Disney-comics digest #261.

David A Gerstein David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu
Mon Mar 7 04:37:12 CET 1994


	Hi Folks!

	DON:  I don't actually have sales figures for U$ 261-262.  All
I know is the following:

	A)  Around the time of U$ 270, I discussed sales with Cris or
Dave Seidman or someone.  I was interested to see how U$ 264 had sold,
because I had recommended one of the Daniel Branca stories that was
used in that issue.  (These were the days before I was 18, so I could
only recommend stories, not actually dialog them...)  The response was
something like, "U$ 264 sold pretty well, but #265 wasn't as
successful."  "How did your Don Rosa issues do?" I asked.  "They've
done really well" -- at this point, this only referred to 261-263.
We had a discussion of the production of the album, DONALD AND
SCROOGE, which was made, as you might have guessed, because YOUR
stories are the only ones they found successful enough to try and sell
TWICE!  Doesn't that say something?  DONALD AND SCROOGE #2 was to have
been all Van Horn.  But the sales figures didn't warrant its
production in the end.  Van Horn isn't as popular as you, Don.

	B)  Okay, so we take it that your stories sold the best.  Now
we note that UNCLE SCROOGE was Disney's most successful title.  The
only issues of U$ during Disney's reign to feature long Rosa
adventures (As opposed to shorter stories) were U$ 261-63.  David
Seidman told me circa fall 1992 that the most successful U$ issues
were those with long stories, which was why there were more with long
ones than short ones, by a wide margin, during Disney's run.

	Putting facts A and B together certainly suggests that U$ 261
and 262 were, together with U$ 263, among Disney's most successful
comics.  Perhaps THE most successful.  This was my line of reasoning.
I was never told that U$ 261-263 were the top Disney Disneys, but
darned if it isn't kinda easy to come to that conclusion!
	
	* * * * *

	I have no actual sales figures for Disney-Disneys outside of
what was printed in their comics themselves, once or twice a year.
They generally showed U$ first, DDA second, and WDC&S a strong third
in the sales rankings.  When WDC&S began using Gottfredson Mice rather
than Dick Moores ones (in WDC&S 568, although there were a few
breaks), the sales improved substantially.  When they went to pie-eyed
MM in WDC&S 580, sales improved even more.

	But I don't know that from sales figures.  I know that merely
from chatting with Disney's editors now and then as I was wont to do.

	Disney found its least popular material with the "classic"
characters to be the adventures in which Goofy and Mickey portrayed
historical figures.

	That's all for today.

	David Gerstein
	<David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu>





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