Upcoming Gemstone titles and re-re-reprinting

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

DAVID GERSTEIN to PHANTOM BLOT, 14-11-2006:

>> For this year 2006, we have had 11 Uncle Scrooge issues so far.
>>
>> 8 of the 11 issues have had a reprint (in English) as the opening story.

> That initially sounds bad for fans of new stories; that's true. But let's
> turn the situation on its head and total up the pages of
> new-to-North-America stories per issue, regardless of whether the opening
> story was a reprint.

There's no need the turn the situation on its head and to play with
statistics. Already at Gladstone the collectors oriented comics were just
filled up with Barks stuff that was re-reprinted. Gladstone acted as if they
are poor people that need our support to stay alive. But Disney comics are
no charity. Disney comics are commercial products.
One reason given on DCML was that also a new audience should be able to see
Barks material which re-re-reprinting already has bored a lot of collectors.
Do collectors need to pay for the same stories twice or trice, as a
financial support to get new customers for commercial publishers like
Gladstone/Gemstone?
Isn't Gemstone chasing collectors away, rather than attracting new readers?
No matter what figures are turned around, I've had to give up being a
subscriber years ago. For me, the over-expensive products aren't worth the
money.

> In UNCLE SCROOGE 349, 38 of 62 total comics pages were new to North
> America.
> In US 350, 34 of 62 pages were new.
> In US 351, all 62 pages were new.
> In US 352, 39 of 62 pages were new.
> In US 353, 57 of 61 pages were new.
> In US 354, all 61 pages were new.
> In US 355, 32 of 60 pages were new.
> In US 356, 34 of 60 pages were new.
> In US 357, 30 of 60 pages were new.
> In US 358, 37 of 61 pages were new.
> In US 359, 33 of 60 pages are new, if you count the three pages of
> "Incredible Shrinking Tightwad" material that weren't in the previous
> American printing.
> And finally, in next month's US 360, you'll find that 56 pages of 60 will
> be new.
>
> That's a year's worth of issues, and an average of 43 new pages per book
> out of 60-62 total comics pages. I think we're doing pretty well!

Pretty well? (cough! cough!)

That's approximately 30% reprint in each Uncle Scrooge comic. And many Uncle
Scrooge comics have almost 50% reprint in them.

The very few Uncle Scrooges with 100% new pages are comics as they should
be. This means that out of 10, only 2 Uncle Scrooge comics are real, new
comics. That's only just 20%.

Daniël