Hiphei! Don Rosan omakätiset terveiset ja fiilikset reissun päältä, luvattu yksinoikeudella Kvaakille, seuraavat ohessa! Cool!
Originally Vesa Keskinen invited me to his store in September while I was already in
Europe to do promotions for the Norwegian and Swedish publishers, and then
for a few weeks again later after this new "Life of $crooge" book set came
out. But during that September visit a Duckfan wrote an e-mail directly to
VK and suggested he take me on a tour of all of Finland in a sort of tourbus
or "shopbus", and he thought that was a good idea.
It would be better for VK to just have me sign books in his store during the time I was here with no additional expenses, but VK is actually a REAL fan of Aku Ankka. And he is a truly generous and honest guy. You can say what you want about his
girlfriends or "tabloids" life, I don't know anything about any of that, but
it's my experience so far that in all other areas of business and friendship
and generosity, and as a believer in the Power of Positive Thinking, he is
just as pure and honest as anyone I've ever met. Anyway, just as a lifelong
Aku Ankka fan, he offered to pay for this tour to take me to different areas
of Finland where I haven't been since I stopped visiting Finland for the
publisher years ago, and also to other areas where I have *never* been. This
involves rental of that tourbus at about 980 Euros PER DAY, plus gasoline
and food and lodging for EIGHT people, and full-time PAY for half of them.
This doesn't even take into account the expenses of my being in Finland at
all, such as the transAtlantic plane fare for my wife and me that I paid for
myself. Common sense should tell anyone that VK is probably going to lose
money on this tour idea since he is not also trying to advertise it... we
are depending only on the Internet and word-of-mouth.
Maybe I'm wrong, but when people take their books to a bookdealer or their
CDs to a music shop to be autographed, isn't it common sense that they
should be courteous and buy something from the sponsor-store that is paying
to bring that "artist" to their area? I would certainly think so. Or... do
people think "well, that guy has already been paid a big fat ROYALTY when I
bought this book/CD, so he already owes me a favor!" Maybe that's true of
everything else, but NOT DISNEY COMICS. I have never been paid one penny in
royalties off the sales of Don Rosa books in Finland or anywhere else on
this planet (nor has any other Disney comics creator for their work). But as
a Duckfan I am still DELIGHTED, even EAGER, to sign autographs for other
Duckfans! While I'm in VK's store, we make no conditions since there are no
additional expenses being incurred while I sit there signing. But that's
obviously not true of the tourbus signings. And yet, VK made no conditions
-- he told me to do whatever I wanted. And I thought it would obviously be
fair and courteous if, in return for my signing an UNLIMITED quantity of
books for everyone who came, and writing UNLIMITED length personal messages
into all of them, those fans would show the courtesy of buying just *one*
item, perhaps just the little calendar, so that VK might come closer to at
least breaking even on his tour offer rather than actually losing money. Was
this condition mentioned in advance? Well, I don't think we announced
anything "officially" about the tour in advance -- all that info came from
Internet postings. But as I say, I should think that fans should anticipate
this sort of thing, or have done it themselves voluntarily as a gesture of
support for VK's expenses.
As it is, we still cut the tour short -- we originally were going to be
touring into next week, but the expenses of the bus and the driver's pay and
hotels, etc., etc., would eventually have lost too much money. But I was
very glad we could carry on for the four days we did!
What about the success so far? It has varied WIDELY!!!
Our first stop was in Helsinki, and as near as I can tell, virtually NO ONE
who came to the bus knew we would be there -- they just spotted the "Don
Rosa 2007 Finland Tour" bus in that city square. And that being true, we did
okay... there was almost a steady stream of fans, and we stayed generally
busy for those 5 full hours.
Then to Raiso. In the parking lot near a major shopping mall. This I would
have expected to be quite a success, but this was the one total failure of
the trip! For four hours we sat in that cold bus and I think only a few
dozen fans came through, HALF of them being employees of the store we were
parked nearest and who couldn't help but see the bus blocking the view out
their front window. I knew VK was losing thousands of $ on that day.
Next we went to Hameenlinna that afternoon and I was ready for another
disappointing stop. But that was the biggest success. Apparently the store
whose parking lot we were using had placed an ad on their own (hoping to get
extra shoppers into their store, which is okay). There were HUNDREDS of fans
in line! And it was COLD! I started signing and worrying about how cold all
the waiting Duckfans were... but it was almost as cold IN the bus since they
kept the doors wide open on both ends and I couldn't wear anything more than
a light sweater or I wouldn't be able to sign and write in the books. I
believe 75-85% of the books I signed had been brought to the spot, but
that's perfectly okay -- each fan seemed happy to buy one item as a
courtesy. They tell me a few people left in anger at the idea of having to
buy something -- that's okay... I don't think I would want to sign anything
for them if that's how selfish they were. As it was, I worked as hard and
fast as I could signing books for the allotted 3 hours, and then kept going
another 2 hours just to make sure everyone there got everything they wanted.
That may be the busiest signing I've ever done -- I know it was physically
the toughest -- my hand started bleeding at one point since I wore a hole in
the lower two fingers from the friction of moving across so many pages so
fast. But worse, after 4 1/2 hours nonstop I got hypothermia from the cold
and I started to feel dizzy and lost coordination. (Nothing like getting an
autograph from an uncoordinated cartoonist... my coordination isn't so good
when I'm warm.) But they closed the bus doors and warmed up and I was able
to finish the last 15-20 minutes. Still, we had missed a dinner appointment
with VK, so we just drove 2 hours to the next town and went straight to bed
hungry.
Kouvola was next, 3-4 hours the next day in the parking lot of another big
store. We kept the doors of the bus SHUT that time, which kept us warmer and
I should think pleased the fans who finally reached the warm bus in line.
(Why didn't we do it that way the night before?!) We stayed busy the full 3
hours, nonstop.
That afternoon we went to Tampere and did the signing in a beautiful large
car dealership! I didn't ask, but I assumed it was owned by a friend of
VK's. That was a very nice place to sign (warm!). I stayed busy for 3 or 4
hours, but there was also still time to do some drawings for fans who stayed
until the crowds disappeared. Of course, I wish I could do drawings for
EVERYONE, ALL THE TIME. But if I did that, half the nice folks in line would
not get anything at all.
So the tour seemed to work okay except for Raiso. But... I've done signings
in Helsinki or Tampere in years past which *were* advertised in advance, and
THOUSANDS of Duckfans would show up, enough to clog shopping malls. And I
would not be able to do anything more than scribble my name (no dedications
or written messages) and many would be turned away. So, a
word-of-mouth/Internet tour seems like the only possible way to do it.
However, NEXT time we should plan the tour much further in advance so that
there's more time for the info to spread.
WHAT NOW? Now I will be signing books in VK's store here in Tuuri, every day
for the next 10 days (except the Independence Day), 8-10 hours each day, no
limit on books, no limit on personal dedications/messages, no requirement to
buy anything at all. I am also doing drawings when I can. I did drawings all
day yesterday in the store. Hopefully I can keep it up, but if the crowds
get too large it will be impossible. We'll see.
And now... that's where I need to go! I'll grab a quick bite and start
signing at 10:00, about 10 minutes from now!
----------
Timo
