Current Events > Disney bans 2 Don Rosa comics.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.cbr.com/disney-bans-don-rosa-uncle-scrooge-mcduck-stories/

I wonder why movies like Song of the South get a disclaimer but comics get axed.

I give up. What racist thing did these comics do? The article seems to want to bury the cause deep into the article to force the reader to go through the whole thing to find the dirt. I don't plan on playing Where's Waldo? with a cancel culture article.

(Yeah, I'm in a bit of a mood right now.)

DrizztLink posted...

I wonder why movies like Song of the South get a disclaimer but comics get axed.

Song of the South is not on Disney+ and I don't think has gotten a commercially available physical release in decades.

FortuneCookie posted...

I give up. What racist thing did these comics do? The article seems to want to bury the cause deep into the article to force the reader to go through the whole thing to find the dirt. I don't plan on playing Where's Waldo? with a cancel culture article.

(Yeah, I'm in a bit of a mood right now.)

Bombie the Zombie

goddamn i know those stories... especially dream of a lifetime which was absolutely hilarious and great:

The Dream of a Lifetime," a story that has been widely compared to Christopher Nolan's Inception as it sees the Beagle Boys invade Scrooge's dreams to steal his belongings.

also, TIL don rosa is still alive. great to know.

Lmao at the fact there's a frequent podcast called DuckTalks that talks about the going on in the DuckTales world.

__aCEr__ posted...

Bombie the Zombie

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/0/7/AAdlC_AAELxn.jpg

Ooh, yeah. That's brutal.

Thanks.

pokedude900 posted...

Song of the South is not on Disney+ and I don't think has gotten a commercially available physical release in decades.

Not since 86 in the states.

i went diving a bit and this cracked article blew my mind:
https://www.cracked.com/article_19021_5-amazing-things-invented-by-donald-duck-seriously.html

especially number 1:

Scrooge McDuck Created Manga

Bishop_Hastur posted...

Not since 86 in the states.

I might be thinking of Looney Tunes, who knows.

DrizztLink posted...

I wonder why movies like Song of the South get a disclaimer but comics get axed.

Song of the South hasn't been released in the US in decades. Though I think some international markets still sell it.

Ivynn posted...

Song of the South hasn't been released in the US in decades. Though I think some international markets still sell it.

pokedude900 posted...

Song of the South is not on Disney+ and I don't think has gotten a commercially available physical release in decades.

I meant SotS got a disclaimer in addition to getting axed, that's my bad.

How long until these comics fall into the public domain?

FortuneCookie posted...

How long until these comics fall into the public domain?

A long time. They were published in the 1990s.

__aCEr__ posted...

A long time. They were published in the 1990s.

Wait, what?

That 1940s depiction of a zombie was from the 1990s?

o_0

FortuneCookie posted...

Wait, what?

That 1940s depiction of a zombie was from the 1990s?

o_0

Even the rest of the fucking art style screams 40's, what the hell happened there?

No the character was created by Carl Barks a long time ago but these two Don Rosa comics were first published in the 90s.

If you ban anything like this (as a company), it should become public domain within 2 years.

AsucaHayashi posted...

i went diving a bit and this cracked article blew my mind:
https://www.cracked.com/article_19021_5-amazing-things-invented-by-donald-duck-seriously.html

especially number 1:

nice article, almost reminded me of when cracked was good.

__aCEr__ posted...

No the character was created by Carl Barks a long time ago but these two Don Rosa comics were first published in the 90s.

DrizztLink posted...

Even the rest of the fucking art style screams 40's, what the hell happened there?

No joke. I thought those comics were from the 1950s. Bombie the Zombie looks like he should be scaring Ebony White or Whitewash Jones.

<_<

Apparently Duck Comics are the biggest comic book property in Europe. Instead of Spider-Man and Batman, Europeans read Scrooge and Donald

FortuneCookie posted...

No joke. I thought those comics were from the 1950s. Bombie the Zombie looks like he should be scaring Ebony White or Whitewash Jones.

<_<

Bombie the zombie is from a 1949 comic, his design was used unchanged until 2017 DuckTales.

This is a really really nuanced issue, and one Rosa wrestled with said nuance a LOT, but found a way to make a life changing moment for the new scrooge McDuck, for the life and times of scrooge McDuck.

Rosa was addressing these SUPREMELY problematic events from an old scrooge McDuck comic.called voodoo hoodoohttps://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/8/2/AAeN3DAAEL0W.jpg

Where scrooge McDuck was , quite frankly a bastard piece of racist shit. He almost decided to pretend it never happened, but ultimately felt this bullshit needed to be addressed and condemned.

So he retconned the scenario, turned scrooge into the villain of the story, has this be the one time in his life he violated his code of always making square deals, and be one of the most defining, regretful moments of his life, and not just because he had a zombie curse following him.

Long story short running off memory, scrooges sisters came to visit him, and he wanted to impress them by showing them what a big businessman he had become.

He decided he would show them how he could buy the land from a local African village, of what he assumed were simpletons which would be easy to deal with.

Much to his shock, the villagers, and the shaman, who were EXTREMELY problematic visual depictions of Africans (also based on the 1940s designs), were not savages, but smart, well spoken, and savvy, and knew well business and the value of their land, not only did they not sell scrooge the land, but they mocked him for trying such a poor boneheaded deal for the value, losing his temper, scrooge became increasingly aggressive, and after trying the patience of the village too far, they swept him up, put him in a turkey outfit, and tossed him out of the village on his butt in front of his sisters, who howled with laughter at him.

Furious scrooge came up with a plan to swindle the village out of their land and homes. He disguised himself as someone else, approached the village shaman, and said he had a plan that could foil scrooge. Give HIM the land, (for nothing of course, just sign it over) and when scrooge saw the land was sold to someone else he would go away, and then he'd give the land back.

The shaman, at his wits end with the obnoxious foreigner scrooge, said he would gladly sign if it would get scrooge out of his hair. Immediately after signing scrooge removed his disguise and basically announced the village was now homeless.

In shock anger and agony, the village shaman sent bombie the zombie to chase scrooge for the rest of his life.

This act completely disgusted scrooges sisters, who promptly told him off, left, told the rest of his family, and they all, in disgust, distanced themselves from scrooge even though he was rich and had saved their clan.

There would be no contact again between scrooge, now a miserly miserable hermit, and his family until his sister's son, Donald duck, sought him out.

Don Rosa is an interesting person. In my opinion, he's one of the best comic book creators of the past 30 years. But he's also kind of a grouchy guy. I've met him several times, and he's always been pleasant, but he has very very strong opinions about Disney.

Regardless, this is pretty sad news as these are fantastic stories. I've already got the complete collection, so it doesn't impact me. But I hope Disney reconsiders in the future so more people can read them.

Also, I have heard that one of the Carl Barks books has been edited recently to remove a short story that featured the Brer characters from Song of the South. Nothing offensive about the story, just that it has characters from a problematic movie.

FortuneCookie posted...

Ooh, yeah. That's brutal.

Thanks.

Imagine drawing that in fucking 1994 and being upset that Disney wont publish this again (as the creator seems to be)

DrizztLink posted...

Even the rest of the fucking art style screams 40's, what the hell happened there?

They maintained a consistent art style. The Scrooge comics of the 80's and 90's had some of the newer stuff by Rosa and some reprints of Barks' older stories. They were fun reads even when I should have been too old to enjoy them.

https://ducktalks.com/2023/02/14/don-rosa-banned-stories/

It's... just very sad. These stories are like chapters from a book, and censoring them is equivalent to tear pages away from one of the most poignant Disney comic book stories of all time.

In case you're wondering, the main focus of the specific chapter is Scrooge's act of exploiting a poor African tribe for profit (you can read the chapter yourself with just a little Googling, by the way), which is clearly depicted as the lowest point in Scrooge's own arc. This leads to Scrooge becoming a pariah, and other characters call him out on his behavior being despicable ("foul deed", "dark day for the clan") constantly. This is in both the 1940s -- from what I can recall, at least -- and the 1990s stories.

Moreover, it's equally puzzling that the zombie character would be considered problematic. Should it not mean including characters or tropes that may not align with our modern understanding of certain cultures? What is so offensive about a cartoon representation of a literal trope of Haitian culture? Under the guise of being inclusive, I think that all this does is excluding themes and characters that add depth and complexity to story, and pave the way for more of that.

Besides, this is clearly zombie-exclusionary activism, and zombies should be offended.

Disengaged posted...

Where scrooge McDuck was , quite frankly a bastard piece of racist shit

Huh, some interesting nuance there.

Prrrrrrobably should have drawn Bombie a little different though <_<

So what you're saying is I need to make sure my copy of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck stays in as pristine condition as possible for the next ten years and then put it on ebay?

Matt Matei is probably livid.

Don Rosa is amazing, he collected stuff that had been mentioned as sidenotes in Carl Barks stories and tied them together as a big story about Scrooge McDuck.
And his drawings were always filled with so much details so it is amazing, it feels like you can find stuff you missed last time you read it every time you read it.
USA have always censored parts of his stories, lyckily they were released uncensored in Europe first in most cases.