Correspondence between Don Rosa and I

A decade ago, I bought Life and Time of Scrooge McDuck Companion by Don "Keno" Rosa, published by Gemstone Publishing. One of the story was The Cowboy Captain of Cutty Sark. While the story itself was very entertaining, I couldn't help but notice that Keno made a mistake in naming his character.

Inspired by Q&A in that book, I sent e-mail to advise him about the character name and ironically, it made me do a little research by myself.

My first email was sent on December 28, 2016:

Dear Keno,
I hope you still have this e-mail.

I'm your fans, even before knowing your name (Thanks to Surien, an employee of Gramedia Groups which published Donald Duck Comics in Indonesia.. She wrote an article about you in one of the magazines).

We, Indonesian Readers, have heard about "The Cowboy Captain of the Cutting Shark", the told of Scrooge McDuck's adventure in Java. Unfortunately the story have not been published yet in Indonesia.

Fortunately, I found illegal copies in internet a few months ago (but the sites had been taken down.. maybe Disney had suited the owner) and found "Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion" in bookstores yesterday (and only one copy!).

Although you try to describe Java accurately, you still fail in some aspect.

Firstly, the most obvious mistake was the headband/headcover. We call it "blangkon" (you can find it in Google Images). If you want to repair it, you can do that by add some motives (we call it 'batik') in blangkon and ask the colorist to color 'blangkon' mostly in black or brown. It rarely colored in red.

Secondly, The name of Sultan Djokja was Hamengkubuwono. The current Sultan was Hamengkubuwono X and the Sultan in 1940s was Hamengkubuwono IX, then in the setting of your stories, it would be Hamengkubuwono VII or Hamengkubuwono VI (you should do more research). Mangkunegara was a duke in Solo and have nothing to do with Djokja.

But you were right describing rivalities between Djokja and Solo which still happened until now.. :lol:
My ex-girlfriend (now in Fairfield, Iowa.. sigh..) laugh when I showed her the story (the illegal copies found in Internet). She always proud of her trait from Solo. :p

Thirdly, Batavia is on the north, Krakatoa is on the the West of Java (not East of Java like a title of Hollywood movie) on Sunda trait, Madoera (Madura) is on the East of Java on Madura trait. Hence, if Sultan Solo went from Batavia to Madoera and Scrooge McDuck tried to after him, then they wouldn't pass Krakatoa. But most people won't realize the mistake.

Fourthly, you can write Madura instead of Madoera. It will be easily read by english reader (the "oe'" was old spelling, influenced by the Dutch, and pronounced as "u"). By the way, Karapan Sapi still exist today and of course, Sultan Djokja and Solo is not taking a part in the race. :p

Fifthly, Batavia was totally under Dutch Rule while both Sultan Djokja and Solo was limited to their town (Djokja and Solo was a city in Central Java -- nowadays Djokja was a province, separated from Central Java) while Batavia was a city on the north of West Java. I doubt one of them had a land or plain in Batavia in the past. Unfortunately, I cannot prove they didn't have.. :p

Six, although most of Javanese Muslim, the traditional rarely pronounced "Allah". They added "Gusti" (means Lord). Hence, instead of 

"Huh? What did you say? I can't hear anything since Allah yelled at me several minutes ago" 

you can add into:

"Huh? What did you say? I can't hear anything since Gusti Allah yelled at me several minutes ago "

It would be more sounding like Javanese. 


In the end,
regardless a few inaccuracies I found in the story, I enjoyed it! I really enjoy the fiction that 'car' was first build in Batavia (hey.. I live in Jakarta). Enjoy the fiction about traffic fine was first issued in Batavia.. woww.. :lol:

And you're right how Javanese (actually all people in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore) pronounced a two-adjective-noun word in reverse way.
longhorn = long (panjang) and horn (tanduk). But we will call them "tanduk panjang" which will be "hornlong" in english. :lol:


best regards,

Kunderemp Ratnawati Hardjito a.k.a
Narpati Wisjnu Ari Pradana
Jakarta, Indonesia.

And he responded quickly at the same day:

>>>> Firstly, the most obvious mistake was the headband/headcover. We call it "blangkon" (you can find it in Google Images). If you want to repair it, you can do that by add some motives (we call it 'batik') in blangkon and ask the colorist to color 'blangkon' mostly in black or brown. It rarely colored in red. 

I have virtually NO ability to tell the colorists even at the company I work for how to color my comics properly. And less ability than that to compel the colorists at all the other publishers around the world to color things as I wish.

I don't see anyone in the story with a headband, so you must mean the turban-type head covers? I can see they are drawn too tiny and wrinkled to show patterns, so I can see why I might have left such off even if I knew about it. But I can tell that I was looking carefully at some pictures to see how the turbans were wrapped properly -- I can see two distinctly different wrapping styles, and I recall copying all the costumes from photos of 1880's native costumes.

>>>> Secondly, The name of Sultan Djokja was Hamengkubuwono. The current Sultan was Hamengkubuwono X and the Sultan in 1940s was Hamengkubuwono IX, then in the setting of your stories, it would be Hamengkubuwono VII or Hamengkubuwono VI (you should do more research). Mangkunegara was a duke in Solo and have nothing to do with Djokja. 

Oh! I don't mind when people try to find errors in my work. In fact, I *like* it -- I certainly DO make errors and when I find out about them I can correct them in future editions. But PLEASE don't say I should do "more research"!!!!!!!! I already spend WEEKS of research on every story I do, all work that I do for only my own amusement and out of respect for the stories and the readers -- I get paid NO extra for all that additional work. And each story only shows you the very TIP of the "iceberg" of the research I've done since I end up using only about 2% of the reams of notes I make, most of which I never find a use for. In fact, that Java story may have involved more research than anything I've ever done short of my Templar treasure stories. It involved research into Java history and customs, volcano facts and Krakatoa history, and even contacting Dutch translators to help me write out newspaper headlines and background store names.

 I just went and found the notebook filled with hundreds of facts and notes that I wrote during my research for that story. I see that I got the names of the sultans, and their photos, from an 1890's traveler's memoir titled ON THE SUBJECT OF JAVA. I see that the book stated that during 1861-1892 the Sultan of Surakarta (Solo) was Pakubuwana IX. And during 1881-1896 the Sultan of Djokjakarta was Mangkunagara V. I see my notes say he was the "res. sultan in Batavia"... if that means "resident sultan" which is different than the main sultan, I don't know. I also am at the mercy of the correctness of the books I get my facts from. I personally don't know who was the Sultan of Djokja in 1882, but the book I got from the history library at the University of Louisville said it was Mangkunagara V. If that story is ever reprinted *again*, I will double-check that name. But it seems like you are not actually telling me that you know the name of the 1882 Sultan of Djokja. If you're IN Java, it's 10,000 times easier for YOU to find out that historical fact than it is for me. Can you please find a reference for me proving who was that 1882 sultan?

But PLEASE don't ever say I need to do "more research". 

>>>> Thirdly, Batavia is on the north, Krakatoa is on the the West of Java (not East of Java like a title of Hollywood movie) on Sunda trait, Madoera (Madura) is on the East of Java on Madura trait. Hence, if Sultan Solo went from Batavia to Madoera and Scrooge McDuck tried to after him, then they wouldn't pass Krakatoa.  

Of course, you are right. But my story obviously *needed* them to travel past Krakatoa. So that's the way they went. I can always think of several reasons why they did so that it wasn't worth mentioning in the story. Perhaps the sultan thought that prevailing winds would make it more difficult for a schooner to follow them in that direction. Perhaps they planned to make another stop on that side of Java that wasn't mentioned.

>>>> Fourthly, you can write Madura instead of Madoera. It will be easily read by english reader (the "oe'" was old spelling, influenced by the Dutch, and pronounced as "u").  

And I found that in 1882 it was commonly spelled as "Madoera" so that is what was important to me, not what spelling would be easier for a modern reader to pronounce.

>>>> Fifthly, Batavia was totally under Dutch Rule while both Sultan Djokja and Solo was limited to their town (Djokja and Solo was a city in Central Java -- nowadays Djokja was a province, separated from Central Java) while Batavia was a city on the north of West Java. I doubt one of them had a land or plain in Batavia in the past. 

What do you refer to here? "The King's Plain"? I don't know what translation of my story you are looking at, which is another *entirely different* problem! I have no control over how my stories are mis-translated around the world. "The King's Plain" was the large central city park in Batavia. My story did not say that it was land that belonged to one of the sultans. Apparently the translator of the version you read did not understand that "the King's Plain" was the name of a public park -- you mean he translated it as "the Sultan's land"? That was the mistake of the translator.

But wait -- you say you read this story in an American edition? So I don't know why you say that my story says that a sultan owned land in Batavia.

>>>> Six, although most of Javanese Muslim, the traditional rarely pronounced "Allah". They added "Gusti" (means Lord). 

Also in 1882? This would be rather difficult for me to have known. On the other hand, all of that dialogue would be "translated" for the reader from the original Javanese which was being spoken, so I'm not sure if an untranslated word like "Gusti" should be in that English version or not. But this is an interesting fact that I'll try to put into future reprints just to amaze another Java reader with my accuracy.

Thanks for writing! Virtually ALL readers assume that I'm simply making up all my history and authentic facts out of thin air like all the other writers & artists do. I am always pleased when someone notices the lengths I go to to TRY to get all my facts correct. I will check on the name of the 1882 Sultan of Djokja next time this story is reprinted by some publisher I have contact with.

After that, on the next day, I wrote

Dear Keno,

Yup.. You're right. It's easier for me to get the correct name.
My father have a list of Sultan Djokja.
(actually, even if my father didn't have it, I could asked my friend who lived in Djokja and got the name for you).

The Sultan of Djokja in 1883 was "Sultan Hamengkubuwono VII" and ruled between 1877 - 1921 and his real name (not important for comic, but for your curiousity) was Murtejo. 

(As I wrote before, the current Sultan of Djokja is Sultan Hamengkubuwono X and his real name was Herjuno Derpito)

Mangkunegara wasn't even lived in Djokja.  The traveler whose memoir you read probably had mistakenly thought Mangkunegara Palace was located in different city and concluded he was in Djokja.

I'm sorry for being rude.
I know it hard to had some history fact of my country, even in this internet-era.
(I used to edit some Javanese-history articles in wikipedia and I still feel the Javanese-related articles need to be edited).

Thanks for replying me..
Don't worry about the path of Sultan Solo's escaping, I didn't think about it in the first time I read. And you're right, you can explain it in many ways, so it is not important. (and I can't prove the Sultan of Solo [Pakubuwana IX] didn't experience Krakatoa... :smile: )

And relax,
by mentioning 'Batavia', 'Djokja', 'Solo', 'Pakubuwana', 'Mangkunegara', 'Karapan Sapi', and show  we know you had struggle to get facts for your story. (and one of my friends always humorously tell me) most of Indonesian doesn't know their own history.

And.. wow... you even drew a javanese rhinoceros with only-one-nose horn. If you were just ordinary comic-artist, you would probably drew the rhino with two-nose-horn.

Best regard,

Kunderemp Ratnawati Hardjito a.k.a
Narpati Wisjnu Ari Pradana
Jakarta, Indonesia.

However, Keno was not satisfied and asked again, on the same day.

>>>> The Sultan of Djokja in 1883 was "Sultan Hamengkubuwono VII" and ruled between 1877 - 1921  

I'm sure you are correct. But WHERE did this misinformation of the wrong name of "Mangkunagara V" AND wrong ruling date of "1881-1896" come from? Who is my "Mangkunagara V" and where and when did he rule, if he ruled anything?

(pause)

Okay.... I just plugged the name into Google and I found an entry that listed that name and ruling period under the heading of "Kerajaan Mangkunegara"... but I couldn't read any of the site's information (in Java-ese?). Can you tell me what "Kerajaan Mangkunegara" means? He was the Sultan of "Kerajaan"? Where is that?

And I answered in the same day

Dear Keno,

Kerajaan means "Kingdom". Raja means "King".
Kesultanan means "Sultanate". 
Keraton or Kraton means "Palace"
Pangeran means "Prince"

The structure of kingdom in Java after VOC came to Indonesia (added by some intrigue and strict protocol in Javanese history and culture) was a little bit confusing. 

Mangkunegara was an 'Adipati' and ruled 'Kadipaten Mangkunegaraan'. 
"Kadipaten" was (usually) an autonomous region inside a "Kerajaan" (Kingdom) but they had their own army.

I think we have to see the history of the first Sultan Solo, Sultan Djokja, and Mangkunegara to understand their relationship. 

Kesultanan Solo, Kesultanan Djokja, and Kadipaten Mangkunegaran was used to be a kingdom called Kesultanan Mataram. In 1755, after a war, it broke into two kingdom, Kesultanan Djokja (the first Sultan was Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono I ) and Kasuhunan Solo (the first Sunan/Susuhunan/Sultan was Sri Susuhunan Pakubuwana III ).

Both Sultan and Sunan (Susuhunan) means the same thing and the same hierarchy. Kesultanan and Kasuhunan also means the same thing. 

In Solo or Surakarta case, both of them are interchangebly. Some people call the kingdom "Kesultanan Solo" or "Kesultanan Surakarta" while others call "Kasuhunan Surakarta" or "Kasunanan". Some people call the King of Solo as "Sultan Solo" while some others call "Susuhunan Solo" or "Sunan Solo". Note that "Kasuhunan" or "Kasunanan" only belong to Surakarta/Solo. Don't ask me why.. 

Back to the history,
Raden Mas Said or Pangeran Sambernyawa (the latter literally means "Prince of Soul Reaper"), a former ally of Hamengkubuwono I was unsatisfied with the division of Mataram. He attacked both Solo and Yogya. However, in 1757, he surrendered to Pakubuwono III, Sultan Solo. Then, witnessed by envoys from Hamengkubuwono I and VOC, his sovereignity was acknowledged by Pakubuwono III. 

However, Sultan Solo (and emissaries of Sultan Djokja and VOC) only acknowledge Pangeran Sambernyawa as Adipati which known as Mangkunegara I ( the complete title was Kanjeng Gusti Pangeran Adipati Arya Mangkunegara I  or abbreviated as KGPAA Mangkunegara I ) and his territory was called Kadipaten Mangkunegaran. 

Theoretically, Mangkunegara sovereignity compared to Sultan Solo should be just like a governor to president. However, probably due to political reason and the weakening of Kesultanan Solo, sometimes the Dutch treat Adipati Mangkunegara as the third king of Java (the other two was Sultan Solo and Sultan Djokja). 

You can read the complete history in Wikipedia Articles, Mataram Sultanate under the section "Division of Mataram".

The Kadipaten Mangkunegaran on the east of Solo. ( Djokja was on the south of Solo). 

I attached a map of Mataram (Kesultanan Solo, Kesultanan Djokja, Kadipaten Mangkunegaran, Kadipaten Pakualaman [it was a different story]) in 1830 from Wikipedian in Indonesian Language's Article: Kadipaten Mangkunegaran. 

Note the 1830 was the year after Java-War and the territory of Dutch ( Indonesian: Belanda) was expanded while the territory of both sultanate (Solo and Djokja) was reduced. Please, remember what I wrote before, that Kraton Mangkunegara (Mangkunegara Palace) was located in Surakarta (Solo). 

In conclusion,
answering your questions:
Yup.. Mangkunegara V had territory called as Kadipaten Mangkunegaran. And he was a ruler with a title KGPAA (Kanjeng Gusti Pangeran Adipati Arya).

Could his territory be called as Kerajaan (Kingdom)? 
Theoretically, it couldn't. 

Let me translate a paragraph from Wikipedian in Indonesian Language: Kadipaten Mangkunegaran:

Penguasa Mangkunegaran, berdasarkan perjanjian pembentukannya, berhak menyandang gelar Pangeran (secara formal disebutKangjeng Gusti Pangeran Adipati Arya, mirip dengan Fürst di Eropa) tetapi tidak berhak menyandang gelar Sunan atau pun Sultan. Karena itu, penyebutannya sebagai kerajaan secara hukum tidak tepat.

The ruler of Mangkunegaran, according to the treaty which founded the region, had a right to assumed the title Pangeran/Prince ( formally called as Kangjeng Gusti Pangeran Adipati Arya, similar with Fürst in Europe ) but should not assumed the title Sunan and/or Sultan. Hence, calling the region as kerajaan (kingdom) was inaccurate. 

But practically, since Mangkunegara (from Mangkunegara I) had his own army, had power to rule autonomous region almost as wide as Kesultanan Solo, and the Dutch itself sometimes treat Mangkunegara as the third king of Java, it can be understand why some people called it Kerajaan Mangkunegara (Kingdom of Mangkunegara). 

(I've just edited an article in Indonesian Language Wikipedia which contained list of King of Jawa [Daftar Raja-Raja Jawa] -- replacing Kerajaan Mangkunegara with Kadipaten Mangkunegaran )

Dear Keno,
I hope I didn't bore you with long history. I hope it can clear who Mangkunegara V was.



regards,
Kunderemp Ratnawati Hardjito a.k.a
Narpati Wisjnu Ari Pradana
PS: Do you know any mailing list about Duckburg fans which you can recommend to me?

And I also attached a map of Central Javanese at that time

And he answered

>>>> I hope I didn't bore you with long history. I hope it can clear who Mangkunegara V was. Yes, NOW I know who Mangkunegara V was! He was the guy who IMPERSONATED the Sultan of Djokja and got the two bulls that $crooge had promised to the real Sultan whom he had never met in person! The Sultan of Solo's people never said anything -- they had heard that $crooge had brought the bulls for the S of D, as you see the "emitter" saying, but when they saw Mangkunegara V trying to buy them, the S of S decided to also try to get them. Note that the S of S never refers to the other as the S of D -- he knew that's not who it was and he assumed $crooge also knew it.

YES! (Whew... that was tough!)

And I laughed when I read the reply. I know I would get this kind of reply because I read similar reply about the same topic on the book I bought.

So I finally ended our discussion.

I couldn't answer anything but.. :laugh on loud:
No wonder I always laugh when I read your comic.

Nice..
You found another way to answer my critics.. :lol:

Thx for replying..

Narpati W.A. Pradana

And
Yes, thank you, Don Rosa for replying my e-mail.

By the way, The Cowboy Captain of Cutty Sark was finally published in Indonesia years after the correspondence ( I believe somewhere about 2009-2011) and the name of both sultan was censored and replaced by "Sultan Wetan" (Sultan of the East) and "Sultan Kulon" (Sultan of the West).