DCML Digest, Vol 39, Issue 16

Marc Newman marc.newman at comcast.net
Fri May 19 06:29:01 CEST 2006


>
>
> welcome to this list! it's nice to see another American (assumption?) 
> fan pop up here as we seem to be few and far between outside of the 
> actual creators.
>
> Jonathan Gray
>
>
Thanks Jonathan!

It's been quite the education for me in the last five years as I delved 
deeper into Barks fandom to learn that these comics that I loved as a 
child are so well-regarded in Europe yet are now practically unknown to 
a generation or two of Americans.  I would say that our Disney back 
issue sales are about equally spread between Europe/Australia and the 
U.S. with the bigger orders actually going "international" instead of 
domestic.  Even as late as 1985 one of my favorite family restaurants 
had Gold Key Disneys available for kids to read in the lobby as one 
waited for a table.  No longer.  (I know this topic has been 
well-discussed before on this list as I've been browsing the archives.)  
It's hard to imagine a restaurant buying a $6.95 current Duck book for 
kids to look at.  Too pricey.

Another topic I happened to notice in the archives is a discussion about 
starting titles over with issue #1.  I'm usually against this as one of 
my primary interests in comics is the history of same.  Plus, having to 
list
Donald Duck Adventures (Gladstone) and Donald Duck Adventures (Disney) 
on the website is a pain.  I know we sometimes forget to designate too, 
so that's more work cleaning up our database.

However, there is one positive thing to starting numbering over and that 
is that people might use the occasion as a "jumping on point."  I know 
that it sometimes works that way for me.  I happen to be buying the 
superhero comic New Avengers right now and it's actually the first time 
I've bought the Avengers on a monthly basis in 20 years!  The fact that 
I could start from the beginning was kind of fun and different for me 
and I've been enjoying it.  So the diehards will buy the Disney titles 
anyway but a new start might make a few people pick it up who wouldn't 
otherwise.  Some will stick with it.

By the way, it might please everyone to know that Carl Barks is 
extremeley well-regarded in a surprising place:  The CGC message 
boards.  I assume quite a few of you only have a passing-at-best 
knowledge of CGC.  That's the company that professionally grades comics 
for a fee and "slabs" them in a special tamper-proof holder.  Well, the 
people who use the service are usually pretty superhero-centric (and a 
whole bunch of other things, lol) but the company's message boards 
actually seem to attract the most knowledgeable and passionate fans of 
American comics that I've ever seen.  It's gratifying to see that so 
many people there love Barks.

I'll try to remember to post some links next week.

Regards,
Marc Newman
www.HouseofComics.com
"Super-Selection of Silver and Bronze Age Comics"











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