A whole lotta thoughts

deanmary deanmary at zoominternet.net
Mon Nov 19 06:24:24 CET 2007


Bunches of thoughts on lots of stuff!

First off, the upcoming Gottfredson Library.  I very much hope that the Library is in color instead of black and white.  Now I can see an argument (and a good argument at that) that by printing them in B/W that we will be getting Gottfredson's work at the "purest" as they were originally never meant to be in color.  However, over the past 20+ years I know I have very much been "spoiled" by seeing almost all Gottfredson and Taliaferro work in color.  Do others feel as "spoiled" as I do?  So while B/W may be a purer form, I could not help but feel like something was being left out if the library was only in B/W.  Having said this, I still of course will buy the Gottfredson Library if it is in B/W, but it won't be the same as a color Library.

As far as possible censorship in the Library, I have some thoughts to share as well.  However, I first want to thank Jonathan so much for sharing his views on censorship.  He expressed himself so eloquently and brought a very interesting perspective to the discussion.  I myself would very much like for the Gottfredson Library to be uncensored.  I am very much opposed to censorship in general.  Also, I think seeing the early Gottfredson stories that contain awful portrayals of blacks to be very much an enlightening experience.  I am only 40 years old, so I obviously did not get to read these Gottfredson strips at the time they were first printed.  It seems to me though that while these strips contained awful stereotypes and racism, that "many* forms of entertainment (other strips, cartoons, movies) at this contained similar awful things.  So perhaps the saddest part of this is that these Gottfredson strips were the norm instead of the exception... :(  Of course perhaps it is very easy for me to want to see these strips uncensored when I am white and have not experienced first hand this sort of racism.  If I was black, might I have quite a different view?  Quite possibly.

Does anyone wonder what will be censored in the future?  I think it would be very naive to think that stories produced today will not have items in them that 50 or 100 years down the line will be considered unacceptable.  So if I live into my 90s, perhaps I will see Disney comics produced in the 1980's that will be edited due to content!

While I do want to see the Library uncensored, that does not mean that if some censorship occurs that I will not buy the Library.  I would just hope that Gemstone keeps the censorship as limited as they can.  For some stories I imagine little or no censorship will be needed.  Others may need a lot of redrawing and redialoguing done.  I realize that there may be (many?) fans who will protest a censored Library by not buying it at all, and I truly respect that.  I myself though would rather be able to read *most* of the stories with *some* censorship than not be able to read these stories at all.

Jonathan, I was joking when I asked if you had ever thought of doing any comic book work. :)  I knew you did work on Sonic and have done work for Gemstone as well.  It would be a dream come true if I could ever in any way be involved in a Disney comic story.  I am not exactly holding my breath though...  As far as art goes, on a *good* day I might be able to draw a stick figure! :)  I would love to be able to write a Duck story someday, but doubt that will happen either.  The closest I think I will ever get is the "story" of "When Donald Met Daisy".  A number of years ago the Don Rosa D.U.C.K.H.U.N.T. site had a contest for the best story idea and I think I placed fourth.  Of course, there very well may have been only 4 entrants... :)  Actually I only had a plot of several sentences.  And calling it a "plot" is probably *far* too generous!  Perhaps it would be more accurately be called a "story idea".  The one thing I think I *might* be able to do would be to dialogue and "Americanize" an Egmont story that is already in English.  It would be so fantastic to see my name in the credits of a Gemstone comic!  So if anyone at Gemstone ever needs any dialoguing done for cheap, I would love the chance.  I wouldn't even charged 30 cents an hour -- I would be willing to work for zero cents per hour.  That is a price even Scrooge would like! :)

Jonathan, I wish I could say the reason I bought all the issues of the pocket book titles was because I am well off and could just afford to spend money day and night.  Unfortunately, that is not the case! :(  It is simply that Disney comics are one of the biggest passions I have in life.  Gemstone could print *ten* prestige titles each month and I would gladly buy all ten!  I would just then cut down a great deal on my other discretionary spending to spend more on Disney comics.  I wish I had the *problem* of having to spend most of my discretionary spending only on Disney comics!

I like your idea Jonathan of a third prestige title being a bi-monthly title of "Donald Duck " and "Mickey Mouse" so as to keep the numbering going.  However Gemstone could title a third monthly title *anything* as long as they would print one.  How does a monthly called "Dean Rekich is an Idiot!" sound? :)

While I do like the holiday titles, the Barks/Rosa specials, etc. that Gemstone produces, I would gladly give up all of them for TPBs that came out bi-monthly or quarterly.  I truly think TPBs are the future for comics and that the more Gemstone focuses of them, the better off they will be.  I even have a *very* off the wall idea that I in no way expect Gemstone to do or for many people to like the idea of, but I will share it none the less  The idea is this: what if we got rid of *all* the monthly titles and instead got a monthly TPB?  The two monthly titles now have 64 pages each (for a total of 128) and cost together about 16 dollars.  The soon to be released Walt Disney Treasures TPB costs 17 dollars and has 160 pages.  So how about having a monthly TPB of say 192 pages (3 prestige title pages combined) for say about 20 dollars?  I would love to have such a monthly TPB title and have them sitting nicely on my shelves.  And while this is just an unrealistic fantasy, I *don't* think having a bi-monthly or quarterly TPB is too much to dream for or more than Gemstone and/or the readers could handle.

That is all for now even though I have many more thoughts.  I will save some of these for another issue of the ML as I do not want drive ML members *too* crazy with my views and ideas! :)  As always, I would love to hear what people think of anything I wrote.

Dean Rekich
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