Disney-comics digest #465.

[Don Rosa]

DAVID:
	Yes, the way you define a "gag story" is the way I see it.

JON:
	Yes to you also. In the European version of part V of the "Lo$",
that bank draft did have Barks' signature "forged" onto it. But I
suggested to Gladstone that they remove that and have Bruce sign it
instead. I didn't want to give the "Barks Studio" any fodder to fire off
weaselly attacks at me. That's also the reason that I finally wrote into
the text piece that I had sent an outline of the entire series and
advance looks at each chapter for his comments; he had asked me, at
some point, not to say that he was being given the chance to give me
comments, so I didn't mention it, naturally. Now that I've suffered a
year worth of the "Barks Studio" claiming that the series is poorly
drawn, poorly written, has nothing to do with Barks' $crooge, blah blah
blah, I thought I might be allowed the impudence to tell a bit of the
truth now and then, in a very polite manner.

MARK:
	I have heard many times that stores and collectors in Britain
aren't even aware that there IS a British Disney comic. I think there
are several reasons for this. Britain is the only country which seems to
reflect the failed American comic medium of the past 25 years. In fact,
Disney comics flopped even sooner in Britain -- I'm told that they were
out of business for 15 years or so, and, just as in America where they
were for all intents and purposes out of print for about 10 years, once
that sort of thing happens you can never regain the lost reader base.
Also, it seems that British newsstands can pick and choose what they
stock, whereas American news distributors must stock EVERYTHING that the
mafia... er, excuse me... the local news distributor carries or they get
fire-bombed... er, excuse me... reprimanded severely. So most all stores
in Britain obviously pass on carrying the Disney weeklies which no one
wants anyway.
	I just wonder if this isn't what's now going on at American
newsstands now. (NOTE: when I say newsstands, I don't mean direct sales
comic stores which are a completely different system.) But when I see
special racks full of Marvel comics at airports and record stores (in
other words, places which seem to be being supplied not by a local news
distributor or a direct sales distributor, but have some deal directly
with Marvel) I see ALL the Marvel titles displayed EXCEPT their
Gladstones. They even have the BARBI comics, but no Disneys. Something
is fishy.

PER:
	What can I gripe about today? Hm... let me think. Ah, I know!
That long message that led off today's Digest. Regardless of whether or
not I might think this would be a useful and educational activity for
schoolchildren (I have my doubts), it still strikes me that what
happened is tantamount to me being forced to accept a collect phone call
from a telemarketer. Or like having to pay the postman to deliver junk
mail to me. Nothing in that message had anything to do with this forum.