DCML digest #869

Don Rosa donrosa at iglou.com
Thu Mar 21 14:32:26 CET 2002


From: Ola Martinsson <Ola.Martinsson at uab.ericsson.se>
>>>>I've been looking at the scan of the Akku Ankka cover of Rosa's latest
masterpeice Forget it.
I suppose that the D.U.C.K. is hidden in the flashes or in the lace of
Magicas neck or arms, but I simply can't see it.
Can someone pinpoint the exact location for me please ?

I guess I can.
Look in Donald's tie.

From: ordi at tekpro.it Paolo Bontempi
>>>This message is for Michael Naiman (his email is missing)
But if there someone who wants to tell me his thinking welcome!
2) Recently on e-bay someone sold a 3-pack with DD222, He said, this comics
is rarest than US179, is it possible? or it said about 3-pack with each
comic?
what can you tell me about 3-pack with these kind of comic (DD222, US179,
WDC480, MM208)

I'm not sure if Michael reads the DCML anymore, but regardless of that, I
wanna jump in here and offer some accurate info on these comics since
there's so much inaccurate info going around, especially on those eBay
auction pages where the sellers are copying from the mistakes in the
Overstreet Guide.
It is often said that these comics (U$ 179, DD 222, WDC&S 480, MM 208 and
others) are rare because they "were only in Whitman 3-packs", which is
silly. ALL Whitmans of those final years were only sold in America in
3-packs in toy stores as "toys", just like the Whitman coloring books and
puzzles. The whole problem with that group of comics for that certain month
is that they were NOT sold in those 3-packs in America. As near as we can
tell, they were sold in 3-packs in Canada and individually on newsstands in
Europe. The only copies I've ever seen have come from those areas. And in
those areas, these comics are NOT any rarer than any other issues. However,
most of the fervent collectors are in America, so that's where those issues
are in demand.
Last time I was in Finland, I was visiting a friend and telling about the U$
179 and how American collectors are so anxious to find copies. And this
friend said there were some old Whitmans stuck in a closet from childhood
and went to get them out. When I eyed the small stack, the U$ 179 wasn't
simply in the stack, it happened to be on the very top! (Sortuva well-read,
well-loved copy.) The issue was bought off the normal magazine racks in the
early 80's (when they apparently sold some English-language Disney comics in
Europe in those days). So, this demonstrated that these rare-in-America
issues are not rare outside of our borders. I won't say there are LOTS of
them in Europe, but the issues are no more rare than any others of the same
age.
There's no reason to assume that the U$ 179 or the DD 222 are the most
rare... but these are the two (or three, along with WDC&S) that the most
collectors (the core of Disney/Barks collectors) are seeking, so they are
harder to track down. This especially applies to U$ 179, but *only* because
$crooge/Barks collectors are the most avid.
An U$ 179 is put on eBay every few weeks or months by some dealer, and the
prices it fetches have dropped from over a grand down to several hundred
dollars as the people willing to pay *so much* for such a poor quality
reprint issue, just for the sake of having a complete collection, dwindle.
Currently, I see the "hot" Whitman to be the matching issue of LITTLE LULU,
#260 or thereabouts, which I saw recently sell on eBay, in average beat-up
condition, for $800! Considering that the U$ 179's that fetched the high
prices several years ago were all in VF-NM shape, this sadly means Little
Lulu is whupping Uncle $crooge in this particular popularity contest. Go
figure.
It seems obvious to assume that all of the Whitmans printed during that
month (I won't say "published", since these were being produced like
coloring books for toy store bags, not as newsstand periodicals) are equally
rare in America. I imagine that there are issues of BUGS BUNNY or WOODSY OWL
or PINK PANTHER which are as hard to find as U$179... but since there are no
avid collectors of those, nobody notices or cares...




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