David Gerstein on Gladstone and Disney comics

[Harry Fluks]

I saw this letter in rec.arts.disney. I thought it was interesting enough
to forward it to this list.

(and Don: yes, I received your comments on digests #14 and #15.)

--Harry.

From: 96dag at williams.edu (David A Gerstein)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney
Subject: Re: Disney Comics
Date: 6 May 1993 21:20:45 -0400
Organization: Williams College, Williamstown, MA
Lines: 185
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <1scdhdINN68b at bigbird.cc.williams.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigbird.cc.williams.edu


	Dear Folks (and esp. Mr. Lawton)

	Gladstone's comics aren't going to be quite the same this time
around as they were in the late 1980s.

	First of all, Mickey Mouse is NOT going to be the main
character in "Mickey and Donald."  The comic, though taking up where
"Mickey and Donald" left off in Mar. 1990 (the first Disney Comics
issues being cover-dated June 1990), is now called "Donald and Mickey"
and gives Donald the lead spot.

	The Gladstone line will be all BIMONTHLY, at least at first.
They're testing the water:  with some success, their line will expand
so that the titles come out more often.

	DONALD AND MICKEY:  Mixture of medium-length Donald stories
and medium-length Mickey stories (13 pgs. for each character).  The
Mickey stories in this book will be mainly the post-1930s stuff by
folks like Paul Murry, Bill Wright, and perhaps Romano Scarpa.  There
may also be Floyd Gottfredson's Sunday gags here and there.
	DONALD DUCK:  Mixture of short DD stories by Carl Barks,
Danish and Dutch artists, William Van Horn and Don Rosa.
	DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES: Long DD stories by Carl Barks,
Italian, Danish and Dutch artists, and perhaps Van Horn and Rosa.
	UNCLE SCROOGE:  Mixture of short US and Beagle Boys stories by
Carl Barks, Danish and Dutch artists, Van Horn and Rosa.
	UNCLE SCROOGE ADVENTURES:  Long US stories by Barks, Italian,
Danish and Dutch artists, Van Horn and Rosa.
	WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES:  Mixture of Donald Duck
10-page stories by Barks and Van Horn, Li'l Bad Wolf and other 4-6 
pg. shorts, and Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey 1930s strips beginning 
with "Lair of Wolf Barker," which is from 1933 (previously in a 1987
Gladstone Album, but now with airbrushed computer color)  The 
Gottfredson stuff will be published in serial form, a little hard 
while we're on bimonthly issues, but with some success that will 
change.

	The only thing I'm nervous about with this line is Mickey.
What title are they going to use to test Mickey's selling power?  It
took so much money to reformat Gottfredson's old strips into comic
books that Gladstone LOST MONEY on their old (1986-90) Mickey book,
yet Gottfredson also has apparently much more respectable sales than
most MM artists, so if there's anyone who should lead off a MM regular
book, it's him.
	Yet there's no way Gladstone can gauge the sales of such
material now.  The only place where Mickey actually appears on the
cover is D&M, and due to the nature of the Mickey stories they're
running the version shown in the cover art will have to be the
less-saleable-in-comic-books post-1940s Mickey.  What's more, the only
Gottfredson stories they're running seem to be those that were already
in their early albums.  I'm sure the new printings will have better
color, but how saleable will they be?
	Also, Gottfredson's stories are so long that even in serial
form, if WDC&S is only a 26-page book, they'll have LONG chapters.
That means that there's very little room in WDC&S for non-Duck and
non-Mickey stuff.

	I honestly think that Gottfredson should really be in D&M with
the Paul Murry stuff in WDC&S.  Those are in 8-pg. parts and thus
there's more room for other non-Duck, non-Mickey stuff in the only
book that can handle it.  

	Other than this one comment, I have little to complain about
for the Gladstone books, and I don't think I'll have much to grouse
about in the future, because I loved Gladstone's old books (I have a
complete selection of them) and if that's anything to go by, these
will be great.  They're gonna have Disney's good paper quality, I
might add.

	Mickey fans:  I hope you didn't miss, however, Disney's issues
#582-83 and #585 of WDC&S.  The first two contained a
hitherto-unreprinted Gottfredson story (his personal favorite) from
1936.  It had been banned for featuring atomic power, but that ban was
lifted now and the story is SUPERB.  #585 contains an extremely early
story from 1931 with a version of Mickey right out of "Steamboat
Willie," one of Gottfredson's earliest stories.  (The fifth he worked
on from the start.)

	Please, everyone, write in to Gladstone and give them your
best.  I'm all for them.  Also, write all the letters you can for a
Mickey title, particularly one with classic Gottfredson.  We could use
it.  And in the meantime, what do you fellow Mouse enthusiasts think
of switching the Mickey artists in WDC&S and D&M?

	Also, if you can take it, buy two of every comic with
Gottfredson's work in it.  The better they sell, the more likely we'll
see a Mickey title... and you can sell your doubles for more in five
years.

	Gladstone's first issues may come out at ANY TIME.  They will
be WDC&S 586, DDA 21 (they're picking up where THEIR old DDA series
left off, NOT Disney's) and US 281.  They may be even beginning to
show up in comic shops THIS WEEK.  Next month we get the first issues
of their other three books, and in July the cycle begins again.	

	Gottfredson fans:  I'd recommend heartily ALL Gladstone issues
of MM, as well as Disney's WDC&S #562, 563, 567-572, 575, 580-583, 585
and GOOFY ADVS. #9.  All of these feature at least some of his work.
(Mickey Mouse Advs. #10 is not his work, despite the credits given)

	The reason for the cutdown in 1991 was that Disney's first
1-1/2 years of comics were done by Len Wein, a fellow from Marvel.  If
anyone was reading those, you probably noticed that they had very
garish colors, Marvel-like attitudes to stories, and often very crowded
art.  This was an attempt to sell Disneys to the superhero crowd.  Of
course, most superhero fans found it beneath their DIGNITY (sniff!) to
buy 'kids' stuff like Disneys, and Disney fans were alienated by
bizarre approaches to their favorite characters (their Mickey Mouse
Advs. title, particularly, after the first ten issues, owed nothing to
Gottfredson and had very colorless, "action" stories which were
basically long chases with little personality.  There was also a rule
that no Gottfredson could be used in that title:  too old-fashioned).
When the sales figures for the first year showed interest taking a
nosedive, Len went elsewhere and collectors who were formerly under
him took over.  Since then, the Disneys have been occasionally
excellent and at least pretty doggoned good.  But most people haven't
noticed, since the gigantic post-Wein cutdown turned many fans off
completely.  I don't know why, because since then the books have been
far better.

	The complete run of Disney Comics from WD Publishing (NOT
INCLUDING Cartoon Tales softback books) was:

	ALADDIN GN.
	(RETURN OF) ALADDIN 1-2.
	BEAUTY AND THE BEAST GN.
	(NEW ADVS. OF) BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 1-2.
	CHIP 'N' DALE'S RESCUE RANGERS 1-19.
	DARKWING DUCK 1-4.
	DISNEY COMICS ALBUMS 1-8.
	DISNEY COMICS IN 3-D 1.
	DONALD AND SCROOGE GN.
	DONALD DUCK ADVS 1-38.
	DUCKTALES 1-18.
	DUCKTALES: THE MOVIE GN.
	GOOFY ADVENTURES 1-17.
	JUNGLE BOOK GN.
	JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS 1-4.
	LITTLE MERMAID GN.
	LITTLE MERMAID 1-4.
	MICKEY MOUSE ADVENTURES 1-18.
	101 DALMATIANS GN.
	PETER PAN GN.
	RESCUERS DOWN UNDER GN.
	ROGER RABBIT 1-18.
	ROGER RABBIT IN 3-D 1. (May never have been distributed.  I do
have a copy, however)
	ROGER RABBIT'S TOONTOWN 1-5.
	SEBASTIAN 1-2.
	SHIPWRECKED GN.
	TALESPIN 1-4 (LIMITED SERIES), 1-7 (REGULAR SERIES)
	UNCLE SCROOGE 243-280.
	WALT DISNEY'S AUTUMN ADVENTURES 1-2.
	WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES 548-585.
	WALT DISNEY'S HOLIDAY PARADE 1-2.
	WALT DISNEY'S SPRING FEVER 1.
	WALT DISNEY'S SUMMER FUN 1.
	WHITE FANG GN.

	Many projects that were advertised were never released:  for
example, many #18s and #19s of titles that were curtailed;  a Roger
Rabbit GN "I Hate Toons";  a Mickey GN "Space Mickey" (this story WAS
broken up and printed in the Disney Adv. Digest which isn't listed
here);  a Scrooge GN "The Oak Island Treasure";  a Super Goof Comic
Album Special (actually released as Disney Comics Albums #8);  and I
think that's it.  Most of these ARE listed in the Overstreet Price
Guide, which quite obviously made the fatal error of listing what was
SOLICITED, not what was actually published.  This really casts a lot
of doubt as to how accurate Overstreet is...

	Well, I've gotta go.  This may be my last major letter for a
while as finals are coming up.  Anyway, I'll try to answer most
questions about Disney comics that are fielded my way, just send 'em
to me at David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu

	Your friend,

	David Gerstein

	"Ya've gotta just swallow hard an' tell yerself, 'The Mail
Must Go Through!'  An' when you're done... ya feel just swell!"
		-- Mickey Mouse, "The Mail Pilot" by Floyd
Gottfredson, 1933

----- End forwarded message