Don Rosa Gallery

The American artist Keno Don Rosa (born in 1951) was weaned on Carl Barks' Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, and this would shape his life and career. As a comic artist Don Rosa is unique in the Disney universe. Loved by some and hated by others - and a huge fan of Carl Barks, in whose shadow he walks, a position he's cool with. Don Rosa was already active in comics fandom at an early age - with a regular column in the fanzine Amazing Heroes. With a degree in engineering, he started out in the construction industry, while at the same time creating stories for American underground comix, incl. the superhero parody Captain Kentucky and the series The Pertwillaby Papers (reprinted by a Norwegian publisher some years ago). When Gladstone got the license to publish Disney comics in 1986, Don Rosa contacted the editor in chief Byron Erickson - to ask for permission to create original Uncle $crooge stories. To prove that he was serious about it, Rosa submitted the story "The Son of the Sun". Erickson bought the idea, and the story was featured in Uncle $crooge #219 in July 1987.In 1989 Gladstone temporarily lost the license to publish Disney comics, and instead Don Rosa began to work for Danish publisher Gutenberghus (now called Egmont). Here he has continued to write and draw his stories so highly influenced by Barks, among others the 13 chapter epic "The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck", which many Barks fans feel takes away some of the mystery that shrouds the Disney universe. Never mind. Don Rosa has long since proved that he deserves his status as a unique artist among the Disney creators. His style is fanboyish, detailed, and not very elegant. But it works! And as a storyteller he is exceptional, thorough, and very personal. That is why Don Rosa has a natural place among the great Disney interpreters - and his own gallery here at Comicart.dk.