Do we want more stories about Hortens and Matilda McDuck?

[Daniel Maline]

Would that be a good idea?

And is there a similar interest in the McDuck's sisters elsewhere as well, such as in Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Germany or the Netherlands?

Or is this high interest in cartoon stories that focusing on Hortense and Matilda McDuck just only a marginal Finnish thing?

So... At least here in Finland there is a some fan base who would be interested in seeing more stories that focus on these two creations of Don Rosa, and now it would still be possible to ask for his permission when Rosa is still alive. Maybe in a few or two years it may not be possible anymore.

It’s sad how little attention they've gotten even they both are together a good and potential material to be the main characters in their own story. Or in several stories. It also brings more women to the comic in addition to Daisy and Magica, although that’s not the main purpose but instead how potential and interesting characters they both are.

But sure, this all would depend on whether Maestro Rosa gives his permission to use his characters and also who would draw or script those cartoon stories. And without these, it would not have been possible.

And finally, if you want, you can of course tell us who your artist candidate would be.

If I could decide on a artist then it should definitely be either Estéba or Midthun because I like their style.

[Mesterius]

Aug 24, 2021 16:13:50 GMT Daniel Maline said:

But sure, this all would depend on whether Maestro Rosa gives his permission to use his characters and also who would draw or script those cartoon stories.

I don't think you know how Disney comics copyrights work. Rosa has no rights to any characters he has created for his Disney comics. As such, any other Disney comic book writer and/or artist in the world can potentially use those characters, provided a publisher is interested in more stories with them.

[Daniel Maline]

Aug 24, 2021 16:46:12 GMT Mesterius said:

Aug 24, 2021 16:13:50 GMT Daniel Maline said:

But sure, this all would depend on whether Maestro Rosa gives his permission to use his characters and also who would draw or script those cartoon stories.

I don't think you know how Disney comics copyrights work. Rosa has no rights to any characters he has created for his Disney comics. As such, any other Disney comic book writer and/or artist in the world can potentially use those characters, provided a publisher is interested in more stories with them.

The kind of contracts that artists have varies depending on where and when they are made. Within Egmont, the system is Freelancer based and therefore (and also because of European copyright laws) in Finland and elsewhere in the Nordic countries under the Egmont, Don Rosa's works are published without the Disney logo, they are called Rosa's stories, and characters created by Rosa that don't appear in Disney comics or has been latterly adopted are called Rosa's characters. And this is also the reason why Don Rosa originally chose a Danish publisher instead of Disney.

[caballero]

Aug 24, 2021 17:39:40 GMT Daniel Maline said:

Aug 24, 2021 16:46:12 GMT Mesterius said:

in Finland and elsewhere in the Nordic countries under the Egmont, Don Rosa's works are published without the Disney logo,

No, they are not. Maybe in some publications but most definitely not across the board. And no, that is not the reason Rosa chose Egmont. He chose Egmont because he wanted to keep making Disney comics and he didn't have that many choices, and because unlike Disney in the US, they at least allowed him to keep his original artworks. Mesterius is completely correct, no company on the planet who creates Disney comics needs permission from Don to use any of the characters he created for his Duck comics.

As for your original question, yes, I would love to read new comics featurning Hortense and Matilda McDuck that are good, but I don't trust any of the still active Disney comic writers to create good comics with these characters.

[dorialexander]

There have been a few cameos of Hortense and Matilda in the italian comics during the past few years, so Rosa's rights are certainly not an issue. Yet, any extended use of the characters would probably be complicated without sticking to Don Rosa's canon, which most authors are not really ready to do (especially if it implies to "freeze" the duck stories in the 1950s or the 1960s to preserve a chronological consistency).

I think someone like Gervasio could endeavor to tackle something like this as part of his Fantomius/Paperbride continuity (especially given his ease with historically-grounded early 20th century settings and his occasional nods to Lo$), but it remains tricky.

[Mesterius]

Aug 24, 2021 17:39:40 GMT Daniel Maline said:

Aug 24, 2021 16:46:12 GMT Mesterius said:

I don't think you know how Disney comics copyrights work. Rosa has no rights to any characters he has created for his Disney comics. As such, any other Disney comic book writer and/or artist in the world can potentially use those characters, provided a publisher is interested in more stories with them.

The kind of contracts that artists have varies depending on where and when they are made. Within Egmont, the system is Freelancer based and therefore (and also because of European copyright laws) in Finland and elsewhere in the Nordic countries under the Egmont, Don Rosa's works are published without the Disney logo, they are called Rosa's stories, and characters created by Rosa that don't appear in Disney comics or has been latterly adopted are called Rosa's characters. And this is also the reason why Don Rosa originally chose a Danish publisher instead of Disney.

I... have no idea where you're getting any of this. Did someone make you believe this?

[The KKM]

Aug 24, 2021 17:39:40 GMT Daniel Maline said:

Aug 24, 2021 16:46:12 GMT Mesterius said:

I don't think you know how Disney comics copyrights work. Rosa has no rights to any characters he has created for his Disney comics. As such, any other Disney comic book writer and/or artist in the world can potentially use those characters, provided a publisher is interested in more stories with them.

The kind of contracts that artists have varies depending on where and when they are made. Within Egmont, the system is Freelancer based and therefore (and also because of European copyright laws) in Finland and elsewhere in the Nordic countries under the Egmont, Don Rosa's works are published without the Disney logo, they are called Rosa's stories, and characters created by Rosa that don't appear in Disney comics or has been latterly adopted are called Rosa's characters. And this is also the reason why Don Rosa originally chose a Danish publisher instead of Disney.

The closest thing to what you're describing would be him owning his own stories, which is not the same as owning the characters within. Even then though, if Egmont wasn't writing the freelance contracts to include a Work for Hire agreement, Disney wouldn't be working with them.

[Scroogerello]

Personally I would not really be interested in any new stories with Matilda and Hortense. Rosa only used them in Lo$ as a reference to Barks’ family tree scribble, not because they fulfill some much-needed role in the Duck universe. They simply don’t have enough personality to star in their own comics—“she’s Scrooge’s sister”, that’is not a sufficient characterization to carry a story, and yet it’s the only interesting thing about both of these characters. You’d essentially have to create new personalities/purposes from scratch if you wanted them to help a story plot forward. Rosa must have recognized these limits at the time too, since he never used them outside of Lo$.

That said, I do think it’s a shame that Rosa was not allowed to use Hortense in A Letter From Home—it would have been a more satisfying epilogue to Lo$, for sure, if Scrooge would have made amends with both the sisters from chapter 11.

[Matilda]

As you might infer from my username & pic, I would be happy to have more stories with Matilda and Hortense. I agree with Scroogerello that A Letter from Home would have been even more excellent if Rosa had been allowed to include Hortense, but I'm happy with what we got. I'd be happy to see stories which stick to Rosa's lifestory--as does, for instance, the flashback in Erickson's Christmas series. The question remains whether to follow Rosa's own imagined lifestory, where Hortense survives into Donald's adulthood and Matilda marries Ludwig, or the version that got into print! But I'd also be happy to see different takes on the sisters' lives that aren't Rosa-canon, like Geradts' version of Della. Or Korhonen's Rosa-aligned but not Rosa-constrained McDuck tales. Egmont authors may not be allowed to stray from Rosa-in-print-canon, but Dutch or Italian authors could do so. Also perhaps Scandinavian creators publishing in-country, such as Korhonen when he's published in Finnish comics or the Midthun team when they write for the Norwegian Christmas specials. The Midthun team could definitely do a Christmas story with one or both of the sisters. I enjoy the fact that different versions of the McDuck family exist in different published stories, and I'd like to see more attention paid to female characters throughout.

I'd like to see Matilda get some kind of career of her own, whether that's in business or banking (thanks to her experience working with Scrooge), in journalism or academia. If you stick with the Rosa timeline, there aren't that many careers of interest that were open to women in the mid-20th century outside of journalism or academia; those both would allow for travel.

[juicymcduck]

Aug 25, 2021 14:04:54 GMT Matilda said:

As you might infer from my username & pic, I would be happy to have more stories with Matilda and Hortense. I agree with Scroogerello that A Letter from Home would have been even more excellent if Rosa had been allowed to include Hortense, but I'm happy with what we got. I'd be happy to see stories which stick to Rosa's lifestory--as does, for instance, the flashback in Erickson's Christmas series. The question remains whether to follow Rosa's own imagined lifestory, where Hortense survives into Donald's adulthood and Matilda marries Ludwig, or the version that got into print! But I'd also be happy to see different takes on the sisters' lives that aren't Rosa-canon, like Geradts' version of Della. Or Korhonen's Rosa-aligned but not Rosa-constrained McDuck tales. Egmont authors may not be allowed to stray from Rosa-in-print-canon, but Dutch or Italian authors could do so. Also perhaps Scandinavian creators publishing in-country, such as Korhonen when he's published in Finnish comics or the Midthun team when they write for the Norwegian Christmas specials. The Midthun team could definitely do a Christmas story with one or both of the sisters. I enjoy the fact that different versions of the McDuck family exist in different published stories, and I'd like to see more attention paid to female characters throughout.

I'd like to see Matilda get some kind of career of her own, whether that's in business or banking (thanks to her experience working with Scrooge), in journalism or academia. If you stick with the Rosa timeline, there aren't that many careers of interest that were open to women in the mid-20th century outside of journalism or academia; those both would allow for travel.

In my own headcanon, Matilda studied botany. Why? Oh, nothing too deep, admittedly. It's just because she was always seen with a flower on her hat or in her hair in her youth, and also because she's shown planting flowers in A Letter from Home. Perhaps she and Ludwig met at a botany conference! Or perhaps she wrote a paper he found to be of great interest... 

[That Duckfan]

Aug 25, 2021 14:04:54 GMT Matilda said:

As you might infer from my username & pic, I would be happy to have more stories with Matilda and Hortense. I agree with Scroogerello that A Letter from Home would have been even more excellent if Rosa had been allowed to include Hortense, but I'm happy with what we got. I'd be happy to see stories which stick to Rosa's lifestory--as does, for instance, the flashback in Erickson's Christmas series. The question remains whether to follow Rosa's own imagined lifestory, where Hortense survives into Donald's adulthood and Matilda marries Ludwig, or the version that got into print! But I'd also be happy to see different takes on the sisters' lives that aren't Rosa-canon, like Geradts' version of Della. Or Korhonen's Rosa-aligned but not Rosa-constrained McDuck tales. Egmont authors may not be allowed to stray from Rosa-in-print-canon, but Dutch or Italian authors could do so. Also perhaps Scandinavian creators publishing in-country, such as Korhonen when he's published in Finnish comics or the Midthun team when they write for the Norwegian Christmas specials. The Midthun team could definitely do a Christmas story with one or both of the sisters. I enjoy the fact that different versions of the McDuck family exist in different published stories, and I'd like to see more attention paid to female characters throughout.

I'd like to see Matilda get some kind of career of her own, whether that's in business or banking (thanks to her experience working with Scrooge), in journalism or academia. If you stick with the Rosa timeline, there aren't that many careers of interest that were open to women in the mid-20th century outside of journalism or academia; those both would allow for travel.

I do enjoy the mental image of Matilda as a muckraking journalist, asking difficult questions about the working conditions at McDuck Industries!

[LP]

There are always stories to tell, the writers just have to be creative. The fact that women had limited choices in their professions back in the day shouldn't be a major problem either. Seinfeld had an episode which was all about standing in line to a restaurant, and another one about the gang trying to find their car in a parking lot. I'd read a Hortense and Matilda story about restocking Scrooge's pencils, or mowing the lawn of Killmotor Hill while avoiding booby-traps - as long as it was well written. But, then the characters would have to carry the story, and then they would have to be developed a bit more. This isn't a huge issue, as few characters are fully formed after just a few stories. Just look at Scrooge.

[Fethryfan]

Personally i don't have interest in Hortense. I think she doesn't has much space to grow as a character

But i would love to see Matilda again in the present time

[fredj]

Matilda returns in a new story in Topolino #3536

[The KKM]

been seeing moments of that story on twitter. seems to be a sort of direct sequel to letters from home?