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Norway's biggest comic con
Sep. 12th, 2010 05:34 pmBack from the Raptus festival, Norway's biggest comic convention. Sure it's no San Diego CC; It's pretty much put together with masking tape and string, but it has a lot of heart.
I haven't returned with any commissioned drawings or autographs, but I'm well pleased with the day anyway. Caught some interviews and lectures, looked at the cosplayers (mostly anime, which I don't have any clue about. And a handful of Burtonesque Mad Hatters - the elitist bitch in me wanted to go up to them and ask "So, could you tell me what the "10/6" card means?". Thankfully one of the festival arrangers did a near perfect Jamie Hyneman!).
Mostly I'm thrilled I got to see Don Rosa. Now that's a man who taught seven-yearold me what quality storytelling is. His stories - his Life and times of Scrooge McDuck in particular - is one of the very first things I remember reading by myself. Like all my friends I read the weekly magazine Donald Duck & Co. every week, but even back then I instantly knew there was something special about Rosa stories. His dynamic artwork, all those tiny little hidden visual gags in every frame, all the stories where the characters visited real places and talked about real historical events and real religions (that story where they visit the ancient Hindu temple and go over deities one by one blew my mind when I was a child) - there wasn't anything like that in the rest of the magazine, not to mention in the comic world at all.
All that came back to me as I watched that modest man from Kentucky with silver hair and granny glasses do his magic in a sweltering lecture hall.
Fascinating stuff too, everything from how he evolved Scrooge as a character from Carl Barks' greedy feeble old man; demonstration of how Donald Duck is visually a much more dynamic character than Mickey Mouse; thoughts on why Europeans love Donald more than Mickey; and also how he's terribly disappointed in women who request drawings of Daisy Duck ("Whereas if a lady wants a drawing of Magica de Spell or Glittering Goldie I know I'm dealing with someone with a personality!").
All in all my main gripe with the con was the disappointing range of products to be bought. I thought I'd finally find an English-language edition of The life and times of Scrooge McDuck but alas no... Couldn't even find a cool T-shirt.
I haven't returned with any commissioned drawings or autographs, but I'm well pleased with the day anyway. Caught some interviews and lectures, looked at the cosplayers (mostly anime, which I don't have any clue about. And a handful of Burtonesque Mad Hatters - the elitist bitch in me wanted to go up to them and ask "So, could you tell me what the "10/6" card means?". Thankfully one of the festival arrangers did a near perfect Jamie Hyneman!).
Mostly I'm thrilled I got to see Don Rosa. Now that's a man who taught seven-yearold me what quality storytelling is. His stories - his Life and times of Scrooge McDuck in particular - is one of the very first things I remember reading by myself. Like all my friends I read the weekly magazine Donald Duck & Co. every week, but even back then I instantly knew there was something special about Rosa stories. His dynamic artwork, all those tiny little hidden visual gags in every frame, all the stories where the characters visited real places and talked about real historical events and real religions (that story where they visit the ancient Hindu temple and go over deities one by one blew my mind when I was a child) - there wasn't anything like that in the rest of the magazine, not to mention in the comic world at all.
All that came back to me as I watched that modest man from Kentucky with silver hair and granny glasses do his magic in a sweltering lecture hall.
Fascinating stuff too, everything from how he evolved Scrooge as a character from Carl Barks' greedy feeble old man; demonstration of how Donald Duck is visually a much more dynamic character than Mickey Mouse; thoughts on why Europeans love Donald more than Mickey; and also how he's terribly disappointed in women who request drawings of Daisy Duck ("Whereas if a lady wants a drawing of Magica de Spell or Glittering Goldie I know I'm dealing with someone with a personality!").
All in all my main gripe with the con was the disappointing range of products to be bought. I thought I'd finally find an English-language edition of The life and times of Scrooge McDuck but alas no... Couldn't even find a cool T-shirt.
