American Pie

[Olaf Solstrand]

(Please note that in this post, "American" is meaning "person from USA", 
not "person from the continent America".)

I've bought and read all "Uncle $crooge" and "Walt Disney's Comics and Series" 
from Gemstone so far, and I've noticed one thing...

The stories are mostly (with the exception of the good old reprints) stories 
from European publishers (Egmont, Picsou, Oberon). Still, I get the impression 
that 95% of these stories are either written or drawn by an American.

To use November as an example...

U$ contained these stories:
-- "The coin" by Don Rosa, Louisville, Kentucky.
-- "Junk funk" by Dave Rawson and Alfarez. I don't know on this one - I seem to 
remember hearing that Dave Rawson is American, but I can't say for sure.
-- "Billions in the hole" by Carl Barks. Yes, he's American.
-- "Beagle bots" by Pat McGreal/Carol McGreal/Nunez. The McGreals are 
Californian.
-- "Travails" by William Van Horn - American (although he's living abroad).

WDCS contained these stories:
-- "Double trouble" by William Van Horn. American.
-- "The great birthday robbery" by Byron Erickson/Ferioli. Erickson is another 
abroad-living American.
-- "Can you imagine... Melvin?" by John Lustig/Rodriques. Correct me if I'm 
wrong, but John Lustig is American, isn't he?
-- "The health nut" by Dick Kinney/Al Hubbard - both healthy Americans from the 
1960th century.
-- "Man vs. machine" by Carl Barks - American.
-- "Only a nose" by Jack Sutter/Marsal. I don't know any of those.

So, out of those eleven stories, *eight* I know for sure are written by 
Americans. Could be more, though, depending on the nationality of John Lustig, 
Dave Rawson and Jack Sutter. I think that's pretty much.


Nothing wrong with that, I just wonder if that's a coincidence or not. Are all 
the best Disney comics creators in the world American, do Gemstone pick stories 
by American writers and artists on purpose or is it just a coincidence?

I'm not saying that ANY of these options are wrong. I don't think so either. I 
just wonder.



Olaf