What does Gladstone mean

[deckerd@agcs.com]

> 	I had a little question about the publisher of  Disney comics
> in the US. It's probably a stupid one, but I was just wondering: what 
> does the name Gladstone mean? Has it anything  to  do  with Gladstone 
> Gander? (Or does Gladstone also publish non-Disney material?)  Or has 
> there once been a Mr. Gladstone, who is/was the owner of the company?
>      ___
About 30 people on the list could answer this (and probably will), but
I'll take a stab at it. Gladstone is just a division of The Bruce
Hamilton Company, set up mainly to publish Disney comics. The name
does come from Gladstone Gander, mostly because they had to call the
company something and "Gladstone" sounds nifty. However, if memory
serves, non-Disney titles have appeared under the Gladstone imprint
(like Dick Tracy reprints), though not many. There's a Hamilton Comics
imprint now that publishes non-Disney properties. Don Rosa once did a 
Duck story that had Gladstone Gander end up in the last panel as the
publisher of a comic book company, and the real Gladstone Comics'
emblem was shown on the wall behind him -- all part of the joke, of 
course, though I have to wonder how that last panel was handled in
other countries where Gladstone isn't the local Disney Comics 
publisher.

--Dwight Decker