Rudi reviewed The Complete Pertwillaby Papers by Don Rosa
Review of 'The Complete Pertwillaby Papers' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This is a brilliant collection, obviously put together by fans of Don Rosa's work. It not only contains the complete set of Pertwillaby Papers-comics, but also interviews, ads, fan drawings and other material related to the comic and Don Rosa's life at the time. It's a big, beautiful book that gives Rosa's often very detailed art the space it deserves. When it comes to the publication itself, I would have liked to have a longer, more thorough introduction to the different chronicles of Pertwillaby by Rosa. From the preludes, introductions and interviews, you still do get his input.
When it comes to the stories themselves, the quality varies quite a bit. The first stories, told in a very episodic way, and published in his university paper, are a bit crude. They're obviously work by Rosa, but he's still very much finding his way, and limited by the restrictions of the …
This is a brilliant collection, obviously put together by fans of Don Rosa's work. It not only contains the complete set of Pertwillaby Papers-comics, but also interviews, ads, fan drawings and other material related to the comic and Don Rosa's life at the time. It's a big, beautiful book that gives Rosa's often very detailed art the space it deserves. When it comes to the publication itself, I would have liked to have a longer, more thorough introduction to the different chronicles of Pertwillaby by Rosa. From the preludes, introductions and interviews, you still do get his input.
When it comes to the stories themselves, the quality varies quite a bit. The first stories, told in a very episodic way, and published in his university paper, are a bit crude. They're obviously work by Rosa, but he's still very much finding his way, and limited by the restrictions of the format. In the end of that run, and in the later stories, the stories turn more into the grand adventures that he is known for. (And the book does not miss the chance to point out that he was telling these stories before Indiana Jones existed.) Several of the story elements later show up in his Duck-stories, where he (often) puts them to better use. They're still lots of fun in these stories, though the characters he is working with are all a bit dull. The Nazi villain is not that interesting any more, the blonde bombshell sidekick is very dated by now, and the villain's sidekick doesn't really seem to serve any purpose at all. Each story also have pages upon pages of exposition, running through the concepts (time travel, black holes, the position of the north pole) in way more detail. The concepts are fun, though, and it's obvious that he likes to think his ideas through. He just doesn't manage to convey them all that well. (And he is very aware of this, as he mocks himself in the comics itself, warning against the boring pages coming up).
tl;dr: This is a younger Rosa that had not perfected his story telling yet, but the stories are still a lot of fun, and the collection is really well put together.