Editing Don Rosa (section)

===The Pertwillaby Papers and early non-ducks work===

Rosa's first published comic was an adventure comic strip titled ''[[The Pertwillaby Papers]]'' created for his college newspaper ''[[The Kentucky Kernel]]'' in 1971. By the time he graduated in 1973 the comic had amassed 127 chapters.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

[[File:DonRosa-2.jpg|thumb|right|Don Rosa in his home in 2010|275px]]

While making ''The Pertwillaby Papers'' Rosa also contributed art and articles to comic [[fanzine]]s. One contribution was ''An Index of Uncle Scrooge Comics''. According to his introduction: "Scrooge being my favorite character in comic history and Barks my favorite pure cartoonist, I'll try not to get carried away too much." In 1970, he drew a Donald Duck [[fancomic]] titled ''Return to Duckburg Place'', depicting a dark and [[dystopia]]n vision of the future of Duckburg, and unsuccessfully submitted it to a fanzine for publication.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dalager Ditlevsen |first=Søren |date=2021-07-29 |title=Andeby er splittet i to: Legendarisk tegner har i årtier fået ande-fans helt op i det røde felt |trans-title=Duckburg split in two: Legendary cartoonist has been driving duck fans crazy for decades |url=https://www.dr.dk/historie/webfeature/donrosa |access-date=2024-12-24 |work=[[DR (broadcaster)|DR]] |language=DA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Don Rosas samlade verk |publisher=[[Egmont Group|Egmont]] |year=2011 |isbn=9789174055733 |volume=1 |location=Malmö |publication-date=2011 |pages=24–33 |language=SV}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Berger |first=Thomas |date=2014-09-02 |title=Tre år i hælene på Don Rosas ænder |trans-title=Three years of chasing Don Rosa's ducks |url=http://nummer9.dk/artikler/tre-aar-i-haelene-paa-don-rosas-aender/ |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911024326/http://nummer9.dk/artikler/tre-aar-i-haelene-paa-don-rosas-aender/ |archive-date=2014-09-11 |access-date=2024-12-24 |work=Nummer 9 |language=DA}}</ref>

After attaining his bachelor's degree, Rosa continued to draw comics purely as a hobby, his only income came from working in the ''Keno Rosa Tile and Terrazzo Company'', a company founded by his paternal grandfather.

Rosa authored and illustrated the monthly ''Information Center'' column in the fanzine ''[[Rocket's Blast Comicollector]]'' from 1974 to 1979. This was a question-and-answer feature dealing with readers' queries on all forms of pop entertainment of which Rosa was a student, including comics, TV and movies. He also revived the ''Pertwillaby Papers'' in this "RBCC" fanzine as a comic book style story rather than a newspaper comic strip from 1976 to 1978.

Rosa accepted an offer from the editor of the local newspaper to create a weekly comic strip. This led to his creation of the comic strip character [[Captain Kentucky]] for the Saturday edition of the local newspaper ''[[Louisville Times]]''. Captain Kentucky was the superhero alter ego of Lancelot Pertwillaby. The pay was $25/week and not worth the 12+ hours each week's strip entailed, but Rosa did it as part of his hobby. Publication started on October 6, 1979. The comic strip ended on August 15, 1982, after the publication of 150 episodes. After three years with Captain Kentucky, Don decided that it was not worth the effort. He retired from cartooning and did not draw a single line for the next four years. Years later, as his fame grew, his non-Disney work was published by the Norwegian publisher Gazette Bok in 2001, in the two hard cover "Don Rosa Archives" volumes, ''The Pertwillaby Papers'' and ''[[The Adventures of Captain Kentucky]]''.