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".
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