On strike
During early summer 2002, Rosa suddenly laid down work. As an artist he could not live under the conditions Egmont was offering him, but he did not want to give up making Scrooge McDuck comics either. So his only choice was to put down work for a while and try to come to an agreement with Egmont. His main issues were that he had no control over his works. Rosa had discovered too often that his stories were printed with incorrect pages of art, improper colors, poor lettering, or pixelated computer conversions of the illustrations. Another matter was that his name was used in promotion of books and collections of stories without his agreement and without sending royalties to him. Rosa has never, to this day; as with any other Disney artist, received a penny in royalties for a single use of any of his stories worldwide.He came to an agreement with Egmont in December of the same year, which gave him a bit more control over the stories and the manner in which they were publicized.
Retirement
Rosa's eyesight had been very poor since his childhood. In 2006 and 2007 he began having new difficulties which made drawing a very slow and tedious process for him, even more so than normally. In March 2008 Rosa suffered a severe retinal detachment and underwent emergency eye surgery that ultimately proved to be not completely successful. Further surgery in both eyes made drawing even more difficult. On June 2, 2008, during an interview at the Danish Komiks.dk fair, Don stated that he would not do any more Disney comics, citing eye troubles, low pay, and the constant use of his stories in special hardback or album editions by international Disney licensees without any payment of royalties or requests for permission for the use of his name.Rosa is popular with readers in Europe. He considers himself rather obscure in his native United States. According to him, even his next-door neighbor does not know his profession.
