Keskustelujen arkisto

Seasons Greetings all. I just felt the need to lighten the mood a little so I
thought I'd share this nice scan I did from WDC&S #316. Of course
hardcore Duck-fans might find it a bit "blasphemous." ;-) Mouse-fans
should enjoy it though.

http://www.jps.net/xephyr/rich/dzone/hoozoo/images/blasphemy.gif

Ciao for now.
Rich ((Email removed))

Hi!

Barks tenpager WDC 288 "Hero of the Dike" is build around a Dutch (made
up?) story of a boy sticking his finger in a dike to prevent the village
from being flooded.

Last week I asked for more information on this story and it seems to come
from "Anklaar" a village near "Haarlem" in Holland. What surprised me was
that there seems to be a (small) *statue* of this story.

I'll find out more about it soon, but maybe this is a nice idea for Barks-
reference searching tourists visiting Holland? ;-)

Greetings,

--- Daniel

I don't have a copy right here with me, but as far
as I can remember WDC&S is 64 pages, not 100...

Re-calculate!

And in defense of Gladstone:

DC 48-page prestige format books are $4.95
DC 64-page prestige format books are $5.95

Gladstone prestige format books are $6.95,
so actually we pay only $1 extra compared
to industry's "standard price".

But still, 14 bucks per month is too much
for me...

/Mikko

Someone (I think Martin Berglund) talked about the translations of Don
Rosa stories in Europe, asking if the puns are translated, and how. In
Picsou, the translations are usually good; they always find something to
translate play on words and so on. I must admit that sometimes they have
a lot of imagination.

When no litteral translation is possible, they can simply add a note,
too. In one case they wrote something at the bottom of the panel to
explain the joke. In chapter IX of "Life of Scrooge", the editors said
how much was a Farthing (I'm sure that nobody here can tell what it
is!).

The translations in other magazines, Mickey, Super Picsou,
Mickey-Parade, are sometimes OK, sometimes very bad. That's a pity: I
think that some good stories are boring when the translation is done in
a slapdash manner.

Francois
("Welkome" to Paul Jongma)

The reactions to the "Great Gladstone Meltdown" continue. Everyone
has an idea as to WHAT IS TO BE DONE, and most of the ideas are
expressed in the mature, thoughtful fashion that we have come to
expect of the people on this list. Let's look at a few of them...

Among DEAN REKICH's suggestions in his "letter to Gladstone" were
the following:
<<Two, consider going back to coverless comic books. I myself hated
having coverless comic books, but it is a better alternative than having
none at all!>>

I disagree. I'll never forget the embarrassment that I felt upon
seeing those books hit the stores (in particular, the fact that
the last couple of chapters of Don's LIFE OF SCROOGE had to be
printed in that format). If Gladstone's only alternative is a
wholesale return to coverless books, then it is time to let the
license pass to someone else.

<<Three, if there are going to be only 2 titles a month, please make
WDC&S 90% Duck material. I like many non-Duck Disney stories, but with
only two titles it seems like this is a luxury that can no longer be
afforded.>>

I'd make an exception in the case of Mickey Mouse stories. I've
been impressed with the quality of Egmont's recent Mouse output
(the stories that have been permitted to appear in WDC&S, that is).
American readers should be exposed to this new Mickey material.

<<Five, consider Gladstone giving up the rights to "regular" comic
books. Could Gladstone keep the licences to make deluxe Disney titles
while another company produced more economical titles? I think that
would be a win-win situation.>>

This has already been tried -- witness Marvel-Disney. What other
company in the current American market could handle the cheaper
titles? By process of elimination, the only possibility is Archie,
and after witnessing the slow decline of the quality of Archie's
line of Hanna-Barbera titles prior to DC's takeover, I'm not sure
that Archie would be up to the challenge.

DANNY HORN urges us to adjust our sights in accordance with today's
realities:
<<...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...
Gladstone may want thousands of kids around the country to be discovering
and falling in love with ten-pagers from the fifties, but it just isn't
happening...
Given these facts, Gladstone can either continue to bash its head
against the wall trying to attract the attention of kids who don't care,
and probably go out of business doing it... or it can do what it does
best, which is publish comics for collectors.>>

I'm reminded of a quote by George (KRAZY KAT) Herriman... something
to the effect that the public doesn't know what it wants until you
give it to them, and you've got to be willing to give them that
first taste before they start asking for more. Well, such sentiments
can be applied to today's kids and Disney comics. The current
generation has simply not been properly "educated" as to the
enjoyment that they can get from these comics -- especially when
said comics are tied in some manner to Disney's other offerings.

The mistake that Danny makes is to equate <<ten-pagers from the
fifties>> with the ENTIRE spectrum of Disney comics. As Egmont has
proven in Europe, if a "multi-level" structure is established and
given the support and publicity it needs, then readers with no
previous exposure to Carl Barks, Don Rosa, et al. can be led to
them through a gradual process of Disney comics "education,"
starting with "entry-level" comics. Unfortunately, Disney did not
take the time and effort to establish such a structure in this
country. Ironically, this method could have been the means by
which Disney Comics established itself (in the hopeful view of
the line's first editor in chief, Len Wein) as a challenger to DC
and Marvel.

I firmly believe that had Disney taken full advantage of its
financial resources, Disney Comics would still be in business
today... perhaps not with the same exact lineup of titles, but
in business nevertheless. As the new animated series came along,
they would have been given comics adaptations, and the two media
would have complemented each other. In the course of reading
comics about the likes of Darkwing Duck and the Rescue Rangers,
kids would have gotten into the habit of picking up "traditional"
titles as well. A few kids managed to do this anyway, but the
campaign was not nearly as effective as it could have been had
Disney pulled out the promotional stops.

Gladstone, by contrast, did not have sufficient resources to
enjoy the luxury of publishing "multi-level comics", and was
forced from the very moment of its return to lean upon the
long-time collectors. That is what made its decision to shift to
paper covers so disastrous... collectors were the people most
likely to be offended by such a radical change in comics format.

POUL FROUKJAR counted the number of pages that would be appearing in
the two "deluxe" titles, compared this number to that of the number
of pages in all the "pre-meltdown" Gladstone titles, found a
difference of only 96 pages, and suggested we join him and his
computer in <<look(ing) on the bright side>>. Unfortunately, he
glossed over the fact that there's a considerable amount of
difference between paying for these pages 2 dollars at a time and
paying for them 7 dollars at a time. With the latter, you write
off the casual buyer from the get-go... not to mention the kid
with only a small amount of ready cash.

Finally, HARRY FLUKS lamented:
<<Millions of USA children will never know the good stuff they are
missing. That's worth crying about.>>

That's why a Disney comics publisher in this country must be willing
to "educate" its readership, as to exactly what it is they're
missing out on and WHY missing out on it is worth crying about.
You can't walk before you can crawl, and the next big attempt to
run a "real" Disney comics line in America is going to have to initiate
some major changes in order to help new readers through the "walk-crawl"
process.

--Christopher E. Barat
(Email removed)
http://members.aol.com/cebarat/home.htm

>What an incredible embarassment for
>Gladstone, although by now I'm sure they're used to that.

Gee, thanks, Augie...

Right now, I wish I had half the energy and an eighth of the time necessary
to properly respond to everyone's comments on Gladstone's current
sitchiation. All I can afford right now is a heartfelt thanks to all of you
for expressing your views, offering your thoughts, and, in general,
swallowing a very bitter pill with grace and fortitude.

Gary

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"Life ain't nohow permanent!" - Porkypine
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Gladstone on the Web: http://www.hamlco.com/bhc/
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Augie and I have been corresponding on the Gladstone mess, and I've vented my
frustrations to him (thanks, Augie!) so I won't repeat them here. Now I've
tried to come up with a couple of ideas to improve things.

1. Since the prestige format books should have a longer shelf life, arrange
to sell them in Disney Stores and the theme parks as high price
"collectables." I collect them, and I'd say they're pretty high priced.
There's not much else in a Disney Store I can afford to buy, and hardly
anything else there with a duck on it.

2. Publish some black and white "phone book" collections of Barks or Rosa
stories in the format that DC, Marvel, and some of the manga publishers use.
Color is expensive, but as a parent I'd rather spend $12 for 250 black and
white pages of comics than $7 for 64 color pages for my kids, even if I am
willing to pay the higher price for my own collection. They just want to read
the stories.

3. Let Egmont have the license for regular comics and let them try to publish
and market the comics in the United States.

Since none of this is likely to happen, I'll just continue to "buy the line"
and support Gladstone as best I can, hoping all the while that the American
comic book market will improve during the next few years and that the new
Mickey TV show (which will include Donald) will increase interest in the
Disney characters and make it feasible for Gladstone to reinter the the comic
book market.

--your pal, Hoy