Don Rosa stories in multiple versions

A distinctive feature of Don Rosa's story production is that many of his long stories exist in two versions, a single-part version and a serial version. When asked why he started doing various versions of his long-stories Don Rosa says: "When I saw that some publishers, both Egmont and non-Egmont, were using my serialized stories as single-parters and making them look really STUPID with the inexplicable sudden inappropriate splash panels popping up, I suggested the idea to the editor and he accepted. I see the single-part version as the REAL version, and the serialized version as the "fake". But now that I will do it slightly differently with a full extra page of recaps rather than a half-page variation, I'm not sure which is the real version since the serialized version does not omit anything but may, in fact, be the version with the extra panels."

When asked if he always does serial versions of his long stories, he says: "No, I only do them when asked, or actually only when I am doing the story for Egmont. The only long non-Egmont story I've done since then is the "Sharpie" story for France, and I did NOT do a extra page for that one since I didn't need to. But now Egmont wants the extra page, so I need to do one soon."

When asked about who decide where to put the serial version splash-panel(s) he says: "It's my decision. It depends on the story, where the plot or action stands, as to where the chapter-break will be. It used to be Egmont... they were very strict about the form being three 8-page parts = 24 total. I finally convinced them that 8 pages was too short for a chapter, and that the long stories needed to be indefinite lengths when the plot required it. They finally saw that loosening up the overly strict rules was a benefit (they are only slowly coming out of that old "assembly line" style) (I think they are about 5% out of it now). So now I can do stories of any length I wish (though I think that the "Kalevala" story at 33 pages is my outside limit) and I can break the story up into 2 or 3 parts of any length I wish (I will try to make the chapters of generally the same length each, maybe within 2 or 3 pages of each other). If a story is at least 27 pages, they might want a 3-parter. They let me do it my way (as long as Byron has a good idea of what "my way" will be)."

When asked if he has ever thought about doing "modern" 2 part versions (2 x 12 pages) of any the "old fashioned" 3 part (3 x 8 pages) stories he says: "No... there would be no reason unless some publisher requested it of Egmont, and Egmont paid me to do it. But these publishers either don't care, or even if they do, they would never suspect they could make such a request. And if it's a non-Egmont publisher, they would never ask it of another company. They might ask me to do it directly for them -- my friends at Di$ney Comics did so when they used "Return to Xanadu". But that's the only time that's happened so far. These publishers don't want to spend the $ to pay me to do something that they figure 99.9% of their readers would never notice."

In the future Don Rosa will include an extra page for every chapter of the serial versions (like he once did for the US-version of "Return to Xanadu") instead of two versions of the same page. He says: "From now on my serialized stories won't have one page that will have a different top half -- this always caused the less diligent publishers (which is about 90% of them) to not pay attention and print the wrong art for the 1-part versions simply because it's the art that Egmont used in their weeklies. From now on I will do a whole extra page that will contain more recaps of the previous chapter, and perhaps (but not necessarily) a few panels of superfluous gags to fill it out. This way, it will be more difficult for stupid publishers not to realize that they should NOT be using that page, and even if they still DO (and they will!), they will still be using ALL of the story and not leaving out a half-page of important material."

Extra pages and panels for Don Rosa's stories

When asked if he sees the extra pages/panels for stories like "The Quest for Kalevala", "The Incredible Shrinking Tightwad" and "A Little Something Special" as actual parts of the stories which should be included in any future reprints of those stories, Don Rosa says: "The extra page for "Q for K" is a bonus gag that should never be used again. The extensions for the other two stories are how I originally wanted to do the stories, but could not do so due to Egmont's page limitations... so I definitely see those pages as part of the full story. However, since I did the pages for Gladstone and *not* for Egmont, no future publication of the stories will use the full version unless they are in contact with me. Gladstone can't supply the pages even if the publisher was to know about them and ask for copies since Gladstone is outta business. I can supply the pages, but the publishers may never know about them or that they could get them from me."