Disney-comics digest #583.

[9475609@arran.sms.edinburgh.ac.uk]

      DON:  I actually like Todd Klein's lettering a LOT.  I think it 
works best with your stories.
      Bill Pearson's lettering is okay, but there are a lot of errors, 
and the sound effects are just sort of written in -- I could do an 
equally good job.  It's like he just takes the art and writes in the 
sound in completely normal lettering in some remote approximation of 
where it's supposed to go.
      Sue Klinger's lettering is excellent, but she makes the sound 
effects very, very small -- sometimes smaller than the normal lettering 
in the balloons!  In the Scarpa stories, she's often deleted sound 
effects which Scarpa put in in English, rewritten them EXACTLY, but in 
much smaller letters with a wide margin.
      John Clark letters the occasional story, too (he used to letter a 
LOT of them, but not anymore).  I like his lettering, but I think it was 
best around 1989 (when he used elaborate lettering for sound effects, 
rather than just large, bold black letters a la Egmont).
      There is a fourth letterer too (who lettered "Traitor in the 
Ranks" in DDA 31 as well as your "Guardians" story).  IMHO this letterer 
is not as good as the others.  I've never really cared for his work.
      Now a few alternatives that didn't at first spring to mind:
      When Disney Comics printed your stories, Don, they had a superb 
letterer do them (whose name eludes me now).  Her work was almost 
identical to Todd Klein -- only I think it was BETTER.  Why has 
Gladstone never gone after this person to do your stories?  Or 
everyone's?  She lettered most of the foreign stories Disney published 
from 1991 on.  I think Gladstone would be wise to go after her services.  
Might you mention this to them?
      Finally, Ron Fernandez is also a letterer, and I like his work the 
most of anyone.  Almost like Barks in appearance!  I got him to agree to 
letter my "Return to Morgan's Island."  Maybe he'd like to letter your 
stories, Don.  I'm sure he'd do a GREAT job.
      In the old days, even the worst stories got good lettering.  Now, 
the lettering is so often uninspired...

      ALL:  Anyone see DD 291 yet?  Any AT strips cut out?  (The cover 
indicates that the strips include an adaptation of the cartoon "Donald's 
Penguin" in which gunplay scenes are now censored, so I sense trouble in 
the air.)  Any interesting ads or letters in the letter column?

      David Gerstein
      <9475609 at arran.sms.ed.ac.uk>