DCML digest, Vol 1 #692 - 6 msgs

[Sue and Gary Leach]

Joe Gould wrote:

Could it possibly be that TWO different companies
might vie for US Disney comic book rights ? Recently ,
the assets of Western Publications ( those that they
themselves owned ) were bought by an outfit...that
also bought the comic-book characters once owned by
Harvey Publications ( Richie Rich , Little Dot , etc.
) , a kids-oriented comic-book powerhouse in the US in
their own right ! With that many valuable
copyrights...Could   they decide to start them up
again , and , to have   even more , try to get the
account 
        for the Disneyverse  ? Hm ?

As reported in Comics Buyer's Guide #1452 (September 14, 2001 cover date),
that "outfit" is Random House, which jointly with Classic Media Inc. won a
bankruptcy court auction for the assets of Golden Books Family Entertainment
Inc. The CBG article included a Reuters quote by Random House spokesperson
Stuart Applebaum: "It's premature to discuss our plans, but, on the Random
House side, the books will become part of a very successful Random House
children's book division." Classic Media will be handling movie, TV, and
home video products, as well as production, licensing, and merchandising
rights for the properties acquired.

In short, Random House/Classic Media have only one interest in this
acquisition, the only one that promises any return on investment: exploiting
the properties developed for Golden Books by Golden/Western and therefore
actually owned by Golden/Western.

Harvey, and Western, were comic book powerhouses, sure, but that was a long
time ago. To try to revive those lines in today's U.S. comics market would
be a staggering challenge, and I seriously doubt that Random House has any
interest in tackling it. Indeed, rather than attempt to run a comics line
themselves, they'd be far more likely to look for companies to license from
them.

Gary Leach 
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