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Larry Gerstein gerstein at math.ucsb.edu
Fri Jul 30 02:36:14 CEST 1993


        Dear Folks,

        Okay, I'm finished reading the recent digests.

        I hope Mr. Rosa finds the info on Clerkly useful.  Yes, he did
appear several times.  He's the dogfaced, worried-looking clerk with
glasses.  Etc, etc, etc.

        In a crowd scene in my first Egmont story I show Scrooge's office
staff including "Mrs. Quackfaster, Clerkly the accountant and various
unnamed ducks and dogs."  I hope no one jumps on me for this.

        I visited John Clark at Gladstone for several hours during my
cross-country car trip.  Here's a bit of what he told me:

        As of right now ALL the Gottfredson stories (except for some Sunday
pages here and there) printed in the next few months will be those that
already were in albums, aside from the single exception of Hoppy the
Kangaroo which was a tremendous seller for them and had such large
circulation that they don't feel it needs to be printed again.
        I informed Mr. Clark about the Milton "Big Sneeze" and he's going
to get it and print it, as far as I know.
        As far as I'm able to figure out, the CBL of WDC&S in Color WILL be
joined by series for Scrooge and Donald books as well.  It seems Gladstone
IS able to branch out into those series.
        The cover of the next WDC&S (2 months from now) with "Spotless Don"
illustrates that story and is by Van Horn.

        It's Bruce Hamilton's idea to print a lot of Jaime Diaz in D&M
because he likes it.  John Clark does like the long M&G "historical"
stories but is dubious as to how well they'll be received or sell.  He
wants MANY letters with HONEST opinions, so PLEASE write!  More now than
ever, fans have a chance to influence the direction of Disney comics.
        I'd in fact be glad to see ONLY Gottfredson and Scarpa used in BOTH
titles that include Mickey, but I realize that my boredom with Murry, etc.
is far from normal for Mouse fans.
        So Diaz is the main exposed Mickey artist besides Gottfredson, and
if you ask me Gottfredson should really be in D&M. In the WDC&S that came
out today, the second (and last) part of Wolf Barker appears... taking up
over half the book!  In fact, this is an issue of WDC&S that's ONLY Donald
and Mickey (with an additional one-page gag for each besides the longer
stories).  Stories by people other than Gottfredson are usually shorter and
can be serialized in SMALLER parts.  Don't you think that the place for
them is WDC&S so other characters such as wolves and bugs can have some
room?

        Gladstone bought four of my dialogs on foreign stories. These were
stories I picked MYSELF to do, so I think that they're a cut above some of
the plots we've seen from Europe.  I'm sure any of you European fans could
find LOTS of good Egmont and Oberon stories, just like I tried to.
        Anyway, we'll see the fruits of my labor soon.  I'm proud to tell
you that WDC&S 590 (in January) will have my first published dialogue...
done in July 1992, which shows how long my stuff's been sitting around. 
Disney bought three of them planning not to use them until about DiDDA 40,
which as you know never came out, so Gladstone now has those three, along
with their four, and I just mailed off two more (one of which they GAVE ME
to do from the Dutch) today, so you'll get a chance to see what my writing
is like.
        As for when the new stories I'm WRITING for Egmont will appear
there or here, not for a year.  Trust that you'll find them respectful to
the classics.

        Your friend,


        David Gerstein




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