The Crown of the Crusader Kings
- the 4th Finnish Rosa-book

It's already a custom for Helsinki Media to publish a hardcover Don Rosa -book every second year, and that tradition continues also in this year, two years after publishing Sammon salaisuus (The Quest for Kalevala). It also has a Finland-connection, allthough not as good as the last time.

Cover Story

Don made this story to Egmont. It's about a hunt of a Middle Age, lost crown of the Knights Templar and it's plot course is similar to The Guardians of the Lost Library. The story is linked to Barks' The Philosopher's Stone and it will include a Finnish/Swedish adventurer, A.E. Nordenskiöld, that Scrooge meets in 1892 at the Columbian Expo in Chicago. The meeting with Scrooge and Nordenskiöld is also going to be what starts the whole adventure. In the same time the story is also a prequel to another story that Don is going to do in a year or so. That story would reveal what ever happened to Scrooge's sisters. Don finished this story in May 2001 and it has 27 pages.

Date of publication

The book will be published in November on week 47 or 48 and Don is touring in four different cities during the time between 30.11. and 5.12. The cities are Helsinki, Tampere, Turku and Oulu. He is also attenting in the 50th anniversary celebration of Aku Ankka 5.12. and has promised to wear tuxedo in the first time of his life! Here is Don's schedule:

HELSINKI
Fri 30.11.
15.00-17.30 SOKOS keskusta
18.00- Good Fellows, Fredrikinkatu 38

HELSINKI
Sat 1.12.
10.00-12.00 Citymarket, Iso Omena
13.00-16.00 Suomalainen Kirjakauppa Aleksi
17.00- Kukunor, Tennispalatsi

HELSINKI
Sun 2.12.
12.00-14.30 Akateeminen Kirjakauppa
15.00-17.00 Anttila, City

TURKU
Mon 3.12.
11.30-13.00 Cosmic Comic Cafe (also originals shown!)
14.00-15.30 Turun Kansallinen Kirjakauppa
16.00-18.00 Suomalainen Kirjakauppa

TAMPERE
Tue 4.12.
13.00-15.00 Suomalainen Kirjakauppa
15.30-17.30 Kirja-Kärkkäinen, Koskikeskus

OULU
Wed 5.12.
13.00-16.00 Suomalainen Kirjakauppa

Further information

As before, Don is also going to draw the cover and to write forewords to the stories and to the book itself. Just like the Kalevala-book there will be a leatherbound, 100-volume edition of it. The volumes 1-20 will include an original color drawing by Don, and his autograph, the price of one volume is 1900 FIM (about 290 $). Every book will have a different picture and they'll be full-color scenes from different stories. They will be more complex and have more details than in the story itself. They will become more complex with more characters towards #1 and finally the 1th book will have the final scene from the cover story with 7 extra characters and props. Don is also using an exacto knive to cut holes into appropriate places. For example in one drawing the Beagle Boys steal the title and Don is really going to cut the title out. He is also going to ask Helsinki Media to print these 20 drawings somewhere, perhaps in the regular edition book, so everyone can enjoy them. Volumes 21-100 contain a black and white drawing by Don, and his autograph, with the price of 1000 FIM (about 150 $). The drawing will be a large head of Donald or Scrooge with various expressions. If you want one of these you should probably reserve it through Helsinki Media or something like that. The most reliable way is to reserve it through for example Tarja Klaus (tarja.klaus@helsinkimedia.fi), like I myself did. But if you reserve the book, you need to be an adult or if you're a juvenile, you need to have your guardian's approval. This is what Tarja herself asked me to point out.

Stories

Temppeliherrojen kätketty kruunu (27 p.) (D 2001-024)
The Crown of the Crusader Kings
(not published before in Finland)

Suurin kurpitsa (10s.) (AR 108)
Fit to be Pied
(not published before in Finland)

Krokotiilinmetsästäjä (18 p.) (AR 125)
The Crocodile Collector
(published in Aku Ankan Lemmenkutsu -book)

Tyylittä taaplaten (10s.) (AR 119)
Metaphorically Spanking
(not published before in Finland)

Andien kutsu (28 p.) (AR 130)
Return to Plain Awful
(published in AA 17-20/90)

Hänen majesteettinsa Roope Ankka (28s.) (AR 145)
His Majesty, McDuck
(not published before in Finland)

Hopealautasella (10 p.) (H 8968)
On a Silver Platter
(published in AA 39/93)

Kroisoksen aarre (24 p.) (D 94012)
The Treasury of Croesus
(published in AA 01-03/95)

Links

Aku Ankka
From this site you'll in time find information about the book and Rosa's visit in Finland. But in Finnish, of course. You can also find from there a Christmas calendar and mobile phone messages by Rosa. And the Trivia has a Rosa-theme.

Here's a couple of links which both include a panel from the story The Crown of the Crusader Kings. But I warn that they themself reveal something from the story. The panels are scanned by Stefan Persson.

http://www.geocities.com/russian_text_in_rosa story/russian_text.jpg
The exclamation by a Brutopian is Russian and means: "HALT! PREPARE TO BE BOARDED OR WE OPEN FIRE!"

http://www.geocities.com/disneycreatorsappearinginstories/dr.jpg
The man with the big pot is Don Rosa's self-portrait except for the color of the skin.

updated 29.11.2001