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<TITLE>RE: Upcoming Gemstone titles and re-re-reprinting</TITLE>
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<P> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Hi Blot,</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Monaco">For this year 2006, we have had 11 Uncle Scrooge issues so far. </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Monaco">8 of the 11 issues have had a reprint (in English) as the opening story.</FONT>
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<P> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">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.</FONT></P>
<P> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In UNCLE SCROOGE 349, 38 of 62 total comics pages were new to North America.</FONT>
<BR> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In US 350, 34 of 62 pages were new.</FONT>
<BR> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In US 351, all 62 pages were new.</FONT>
<BR> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In US 352, 39 of 62 pages were new.</FONT>
<BR> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In US 353, 57 of 61 pages were new.</FONT>
<BR> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In US 354, all 61 pages were new.</FONT>
<BR> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In US 355, 32 of 60 pages were new.</FONT>
<BR> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In US 356, 34 of 60 pages were new.</FONT>
<BR> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In US 357, 30 of 60 pages were new.</FONT>
<BR> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In US 358, 37 of 61 pages were new.</FONT>
<BR> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">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.</FONT></P>
<P> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">And finally, in next month's US 360, you'll find that 56 pages of 60 will be new.</FONT>
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<P> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">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!</FONT></P>
<P> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">I've done a similar computation for next year's UNCLE SCROOGE issues as planned thus far, and find that we're even doing slightly better, with an average of 45 new pages per issue.</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Monaco">Translating more Scarpa stories, appears to me, to be the best option for future issues.</FONT>
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<P> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">While I don't think many readers would like to see Scarpa dominate the title, we've got a long Scarpa story next month and another long Scarpa coming in the spring. Scarpa isn't the only Italian creator with a long story coming, either.</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Monaco">I am also disappointed that the Mickey Mouse title is disappearing just as the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Monaco">Paul Murry drawn serials were being printed in the one book. I was hoping for</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Monaco">every story of his to be published this way.</FONT>
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<P> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Eh? Too many Scrooge reprints are a problem, but it seems you'd be perfectly happy to have Mickey's title dominated by reprints? (Or does your concern have something to do with the price of the Mickey book vs the Scrooge book?)</FONT></P>
<P> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Whenever we get back to publishing a regular Mickey title, I'd really like to see it contain a mix... as it's actually been doing.</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Monaco">> I realize that Gemstone wants to talk about their new titles and direction at</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Monaco">> their own place and time. Wherever and whenever that happens though, could </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Monaco">> Gemstone *please* address why they are to my way of thinking largely giving </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Monaco">> up on new stories?</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Monaco">The silence is deafening.</FONT>
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<P> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Huh? In a letter to Dean last week, I was hardly silent... in fact, I once again pointed out that we had a lot of new material coming. <A HREF="http://nafsk.se/pipermail/dcml/2006-November/024647.html">http://nafsk.se/pipermail/dcml/2006-November/024647.html</A></FONT></P>
<P> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">The rumors of our reprint fixation have, I hope, been greatly exaggerated.</FONT>
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<P> <FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Best, David</FONT>
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