How I got into Disney comics.

David A Gerstein David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu
Fri Dec 10 06:07:41 CET 1993


	I forgot to tell all of you how I got involved with Disney
comics.  When Disney Comics in Burbank started publishing, I began to
pester Bob Foster with phone calls and letters.  We became friends,
and he invited me to try my hand at dialoguing for him.
	When he accepted my first story, then found that I was 16, all
hell broke loose because Disney won't allow the hiring of minors.  So
my dialogs -- which I continued to submit -- were stockpiled until I
was 18, at which point three were bought.
	Just before Cris Palomino bought those, though, Bob Foster
left for Denmark, saying to me that I should try working for Egmont
sometime.  At about that time, I had a long talk with Don Rosa, who
convinced me to stop doing dialogs for Disney and that working for
Egmont was a reasonable idea.
	So I submitted no further stories to Disney but the six they
had already, and went to work for Bob in Denmark.
	Meanwhile, Disney Comics never bought my other three dialogues,
and Cris never got to print the first three (they would probably have
been in DDAD 39 and 40).
	When Gladstone took over I described how I had done work for
Disney which had never been printed.  They acquired copies of those
stories -- "Bolivar's Job", "Sea Struck," and "The Clock Watcher" (a
Fred Milton story BTW) -- and will be printing them themselves.  I
also talked my way into doing new dialogues for Gladstone.  The first
three they bought were the three others that Disney had been sitting
on -- one of which was "Bugged by Humbuggery".

	Since then, I have been doing stuff for both Egmont and
Gladstone, as I described yesterday.  How well does it pay?  I dunno.
Egmont pays well, but it takes forever for me to make stories for
them.  Besides, in the next year they can only buy a few stories from
me because they produced far too many comics in 1993 and have to cut
down for 1994.  So I'm going to try to get in with Thom Roep at
Oberon... that'll be my third job, if I make it.
	(Not that I need it... if I do three stories for Egmont in
1994, I'll be financially set for what Williams College wants of me.
Let alone my Gladstone work.  But I have a billion *ideas*, and if I
only do three stories for Egmont I have to let my others out somehow.)
	After I'm through with college Egmont will be back in their
usual production schedule, and Gladstone may be publishing more comics
by then (I HOPE!).  So who knows... will I go into this full time?  I
have not the slightest idea!   I may become an archivist or historian,
at least for a while... tho' I'll never stop doing Ducks and Mice at
least part-time.

	Say good night, Minnie.  Fer gosh sakes!

	<David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu>







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