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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