DCML digest, Vol 1 #575 - 15 msgs

[Sue and Gary Leach]

WL Lilly:

> Does Diamond own Gladstone outright?????

No. Diamond and Gladstone are separate companies.

> Did Hamilton put out
> (1) - The color comic EC reprints ( And the
> ultra-deluxe albums . ) ?

This gets a trifle confusing, so bear with me. When Disney did not renew
Gladstone's Disney comics license in 1989, Gladstone sought other pastures
and got a license to reprint EC comics. We did several issues under the
Gladstone imprint, but then Russ Cochran, who had been publishing the EC
"untra-deluxe albums" and the EC Library (an equivalent series to the
original Carl Barks Library), acquired the EC comics license and has been
publishing those ever since (has just completed reprinting everything EC in
comics form, as a matter of fact). Some years back Diamond acquired Russ
Cochran's publishing operation, EC reprints and all, and that apparently was
the impetus for Diamond to establish Gemstone, the imprint that may soon
assume the publishing duties for US Disney comics.

> (2) - A MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS comic ,
> briefly , in the mid-Nineties ?

Yes, Hamilton Comics, Gladstone's companion imprint under the parent
umbrella of The Bruce Hamilton Company, did publish Mighty Morphin Power
Rangers for a while.
 
> (3) - A - possibly giveaway/promotion only - EEK THE
> CAT comic book ? ( I'd really like to find out about
> this one !)

A three-issue Eek the Cat comic was published by Hamilton for ANCO, a
distributor that boasted Wal Mart among its outlets at the time. Once the
comics were in ANCO's hands, our involvement with them ended. The full
extent of the distribution of these comics is something only ANCO knows.

> (4) - Such other minor things as an attempt to bring
> back Warren-style black and white horror comics , and
> a ( Now-retired US basketball star , ) " Sir " Charles
> Barkley graphic novel ?????????

The horror mags were our first Hamilton Comics projects (and doing them was
no minor thing, believe me). Others were the Sir Charles Barkley graphic
novel, a Felix the Cat album, a movie adaptation of "Freeked" (this, like
Eek, for ANCO), two issues of Madraven Stark (a spinoff from the horror
mags), and, of course, The Unexpurgated Carl Barks.

Sheesh, I wonder if even I'll be able to keep all this straight in twenty
years.

Gary Leach