Why Don Rosa Quit Comics

If you know your Disney duck comics (Donald Duck and Uncle $crooge) then you know who Don Rosa is. He is the very popular artist for Disney's comic books. And why not? He's good, he has worked hard for decades. The comics creator so popular, that his works have been reprinted in special "Don Rosa" albums.

If he's so popular, why is he quitting? He wrote an epilogue explaining why he's quitting that was not allowed to appear in the final Don Rosa book.

Here's an excerpt:

But it’s an unfortunate fact that there have never been, and I ultimately realized there never will be, any royalties paid to the people who write or draw or otherwise create all the Disney comics you’ve ever read. We are paid a flat rate per page by one publisher for whom we work directly. 

After that, no matter how many times that story is used by other Disney publishers around the world, no matter how many times the story is reprinted in other comics, album series, hardback books, special editions, etc., etc., no matter how well it sells, we never receive another cent for having created that work…

Then one country started producing a series of all-Rosa albums. Another two countries started producing annual all-Rosa pin-up calendars. Then several more countries started producing all-Rosa special hardback editions which became best-sellers. I was called on to do promotional tours to help sell books of my work even though I was never paid royalties on those sales. What? Huh?..

Here's the entire epilogue from his site.

Hat tip to Jim Keefe.