Disney-comics digest #253.

[James Williams]

>When I was finished, I realized I didn't really know what it was that
>caused the "Fall of Disney Comics".

I think a lot of different things led to their downfall.

o  Since Gladstone's comics sold well, Disney assumed that the same
   comics done by DISNEY would do even better.  They had a bigger
   budget than Gladstone, so they hired various big name creators.
   But, the people they hired weren't necessarily Disney Fans and
   who didn't understand Disney comics.

o  The quality was very inconsistant.  Just look a Mickey Mouse,
   Goofy Adventures, and T&M Beirnbaum's Rescue Ranger issues.

o  They started printing multi-issue comics.  Look at some of the
   latter issue of DuckTales.  You'll see letters from little kids
   asking 'Why are your stories so long?'.  One of the unspoke
   rules of Disney comics is that you get at least one complete 
   story each issue.  Look at the books which got canned first,
   most of them were ones which broke this rule.  Likewise,
   Gladstone' own Mickey Mouse title broke this rule and you
   know the results.  This is why I think if Gladstone decides
   to relaunch Mickey Mouse that they will have to do it without
   using Floyd Gottfredson stories.  [The sound you hear is
   David going blastic!]

>It was the Roger Rabbit comics that got me interested in comics.  I
>was really sad to see Roger Rabbit end and some of the others...

While I really liked the movie, I didn't care for the comic much.  The
whole toon/human difference got lost.  I missed Edie Valiant.  Edie
Valiant played a crucial role in WFRR, he was the character that people
could relate to.  If we'd simply seen Roger Rabbit and Toontown, it
wouldn't have worked very well.  But, we saw RR & TT though Edie
Valiant's eyes.

>Will Roger ever return to comics? 

I'm not sure Roger will ever return again PERIOD.  He hasn't been in
Disney Adventures Digest in almost a year.  The video for 'A Faraway
Place' (I think that was the movies name) lacks the Maroon Cartoon. 
And from what I hear Amblin and Disney aren't speaking to each other. 
Also, Disney built Bonkers T.  Bobcat (a horrible cartoon) to replace
Roger Rabbit.

James Williams