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Quote from user: Baar Baar JinxQuote from user: KneonGah! So many publishers were clamoring to get that license when it was up for grabs, and they just pissed it away like that.
Is this true? Were other companies vying for the license that ultimately went to Boom? That would be encouraging, since the license is up for grabs again. Do you know what other companies were interested?
Scuttlebutt was that IDW was interested, but I don't know how far that actually got. Third hand info from a friend, but I could've totally seen IDW doing something with Disney. Supposedly there were a couple of other companies interested as well, but I don't know who. Egmont also set up shop here in the US around the same time the license was up for grabs, but apparently they have no plans to publish comics over here.

Again, that was scuttlebutt, and don't take it as fact because I don't know exactly which companies were interested, just that there were supposedly 3 or 4.

Yes, having Aaron Sparrow over here would be awesome.

Honestly... judging by some of his comments on that Negaverse thread... I think he's probably been here already. And maybe he's even posted, we just didn't know it. ;)

Like ramapith has pointed out, Gemstone books were priced right for the number of pages you got. In fact, if you want to compare apples to apples, you usually got *more* story with the Gemstone prestige books, as they most often used 4 tier stories vs. Boom's books that generally used 3 tier (or even 3 *panel* pages in many of their in-house stories.)
When the average "floppy" comic book runs $4 now, $7-8 for what was essentially a short graphic novel seems like a steal by comparison. And with an ISBN number, Gemstone's monthlies were also sold on Amazon, in bookstores, etc. (In fact, all of the local comic shops in my area have closed and I could only get Gemstone books through Amazon!)
To reiterate what's been mentioned before both here, and more recently by Aaron Sparrow over on Negaverse.net, Gemstone didn't "fail" because of slow sales. In fact, if you look at the numbers posted in the ol' sales thread, Gemstone's sales at the end were on par with Boom's standard character books -- and were often better than Boom's. And that's with books 2x-3x the price of Boom's.
Link: http://dcf.outducks.org/viewtopic.php?id=590
Why? Gemstone knew its audience. It's a shame that they didn't bring in a lot of *new* readers, but it successfully catered to the existing Disney comics fanbase and sales were pretty consistent.
I applaud Boom! for trying to bring in a new readership, but they lost many of the existing Gemstone readers in the process (myself included.) If it were up to me (and it ain't) I would've kept WDC&S and UNCLE SCROOGE "as-is" (save for maybe some more dynamic cover art) and built up a new Disney readership with some of the other titles (ie Disney Afternoon and Pixar, and maybe some kind of Mickey "Elseworlds" series like WoM)
Whatever new readers Boom! picked up was offset by us "old-timers" jumping ship. They tried to remedy this at the end, but it was too late, IMHO. The damage was already done.
It's all a moot point now, however, as neither Gemstone nor Boom! have the license.
But there's always another rainbow. Hopefully. ;)

Quote from user: KneonThen there's this. ;)
I realize that page's function is to be funny, not factually correct... but the writer really should've done some basic research.

Kneon: I almost busted a gut reading that "Gutters" strip.
I find it interesting that Aaron Sparrow was told that Darkwing Duck was "a nostalgia property" and yet Boom sank a ton of money into doing books with Stan Lee, who is himself pretty much running on nostalgia alone, and obtaining the Peanuts license, which hasn't been relevant in years.
I agree with Kneon...it seems that Boom is a very dishonest company. I understand that it's basic PR to put the best spin on every situation, (Hence Chip Mosher trying to claim a "win" after Boom's apparently disastrous panel in San Diego) but their transparent efforts are really kind of insulting.

Three more things.

One) So, how are the Four Color and Don Rosa books then? They're scheduled to come out August 2nd, says Amazon.
Two) Should we open a new topic for discussing who should be the next publisher, or should we continue in this one?
Three) How about Egmont publishing Disney comics in the US? They seem to do quite good outside of Europe already.

EDIT: Four Color Adventures has been postponed to September 13th. Will it ever be published?

Quote from user: JanoThe second "Treasury" book has already been out for a few days and will - obviously - be the last one in that series (from BOOM!, at least).
...which is a shame since Donald Duck volume 3 would have been loaded with stuff that has never been collected before, including the Triple Distelfink story from the apparently scarce Uncle Scrooge #310. I'm also personally bummed because I'm tragically missing the 2nd and 3rd parts of the Caballeros sequel. :P

But whatever. Honestly, I'd prefer a publisher like Fantagraphics put out a full HC Rosa collection like what's being done for Barks and Floyd-- and, y'know, actually pay to have Don involved since he's actually still alive and all...

Maybe the next publisher will reprint those stories.

Quote from user: KneonOr at least have his blessing.
You may not have to do so legally.
But morally, it's the right thing to do. It's common courtesy.
Yep. Honestly, the idea of compiling Don's work for any sort of collection without having him involved in some capacity is completely ludicrous to me.