Various things

[Larry Gerstein]

        Dear folks,

        Don said this sometime last week:  "I also greatly dislike that 
"My Life in an Eggshell" or whatever it's called (having flipped through 
it in various foreign languages), and I regret that it will soon be 
inflicted on America."

        Actually, this is not going to be published by Gladstone... what
made you think it would be?  However, Gladstone IS reprinting Tony Strobl's
"This Is Your Life, Donald Duck" (in DM 25) and from someone else's recent
letter, I suddenly learn that this story presents Scrooge and Grandma as
brother and sister...

        Mark Mayerson:  "As a general request, when David Gerstein or
anybody else lists the upcoming Gladstones, could they also list the
contents of the Carl Barks Library [of Donald Duck] issues?"

        You got it.  CBLDDIC #8 will contain "Christmas on Bear Mountain"
and "The Old Castle's Secret."  The next one to be published, #5, will
contain the Mickey story as backup to "Volcano Valley."

        On another tack... somehow it doesn't surprise me that "The Secret
of Mars" is reprinted in the Italian DD 60th B-Day issue.  But what's the
quality like?  Gladstone was sent very dark, muddy proofs that they had to
reink parts of simply because the lines were thick and smudgy.  Are there
better copies of the story somewhere, or is this new Italian printing
sloppy-looking, too?

        Just so everyone knows, "The Lentils from Babylon," an Italian
story considered to be one of the greats over there, and which was in the
typically obese Donald special birthday issue in Italy, will indeed see
print here soon, in USA 30-32.

        Why is it that the Italian jubileum issue is about 4 times as thick
as those from the USA, Germany, Denmark, and so on?  Are there ANY comics
in Italy which are only 32 or 64 pages long?  How can kids afford the
really thick comics there?

        Well, folks, it's time to head for the hills.  Lots of work to do
just now, including some research on pirates for a Donald story I'm in the
middle of (you'll just have to wait and see what that one is! ;-)

        BTW, Harry, long ago you asked me about getting a copy of the MM
jubileum issue of 1988... I have to admit, my local comic shops don't have
it, and there is no back issue service for the "old" Gladstones, so I can't
get it that way.  Maybe one day soon I'll find another copy of it.  (It's a
GREAT issue... "The Miracle Master," one of FG's best, is complete, and
then there are about 12 Sunday strips from 1932-1987 as well, and the first
week alone (!!!) of "Lost on a Desert Island," and some articles about
Gottfredson, too.

        That's all for now, folks, save one other thing I'll send soon...

        David Gerstein
        <David.a.Gerstein at Williams.edu>