Disney-comics digest #640.

[DAVID.A.GERSTEIN]

      DWIGHT:  Oh, no!  We've done it AGAIN!  Late last year that 
Jippes three-pager, with its Dutch title, code, and synopsis, was 
included on a list I sent John of "stories I plan to translate and 
rescript in 1995."  John OKAYED the list early this year, so I went 
ahead and translated the three-pager.  I called it "Banquet Behind 
Bars" and even went as far as to call up Daan Jippes and have him 
approve my new title for the story.  And I turned in what I thought 
was a real doozy of a translation, too.
      I'm not sore at YOU, Dwight -- and I don't want to give John a 
hard time!  But how can I deal with this mess, particularly here in 
Scotland where it's almost impossible to call Gladstone (and costs 
$3 per minute when I DO get through)?  It looks like I went through a 
lot of wasted effort, which is really disappointing.
      I sent John the story a few days before leaving for Scotland, 
so I haven't talked to him about it.  Now I probably can't bring up 
the issue until June.  What to do?

      JOHN AND EVERY OTHER EGMONT WRITER:  If Gladstone is going to 
publish no more 64-pagers (and allocate only reprints for the new 48-
page series, which I imagine will probably be the case), our chances 
of seeing any of our stories in the States is probably doomed unless 
Gladstone changes the format of DONALD DUCK (which Hamilton himself 
dictates).  Would anyone like to co-write a letter asking for 
Gladstone to make this change?  Letters to the letter column do NOT 
help.  Only a letter to Bruce himself will do the trick.
      My idea of a better format for DD would be to use 16 pages of 
new-to-America material in every issue.  The remainder of the issues 
could be filled by a Barks 10-pager half the time and ten pages of 
Taliaferro the other half of the time.  (Rosa's upcoming 10-pager "An 
Eye For Detail" could also go in this slot.)
      DD has reportedly kept its format because it sells perfectly 
well this way.  Most readers I have spoken to would like the format 
to change, but don't want to boycott the comic for Gladstone's sake 
(exactly my own opinion).  How can we solve this crisis?

       WHAT'S HAPPENING TO WDC&S 600 what with this format change?  
Is it at least going to be 48 pages long?  John had told me that, at 
64 pages, it was to have included six "classic" DD ten-pagers by 
various creators.  Now what?

       Geez, what a screwloose mess.
       
       David Gerstein
       <9475609 at arran.sms.ed.ac.uk>