Disney-comics digest #553.

Don Rosa 72260.2635 at compuserve.com
Sun Jan 15 05:35:24 CET 1995


ANDREW D.:
	I'm sure you can guess the reason why Gladstone won't try to get
the rights to publish those non-Disney Barks stories. They would need to
negotiate and pay for the rights to publish ALL MGM comics (Barney Bear
was an MGM character) and that would be far too expensive and bothersome
to do just to print a handful of stories about a character that 99.999%
of the populace has never heard of or care about just for the pleasure
of a tiny handful of knowledgeable Barks fans. Plus they would need to
establish another separate title (they wouldn't be allowed to use them
in a Disney title), and there are all manner of extra expenses and
difficulties involved in that undertaking, with the final result being
neglible sales and huge losses.
	Another reason they can't do all that is that Harvey Comics
already HAS the rights to print the MGM comics, and has been using
Barks' Bear stories in the backs of their TOM & JERRY comics. TOM &
JERRY is currently back in sight in a new TV series, so they can sell
the title to kiddies and stick some of those Barks stories in the back
for the miniscule number of readers who care or know who Barks is.

MIKE P.:
	They put my "Treasury of Croesus" story in the same issue with
Barks' "Horsing Around with History"? Very interesting. Both stories
deal with the search for a treasure from ancient Asia Minor. There was
even a few lines in my story that contradict things in Barks', where I
say that Heinrich Schleimann found the treasure of Troy. (When I did my
story over a year ago, I had no idea what the subject of Barks' tale
would be -- I'd had plans for the Croesus story in my notes since 1987.)
	By the way, did I ever beg you to get me copies of AKKU ANKA
which have my stories in them? I'm very interested in that! Also, if
they ever (as you or someone mentioned) wrote that article about me or
put the notice in AKKU ANKA to send in "fan"mail to me which would be
forwarded, I'd like to know about and see that as well. (Those
publishers NEVER keep me posted as to what they're doing to me.)




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