Disney comics in USA

Wilmer Rivers rivers at seismo.CSS.GOV
Mon Dec 27 18:17:50 CET 1993


Tryg Helseth writes:
> I began to wonder about the fate of Disney comics in the US.  Since Disney 
> gave the publication rights back to Gladstone, I assume they didn't find it 
> profitable enough.  While kids under 10 may read them, older kids don't.  
>
It really bothers me that most of the comics shops around here don't
even carry Disney (or Gladstone) comics at all!  I therefore try to
patronize preferentially the one that does, even when I'm buying non-
Disney items.  This one shop, bless them, has a rack of "kids' comics"
near the cash register, where they stock maybe a half dozen copies of
each title from Gladstone, Harvey, Archie, and titles from other pub-
lishers featuring Barbie or talking animals.  The other stores make no
such concession to fans of anything other than the best-selling comics.
(One encouraging sign is however that many of these stores are starting
to carry "Bone", even if they have only a few copies and they are buried
in the back.  I suppose they consider that to be an "adult" title.)  I
suppose the retailers who sell only popular comics from Marvel, Image,
DC, etc., do so because they have only limited shelf space and these
publishers put out so many titles nowadays.  Still, where do they think
the next generation of comics purchasers will come from?  Also, do they
really think that no one over the age of 10 is interested in Disney
comics?  I am glad that Marvel now has a deal to distribute them under
their own label in newstands.  I have now seen at least a couple of
these titles in airports, grocery stores, and convenience stores.  Maybe
this will reach would-be buyers who don't ordinarily go into comic book
stores.  Still, what is most needed is some marketing push from Disney
itself.  Do they not provide that, because they own just the characters
and are not directly involved in the production?  Even so, that doesn't
seem to hinder the mass marketing of all the kitsch such as T shirts,
hats, plastic figurines, ad infinitum, bearing the images of these
characters.  Don't they realize that these images will cease to be
popular when the public no longer has any interest in the characters
themselves?  And this is likely to happen, when a generation grows up
that has never read any stories featuring them...

Wilmer Rivers



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