<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"><FONT BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">Hi all!<BR>
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First, I want to say that I don't envy people like Gary Leach and John Clark. They obviously have a tough job and in some situations (perhaps the reprint thing) they're darned if they do and darned if they don't. No one way will satisfy everyone I'm sure. To a certain extent, I think they've answered the situation in the sense that there are obviously a lot more 'new' (new as in never published in English) stories than reprints. They still do a few more reprints than I personally would like, but you couldn't necessarily accuse them of being reprint crazy or anything. Perhaps Rodney's suggestions would be a good thing as well as Joe's. <BR>
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As far as how anything would affect the new reader, one who is just getting into Disney comcs, I don't know. They can't miss reprints they've never read before in a sense. Perhaps if they like the new Disney stories, that will compel them to buy older Gladstone/Disney issues to see the older stories (at least that's what I've done over the years). It would be interesting to know, out of the people that are currently buying Gemstone, how many of them are actually new readers, not 'old-timers' (like me?) who missed Disney comics and are glad they're back and buying them again. <BR>
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I think Gemstone is more or less on the right track as far as reprints go, but I think there's room for improvement. Like just reprinting Don Rosa's "Curse of Nostrildamus." I guess if it was new to me, I wouldn't have minded it, but I had bought the Gladstone issue where it originally appeared a few months ago. So it's the same situation, not everybody has read certain stories, etc. Though I guess the only 'foolproof' way out of that is to print only 'new' stories, since no one would have read them (unless they can read the languages the stories were originally published in). I guess that's one reason why I like DDA so much (and am looking forward to MMA): because of the format of those stories, they all pretty much have to be new to the U.S.<BR>
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Derek Smith</FONT></HTML>