Keskustelujen arkisto

DEANMARY:
> Let's look at a few things. Since WDC&S
> started the new format we have had several Don Rosa stories chopped and
> butchered into 3 parts.
The long Rosa stories are produced by Egmont as serials!
So using the words "chopped" and "butchered" is totally wrong. The stories
were made that way, and what we see in the Gladstones are the original
versions. (There has been "butchering" going on with some Rosa stories but
you can't blame Gladstone for that. Give "Uncle Walt" a call and let him
know what you think about that instead.)

[about reprinting Rosas work]
>If a person wanted that particular Rosa story
> they could likely get it cheaper simply by getting the original comic it
> appeared in in the back issue market.
I totally agree with you. We like Rosas stories but we don't want them over
and over again.The same for the rest of the stuff that we've seen two or
three times over the past ten years.
There *are* lots of unreprinted stuff you know..

> One question I have is this: Are 7 dollar comic books what the fans
> want or what Gladstone wants?
Personally, I prefer the way Gladstone printed their books in the late
80's. I might be the only one who thinks so but those books had *charm*!

POUL:
> WDCS: 100 pgs, 12 times a year
If they only *had* 100 pgs...
Anyway, I guess that it will be less reprints of Alvarado, Wright and such
unreadeable things in WDC and U$ so the pages we *read* will be about the
same.

In WDC 615, the last page of "Backyard Battlers", panel 3 & 4 seems to be
redrawn. Am I correct?
Why? Is the original Dutch version different? (H 8455)

/Joakim Gunnarsson
Falkenberg, Sweden.

SCANDINAVIANS:

Errors found in our catalogue:

The story 'Gavtyven i Andeby' ("I TL 385-A") is either not
I TL 385-A (reg. as Chierchini) or it MAY BE I TL 385-A but then
NOT by Chierchini. The art _is_ by Bottaro, and it can be found
in Jumbobog 3 or KAP 3 - anyway something is wrong.

The story 'Mickey Mouse og den sorte hummer' in JB 11 is
NOT I TL 466-B by Carpi but I TL 485-C by M. de Vita.
This is important because the story is the very first example in
Scandinavia of Massimo de Vita drawing a Mickey story, and
he did not make too many of them in early 60's.

S=F8ren Krarup Olesen
http://www.kom.auc.dk/~sko/jumbo

For those looking to stay up-to-date on upcoming stories, 1998s' 9th
Donald Duck Weekly [DW9809] from Egmont Comics Creation [ECN] will
contain a 10 page Mickey story of mine called SPURLOCKE AND DIGGER
[D97349]. The art from Carla is very good (with one minor staging gaff
I'll mention later).

This is an ensemble piece that features Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto
all playing important roles. In fact, one of the small delights of this
story for me was weaving a number of character arcs together in parallel
threads within the page limits of such a short story. I was very pleased
to be able to move from character to character, each with separate
motivations, and thereby move the larger story forward at the same time.

I don't want to give anything away about the plot for reasons that
become apparent as one moves past the opening. As far as the
mis-staging, the main characters are facing the wrong way on the last
panel of Page 7. I'm not sure if this was done on purpose for dramatic
reasons, but it violates my sense of reality.

Actually, the introduction of "the hound" at the opening of the story
was other than I suggested, too. The staging is very dramatic and
engaging, but posed to make it seem as if the hound is antagonist,
rather than ally. This is not true and, I think, violates the internal
logic of the story, weakening it slightly.

But these are two nits that probably no one other than myself or a very
astute reader would even notice. Overall, the story moves forward in a
very smooth succession of character scenes, there are nice twists that
mesh logically, and there is redemption and humor. All-in-all, a nice
little tale.

The Uncle Scrooge tale, DIME AND DIME AGAIN [D96414 ECN DW9810]], is a
6-pager drawn by Sabate. It's a quick little straightforward match up
with Scrooge against a classic nemesis. There's some snappy dialog and
some fun images, I think. The opening image is of Scrooge relaxing in a
hot bath full of coins and currency and later there is a nice little
moment where jaunty Scrooge flips a coin into his pocket before kicking
up his heels.

Hope y'all enjoy!

Congrats, by the way, to Don Markstein for his upcoming THE NEW LOOK
[D96351 ECN DW9808], a Scrooge 6-pager drawn by Millet. This is nice
little "it's all how you look at it" tale with lots of funny running
dialog gags and an unusual montage effect that works very well, I think.

A big ->SIGH<- filled with equal parts commiseration and great good luck
to Gary, Susan, John and the folks at Gladstone. At least, as someone
else pointed out, this is only a loss of about 100 pages a year out of
2500, but even this small 4% is a dear loss.

Great holidays to one and all!

--
riverrun past Eve's and Adam's from swerve of shore to bend of bay
(Email removed) -=*=- http://users.aol.com/dcrawson/home.htm

DANIEL:

> As many people on this list have noted, the mainstream-kid readership
for duck comics has declined, probably because the culture has moved on
-- Scrooge was popular decades ago because he was a creation of that
time. Spawn and all the rest of the violent superheroes are popular now
because they speak to our time. This isn't to say that any of it is
better or worse -- just that clearly there's something in Spawn that's
speaking more clearly to today's comics readers than Scrooge.

Agreed. Spawn, possibly, but I believe the comparison to Sonic is
more feasible as the character is more clearly designed as kiddie
stuff (kids do read Spawn, but I feel they're just emulating their
older fellows). Nevertheless, we're quite sure sooner or later Sonic
will follow the same fatal way as Pac-Man or Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles -- just as expected of any other intentionally
life-cycle-timed product.

But I feel the silent majority believe mainstream Disney characters
are timeless and obsolescence-immune in any given medium or market --
in practical terms, more likely to survive in the long run, but more
stagnation-prone as products. We must accept the fact that Disney
comics are a mass market product, and as such, they're as subject to
the market jungle as Spawn or Sonic. Welcome to the real world, folks! :-)

HARRY,

> I know we are a bit backwards here in Europe, but culture has moved
on here, too. And there are still a lot of children who like the
stories from the 50s. You know why? Because they are GOOD.

Surely, great Disney comics will never lose *that* excellence
audience. But if there's "dumbing down" the average consumer (faster
in the U.S. than in Europe), that's another story...

ARTHUR

>Children
>are not interested in who Al Taliaferro is or that 1937 featured the first
appearance
>of Huey, Duey and Louie! You won't see articles like that in a summer edition
>of the Italian Topolino, when one millions copies are sold in one week!

That's not so right. You don't see those articles very often in "Topolino",
that's true (but sometimes you do). But you DO see them in "Paperino" (a
monthly not meant for collectors) and on "Disney Megazine" a weekly add-on
to the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica" which is surely meant FOR CHILDREN.

Marco

I'll blow off a little steam now about obscure Disney comics characters.

Doesn't the following logic seem a little flawed?
Gladstone wants to please people who like minor characters like Bucky
Bug, Chip N Dale, Lady and the Tramp, etc, so they put many of these
stories into WDC&S. Yet they don't feel confident enough in the selling
power of these stories to give them their own title. So those of us who
are really only interested in the ducks are forced to buy a $7.00 "comic
book" and basically never read half of it. Yet they know we'll do it,
'cause Rosa's just that good, and Barks reprints are irresistible. So
if they KNOW that the ducks sell and Bucky Bug and company don't, why do
they publish the way they do?
It doesn't make any sense to me. I'd soooooo much rather have a book
full of duck stories than what's in WDC&S most of the time. But I'm not
willing to miss Rosa stories. It's a no-win situation. And, call me
un-American, but I don't even like Mickey Mouse.

Does it seem strange to anyone else, Americans in particular, that
Mickey Mouse is the mascot of the whole Disney empire, yet he's been
basically absent from the public scene for YEARS? People rush out and
buy merchandise with the Almighty Mouse's face on it, but they obviously
aren't all reading WDC&S, and Mickey cartoons are all old and
few-and-far-between. The few Mickey shorts that have been in theatres
in the last several years aren't enough to generate the intense
interest. It's so frustrating to a huge duck fan like me to go to a
store and find a huge rack of Mickey shirts, and nothing with just
Donald on it. The few shirts that do have Donald have him in a group
with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and other characters with whom he never mixes
in the comics. Yet between DuckTales and Quack Pack, Donald and his kin
have had much more exposure in recent years that Mickey. (Although
excluding Donald from most of DuckTales was inexcusable.) And when
Donald is depicted, it's as a mindlessly grinning or squacking
cartoon-ish sort of guy, not the complex character Barks, Rosa, Van
Horn, etc, have developed. It's downright criminal! Ah well, it can't
be helped, I suppose. But I don't have to like it.

Thanks for listening to me ramble and vent my spleen!

Katie Sullivan, a.k.a. Miss Quackfaster.

(P.S...Don Rosa: Don't worry about your travelogue appearing at a bad
time. Worse things have been posted. (You, Goldie and I know what I'm
talking about...) I'm so stoopid sometimes!!!

the latest word on the fannish grapevine is that Acclaim will restart their
Disney titles in April 1998.

Steven Rowe

all,

it is very sad indeed on the recent outcome of the gladstone comics line
dwindling down to only two titles monthly. however, i would always
prefer this to losing gladstone entirely!! it just wasn't the same when
disney took over (but it got so much better after gladstone resumed
publishing comics).

i prefer the comic book format over prestige format. i vowed to myself
to buy only what i felt were true comic books - with the simple yet
enticing paper to grap a copy and just watch as one page turns into the
next. so, please bring back the comic book format (24pgs is fine).

as a side note: i'm a big don rosa fan and very grateful that you are
part of this list.

greetings!
ross
(lurker since march - 1st time sending my 2cents)