Disney-comics digest #859.

[Don Rosa]

I'm back. But not from Cleveland. Did I say I was going to Cleveland? I was
in COLUMBUS at Roger Price's MID-OHIO CON. That used to be held near
Cleveland, so I got mixed up.
         Another Lost Weekend given to the attention of Duck fans. I sat at
my convention table all day Saturday and Sunday...and I do mean all day --
when I start doing illustrations for Duck fans, I start before the
convention opens (having gotten requests from the comics dealers) and I stop
when the convention closes, without a break for lunch. That was 8 hours
straight, both days). ANd I also get up before dawn both mornings to do
drawings for friends who I've long promised to do drawings for, but who
arrived too late to get on the list. Then I get home late Sunday, get up
early Monday, and start back on drawing Ducks and Avatars again. Whew!
        I always get lots of requests for drawings from comics dealers --
more than from the convention attendees, it seems. And I think the reason
for this is simple -- comics dealers are almost always the comics fans of
the 50s and 60s... so, obviously, they are ALL Barks/Duck fans as were
virtually ALL comic readers in America in those days. I have to use a system
to prevent dealers taking up my entire "dance card" before they open the
doors to the public.
         As I've said, in America I can take time to do full-color drawings
for the fans, since there aren't as many of them. And as I've also said, if
I could weed out the TRUE Duck comics fans from the people who just happen
to see someone drawing a Disney character, I could have cut the number in
half, at least.
        I did seem to sign a lot more comics, and STACKS of comics, this
trip than I had for a few years. But I guess that's natural -- none of my
stories were reprinted in America from around 1992 until early 1994 when the
"Lo$" started coming from Gladstone. And it's nice to see people still
bringing me copies of the old RBCC or DON ROSA'S COMICS AND STORIES to sign
-- I would have thought the people who bought that stuff would be in nursing
homes by now.
        People seemed mighty happy with this "Lo$" stuff. Lots of them say
things like they never thought of reading a Disney comic until some dealer
or magazine suggested they try the "Lo$" -- that's naturally very nice! Now
the door has been opened for them to discover Barks and all the other Disney
comics. And that might happen more and more -- there was talk among all the
professionals at the show about the collapse of the American comic
collecting hobby. Comics in America has been more of a hobby than a mass
medium for about 15 years now, and it looks like it's run its course,
according to what people are saying. Sales are off by 2/3 of a year or two
ago, I think someone told me. And dropping. They say Marvel will stop
publishing comics and simply become a licensing company for a few of their
characters. The Direct Sales distribution system, which made it possible for
comic books to survive in America, seems to have collapsed. Or something.
I'm only getting little sound-bytes of this national problem in talking to
the worried professionals. Todd Klein might know more about what's going on
with all this...?
        I wonder if Gladstone can survive this crunch? Or perhaps
Gladstone's sales are not connected to the super-hero-hobby that has fueled
American comics for so long?

TODD:
        Speaking of you and the "Lo$". I'm SURE GLAD you always used "The
Life and Times of $crooge McDuck" as the ongoing title of that entire
series, because that was always what I intended. I would often use just "Lif
of $crooge" ("Lo$") in referring to the stories just to save typing -- but I
would have been very distressed if I'd seen your beautifully lettered
stories begun with the title "Life of $crooge". (You know your jobs on the
splash pages were my favorites parts of each Gladstone reprinting!) So,
along with all my other thanks, THANKS for not paying attention to the
scripts that gave you the short version of the title!

TRYG:
        This is reckless coming from me who prides himself on accurate
research, but my unabridged dictionary is across the house from this station
and I can't check it. However... "Odds bodkins" is an old-English oath,
short for "Od's Bodykins" or somesuch, which I believe is a reference to the
body of God or Christ. "By the Holy Body of Christ!" might be a literal
translation, perhaps? We're not allowed to use expressions like "Dad gommit"
in A Disney comic, since such things are old-time switches of nastinesses,
regardless of whether Gabby Hayes used to say it or not. I think that "Ods
Bodkins" has origins so lost in antiquity that it might be okay. But then...
you see what those publicity-seeking religious zealots find in puffs of
smoke in Disney cartoons, so you never know. Anyway, I'll check my
dictionary later.