Uncle Scrooge #220, 'Nobody's Business', pg 1 by Don Rosa (1987)
Artist: Don Rosa (All)
15 Comments - 1,938 Views - 7 Likes
Additional Images:
Printed Page
Panel 1 - Carl Barks' Version
Artwork Details
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DescriptionThis is my white whale - the one that got away and I've chased for decades!Growing up I loved Disney duck comics. They'd be the first thing I'd ask for in comic shops. Many of the artists drew in a similar style, but there was one guy who did weird art that stood out. Don Rosa. It was too polished and precise. Extra lines and details. It was that love/hate relationship where you can't stop looking at it, but don't yet know if you like it. Same experience I had with guys like Mike Mignola and John Romita Jr early on. I started collecting comic art in 1998 when eBay was the only auction house. One day, this page of art popped up for sale. Something clicked and it was love at first sight. It was the most epic piece of duck art I'd ever seen. It was early Don Rosa, May 1987, the second story he ever did, and his first 10-pager. The opening panel was lifted from Barks in all its glory, alongside character-perfect panels of Donald and Gladstone. It had that classic aspect going for it. Rosa himself later said "One thing that Duckfans will be able to easily spot; virtually every Duck pose in this story is copied from an old Barks Duck." It also had great dialogue, with references to Magica, the Beagle Boys, Duckburg, the Money Bin, Killmotor Hill, and the use of the word 'spendthrift'! That's an epic page of awesome!! Most art I bought back then was $200 or less. I'd never bid on duck art before. I watched this auction obsessively and bid $450 for it, by far the most I'd ever bid on art. The auction finally came and...I was blown out of the water. Completely demolished. It sold for $2500. I was floored. After the loss I sought out Don Rosa himself, determined to get a page, and ended up becoming friends and splitting two of his stories with fellow collectors. But none of those pages were as good as 'the one that got away'. 15 years passed without a peep. No idea where the piece went. Suddenly, it shows up on Heritage! I do a happy dance. Most Rosa pages sell for $1-2k. The best ones hit $2k+. This page, knowing it had sold for $2.5k 15 years ago, I expected to go high. It was the opening splash of Rosa's second story. Not quite the detail he was later known for, but an epic page all the same. More of a Barks/Rosa hybrid at this point, or Rosa wearing a Barks suit. I was ready with a crazy bid without batting an eyelash. I'd sell stuff to pay for it if need be. I wasn't letting this slip past again. Ideally I'd get it for $3-4k. Worst case I'd overpay. In the end I overpaid, pushing it to almost $6k, the most I've heard of for a single Rosa panel page. But boy was it worth it! A stellar example of Rosa's early work, most of which never surfaces. Ode to Carl Barks: - The opening panel was from The Secret of Atlantis(see additional image) but when you look close, you realize Rosa changed tiny details, from how the books leaned to the safe being open to the candle height and Scrooge's hand placement. Other details like the orientation of letters in the cubbies are almost identical. Story Code: AR103 Social/Sharing |
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Comments on this Artwork
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P A 
Member Since 2013
Posted on 8/16/2016
Awesome piece! Congrats on getting your target after all this time and kudos to you for not letting it get away from you again!
C F
Member Since 2007
Posted on 8/16/2016
Is the piece worth what you paid? Well, it kinda sounds like it is. Congrats!
Alex P. McDuck
Member Since 2015
Posted on 8/17/2016
fantastic early D.U.C.K. art :-) by my favorite artist, rather a Carl Barks page, than a typical later Don Rosa page
Peter Marino
Member Since 2010
Posted on 8/17/2016
All kidding aside, amazing pickup. Congrats on getting your whale Ahab.
Greg S.
Member Since 2010
Posted on 8/25/2016
Fantastic! Very cool you got another shot at this page all these years later
Alex Johnson
Member Since 2006
Forum Moderator
Posted on 1/10/2017
How did i miss your getting this page. It's awesome!
Timothy Finney
Member Since 2006
Posted on 5/6/2022
From Hell's heart, I throw $6K at thee! Glad things turned out differently for you than they did for Ahab. Cheers!
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