Disney-comics digest #788.

[David A Gerstein]

	ARTHUR:
	The French version of "Darkest Africa" is quite old and,
although it is the original one, it is so badly reproduced that it's
basically unusable for any modern reprint.
	But there WAS a bootlegged Italian printing, around 1980, that
used that process of bleaching the pages (or something).  Fabio
Gadducci and I found it in the collection of a friend of his, and we
sent it right to Gladstone, hoping to get these very usable photostats
to them before it came time to publish the story in CBLDD album.
	Sadly, we were too late.  But when the story next comes up for
reprint in any form, the original version will be used, although it
will probably be censored the same way as the redrawn one.
	(Fabio, John told me he did send the original bootleg-comic
back to you a few months ago... do you have it now?)

	Disney Comics, Inc. had a cache of proofs to the 1947 Cheerios
giveaways which had previously been unknown (Bob Foster discovered
them).  This led to the reprint of two formerly unreprintable MM
stories in WDC&S ("MM at the Rodeo" and "MM in the Haunted House").
	Bob Foster has speculated that this cache may also have
included proofs to "DD's Atom Bomb," but at the time that he reprinted
the story (WDC&S 571) he didn't know that the CBL version was reinked
(Daan Jippes was just too good at it... >sigh!<) and so didn't look
for the original Barks art, thinking he already had it in the
CBL-proofs.  And when Gladstone got in touch with Disney upon
reprinting the story in recent CBLDD album, Disney's emissaries didn't
know about the cache of proofs or where they might be now.
	Aargh!  Disney's so disorganized!
	I also found out that the original, non-restored version
of OS 29's "The Hard Loser," reprinted (ONLY) in WDC&S 551, was simply
found among some dusty old boxes in W D Publications offices.  No one
knew how they got there.  There were a handful of gigantic, 11-by-17
pages, comprising parts of many stories (which existed in other
proofs), but only one complete story ("The Hard Loser").
	I'm not sure why Gladstone didn't bother to use the WDC&S 551
version in their CBLDD album.  Speculation:  The WDC&S 551 version is
not from perfect proofs, and it does look a bit muddy.  Perhaps
Gladstone wasn't aware that it was, in places, better than the CBL.
	Finally, I have a German, Egmont-produced album which includes
the real, Barks version of "Santa's Stormy Visit" (album series DISNEY
SONDERALBUM Nr. 3, "Weinachtsgeschichte mit Donald Duck").  Since
Egmont produced this album, why did they ever REINK the story, and
choose that infinitely inferior version to send to Gladstone?
	I didn't know about this being the original version, BTW,
until I made a comparison recently...

	WES:
	"The Fabulous Philosopher's Stone" was also reprinted in UNCLE
SCROOGE #253.  Magnificent cover, and the story itself was pretty
well-colored.  Although Disney Comics back issues are getting harder
to find these days, this would still be probably the easiest one to
hunt down.

	HARRY:
	Did you get the private messages I sent you a few days ago?

	DON:
	The old Gladstone-Marvel issues (of which US #292 was the
last) were distributed in many venues where the new
Gladstone-Gladstone issues are not.  I used to complain about the poor
distribution Marvel gave the books, until I see how impossible they
are to find now... (but you know all this, right?)
	The upshot of all this is that some stands that put their
Duck books in less-visible spots on the rack have the final
Gladstone-Marvels still there, including US #292.
	My local drug store stocks the Disney titles, although since
Gladstone took over in 1993 they have never -- NEVER -- gotten UNCLE
SCROOGE, even when they ask their distributor for it.  (They DO get
UNCLE SCROOGE ADVENTURES.)
	I was also at a Pic-n-Pay last month where the comic rack was
JAMMED with comics.  They were randomly distributed and packed so
tightly that comics were falling out onto the floor.  I saw Gladstones
from as far back as the Marvel period, in single issues only, there,
sandwiched between all kinds of things, but I also saw the new
Gladstones, too.  The newsprint covers were suffering a lot of damage
in that unhealthy climate.

	But... but... John Clark tells me that the newsprint comics
uniformly outsell the $2 glossy covers on the newsstands, so they're
going to be around for a while.  (They'll be getting their letter
columns back, though, pretty soon.)

	David Gerstein
	<96dag at williams.edu>
	"Who am I?  176-671!" (Broadway musical in Duckburg)