reprints vs new stories

deanmary deanmary at worldnet.att.net
Wed May 26 07:34:02 CEST 2004


    I thought that Derek made several good points in his most recent
posting to the ML.  If Gemstone is to reprint Barks stories, why not
reprint the stories that have been reprinted the least or not at all?
It seems certain stories get reprinted a number of times and some very
seldom or never.  I realize that the ones reprinted the most often are
ones considered to be among Barks best, but I still would rather see a
lesser story by Barks that hasn't be reprinted to death.

    I also think Derek did a good job dividing Disney readers into 3
camps.  Let's take the last camp: people who have all the Barks
stories and just want to keep re-reading these Barks stories again and
again.  Well, people in this camp would seem to have little interest
in Gemstone at all -- they already have all the stories they want to
read.  Unless Gemstone comes up with some lost Barks story, they have
nothing to gain by buying a Gemstone comic.

    Now lets compare camps one and two: those who want only new
stories and those who don't have all the Barks stories and want to
read ones that are "new" to them.  Well, it seems to me, people in
camp two have a big advantage over people in camp one.  If someone
wants a particular Barks story, it is not very hard to get a copy of
one.  One can look on the Internet, a comic book store, a comic book
convention, etc. and buy the story they want to read.  Between
Gladstone I and II and when Disney self published, I believe the large
portion of Barks stories were reprinted in standard comic book format.
If such a story was not reprinted by them, you can still find a copy
in an older Disney comic reprint or original, or get the copy of Carl
Barks Library in Color issue that you want.  I am not saying that it
is always very easy or very cheap, but it is also not an impossibly
hard task either.

    Compare this to people in camp one.  Since I only know one
language (I wish I knew more than one like most Europeans do!) I can
only get new stories that Gemstone publishes.  If Gemstone does not
publish a story, it doesn't matter if it has been printed in several
different countries.  Since I only know English (and not that even
very well!), if Gemstone does not print it, it is like the story never
exists to me.  And since there is such an *incredible* amount of
Disney stories never published in English, I think Gemstone should
largely focus on new stories.  I believe Gemstone could publish their
titles for *years* with only new stories!  If Gemstone still wants to
reprint some stories, how about the less reprinted ones and/or a
reprints only title?

    I don't want to offend any people on the list who want Gemstone to
largely consist of reprinting stories.  This is just my personal view.
I hope anyone who disagrees will share their views on the list and let
their voices be heard also!

Dean Rekich

(Gary: feel free to print any portion of this in any Gemstone title)




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