Keskustelujen arkisto

I'd like to see Marvel (or - whoever else gets this stuff?) do new stories, but that they also operate better with Egmont so that we can see them here as well. I think the last US thing they took was some stories from Disney Comics and Gladstone about 15 years ago.

Here's my two bits, very well invested in my opinion:
I think the European way of marketing Disney comics is very good (I've said it many times before). In details, I might disagree (about individual series, "presents" and more) but on the large scale, the Europeans are doing right what the Americans are doing wrong.

First: get Disney comics back in the supermarkets and newsstands. I was surprised to hear they aren't, but how on earth are you going to attract new readers then? There's hardly any advertising for them. If necessary, add slogans in bold letters to attract readers (like CARL BARKS CLASSIC ADVENTURE STORY "ANCIENT PERSIA" IN THIS ISSUE!). I've heard some (many?) people in America think Disney comics are only for little kids, and then they might think "A Donald Duck adventure story? What's that?" and pick it up. It's important to get back in the people's eye right now, because readers of Gladstone 1 will be parents themselves later this decade and might remember the comics from their own childhoods ( as in "Disney comics? They still exist?").

The format should be about 32 or 48 pages, for as little money as possible. Gemstone comics were nice, but no child is going to buy an Uncle Scrooge for $9, because it looks so expensive (even though it only appears once a month). Also, there are more titles: this way people can afford to buy more titles.
If Italian stories like Ultraheroes and DoubleDuck must be printed, they should be printed in cheap pocket books. The way Boom! did it (20 pages per month), it takes months for one story to be completed. This way you can print more long stories and avoid serial stories (bad thing - patience isn't what it has been before).

And then the issue we know about best: contents.
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories: perhaps a short Donald or Mickey story to start with, but those stories should be tied to their own titles mostly. If these titles get cancelled before WDC (like in Gemstone), more Donald or Mickey stories can be printed in WDC. Furthermore: stay true to the title. There are a great variety of Disney comics, so the contents of each issue could be suprising. There's plenty of non DD, MM or US comics: there's Brer Rabbit, Little Hiawatha, Mad Madam Mim, Scamp, L'il Bad Wolf, film adaptions, Gyro Gearloose, Moby Duck, and so on, and so on.
Uncle Scrooge, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck: mostly stories with the character, or from that character's universe (US could also feature Beagle Boys or Magica DeSpell). US and DD mostly focus on Barks, Strobl, Taliaferro, Danish and Dutch artists, while MM focuses mostly Gottfredson, Murry and modern Danish Mickey.

That's my idea of how things should be. How do you think about this?

Charlie Brown - you think that's bad, you should see the rest of the country. My wife and I were in NYC for Christmas and I actually found several issues at smoke shops/ news shops, as well as at Midtown Comics. Here in Las Vegas, where I live, there is only one place that carries them - and it is a 50 mile roundtrip.
Dutch and Charlie - I agree that a big problem is availability. These comics are not at bookstores, they are not in supermarkets and they are not in the theme parks.
Price is also a major concern. Gemstones's offerings were not at a fan-friendly price point, especially when you start talking about multiple titles. Not many fans have $300+ per year to spend on comic subscriptions, which says nothing about buying back issues, special issues and other items.
DC and Marvel subscriptions check in at the $25 range, and that's what Disney comics have to come in at. Either DC or Marvel, I can't remember which, recently ran a promotion where you ordered 4 subscriptions for the price of 3. That's reasonable and probably a good reason why only a large comic company should be handling the Disney comics at this point.
A word of caution - I doubt we will see the launch of 3 or 4 titles at the same time. Most likely you are probably looking at a two title launch, if that, consisting of WDCS and US.

Quote from user: CoolwaterDo as the Europeans do. Yeah ... and the most important command is: Glue every week a whoopee cushion or some other rummage onto the cover. That will guarantee that the magazine will fly off the shelves.

Seriously, in Germany the editors tell us again and again that every second magazine or so is sold due to the rummage bonus and that only thanks to whoopee cushion and Co. the circulation is on such a relatively high level and the price on such a low ... Well, I don't mind. If they administer a nice little Jippes or Rota every few weeks, I buy my whoopee cushion with a mild smile in my face. And it has become a good old tradition when having bought Micky Maus to remove the rummage bonus carefully from the cover before reading and throw it in one go straight into the rubbish bin where it belongs to.
Yes, I know about the whoopee cushions and stuff... I said I agreed with the European publishers in general, not in details (individual series and so on).
This is exactly what I meant with "and so on". NO WHOOPEE CUSHIONS or other junk. They do it in France, in Germany, in Scandinavia... only Italy and The Netherlands seem to be the European countries without that sort of rubbish. But yeah: that's the only major no-no. And the colors on the Mickey Maus covers are bad.

Quote from user: CoolwaterAnd it has become a good old tradition when having bought Micky Maus to remove the rummage bonus carefully from the cover before reading and throw it in one go straight into the rubbish bin where it belongs to.
And then discover you ripped half the cover off and threw that in the bin.
Quote from user: Lars JensenPersonally I agree 95% with Dutch Duckfan Down Under's suggestions.
What not then? :) Now you made me interested. Perhaps there should be more Mickey, Scrooge and Donald in WDC (as most people are used to) but these characters have their own magazines.

I don´t agree completly because I think that the contemporary Egmont material is really lousy (with some exceptions like the comics of Jensen/Andersen). Also the old Western material (Strobl, Murry etc.) will prevent any success of a Disney Comic. I would propose more Italian stuff because I think that Casty, Vitaliano, Cavazzano, de Vita etc. create(t) the best Disney material next to Barks. You can find marvellous stories of them never published in the States, above all great Fantasy stories (like the "Asgaard Saga" with Mickey and Goofy which is much better than "Wizards of Mickey" or "Dragonlords"; the Kids are mad for them).
So I would suggest 1) a Classic Line with Barks, Gottfredson, Rosa, Van Horn, Jippes in the WDC format (32 pages) and under the WDC Title and 2) a new line following the pocket format of Topolino in Italia. In Europe all titles which contain presumably the Danish material are in decay whereas the pocket titles with Italian material and some longer Danish stories are still successfull. That´s for I adviced a combination of pocket format and much fantasy stuff (containing also satires like the Jensen/Andersen TNT series) for acquiring new young readers. 3) A third line should contain new American comics with the introduction of new characters, above all some credible females: Daisy and Minnie are too sterotyped and the Duck/Mouse world is the (fictional) male world of the fifties which exclude all young females from reading Disney Comics. Also here some Italian writers have given to us new prospectives like Scarpa with the dynamic girl--journalist Paperetta Yè Yè and Casty with the female archaeologist Eurasia (and also Lars Jensen with the female chief agent Kolik).

Quote from user: Dutch Duckfan Down UnderHere's my two bits, very well invested in my opinion:
I think the European way of marketing Disney comics is very good (I've said it many times before). In details, I might disagree (about individual series, "presents" and more) but on the large scale, the Europeans are doing right what the Americans are doing wrong.

First: get Disney comics back in the supermarkets and newsstands. I was surprised to hear they aren't, but how on earth are you going to attract new readers then? There's hardly any advertising for them. If necessary, add slogans in bold letters to attract readers (like CARL BARKS CLASSIC ADVENTURE STORY "ANCIENT PERSIA" IN THIS ISSUE!). I've heard some (many?) people in America think Disney comics are only for little kids, and then they might think "A Donald Duck adventure story? What's that?" and pick it up. It's important to get back in the people's eye right now, because readers of Gladstone 1 will be parents themselves later this decade and might remember the comics from their own childhoods ( as in "Disney comics? They still exist?").

The format should be about 32 or 48 pages, for as little money as possible. Gemstone comics were nice, but no child is going to buy an Uncle Scrooge for $9, because it looks so expensive (even though it only appears once a month). Also, there are more titles: this way people can afford to buy more titles.
If Italian stories like Ultraheroes and DoubleDuck must be printed, they should be printed in cheap pocket books. The way Boom! did it (20 pages per month), it takes months for one story to be completed. This way you can print more long stories and avoid serial stories (bad thing - patience isn't what it has been before).

And then the issue we know about best: contents.
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories: perhaps a short Donald or Mickey story to start with, but those stories should be tied to their own titles mostly. If these titles get cancelled before WDC (like in Gemstone), more Donald or Mickey stories can be printed in WDC. Furthermore: stay true to the title. There are a great variety of Disney comics, so the contents of each issue could be suprising. There's plenty of non DD, MM or US comics: there's Brer Rabbit, Little Hiawatha, Mad Madam Mim, Scamp, L'il Bad Wolf, film adaptions, Gyro Gearloose, Moby Duck, and so on, and so on.
Uncle Scrooge, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck: mostly stories with the character, or from that character's universe (US could also feature Beagle Boys or Magica DeSpell). US and DD mostly focus on Barks, Strobl, Taliaferro, Danish and Dutch artists, while MM focuses mostly Gottfredson, Murry and modern Danish Mickey.

That's my idea of how things should be. How do you think about this?

James Silvani is making great art. I would love to see a comic with classic characters or at least duck tales.

Birthday Bugaboo
Whoever the next publisher will be, they should reprint this story. It's very, very Barksian in many aspects, the general story idea, the drawings (which tend to look like a mix of generic U.S. 70s Ducks, Barks and the future Van Horn), the poses, the dialogue (even written in a Barks-like handwriting) and the word balloons. The artist of this comic must have read a lot of "The Good Duck Artist"'s comics. With some suspension of disbelief (we all know that's impossible), you could even believe that it was Barks under a pseudonym! And it's a good comic, too. If you have it - read it, if you don't have it - get it.