WDC&S complete reprints

[Rob Wilson]

on 3/26/03 7:08 AM, SRoweCanoe at aol.com at SRoweCanoe at aol.com wrote:

> 
> ok, how about is Gemstone doing it?
> 

Yes.  From the ³Disney Comics Return!² interview with Steve Geppi on IGN.com
- 

            IGNFF: What are your current plans as far as something that
Gladstone never got around to, because I guess they were so entrenched in
the comic album format, in that there's never been Disney trade paperbacks ­
like an Uncle Scrooge trade paperback with a couple hundred pages worth of
stories?

            GEPPI: Well, that's what I was just mentioning. In addition to
the pocket size, we plan to do some compilations. One project that we're
going to be doing late in the year is ­ you'd probably describe this more as
a direct-market oriented project, because it's a reprint of classic Walt
Disney's Comics and Stories. We plan to do an exact size and shape Walt
Disney's Comics and Stories, starting with number one.

            IGNFF: Oh really?

            GEPPI: If you recall, Barks reprints ­ when they did the
libraries for example, the Barks libraries ­ they started with number 31,
because that's where Barks started. And even though these are strip
reprints, we feel that if we're going to be the people publishing Walt
Disney's Comics and Stories number 600 and something in an ongoing basis and
continue the tradition, there is going to be a market ­ aside from the
collectors ­ who'll want to go back and get, at reprint prices, a complete
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories set. So, effectively, we could put them out
like number 1, then number 2, number 3 ­ then collect them again into an
archival package and a trade paperback version. For example, DC does
Superman 1, 2, 3, 4 and then 5 ­ 8 in their archive editions. Well, the
difference here is we would do, in a sense, Superman 1, 2, 3, 4 in separate
issues, because they're big, thick, 64-page books, and collect them into
maybe ­ and this is not all etched in stone, per se ­ an expensive,
hard-cover, limited edition with the idea later of doing them in a trade
paperback for the bookstore market. That would be a variety of ways to get
revenue from those products, and packages that are more conducive to the
different audiences. For example, the collector might want that limited
edition hardcover, you know, in a very permanent looking package. The casual
buyer, who might go to a Walden's or a Barnes and Nobles or whatever, might
want that same thing, but it's the hardcover or soft cover thing that's
worked for you forever. So we feel pretty confident that there's a market
for that. It's already been established with the hardcovers ­ at $50 no less
­ that DC is selling. You're not going to get mass-market quantities at $50,
but then that's where the trade paperback comes in. So you can do a lot with
this, but I think that the mass market buyer ­ that name, that title... Walt
Disney's Comics and Stories is just a perennial, and that's the right title
to start with, and to see if we can't get people who are picking them up
starting with number 600 and whatever, to work their way back in a nice
shelf life, archival edition ­ keeping in mind that one of the perennial
ideas that has worked in the past that we're going to look at... when I was
a kid and you went to the food store with your mom, at the end of the aisle
you'd see a little stand-up display where you bought the first encyclopedia
for 99 cents. Then you were hooked, and every week when you came in you
bought the additional ones ­ I'm giving my age away with the prices here. I
think that's the Disney, again, because it's Disney and that brand is
something that's got that continuity ­ like a Walt Disney's Comics and
Stories ­ I can see something like that that a parent, especially a
nostalgic parent, says, "Look at this, these are the same comics that when I
was a kid. I can have this whole series ..." We sign them up, so to speak,
in advance for Walt Disney's Comics and Stories for a long, long time.

-------------------
Take care, 

    Rob



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