Gemstone's mix

Olaf Solstrand olaf at andebyonline.com
Thu Jul 24 14:37:30 CEST 2003


Well, it's about time someone said it. What on earth is the point of
publishing Disney Comics NOT consisting only of Rosa and Barks stories?
Those darn publishers should have understood by now that what we, the
readers, want, is Don Rosa and Carl Barks.

Yes, perhaps a few people still want childish comics like Disney Babies and
Mickey Mouse, but who cares about them? We're the majority. Ask anyone, and
they can tell you that Don Rosa is a god amongst comics creators. And as all
his stuff is based on Carl Barks, Barks can't be that bad either. Anyhow,
one should always listen to the majority when making comics. Don Rosa
himself wrote a very good example on this on DCML once:
http://stp.ling.uu.se/pipermail/dcml/2000-February/012198.html

KEEP MY DISNEY COMIC CLEAR OF CHILDISH WOLVES. If Gemstone absolutely wants
to print these silly childish characters, they should do it in an own wolf
comic book. I'm 100% sure there's market for that in the USA.

And when it comes to Duck comics: If it's not by Carl Barks or Don Rosa,
don't print it. It's not worth reading anyway, and it's only those boring
pages we have to browse to finally come to the Don Rosa comic (and we have
to buy ALL issues just in case they HIDE Don Rosa comics inbetween them -
would you believe that the Scandinavian weeklies, when printing a two-pager
Don Rosa did the artwork to, DON'T announce that on the cover?). Nah, if
it's not Don Rosa (or that guy Barks), we don't want it. So why do they make
those comics at all? Gemstone and Disney always complain they have so little
money. Well, can't they just fire all those unknown amateurs such as William
van Horn, Lars Jensen, all those crazy Italians... We don't want them
anyway, so just fire them and use the entire magazine for Don Rosa and Carl
Barks! That way Disney could save a lot of money, and even get more readers
as many probably today want to buy the comic, but don't do it because
there's so many childish wolf stories in them. And if Disney saves money and
gets more readers, it should be possible to get the books for a decent
price, too!

Hopefully, Don Rosa will live for another 30-40 years. By then he should be
able to produce quite a lot of stories, so when he leaves this world there
will be plenty of stories to reprint. In other words, Disney comics in USA
could live on for centuries, and they would all be GOOD stories, Don Rosa
and Carl Barks.

And, Gemstone and all other publishers: If some engineer from Kentucky or
something EVER should come to you and say "I'm destined to make Disney
Comics" - don't listen to him. Don't even give him a chance. He can't be as
good as Don Rosa anyway. ALL IN FAVOUR THAT DISNEY COMICS SHOULD BE ROSA
(eventually a little Barks) ONLY!

We, the target group of Gemstone's comics (including Fabio and myself), want
Don Rosa and Carl Barks. And nothing but that.

______________________
Olaf the Blue :-)

"It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's good advice that you just didn't take
And who would have thought it figures"



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