A new CBL

[Gary Leach]

Dean:

> I will be thrilled if it turns out to be true that the Carl Barks
> library will be coming back.  That is the kind of thing I hoped
> Gemstone would do earlier on, but better late than never!  Gary, I
> like Olivier *plead* for you to tell us any details you can about
> this!  If nothing else, can you confirm or deny this story?
> Pleeeeeaaaasssseeeeee! (Sounding like Roger Rabbit! :)))

Roger Rabbit? Who dat? (Kidding!) ((Almost...))

There is no new edition of the Carl Barks Library scheduled, for now or 
in the near future. What I can say with certainty is that a new CBL is 
now in production. Egmont initiated and is spearheading this, with 
Byron Erickson, Susan Daigle-Leach, and Geoffrey Blum involved.

This is a large undertaking. In spite of Another Rainbow's original 
CBL, Gladstone's color album version, and editions published in other 
countries, the various materials needed to put together a new edition 
have not been at all easy to gather up. The years have not been kind to 
anyone's production archives, physical or electronic, and much lost 
ground has to be made up. A desire for quality has also required a 
considerable effort to come up with the best and closest-to-original 
source materials possible - an effort that continues.

Why doesn't Gemstone go ahead with a CBL of its own? It would be 
possible, but it would also be an expensive and largely pointless 
duplication of effort. What Egmont's going for is, in many ways, an 
improved and updated Another Rainbow CBL in full color, and that's the 
sort of CBL Steve Geppi would like to put on the market in the US.

So the question is, when will Egmont have its new CBL in hand? With all 
the bumps in the road, it's been difficult for them to pin that down, 
and I wouldn't even hazard an educated - or, for that matter, 
instinctive - guess.

Gary