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Quote from user: Roger NorthRancid Duck you said that they had sold two issues of Mickey Mouse Adventures at Books A Million? I wish I had known. I probably would have bought them. You live in Gainesville Florida right? That's the only city where I know of that has a Books A Million.
No, I live near Christiansburg, VA. There are a couple of Books-A-Million stores within 40 miles of each other here.

Quote from user: RancidDuckWhy not get the Disney Stores to carry and display the comics, tons of kids go in those stores. They could even put a commercial on the Disney Channel to inform people they are available. I know that this will never happen, just a thought that I believe would help. Disney should be happy to promote Gemstone comics, since they contain their characters. Many parents would be happy to buy their kids Disney comics, but probably don't even know they still exist.
I agree that having the Disney Stores sell Gemstone comics would be a great idea. Unfortunately, I can never see that happening. :( Back when Disney *themselves* were publishing Disney comics in the early 1990's they *still* could not get them into the Disney Stores! Talk about a company so big that one part apparently could not talk to another part! :(

Quote from user: Dean RekichQuote from user: RancidDuckWhy not get the Disney Stores to carry and display the comics, tons of kids go in those stores. They could even put a commercial on the Disney Channel to inform people they are available. I know that this will never happen, just a thought that I believe would help. Disney should be happy to promote Gemstone comics, since they contain their characters. Many parents would be happy to buy their kids Disney comics, but probably don't even know they still exist.
I agree that having the Disney Stores sell Gemstone comics would be a great idea. Unfortunately, I can never see that happening. :( Back when Disney *themselves* were publishing Disney comics in the early 1990's they *still* could not get them into the Disney Stores! Talk about a company so big that one part apparently could not talk to another part! :(
It wasn't only that one part of The Disney Co. didn't talk to the other. We were told that even if Disney considered putting comic books in The Disney Stores, they wouldn't end up doing that, because the profit margin and potential sales wouldn't be high enough to warrent using up that shelf space. Items that don't move quickly are costing them lots of money, as their stores are located in prestigious malls, whose space cost is ridiculously high.

Quote from user: JeffTSo the same reason that most comics have disappeared from the newsstands and grocery stores. It makes sense, but I don't have to like it. Seems like Disney could still spare a few seconds of air a few times every day on the Disney Channel to let more people know about the comics though.
Why should they care about Disney comics? When I was a kid Walt Disney's Comics and Stories was selling over 5 million issues per month. At that time, there were only about 120 million people in USA, and 18 Million in Canada. Now there are about 340 million people in those 2 countries, and they're selling 5,000 per month. From what I see, kids just don't read as much as they did back in the 1940s and 1950s. There are SO VERY much more diversions kids have than still print on paper pages. The large mass of kids want action, movement (animation, computer games, interactive games). Marketing people just don't see the comic book format as more than a tiny additional format for multi-media characters.

When I grew up, comic books were our T.V., and for some, who couldn't afford the 25 to 50 cents to see a movie, they were films, too. I used to buy 2nd hand comics at 3 for a dollar at the local five and dime ("drugstore/discount store"). I couldn't afford to buy ALL the Disney comics released each month. One 25¢ giant comic wiped out my entire allowance (I needed money for hockey sticks and music records, too).

All the grocery stores, drugstores and newstands carried ALL the Disney comics. Some bookstores had them, too.

It would be nice if The Disney Company would advertise their franchisees' comic books, and try to use them as a cross-marketing tool. But it will never happen. They see the comic book format dying all around the World. They realise it's days are numbered. There may be a form of comic story pages available for reading on The Internet, in future. But not comic books as we knew them. As a big market item, I'm afraid they are on the way out, and won't be back in this same form. I'm sorry to say that, as I hope to do final pencilwork for my own stories and magazine covers, and will need comic books to still be printed for that outlet.

Unfortunately, there never has been a large enough base or following for Disney comics in the U.S.A. And starting in the 50s TV has been the big draw for kids as it still is today. But today there's also the internet, the cell phone that texts and also browses the internet and a video games galore. TV has dozens of cartoon networks for kids. Compound that with all the various sports that kids are thrown into year-round these days and what kid is going to take the time to go sit quietly and read comics?

Quote from user: Roger NorthRobb if what you say is true then there might be a chance that Gemstone might give up their Disney Comics license within 2 years or less. I hope they don't give it up. I like Disney Comics just as much as the next person but if they stop making them I don't think there is anything we can do about it. The best we can do is enjoy them while they still exist and hope they stay published for as long as they can. I don't want to be negative but I don't know if there's a future for Disney Comics.
Why would Gemstone give up their license within 2 years??? They were fully aware of the very limited market even before requesting the franchise. They were fully prepared to only do a little better than break-even, just to provide the English-speaking World with traditional Disney comics, because Steve Geppi is a Disney Comics devotee.

Why would he jump ship now? There's no sign that the hard core 5,000 fans will stop buying. If anything, I suspect that getting the deluxe book sets and special books into bookstores will increase sales of the prestige books to some degree. I think we can count on Gemstone to publish Disney comics for at least 10 more years. I don't see the current hardcore fanbase dwindling during the next several years.

Quote from user: Robb_KWhy would Gemstone give up their license within 2 years??? They were fully aware of the very limited market even before requesting the franchise. They were fully prepared to only do a little better than break-even, just to provide the English-speaking World with traditional Disney comics, because Steve Geppi is a Disney Comics devotee.
I couldn't agree with you more Robb. It is not like Gemstone went into this with the thought that they were going to sell tens of thousands of copies of each issue they published. Would they like more than about 5,000 sold of each issue? Yes. Would they have liked to have had success with the newsstand titles and with getting more young readers? Definitely. However they probably knew from the start that these weren't things that were likely to happen. As long as they sell about 4,000 to 5,000 copies of each issue (which I think will be the case for the forseeable future) and that Steve Geppi wants to continue to publish Disney comics, I don't think Gemstone is going to opt out of the license.