Disney-comics digest #628.

[Don Rosa]

>ALL:
        Since I talked to John Clark today concerning my finishing up the
"Hearts of the Yukon" story for WALT DISNEY'S COLLECTORY / UNCLE $CROOGE IN
THE YUKON #1, I asked him about the report that someone (who was it now?)
posted on here yesterday about reading information about Gladstone's new
pricing format. Frankly, the way it was described didn't quite make sense to
me, and in truth that wasn't exactly the whole story.
        What Gladstone / Bruce Hamilton is doing is an experiment to find
some way to offset the new price of paper. In case some of you weren't aware
of it, the cost of paper has skyrocketed in the past year, and this is
something which may effect the future of comic books in general (or already
has, obviously). My reactions to this are mixed -- I am frankly ashamed that
I contribute to the felling of trees for the purpose of printing such
unessential matter as comic books... even though comic books are vital
compared to the far worse sorts of magazines and utter junk that people
waste paper printing, not to mention packaging, etc., etc.
        All comic book pricing will soon rise, and Gladstone will raise the
price of it's half-line of "normal" comics (done as they have been for the
past few years) to $1.95. Everything about these issues will be the same as
before except the unavoidable price increase.
        The other titles which will remain at $1.50 will, as reported,
contain 4 fewer pages. But what Gladstone is doing hasn't been tried since
the Fox comics of the late 1940's, the MARCH OF COMICS of the same period,
or Gold Key's BEST OF DONALD AND $CROOGE type issues of the mid 60s. Old
comic collectors will already know where I'm going with this. The Gladstone
$1.50 comics will have no cover stock. The 4 pages being eliminated will be
the wrap-around cover. The first page of the interior comic will have the
"cover" of the comic. There will still be the same number of pages of
stories, but there will be no letters page and fewer house-ads. The story
credits will now be printed on the stories' first page as with all other comics.
        I think it was already mentioned on here which titles would be the
$1.50 line -- mostly the lower sellers, I guess... DD, D&M and whichever. 
        Also, there will be no more issues larger than these 28-32 pagers.
(This is a reversal of a previous Hamilton idea  from the late 80s that
Gladstone comics would be more profitable at 64 pages with a price hike.)
        The future Gladstones will depend on which of these lines sells more
profitably. If the "covered" issues sell better even with the higher price,
the others will switch to that format. If the "coverless" issues are more
profitable, all the Gladstones will go coverless. There's no sense in
worrying or whining about it. It's a fact of economics and the American
comic business where barely enough comics are bought in the first place to
make it profitable. And there's no reason to decide not to buy the
"coverless" issues in a misdirected protest, or to even buy extra of the
"covered" ones. We collectors are a negligible force -- we just hafta see
how the Great Unwashed Masses (which aren't very "Great" as "Masses" go)(but
are probably suitably "Unwashed") will react to this change. (If readers
decide they don't like EITHER style, I guess you won't be seeing the last
chapters of the "Lo$", eh?)