Disney-comics digest #215.

[Torsten Wesley Adair]

On 18 Jan 1994, Don Rosa wrote:
> TORSTEN:
> 	How can I explain the impossibility of placing comic books at
> check-out lines any more clearly for you??? TIME and LIFE and TV GUIDE
> and all those other magazines sell HUGE numbers to the adults standing
> in the checkout line. Look at how much space one TIME magazine takes up
> and how well it sells and who is buying it. Now look at how much space
> six Gladstone comics would take up, how few people are buying them, and
> who those people are. Think about what you're saying! The idea is
> ludicrous!!! I would bet it might cost Gladstone a cool MILLION DOLLARS
> to buy check-out rack space for their comic line -- and where will they
> GET that extra space? Out of the 4th dimension? Why would TIME and LIFE
> and TV GUIDE relinquish their contracts to make room for Gladstone
> comics??? You aren't really thinking about how much space and how much
> money that idea would require. It is I M P O S S I B L E.

Well, there are some titles at checkout lines which don't sell in high
numbers (usually specialty pamphlet books, like calories counters and
such).  I've heard that Disney Adventures is losing money, but is probably
worth it, considering the publicity.

The stores own the space.  Coca-Cola and Pepsi monopolize the best aisle
space for large displays.  One week it's Pepsi, the next week it's Coke. 
How do they manage this?  They pay the store a lot of money, and reduce
the price of the product being sold.  How did Disney Adventures find
space?  And I'm only thinking about one space for Gladstone. 

Also, considering how long a child has to wait while the groceries are
being tabulated, the checkout lane would be ideal.

It may be impossible, but not improbable.

Come to think of it, this would be a good place to sell the three-fer
bags.  Non-perishable, durable.   Hmmmm......

> 	Why can't I put the JWW emblem in the art and let the foreign
> publishers blot it out? The Americans are the foreign publishers! Why
> should I put something in every panel of art that would require all that
> useless effort for dozens of publishers around the world, when the
> publisher who is the least significant (though dear to my heart) can
> place the emblem IN the empty circles??? I must leave MANY MANY
> background gags out of my art which require lil' signs because I am not
> doing comics for Americans any longer. That's the way it is.

Oops.  American centrism.  Point taken.  How about having one
international logo?  Maybe even some type of icon, instead of the
monogram?  

Any chance of a history of the JWW?  

 
Torsten Adair	torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu	Omaha, NE, USA