Third Prestige Title

[JTorci3511 at aol.com]

Gary Leach and Everyone: 
With regard to a third prestige title, Gary wrote: “There’s lotsa puzzling 
and  pondering ahead”. 
Well, I would never presume to understand the intricacies  of publishing that 
exist on Gary and Gemstone’s side of the process, but on “our  side”, as end 
consumers, the start up of a third (...and we’re not really asking  for a 
fourth, only a third) prestige title, presumably to be titled DONALD AND  MICKEY, 
DONALD DUCK AND MICKEY MOUSE, etc., seems to be the common sense  solution 
that would appear to satisfy more of us than otherwise.   
The mechanism(s) to produce a periodical in that  particular format have been 
“up and running” since the coming of Gemstone in mid  2003.  That format, 
the only  surviving one to date, would seem to be successful enough to support a 
third  title, picking up the support of the readers of the four canceled 
titles.  The content for some  never-to-be-published issues of DONALD DUCK AND 
FRIENDS, MICKEY MOUSE AND  FRIENDS, and the digests has been assembled – or at 
least has been announced  through PREVIEWS and other venues – and could easily 
make up the initial issues  of the new title.    
Of course, there are probably certain considerations that  may be lost, in 
our consumer’s view of the matter, but it sure seems like the  way to go from 
this perspective.   
One additional bit of perspective from “our side”...  well, certainly my own 
personal side, would be this.   
Each time a Disney comics publisher cuts back or outright  ceases, be it Gold 
Key or Whitman ending, Gladstone I being invaded and occupied  by Disney, the 
Disney Comics Implosion, Gladstone II ending, or Gemstone  “reducing” from 
six titles to two, there is always the feeling of something  having been taken 
away from us.  It  has been such for me, each and every time.   
Uncle Scrooge would be the first one to tell us that,  ultimately, economics 
rule the day.  ...And would be the first one to cancel his own title, if it 
failed to  perform.  I think most of us  understand and accept the market 
conditions and economic realities that are  behind the Gemstone Downsizing.   
That said, would not the oft-suggested, hypothetical  DONALD AND MICKEY 
prestige title be exactly what is needed to soften, if not  outright remove, those 
feelings of something having been taken away?  Anything we presently miss 
about DDAF,  MMAF, DDA and MMA could be a part of this new title.   
And, instead of taking chances on a format readers may or may not embrace  
(...such as the so-called “Shonen Jump” black and white format, which I,  
personally, would not support), and the requisite set up costs and effort  
involved, Gemstone could, with nary a beat skipped, continue to serve us the  content 
we’ve lost in the format that has proven the most successful in the  
marketplace.  
It makes sense to me.  What say the rest of you?   
Oh, and thanks to Gary for being there to address our  concerns.  Contrast 
the open,  honest, and willing response from representatives of Gemstone with 
the  stonewalling and misinformation spread in the wake of the Disney Implosion 
of  1991, and you can’t help but appreciate all that these folks do for us, in 
what  must be trying times for them as well! 
Joe Torcivia  

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