Disney-comics digest #517.

[DAVID.A.GERSTEIN]

      Hi, all.

      DWIGHT:  You seem shocked that a Rosa story would be combined 
with a Strobl story.  But this is the THIRD issue in a row when this 
has happened!  John Clark tells me he originally planned to use only 
one Strobl (in US 288), but then Egmont was very late in delivering 
some stories I had dialogued for issues starting after that, so 
things were pushed ahead.  Those Danish stories will (hopefully!) 
begin next issue.
      Although "Bye-Bye Money Bin" (save its title) was 
above-average, your reference to these as "kiddie" stories is 
painfully true.  It's clear that because some readers have been 
vehement in requesting Strobl, John Clark has had to pair the stories 
with Rosa just so he could make sure that the issues still sold.  I 
think it demeans the Rosa stories to have them there, though.
      You must have really hated the current story when you told us 
to stop reading when a character says "Wak."  It appears five times 
in the first panel, I believe.

      DON:  In "Terror of the Transvaal" I've now noticed something 
strange.  When Flinty, covered in feathers (although, as Dwight 
mentioned, there's nothing new about that) races into the horse stall 
-- where he's about to meet the lion -- his goal is to find Scrooge's 
rifle.  A thought balloon expresses this goal.  Yet toward the right 
of the panel, a very few thought-balloon "pointer" bubbles have been 
left in -- revealing that there was a second thought balloon in that 
panel, originally (the wooden post where it was is clearly not Rosa 
art, either).  What did it say?  Disney at work, again?

      JORGEN:  How much do I pay for old issues?  Well, it depends on 
what kind of condition you buy them in.  My rule is, "No condition is 
too bad when the comic is from before 1948, as long as no pages are 
missing except from a story I have in a reprint."  In the last two 
years, I've bought WDC&S 15, in Fine condition but with pp. 31-34 out, 
for $15;  WDC&S 12 in Good with same pages out, $15;  WDC&S 9 in 
fair (complete), $25;  WDC&S 19 in fair, $15;  WDC&S 20 in fair with 6 
pages missing, $12;  WDC&S 16 in poor (complete), $12;  WDC&S 38 
in poor (complete), $12;  WDC&S 23 in fair, $8.
      I couldn't believe that last buy.  Although these comics aren't 
really WORTH more than scrap paper, most people would expect to pay 
around $16-$20 for that one.  The deal on #19 isn't that bad either.
      But what I'm getting to, is that in generally nicer-looking condition 
(let's say, what's called "fine") these same comics might be priced 
at $125, $150, $200, $110, $125, $125, $90, and $110 respectively.  Or 
more -- I have no price guide and am going by memory.  Why buy things 
in fine condition if you're only going to damage them by reading 
them, and can't afford such condition most of the time anyway?
      In "fine" condition, I believe WDC&S #1 is "worth" around 
$2000.  My own copy of that is less than "good" in its condition, if 
not beaten enough to be called "fair", and it was priced at $300 
four years ago (when I got it).  But I'd never pay that for it.  I 
traded an animation cel for it, which an animator I knew once gave me 
as refuse.  Want to pay MUCH too much for something that looks good?  
Try buying animation cels.  That's why I DON'T!  ;-)
      And now my WDC&S #1 would probably be priced at $500.  Wak!

      Uderzo was interviewed?  Okay, it's off topic, but -- how is 
the legal battle over Asterix going (and what, exactly, IS going on 
there?), and is Uderzo going to make more Asterix stories?  I seem to 
recall it rested on the outcome of this legal problem.  Creators' 
rights, again.

      ALL:  I believe I have figured out a way of sorting out the 
problems in "Fotobogo."  I'll see about getting John Clark to order 
that one, although it probably won't be used until 1996.

      Best,

      David Gerstein
      "Horace sure is a ham!  But I haven't the heart to tell him!"
      <9475609 at arran.sms.ed.ac.uk>