DCML Digest, Vol 5, Issue 1

[Gary Leach]

Harry:

> 1. Gladstone needed a separate OK from Disney to print albums under a 
> different title.
> Just like they at first weren't allowed to print "Uncle Scrooge" 
> albums (they got a separate licence for that later on).

Once Gladstone had a license to print Disney comics and albums (again), 
that was all that was required. No separate license for Uncle Scrooge 
was necessary. Album title changes were due to the U.S. Postal Service 
and their changeable regulations.

> 2. Albums with Grandma Duck and Daisy Duck stories only would not sell 
> as well as Donald or Scrooge (or even Gyro).

That, I'm afraid, is one of the main reasons that those stories did not 
make it into color albums. Originally the Gladstone plan was to do 
everything, but by the time we got around to the Daisy and Grandma 
material we were no longer in a tenable position to publish what we 
knew would not sell as well as what we had been publishing.

> Correct: I read in an interview that Geppi has no plans to print 
> "graphic novels" at all.

What this refers to - if we're talking about the same interview - is 
the 8 1/2" by 11" album format, which has never managed to be terribly 
popular in the U.S. The smaller, 5" by 7 1/2" (or thereabouts) trade 
paperback format, though, is very popular, and that is what we are 
going into with our 128-page "Take-Along Comics" line. The first issue 
ships later this month, and will feature "pocket book" style Donald, 
Mickey, and Uncle Scrooge stories that have not been published before 
in North America.

The somewhat larger, 6 5/8" by 10 3/16" (or thereabouts) trade 
paperback format is also a possibility for a revived CBLiC series, 
though, as I might have mentioned here before, no formal plans have 
been made as yet.

Gary