinted year after year around the world…and probably always will be. His work inspired many of us who work in comics…and also in fields where the connection is not so obvious. There are moments in Steven Spielberg films, for instance, that connect to his love of Barks.
A lot of folks who followed Carl have tried to write and/or draw Disney Comics in the Barks tradition and some have come close. The only person who has managed to clearly distinguish himself in that realm is a gent named Don Rosa. I have known Don since before he got the gig — when his "dream job" was still a dream and seemed so unattainable that he didn't even attempt to get it. Then he got it and the work he did was quite outstanding and popular, especially in Europe. Again, what he created was a body of delightful, timeless stories which are reprinted year after year around the world…and probably always will be.
But he doesn't do that anymore. He stopped forever in 2008 for six reasons which he recently detailed in an essay you can read online. Before I give you the link so you can do this, let me tell you a few things. One is that I have minor quibbles with a few of his historical points. Carl Barks did receive more than his page rate for the comics he did. He worked for a company called Western Printing and Lithography (not for Dell Comics, as many people assume; this article explains the difference) and Western paid him a pension and a few other benefits. For a time in the sixties, Western had a profit-sharing plan for its writers and artists that yielded bonus money if the sales of a comic they were working on went up.
Barks wasn't the only person working on Disney Comics who got this and in some cases, the amounts were tiny. But just as a matter of record, Don is only mostly accurate about what others before him received, not totally accurate. He is, of course, 100% accurate with regard to his own situation and probably that of everyone who's written or drawn Disney Comics since gents like Barks and Paul Murry and a few others.
I would also add that Don is absolutely correct when he describes the hard, almost obsessive work he put into his stories. He was uncommonly dedicated with the comic work he did before he began applying himself to Disney Ducks and it only got more intense when they handed him the chance to work on his childhood faves. Believe every word of that. He is also telling the truth when he talks about all the extra, uncompensated work he did to promote those comics via interviews, tours, signings, etc. They never had a better ambassador.
All that said, I'll give you this link so you can click and read what Don wrote about his retirement. It is not for the most part a happy story and he is by no means the only person to create great comic books and to wind up feeling exploited and at least financially underappreciated. Some companies have learned that it isn't good, morally or just in consideration of future revenues, to treat The Talent that way…but not all have learned it and some who have would still for some reason rather treat people like another Scrooge treated Bob Cratchit before the ghosts appeared.
Still, Don does have the pride of creating all that fine, fine work. They can't take that away from him — though somewhere at this moment, a lawyer is probably trying to figure out how they could…