Brazil

[Arthur Faria Jr.]

Harry:

> Your Brazilian Inducks index lists:

> 288 stories in 1997
>  18 stories in 1998
> 100 stories in 1999
> 185 stories in 2000
>  NO stories in 2001

> I only looked at the highest B-code number for each year.
>
> I heard you talking about a stop before, presumably in 1998. Can I
conclude
> that they started again in 1999, and stopped for the second time in 2001?

Abril's local production of Disney stories started timidly
in 1961/62 (before that they made just some covers and
promotional art, I believe), then re-started in 1967 to
a regular basis in 1971.
Then in September 1997 they stopped local production after
firing almost all the studio staff; those who remained
there tried to re-start the production in the end of
1998 using mainly freelancer writers and third-party
art studios; they stopped again (firing the rest of the
remaining staff) in October 2000. Since then, no more
local production. There are rumors about a new re-start
next year...

> Do you have any *reasons* for the Brazilian editors' policy?

Some reasons should be:

- Low profits (for a huge company's high standards);

- Lack of interest of the children for Disney comics
(and printing media in general, exception for
Abril's major competitor in this area, Maurício de Souza,
with his incredibly popular one-dimensional characters
and aggressive marketing strategy);

- It became too expensive to produce comics in Brazil.
It's easier and cheaper to buy and publish foreign
material (in a very small size, pixelated, using
computer lettering, not always matching the Brazilian
sense of humor and/or culture...)

Maybe other Brazilian list members have their
own opinions, corrections or additions on this matter...

-- Arthur.