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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I am yet another person who
thinks "Guardians of the Lost Library" is one of Don Rosa's BEST stories.
I love all the mystery and detective work done which pays off with a great
ending. Perhaps though I am biased as my girlfriend is a library director
and I went to school to be a librarian! :) So if Don thinks "A Letter from
Home" is a "bad" story from him, I imagine that I will be delighted with
it!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> This is kind of off topic, but I
have two book suggestions for people who like "GotLL" and other Barks and Rosa
classic adventure stories. Both books are adventurous mysteries by Dan
Brown and both feature Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon as the main
character. The first, "Angels and Demons" is out in paperback in the US
and deals with the Illuminati and intrigue at the Vatican. The second one,
"The Da Vinci Code" came out in hardcover a few months back and is about the
Knights Templar and the Holy Grail. I think many people who like long
Donald and Scrooge adventures/mysteries would like these books.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> As far as Gemstone succeeding, I
think one important point is to get these comics into libraries. For
whatever reason, graphic novels aka trade paperbacks (TPB's) are currently one
of the hottest topics in the library world in the US. Not only are comic
books no longer dismissed, but they are instead considered a serious art
form. Obviously few if any public libraries subscribe to regular
"pamphlet" comics due to their flimsy format. However collections of comic
stories in the TPB format are becoming very popular. The in between
size of the upcoming "Donald Duck Adventures" series is better, but I think that
Disney comics in the more traditional TPB format would be very popular in
libraries and the best format for libraries</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I got my monthly Westfield
Comics order form in the mail today and was happy to see what is upcoming from
Gemstone. Uncle Scrooge # 321 will include Don Rosa's "Attaaaack", and a
Duck story by Geoffrey Blum based on some notes from Carl Barks. WDC&S
# 636 will include a William Van Horn Duck story, and Noel Van Horn Mickey
story, and the second of three installments of Rosa's "Three Caballeros
Ride Again". The only possible negative thing that I saw was that
Westfield listed each of these as 48 pages instead on the normal 64 pages.
I hope and imagine that this was just a mistake by Westfield and not a reduction
in pages by Gemstone. Perhaps you can clarify Gary?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I am not really good at picking
my favorite 3, 5, 10, etc. of things, so I won't bothering listing my ultimate
Disney comic stories Perhaps we can start another thread though about
"Unlikely Favorites". By that term I mean personal favorites that we love,
but are not often mentioned as among the best or most famous of Disney
stories. I will start the ball rolling by bringing up Barks' long
story "Big-Top Bedlam". It was published as Four Color # 300 in 1950 and I
believe most recently reprinted in the USA in Donald Duck #261 in 1988.
One of the things that make this one of my unlikely favorites is for what it is
<U>not</U>. Unlike most Barks' long stories, Donald and the boys don't
travel far, meet strange natives, solve mysteries, etc. In fact the entire
28 page story takes place in Duckburg! The story revolves around Donald
losing Daisy's heirloom brooch and what lengths he goes to retrieve it. It
sounds more like the plot of one of Barks' 10 pagers, but this "simple" story
works just swell in this longer page count. So while I love the exotic
adventures that most of Barks long stories contain, this makes a nice change of
pace.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Since this story was published
in 1950, you get to see Unca Carl's art at its finest. Barks art is very
fresh and inventive here with panels that are not just square
shaped as most of his artwork was done. Also, this is one of Barks'
rare stories in which all of the non-Duck characters are totally drawn as human
-- not even dog noses or white "Mickey" gloves. So if you have not read
this story for awhile, it is well worth a second look.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I'd love to hear what are some
unlikely favorites of other list members!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Finally, a hearty welcome back
to Katie Sullivan! I always enjoyed your postings and have missed your
presence on the mailing list. When you last contributed I remember you
mentioning that you were starting college, and now you are 23 and have a degree
in Literature! Boy, does time fly by!!! By the way, did you get
to use any of Barks' stories for literature term papers? :)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dean Rekich</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>