Floyd Norman Talks About Mickey Mouse Comic Strip Days

[Chris Hilbig]

Steven sez:

the fact that while attractive looking, his strip just wasnt (to me)  
very
funny or very interesting (even the censored ones) may have something  
to do with
his strips lack of success in the  newspaper marketplace. Of course i am
several decades older than the target audience for this strip ....so it  
wasnt meant
to appeal to me....

   comic strips are a tough sell in today's market - a recent newspaper  
chain
in the USA (knight-rider?) has stated they plan to drop 1/3 of their  
comics
unless they get a 1/3 price cut....!  Newspaper editors are a notorious  
nervous
lot, and what is good for movies or tv, isnt quite right for papers....



Now me:

I digress. Comic strips are a cutthroat market. And the info you posted  
makes it all the more blatant. Creating a strip for a niche within such  
a tight market is quite difficult. But it doesn't help when newspaper  
editors think of comics as over glorified filler to print. Maybe with a  
different mind set, it might be possible to take advantage of what they  
have. Maybe do a promo of some sort to promote newspapers as a family  
thing.   I'm afraid outside of that, I don't really have a dynamic  
solution to this problem. Most likely comic strips will become a relic  
of the past in newspapers. It's a shame, because newspaper comics have  
had such a rich and colorful history. If you can't take my word for it,  
just check out the book "Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics" by  
Bill Blackbeard.  
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0874741726/ 
qid=1090583457/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/102-3705020-6216930?v=glance&s=books>   
It's quite astounding what was.

Oh well... As far as the Donald Duck strip's concerned, I'm not sure if  
it's even being produced today. I visited King Features Syndicate's  
site (Disney's Syndicator for the past 50, 60 years), and it's not  
listed. I do remember one of the self proclaim Donaldists on this list  
posted a link to a site that links to a Danish or Norwegian DD strip.  
Wish I had it bookmarked. But that was being distributed by a local  
distributer, not King Features and I have no clue if they're reprints  
or not. Doesn't bring a lot of hope. :P   I assume when King Features'  
contract with Disney expired, the DD and MM strips went along with it.


Chris