dcomics@stp.ling.uu.se
Disney comics Digest                 Volume 97 : Issue 268

Date:     Tue, 09 Dec 1997 21:37:03 -0600
From: Katie Sullivan <sulliva1@execpc.com>
To: Disney Comics Digest <dcomics@stp.ling.uu.se>
Subject: Scrooge's Historical Impact

Check out this neat tidbit I found at an online Yukon newspaper..

http://www.yukonweb.com/community/dawson/klondike_sun/nov1.htmld/index.html#review

Katie

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Date:     Wed, 10 Dec 1997 10:52:54 -0700 (MST)
From: bhc@primenet.com
To: dcomics@stp.ling.uu.se
Subject: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Gladstone is suspending publication of all our newsstand format Disney
comics. This is effective immediately: Uncle Scrooge Adventures 54, Donald
Duck Adventures 48, Donald Duck 307, Uncle Scrooge & Donald Duck 2, and The
Adventurous Uncle Scrooge McDuck 2 will be the final issues published.

The newsstand market in the US and Canada has, from our standpoint,
deteriorated in terms of distribution terms and sales to a point where it
is no longer feasible for us to participate. To produce newsstand format
comics for the direct market only is not a viable option at this time.

You will note that Uncle Scrooge is not listed among the suspended titles.
The plan is for Uncle Scrooge to join Walt Disney's Comics and Stories as a
monthly prestige format title. The first issue of this will be US 309,
which is scheduled to ship in March of 1998. It will be available to the
direct market and to subscribers on the same basis as Walt Disney's Comics
and Stories.

FYI: The vast majority of copies of our newsstand format comics have always
been distributed outside direct market channels, so the now infamous
incident involving German customs and Diamond Distribution is not a
material factor in this development. Where it is and will be material is in
the area of direct market sales, which involves Walt Disney's Comics and
Stories, the Uncle Scrooge Adventures in Color albums, and, of course, the
new Uncle Scrooge.

We'll keep you posted on further developments. Gladstone may also be
contacted by phone at 1-520-776-1300 and by e-mail at bhc@primenet.com.
______________________________

"Because of unresolved issues involving Disney's German office, Diamond
Distribution no longer distributes Disney comics and comic albums outside
the US and Canada.

"As we are not currently licensed to do so, we also cannot sell comics to
overseas distributors or comic shops.

"We are working with Disney, Burbank (USA) to resolve this situation but
cannot tell when or how events will unfold. In the meantime, we can sell to
overseas subscribers at subscription or back-issue prices.

" We apologize for this hopefully temporary inconvenience."

Best regards,
All the folks at Gladstone
______________________________

The above is Gladstone's official statement on the matter concerning
overseas distribution of our product.

Poul:

>I just heard from a friend that
>HE had heard in the local comic book shop that Another Rainbow were
>about to reprint 5 sets of the original (B&W) Carl Barks Library. Now, that is
>SOME rumour, I think.

Sure is! It doesn't happen to be true, though...which is too bad, really.

------------------------------

Date:     Wed, 10 Dec 1997 10:02:18 PST
From: barreto@ngm.br.xerox.com (PAULO CEZAR LOPES BARRETO,BARRETO)
To: dcomics@stp.ling.uu.se
Subject: Disney Super-Heroes: MHO

Ave ALL!

    Now back to D-C postings after many months' absence...

    About the recent discussion about, so to say, costumed Disney
characters playing super-hero secret identities, here's my $0.02: not
a bad idea in itself, unless someone really cares if Disney does it in
a mere attempt to recover from DC/Marvel comics hard competition. But
some characters are more elaborate and interesting than others...
Here4s a partial list:

    Paperinik/Superduck/Superpato: By far my favorite, albeit all the
distortion made. As originally conceived, Donald acts as an avenger
of himself4s cause, fooling Scrooge and all the family, in a
straightforward satire to the typical American/Protestant/Disneyesque
"loser" role usually played by DD. Then, unfortunately, the character
turns aboutface and works as a mere heroism freelancer, defending
Scrooge4s money and/or defeating bad guys as any ordinary super-hero
-- as opposed to the "unmasked" Donald, more radically depicted as
"the big loser" in the same stories.

    I haven't read any of those new stories of Paperinik as a kind of
"environmental ranger" (Paperinik vs. Captain Planet, the smashing
cross-over...). What do you all think about them?

    Only Gyro's inventions made to Paperinik work fine (as they're shown
as fully working in more than a couple of stories, unlike all those
time-machine-shrinking-ray-memory-reader gadgets). But not even this
way Gyro seems to feel like keeping that Donald's critical secret.

    Paperinika/Superpata/etc: Below average. A mere counterattack to
Paperinik's/Scrooge's assumed sexism just to put Daisy in a literally
unbeatable role (Disneyan gentlemen can't beat a female, you know...).
Just for some cool gadgets, she doesn't make much progress over
traditional heroes.

    Super Goof: Fine, but a bit kiddie to my taste. It seems Gilbert
starts taking the magic goobers just because Goofy can't keep a secret
too long... Donald doesn't have that kind of problem.

    Morcego Vermelho (Fethry in "bat" costume - don't know his name in
other languages): A really cool, laughable, badly underrated hero.
Absurd gizmos, absurd enemies, absurd HQ (a trash can!). Not very
frequent nowadays, but has a bunch of loyal fans.

    []s,    P.C.Barreto
        barreto@br.xerox.com

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Date:     Wed, 10 Dec 1997 20:27:08 -0500
From: Jakob Soederbaum <jakob.soederbaum@mailbox.swipnet.se>
To: dcomics@stp.ling.uu.se
Subject: Disney store in London

Hi folks!
I have a rush question for anyone who knows: Where in London is that
gigantic Disney store everyone talks about?

---
_//\|<()|}



    ======================================
    Title of the year: The Big Bad Wolf
                in
            "The Big Bad Wolf"

        by: David Gerstein (1997)
    ======================================

------------------------------

Date:     Wed, 10 Dec 1997 14:37:40 +0000
From: "Augie De Blieck Jr." <augie@nic.com>
To: dcomics@stp.ling.uu.se
Subject: Re: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Thanks for posting that, Gary. Here's the rant I posted on CompuServe about
all of this:

So what we have here is something close to what I predicted. Uncle $crooge
will continue in a WDC&S-like monthly format. The newsstand distribution deal
is not profitable anymore. And the direct market is too shallow to support
these titles alone.

Gladstone has made some whoppers of mistakes in their second run. The
complete repudiation of their fans by removing the letters columns in favor
of subscriber-only newsletters, the coverless comics, the computer lettering,
some of the poor choices of content, the huge price of WDC&S... But most of
that can be attributed to things they have to do to survive and I can't
begrudge them that. (Of course, some of the cost-cutting measures may have
lost them fans, but then you get into the whole chicken-and-the-egg line of
thought, and I'm too upset to go there right now.)

Disney is to blame just as much as Gladstone for this failure. Words can't
describe the animosity I feel towards their so-called "censorship" ideas.
The hassles they've caused and the distribution problems they won't help to
solve have helped effectively end this latest round of Duck books.

In the end, if only they had put Daisy Duck on the cover, showing a little
T&A, wearing spandex, and sporting super-powers, we might not have this
problem. If we had an industry in which quality really counted -- in which
diversity was supported and appreciated -- in which people didn't look down
their noses at quality story-telling because, oh, it's a bunch of talking
ducks... If store owners ordered and supported the titles... Promoted the
titles... Didn't hide them in a corner, afraid to show them off... If the
distributor didn't stick the listings next to Vampirella on one side and
some other crotch-baring, breast-jiggling talentless art on the other... If
newsstands supported comic books... If the direct market weren't the be-all
and end-all... If we had a strong industry and not a house of cards waiting
to collapse on itself, this might never have happened. This might not have
been possible.

Welcome to the Disney Implosion. Round Two.

-Augie, just slightly worked up this afternoon
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Augie De Blieck Jr. * augie@nic.com * AugieDB@compuserve.com <*>
"The avalanche has already started, it is too late for the
pebbles to vote." -Kosh, "Believers"

------------------------------

Date:     Wed, 10 Dec 1997 17:53:37 -0500
From: "M. Mitchell Marmel" <marmelmm@dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu>
To: dcomics@stp.ling.uu.se
Subject: Re: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

(disgusted growl)

Are there any British Disney editions?

-MMM-

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Date:     Wed, 10 Dec 1997 18:10:16 -0500
From: "Don Rosa" <donrosa@iglou.com>
To: <dcomics@stp.ling.uu.se>
Subject: Re: Disney comics Digest V97 #267

Well, where have I been?

Starting October 25 I was gone to Germany, Italy and Finland (!) for over
2 weeks, then back home for a week, then gone to Denmark and Norway (and
NOT Sweden) for another 10 days, then gone to a convention in Columbus,
Ohio, for several more days... but home now since the first of this month.
As usual when I return from one of these trips, I find so much mail and
e-mail awaiting my return... not to mention bills and leaky water heaters
and behind schedule projects and uncut grass and everything else... that I
find no time to get back to contributing to this or other newsgroups right
away. And when I returned from that first trip and saw that, before I knew
it, I was leaving again, I just decided to not make an appearance until
both trips were done. And after that, the pile of mail, bills, leaks,
projects and grass (well, make that leaves now) was again high, so I have
been catching up with myself and doing a bit of the old "lurking" here
until I felt up to writing something. I put that task off another week or
so due to the daunting notion of trying to recall everything I'd done in
the past 1 1/2 months, assuming a few people expected a travel-report...
and now I realize that I both have begun to forget details and that I MUST
be rather brief since I still don't have much time... and to write a
thorough report of my experiences of Oct.-Dec. 1997 would fill this ML for
days, and that's not my intent. Well, I'll start typing and trying to
recall the trips... and end it after an hour or so tonight with a "to be
continued"...

On October 25 I flew to Frankfurt, Germany, to meet an Ehapa editor and
begin my 4th annual German tour. Each year since 1994 I have visited the
annual German comic convention ("Salon"), held alternatively in Hamburg and
Erlangen. But the Ehapa people seemed less pleased with the Hamburg show
(which was earlier THIS year), so they postponed my visit until the release
of that much-maligned boxed-set of the "Lo$" issues of the German "Rosa
Album" series. It's already been a while since this was discussed, but
instead of joining in the other Egmont countries to publish the hardback
edition of my "Lo$", Germany opted to collect the first 6 albums in their
"Rosa" series which contained those stories, include a new "#0" which added
the so-called chapter 0 and 8A along with lotsa texts, add a signed
mini-lithograph, and put it in a slipcase. I think they regret this
decision now, judging by how this set was received and how the hardback was
received elsewhere. The main problem with this boxed set was the slipcase
which was not a nice handmade case like Ehapa has used on a recent
reprint-set of early German Disney weeklies... but it was a machine-made
box about the quality of something you'd get your Kentucky Fried Chicken
in, which would unfold on you if you set it on a shelf. Since anyone who
wanted those #1-6 albums probably already had them, and since the #0 was
sold sepeartely, and since the "slipcase" wasn't worth having, the only
reason to buy the set it seemed was to get the autographed lithograph card.
But there was even a problem with that in that it was designed as a folded
"triptych" where my signature appears on a different leaf than the art, so
this annoyed buyers who wanted to frame the thing and hang it onna wall.
Well, this is what I was in Germany to promote, for what the buyers thought
it was worth.
Since I was not appearing at a convention, I went straight to the annual
tour of German bookstores and comic shops arranged earlier by Ehapa. In
previous years my Ehapa host for these tours would be a nice girl or two
from the office -- they were very nice people, but not comics fans in
particular, and young and very anxious to please me and make the trip
comfortable and were very nervous and would then make ME very nervous and
by the end of a week we'd be very very stressed. But THIS year, instead,
they gave the job to a comic/antique toy dealer named Stefan Brenner who
helps Ehapa at the conventions (where they are not allowed to sell their
own product) -- this made a GREAT team! I have been a collector for 35
years and have always palled around with other collectors and dealers, so
this was a guy I had lots in common with. We understood each other and the
trip was much more comfortable! If I'm invited for more German tours in the
future, I'll try to insist on this set-up again.
My schedule was on the ML here, and since it's over there's no reason for
me to try to repeat all the stops and shop names. I guess I made about 10
appearances through southeast Germany, some cities I'd seen before and some
I hadn't. Several Germans made the comment that *I've* seen much more of
Germany than *they* had, and that's pretty typical -- I talk to Europeans
who have travelled around America much more than me. Same deal.

Well, the trip went pretty smooth through Germany. Nothing special to say.
I went to some nice comic shops and met some nice Duckfans, as always. I
did drawings in many, many albums. I used to HATE to do such quickie
drawings! I used to watch people like Ulrich Schroder at conventions and
how he could whip out an excellent drawing in a minute. But I would always
be embarrassed by how awful my art looked unless I took 30-40 minutes and
had all my engineering tools to help me draw as I do at home! But then
that's the difference between an Ulrich Schroder (a professional, trained
cartoonist) and me (a "professional fanboy"). But I realized that the
secret might be to have a number of Duck expressions that face straight
forward and which I draw over and over until I have each line memorized...
and I can actually turn out a drawing in 60 seconds that I'm actually happy
for someone to have.

Well, I hate to dust off that week in Germany too fast, but I can't think
of anything else to say. It was jes' fine.

So then I went to Italy to attend the Lucca comic convention! I was only
there for two days, not a week like two years ago... so I can't say it "was
the nicest week of my life" as I could then. But it weren't bad! List
member Fabio (one of my favorite humans) was one of the people running the
whole shebang and I'm sorry I couldn't spend more time with him, but he was
too busy. I met Giorgio Cavazzano and Marco Rota (two more REAL
cartoonists) but spent no time with either one. More importantly, I enjoy
meeting other Duckfans and comics fans (that's the group I feel I belong
to) such as Harry Fluks and Francois Willot, and old friends like Didier
Ghez and Alberto Becattini and Leonardo Gori and Francesco Stajano and
Marco Barlotti and Gianfranco Goria and other people whose names I'd spell
even worse (?).
I think others have reported on the Disney panel we all did. I was there to
help award prizes to fellow American Jeff Smith and new-American Neil
Gaiman. Neil flattered me quite a bit -- convention guests are offered
dinners at certain Lucca restaurants on certain nights... and Neil, knowing
I had arrived that Saturday in Lucca, found out where I was to have dinner
that night and came and joined us. He lives in rural ... uh... Wisconsin, I
think... and me in rural Kentucky, both in big old houses in the woods, and
he and I have a gay time discussing what we grow in our gardens and I tell
him how to feed hummingbirds, and we generally have serious discussions
about nature. Never about comics! (Actually, I don't even know if either of
us read much of the other's work... we just share other life-style
interests.)
The convention was great fun for me... or for anyone involved in writing or
drawing Disney comics... thgey are RATHER popular in Italy, so I am
followed around the convention floor by fans wanting autographs and
photos... not something I get much of in America! And I managed to buy a
few more Ducktoys for my collection. Good food... but the best was yet to
come!
After the convention ended, Fabio and Harry and I drove to the Italian
Riviera, to Rapallo, to again visit the "cartoon restaurant", U GIANCU,
where the walls are covered floor to ceiling with hundreds and hundreds of
original pages of comic art done just for the owner, Fausto Oneto, another
one of the world's finest hoomin beans. Fausto is both a restauranteur and
comic art fan/collector, and hosts Europe's most famous cartoonists and
America's most famous newspaper cartoonists... but, like most Europeans, he
seems to have little interest in modern American comic books... and I see
none of that sort of art represented. But everything else is there, and I
won't begin to try to list it all. And he has old art in his personal
collection! I stayed two nights in his home and slept beneath an original
LITTLE NEMO, DREAMS OF THE RAREBIT FIEND, and a one-page Barks $crooge gag.
And that's just in the GUEST room.
Anyway, what Fausto did was CLOSE his restaurant and host a private dinner
party for us, including the other local Disney writers and artists, Carlo
Chendi and Bottaro. What can be more fun than to be the friend of the owner
of a restaurant on the Italian Riviera who closes the restaurant just for
you for a private party?! Wow!
Well, he actually TOPPED that thrill the next night! The next day Fausto
and his wife took me on a drive up the coast (along those twisty cliffside
roads I'd always seen in James Bond movies) and we strolled through
charming seaside villages. And we stopped at a fish market that didn't even
have a sign out front -- local residents simply know this place is where
they can go to buy fresh seafood. And Fausto picked out an octopus and bags
of shrimp and calamari and squid (he says there's a difference) and mussels
and loads of really UGLY fish, and we went back to his restaurant which he
kept closed AGAIN and let ME help him in his huge kitchen fix one of my
favorites, seafood stew! That was even more fun than the previous night! I
had my videocamera the whole time so that I could stop every few minutes
and film it -- "here's Fausto boiling the octopus!" "Here's me shelling
mussels!" Well, this was one of the greatest times I've ever had, but it
hasn't much to do with comics, so I'll move on.

Actually, let's stop there -- next I went to Finland where the Ducks are
more popular than anywhere else in the world, or so it seems... and here is
where I began to help promote the new hardback "Lo$" book. I'll send this
much into the ML, just so you know I'm back and trying to re-establish
communications... and tell you about Finland tomorrow or so.

------------------------------

Date:     Wed, 10 Dec 1997 22:49:55 EST
From: Hoy Murphy <HoyMurphy@aol.com>
To: dcomics@stp.ling.uu.se
Subject: Where are the digests?

It's been several days since I've received a digest. Have I accidently been
bumped off the mailing list?

--your pal, Hoy

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End of Disney comics Digest V97 Issue #268
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