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Quote from user: Kurt AppelIt´s fine that Boom will publish Doubleduck in Donald Duck and friends. It´s really one of the best new series!
Coff, coff... The less worst one, maybe...

According to Amazon, Life & Times Boom! hc will be published in February 2010 (1st volume) and April 2010 (2nd volume); the Christmas stories volume will be published in November 2009.

And I quote both Morequack and Robb_K.

Quote from user: MorequackQuote from user: KneonQuote from user: Robb_KSo, we fans of traditional Disney comics will have only one 24-page thin magazine to read stories by Jippes, Branca, Rota, Scarpa, Milton, Verhagen, Heijmans, Gulbransson and the like (plus, possibly some thick special books)?
Some of those stories are quite lengthy, so at 24 pages they may want to consider changing the name of the book to the singular "Walt Disney's Comic and Story" ;)
Well, I for one will likely not be buying any 24-page issues of Uncle Scrooge. That's just ridiculous.
I won't be buying any floppies, but that's just because I currently don't buy ANY floppies from any publisher. Given the alternative (TPB, GN) I just dislike the format (and all the care/expense required in keeping those books in good shape.)

However, I can see a $3 book being more attractive than an $8 book to many people. At least to dip a toe in to Disney books.

Quote from user: MorequackQuote from user: Roger NorthI'm sure Boom will do a better job at publishing Disney Comics than their predecessors.
Well, I'm sorry, but I have to take issue with that comment. I think both Gladstone and particularly Gemstone did a fantastic job overall with their printing. Gladstone's quality started off as very mediocre but then really developed into an excellent series that culminated in their prestige-format gems which Gemstone faithfully honored and carried on. Boom will be hard-pressed, to put it mildly, to match their fabulous prestige format with a flimsy 24-pager.
Regardless of the quality, I hope Boom manages to actually MAKE MONEY selling Disney comics.....something that Gladstone and Gemstone struggled to do.

I don't know why Gemstone stopped publishing their Disney Comics either. I think it's because too many of their readers complained about not being able to buy their Disney Comics in stores and only the expensive Prestige Format comic books remained at the time. I hope that Boom will do a better job. Maybe they will be as good as Gladstone was before they jumped the shark (i.e. Converting Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, and Uncle Scrooge to Prestige Format)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemstone_Publishing#Future
That's why.
Yes, it had to do with printing costs.

Exactly - everyone assumes Gemstone made no money on the characters when that's all it is - a base assumption. There is NOTHING, NOWHERE, IN NO PLACE that officially says that was the case. It's just assumption by people who seem to know it all without really knowing much of anything. And until someone from Gemstone actually says it and proves that's what it was then it is simply fabrication and nothing more. (Considering how forthwith other things have been concerning the demise I don't think anyone will ever know the true answer and that is just fine by me.) But to say its because the characters arent marketable or it was solely printing costs and nothing else is completely without base. There's a lot of factors in running a company and that alone is just one drop in a very big bucket - more or less.
As far as the floppies VS trades argument: to each their own. Personally I will support Boom in whatever endeavors they do simply because I'm glad to see the characters live on in new format and because we know floppies will appeal to the casual collector such as myself and many others who cant shell out 30 freaking dollars a book on 2 books and a special per month when they have other things they'd like to buy VS those who would prefer sturdier volumes with lengthier stories in trades such as Kneon.
The problem is - for years other Disney publications have been dealing with longer stories such as these with smaller stories to offset them. Because the American branches never experimented with this, all we're used to is the shorter stuff with the longer stuff being of dubious quality (lookin' at you Marv Wolfman Ducktales). I think its a smart idea that Boom is starting out with what seems like longer stories for the first year because it gives them at least a year and a half or so to see what they want to do with the classic continuity of characters and learn from any mistakes that might be made. People are quick to forget Disney's run on the books and how the first TWO years were pretty much gosh awful with a myriad of stories that got almost everything wrong or were badly colored or modernized the characters to ridiculous degrees. At least with Wizards of Mickey, Doubleduck, and Ultraheroes there's more room to build up a base and a revenue and while they're doing that we'll still get stories from the classic shorter stuff in trades and whatnot until its decided in full how to handle it. Even Gladstone I and II got off to slow starts before they found their niche and I think it's wise of Boom to bide their time with longer stories while providing shorter ones on the side until they really discover theirs.
There's a lot of potential here that - let's be honest: Disney screwed up, and Gladstone II/Gemstone flat out wasted (not entirely of their own trying mind you, to give them some credit) - simply because too many oldheads either did the same old things over and over again (lookin' at you millionth reprint of Back to the Klondike) or the one company that did do new things did it in such a wrongheaded manner that they imploded on themselves and just gave up. How's about you give them a chance, then write in and let them know what you want before you proceed to rake them over the coals and wish them ill before they even get started?
Americans have not had the luxury of Disney Comics en masse (or even regularly available and affordable - sorry Gemstone people but its true but high priced prestige books and consistently late issues just before your demise leave you exempt) that other countries have had, so it really annoys me when people act like they're being slighted or go the pretentious collector route over this. Especially since this is really the first time in a LONG time (we're talking the Gladstone I/Disney years) that Disney Comics are going to be made readily available, affordable and POTENTIALLY NEW. I'm not talking about "Egmont New" where a story was done in another country and brought over here but the potential that "actual new material could theoretically be done in AMERICA within a year or two if this stuff sells and is marketed well". It's a big thing to just assume that but Gladstone II and Gemstone were NEVER in this position to even start with. I just think its really stupid to lambaste Boom when you can just write and express praise and complaints once they get started and let them know what you like/dislike and its disheartening to see other creators simply go "Well those characters wont sell in America anyway so whats the point" when there are really SO MANY other factors beyond what lay on the surface. And its even DUMBER to assume Barks, Jippes, Branca, Rosa,Gottfredson and others will "never be seen again" in lieu of other types of stories when A) we know they'll be in the collected trades while the year long stories are going on B) Boom interviews actively acknowledge those classic creators C) Said stories we're getting now will only last a year or so with the exception of Wizards of Mickey and D) there's a lot more fans than those online who are just plain sick of reprints of the same things anyway. I like Don Rosa as much as the next guy but I got pretty sick of seeing a story I just saw a few years ago printed in Uncle Scrooge again. Let somebody else have a chance.
I think a lot of it boils down to people being afraid of what happened when Disney started where they actively announced that they would not even acknowledge Barks and treated Gottfredson like it was the plague. Boom - while doing something that hasn't been tried before - has actively NOT done that and I give them credit for it. Disney wouldn't even bother putting reprints in trades when they did their stuff. The only thing that genuinely worries me is that Gladstone/Gemstone reprinted SO MUCH Barks and SO MUCH Rosa that I wonder if the casual collector will pick them up in trades again. It all depends on WHAT material they choose to print and how the foreign material is translated and dialogued (the latter of which Gemstone mastered and had to snazz up numerous times. Remember that direct translations almost always suck as some of the earliest Gladstone and Disney issues will tell you.) But this is all water under the bridge because it hasn't happened yet and nobody really knows what Boom is going to do except Boom.
It's just too early to tell and too stupid to doom and gloom the whole kaboodle before it even gets started. If Boom gets something wrong, write in and let them know (lolSupergoofy) rather than complaining on a message board - they're the new guys who have taken the reigns now so mistakes are going to be made - even Gladstone made them when they first began. But don't make ridiculous assumptions and wish ill just because you're not getting your cake on a silver platter with gold trim anymore.
For all their successes, I think Gladstone II/Gemstone ridiculously spoiled and pandered quite a lot of people to varying degrees, causing this "Oh no!" backlash that seems to be popping up here and there. Particularly the oldheads and the collector types who feel like they're entitled to lavish prestige treatment asnd screw anything else that's different. So much so that they forget what Disney Comics were like when they were at their simplest and most available.
Something that was once seen as being FREAKISHLY AWESOME (prestige and oversized issues) and only happened once in a while suddenly became the norm. And when it became the norm it was taken for granted quite often. Yes, Gemstone's later books were definitely filled with good stuff, but for quite a while during its inception it was filled with mediocre awful-to-look-at-and-awful-to-read crap more often than not. And some of those good issues still had some of that crap occasionally peeking its head in to say hi. The fate of how the Take Along books were handled in terms of early story selection VS late story selection pretty much predicted the fate of the main line as a whole if you really think about it. Now that the prestige treatment is gone for good, certain groups are crying foul when there is really absolutely nothing to cry foul about. Yeah, we probably won't get spoiled like that ever again but so what? Nobody said it was awful but IMO that mere presence of it was probably part of the larger contributing problem to begin with.
It is what it is.

Well, the financial troubles of the museum are well documented, even without an "official" statement from Diamond. All you have to do is search "geppi entertainment museum debt" in Google, and you'll find numerous news stories (many from reputable Maryland newspapers) documenting the massive debts to the city and state.