PRESS RELEASE DISNEY COMICS TO SEE PRINT AGAIN STARTING JUNE, 2003

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 PRESS RELEASE
DISNEY COMICS TO SEE PRINT AGAIN STARTING JUNE, 2003 FROM GEMSTONE, GEPPI 
SPEAKS
by Jonah Weiland, Executive Producer
Posted: December 13, 2002

It's a well known fact that the US comics market is dominated by super-hero 
comics target to a young teen market. While enjoyed by all ages, the target 
audience of these books is generally considered to be adolescent males. There 
are other sectors of the industry geared to a more mature audience, with 
books from Vertigo, Marvel's MAX line and most independents intended for 
adults. While those two audience groups have been served nicely in recent 
years,
one area left very much behind has been the children's market. Only Archie, 
Bongo (publisher of "Simpsons" comics) and a handful of independent titles 
are intended for children. In yearspast you could count Disney as part of 
that group as well, but for almost five years Disney books have not been seen 
in this market. That is until now.

Starting in June of 2003 Gemstone Publishing and Disney Publishing Worldwide 
will bring back to comic books the classic Disney characters. Mickey,Donald, 
Uncle Scrooge and other Disney favorites will once again be featured in a 
series of monthly comic books to be published by
Gemstone. "Walt Disney Comics and Stories" and "Uncle Scrooge Adventures" are 
the first titles to see print, with plans to expand the line shortly 
thereafter.

In addition to the Disney Titles, Gemstone Publishing is the home to "The 
Overstreet ComicBook Price Guide," "Comic Book Marketplace" and an assortment 
of other niche magazines and guides. The company was formed by Diamond Comics 
Distributors President and CEO StephenA. Geppi, who spoke with CBR News about 
this announcement.  "I'm a big believer in 'timing is everything' and while 
this deal could have been done sooner, I
personally feel now, call me the eternal optimist or whatever, the timing was 
just better now than it had ever been," Geppi told CBR News Thursday when 
asked why the  delay in launchingthis new venture. "All during the period 
that we were negotiating, if you will, while the intent
was there to do a deal, I never had quite the same level of confidence that 
the timing was right. That said, we look at my situation now as it relates to 
having a 
distribution arm that services the book store market, vis-à-vis Diamond Book 
Distributors, recently formed, that gives me a whole lot more confidence 
about the potential success of this venture."
For Geppi, timing this launch to maximize its success is the crucial 
component to the venture.
Previously Diamond did not have a book distribution arm to move this product 
outside the direct market which currently services comic books. With the 
creator of Diamond Book Distributors, Gemstone now has an avenue to travel 
down in order to get these books into mass market shopping centers where 
they'll find the best access to young readers, which Geppi feels is key to 
the health of the comic book industry.
"It's a business venture we hope will make us tons of money and all the good 
stuff that goes with business ventures, but in actuality, at the risk of 
sounding altruistic, the bottom line is Ireally believe, in the position I 
sit as the owner of Diamond Comic Distributors, that our industry is in dire 
need of some children's comics, and that this is an entry level opportunity 
for young kids to discover comics."While Disney books haven't been seen in 
the States in recent years, they have continually been published in the 
European markets.
"The bad news is we've all be suffering without Disney comics for three years 
and four months," said Geppi. "The good news is they continue to be published 
by some of our favorite writers and artists in the European market and we are 
now able to benefit from that backlog that has built up in that market 
because, under the Disney license, all that material is available to me. 
While technically a reprint, it is brand new material as far as this market 
is concerned. Even the artists themselves are thrilled to see their stuff in 
English."
Fans of Duck artists William Van Horn and Don Rosa will be treated to 
material not seen before in the US market. Van Horn, best known for his 
10-page sotries, and Rosa, best known for his epic adventures, will both seen 
their material printed in the US market. Additionally, more recent creators 
well known in the European market like Mouse creator David Gerstein and Duck 
creator Daan Jippes will also see their work published in the States

"I've already been in communication with David Gerstein," said Geppi, "and  
Jippes is another guy I personally think is a tremendous artist. Quite 
frankly, there's a large number of other artists that I didn't even know 
existed, who have been brought to my attention by Disney and as well as 
[European Disney publisher] Egmont, that I think people are going to be quite 
pleased to see how talented these people are."  And fans of legendary Ducks 
artist Carl Barks need not worry. There are plans to bring his work back to 
print as well.  "The Carl Barks legend needs to be preserved," said Geppi. "I 
know sometimes people will say, "You know those stories have been reprinted 
to death!' You have to remember, Carl produced over 6000 pages of original 
art in his illustrious career and it takes a long while to publish that.  So 
by the time the stuff has been republished it's hitting a whole new 
generation. That's the concept here.
"Remember, reaching children and getting them to become comic readers isn't  
just a matter of putting a four-color comic book in their hands with familiar 
characters and a bad story. In order to retain them the goal is to get them 
to pick up the comic books and when they pick them up they'll be enchanted 
just as we all were by the wonderful stories that Carl wrote and drew, as 
well as his modern day contemporaries, and hence we'll be able to keep them 
hooked, if you will, on comics."

While the Gemstone books will see a mix of material from the European market 
as well as classic reprints, Geppi and crew are looking to find a whole new 
generation of Disney artists for new, original work.
"We have the luxury of being able to get up and running, so to speak, with 
the benefit of new material constantly flowing because it hasn't been seen 
here, while we recruit and address potential new artists and writers who 
might augment this tremendous repertoire that's available to us."
For those who remember the work Gladstone Publishing did with the Disney 
books in the late '90s, Gemstone will be picking up where they left off, 
publishing the books in a prestige format with other formats coming.
"Initially we will be coming back with the 'prestige format' that Gladstone 
was doing at the end of their regime. In other words, the first couple of 
issues that will be solicited for June, 'Walt Disney's Comics and Stores' and 
'Uncle Scrooge,' will look pretty much exactly like they did so that when you 
place them together as a collector they will be contiguous. Worst thing you 
can do to a collector is have a comic book run 800 issues one size and then 
change sizes in the middle of the run.
"As we gear up for the book store market, mass market if you will, we're 
coming to the conclusion that a format that is going to be very popular 
there, as we 
interview the Wal Mart buyers and people of that nature is, I don't want to 
call it digest-sized because that conjures up in a comic book readers mind 
the smaller, Archie size, but maybe more of a what CrossGen or TokyoPop is 
currently doing in the, let's call it pocket book size. So, the intent is to 
have a value pack kind of approach there. Wherein the prestige formats will 
pick up with the $6.95 cover price Gladstone left off with four years ago, we 
look forward to shortly there after getting these pocket book sized books out 
into the mass market as well as the direct market at a morevalue packed price 
point. Say, $4.95 with 128 or more pages."
Geppi told CBR News that Diamond is aggressively talking with major retail 
chains in an effort to get these Disney books on their shelves.
"Kuo-Yu Lang, our top guy at Diamond Book Distributors, has relayed to me in 
his preliminary discussions with the Wal Mart's, Costco's, Target's and 
Barnes and Nobles of the world that there's quite a bit of interest. One of 
the luxuries we have on this side of first publication is that we can solicit 
their input as to size and shape as it relates to their  appetite for 
purchase orders. We feel confident that we are going to get a good response 
there and expect that they'll sell well."
Finally, Geppi has been overwhelmed by the positive response he's received by 
comic retailers and consumers since this announcement first made the rounds. 
"Going into this I went in with a certain amount of trepidation because 
historically the direct market doesn't embrace children's comics, but given 
the absence of them for a time period there's come an almost universal 
recognition of the need for them. I've been getting letters and e-mails from 
some of my long time retailer friends indicating how excited they are about 
them coming back as well as the creators and of course the consumers."  For 
those interested in getting more information directly from Gemstone 
concerning theirDisney publications, visit them on the Web at 
www.gemstonepub.com/Disney/.