A few Gemstone questions

Jonathan H. Gray jongraywb at hotmail.com
Fri Nov 9 19:53:37 CET 2007




I'm not part of the Gemstone crew, but I can't resist elaborating on your comments, Dean. 



While I do not mind the seasonal annuals and ESPECIALLY would like to
see more collected trades, I am of the firm opinion that Gemstone would
benefit far faaaar more both in terms of story content and from a
business/profit standpoint through a gentle restructuring of the books
and ultimately, the addition of a third prestige title. Although
Gemstone: Series 1 is visibly far more stable than Gladstone: Series 2,
the cancellation of "Donald Duck", "Mickey Mouse", and the pocket books
have left a very gaping and visible "hole" in the franchise: forcing the two
best selling books - C&S and U$ - to take up the slack. The annuals
are nice bonuses and the trades are definately a long time coming, but it just seems to me that it makes better sense to
start a third prestige. I'd rather see that over once-in-a-blue-moon
specials with thematic seasonal content. IMO, The best and most common
sense candidate to achieve such a goal would be the revival of
Gladstone Series 1's "Mickey and Donald."



Notice that I did not say Gladstone Series 2's "Donald and Mickey" even if it was the spiritual successor/continuation.



The first book was a surprise success and - if you were reading back
then - also a long time coming. M&D was sorely needed in terms of
providing
an eclectic "best of" mix that we couldn't get at the time: Gottfredson
was covered in MM, Barks/Rosa/Van Horn in all the other duck
books, Murry serials in C&S, and Egmont - at the time - was still
something new. Without M&D, the newer generation of Disney fans
would never have been exposed to Bill Wright, Bradbury/Murry material
that was actually pretty darn decent, Eega Beeva, the late
Gottfredson/Walsh stories, and
just a lot of stuff we didn't get to see outside of the standard
Barks/Rosa/Gottfredson/Van Horn world. Good story selection was key,
but it's follow-up "Donald and Mickey" was a  disaster of epic
proportions. If it weren't the same Barks stories we were seeing
reprinted for the million and tenth time in both the albums and the
older eras, then it was those asinine "Mickey
and the Slueth" stories or the utterly horrid Disney Studio stories
that no one but whomever picked those garbagey things out was fond of.
Furthermore, since we weren't getting any NEW Gottfredson: the ONLY
good Mickey stories in that series or era (the ones done at the
start of the Egmont MM reboot or the rare Murry reprint) were
ultimately snuffed out due to all
the chaff.



Now we probably couldn't do all that in a new M&D prestige (notice
that I'm fonder of the series' original title as well as it represents
the best version of the series) but a third trade along this vein would
certainly relieve the hole left open in the current series. It just
makes sense. We wouldn't have to overload and shoehorn extra ducks and
mice into C&S (reverting it back to a TRUE variety
book), we could get a far more eclectic mix of creators and stories.
Gemstone wouldn't have to really change a whole lot of what they are
ordering already, we'd have an outlet for older stuff by
Strobl/Bradbury/Murry/Egmont should they choose, and it would still be
in the spirit of all three of the respective titles (DD, MM, and M&D)


I'm not trying to be a melodramatic harbinger of doom, but a lesson should be learned from then and now before history repeats
itself: Gemstone Series 2 is doing decent, but it could be doing so much
better than what it is and still has yet to compare to the mastery of Gladstone Series
1. It's all about potential. The stuff thats out now is good,
but it should ALWAYS strive to be better than just what it is. I think
that's part of what made Gladstone Series 1 work before Disney sauntered in and borked up the formula. A third prestige would really
solve a lot of problems and theoretically we could
still get oft requested trades out there without interfering too much
with what we have already. But that's just my humble opinion and I
don't know if anyone else agrees.



As far as the 3 panel stories go: I don't mind them when they are GOOD
and I'm certain that goes for a lot of people here and in-the-know. I think that this is
what needs to be remembered by the guys in charge *and* by the people
who complain about them: what is considered GOOD is relative to both the reader and the
editors. Just because you like it doesn't mean everyone will or does.
Scarpa and Cavazzano are alost always 3 panel, but few people if any complain about
them for good reason. Why is that? I believe that is is because their stories often strive for
more than what they simply "could be" in terms of both art AND story. This is why
Barks/Gottfredson/Rosa/Van Horn/Early Murry are often revered as high
as they are. 

Furthermore:
Just because it was printed in Italy doesn't make it any good. There's
a LOT of good Italian stories out there but there are also a hell of a
lot of bad ones. I'm gonna be blunt
- the pocketbooks were wasted potential. Gemstone had a chance to get a
LOT of material out there that would have and should have been amazing.
We're talking long comics with amazing art and story should have
been printed in the states LONG ago and instead we got pocketbooks
loaded down with a lot of the Egmont style 3 panel imitations that were
only
either halfway decent, "meh", or awful at best. Without the poketbooks,
we'd have never have been exposed to the wonderful artwork or Massimo Fecchi, finally gotten some of the Superduck stories in the states, or gotten "The River of Time: Pts 1 & 2", one of the best MM stories printed on this side of the water in ages IMO. Enjoyable stuff like that, the
reprinting of classic Scarpa (DELTA DIMENSION!), new Cavazzano work, and stories that went ABOVE the bar is what should have been aimed for. But at best, all we got were scads of Egmont stories
which everyone knows, depending on artist and writer, can fall
dangerously into mediocre or (as tough as this sounds) stuff that was really just "passable" or "bleah" at best. Did anyone really like Toni Bancells or any of the stories associated with him? I didn't like him in any short stories and I CERTAINLY can't stand him in any long ones. Did any of the stories compare to Gottfredon or Scarpa or Barks or Rosa? Maybe a few but nowhere near all or what should have been. Did we
really need to see longer versions of Egmont stories that didn't try to
be more than what they could be, and what was already similar in tone and style to the occasional filler stuffs what we get in the short books? No.

Perhaps I am being too harsh. The last thing I wanna do is step on toes. It's just that I'd really like to see Gemstone succeed where Gladstone kinda floundered, made an odd unkempt noise, and died out like Pac-Man. There's so much more that can be done, even with the way things are now that haven't and should have been. Though this is not to undercut the good work that is being done by all currently. When Gemstone does it right, they really do it right, and no one cares more about the product they put out than they do. Heaven forbid GS ever turns into a DC or Marvel (which is far from ever happening). Anyways, folks may not agree with me but and that's cool as it is my two cents, for whatever little its worth.





Jonathan H. Gray

From: deanmary at zoominternet.net
To: dcml at nafsk.se
Subject: A few Gemstone questions
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2007 13:06:27 -0500










I have a few Gemstone questions that perhaps Gary 
or someone else at Gemstone can answer.
 
Well, there is less than 2 month of 2007 
left.  With that in mind, is there anything you can tell us about what to 
look forward to from Gemstone in 2008?  I have two specific questions in 
regard to this.  One, will we see trade paperbacks (TPB) on a more regular 
basis and more than only 2 or 3 a year?  Two, is there any chance of a 
third monthly prestige title in 2008?  I imagine I will keep asking that 
question periodically until there is a 3rd monthly title.  Maybe I am just 
a masochist! :)
 
When Donald Duck Adventures and Mickey Mouse 
Adventures were cancelled, Gemstone has some 3 panel stories that for lack of a 
better term were leftovers.  Since then, these 3 panel stories have been 
appearing in US and WDC&S.  My question is what percentage of these 
leftover 3 panel stories have been printed and how many remain to be 
printed?  I don't mean to disparage these 3 panel stories, and in fact wish 
I was reading them monthly in DDA and MMA titles that were never 
cancelled!  However, with only two monthly titles and the resulting limited 
space, I must admit I do prefer the more traditional 4 panel stories.  So I 
would be very curious to find out if most of these leftover 3 panel stories have 
already been printed or if there a lot left to be printed.
 
And info you can give about any of these questions 
would be greatly appreciated!  Here's looking to a great 2008 for 
Gemstone!!!
 
Dean Rekich
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