Gemstone

[Francesco Spreafico]

I thought I'd comment on the first Gemstone issues... (I'm sendind this to
the Gemstone's letter columns, so if I say something I've already said,
that's the reason)

Walt Disney Comics and Stories #634

- DD The Hard Boiled Duck: I hadn't liked much this story when it had been
published on Zio Paperone last November... but now I liked it! I guess that
Van Horn's dialogs are much better in English than they are in Italian
(still I can't say I like his art, but that's a matter of taste of course).
- MM Checkmate: Nothing particular, I don't generally like the use of the
Phantom Blot in short stories like this. Is the Big Bad, and so he should be
used in my opinion.
- GL Party of none!: I liked this one (even though I've grown a bit tired of
Vicar's late stories, I think his lost the touch he had when he drew stories
like the one with the Klondike pipeline, my favorite of his). It was nice to
see Glastone out of luck, even though I think we've already seen him in
similar conditions a thousand of times.
- JW New Zoo Brews Ado: I'm not a big fan of these Jippes' remakes, even
though they're much better than the original ones, but since they exist I
think they must be published, since Barks deserves to be published!

Walt Disney Comics and Stories #635
- JW Hound of Moaning Hills: Same as the above (but I liked this one more).
Weird thing: at the same time it was published in Italy, last month on Zio
Paperone.
- MM Spidermouse: Please no Mickey meets Peter Parker stories!
- DD The 3 Caballeros Ride Again: Rosa in English is always a pleasure to
read! Even if I don't like the 3 Caballeros (but I like the story, that I'd
already read in Italian)

Uncle Scrooge 319
- US The Duchman's Secret: Now *this* is fun! One of my favourite Rosa
stories in English, that's something! Great story, and great ending, always
loved the way Scrooge gets the crook jailed. And great idea to have an
article by him explaining some things about the story!
- US Worldwide Widgets: How strange to see Fethry in an American Comic Book.
But a good thing, I hope to see more of him, maybe some classical story by
Kinney and Hubbard! (Or by Pezzin and Cavazzano)
- DD Terror of the Beagle Boys: There always has to be some Barks of course,
even though we've already read all of his stories one thousand times. I just
wonder, how come the story looks so strange? It seems that it comes from and
actual old printing of it, and not from the original... I don't know how
they're called in English, "prints"?

Uncle Scrooge 320
- US Fools of the Trade: This one too is better in English, but I'm not a
big fan of Van Horn's art (while I'm becoming fan of his writing)
- US The Big Break-In: FINALLY some Scarpa back in the US! The story is just
a short S-coded story, not written by him, so it's nothing special, but the
art is great! (Even though I see there's something wrong with the inks of
this printing... no problems in my Italian editions of the same story, what
happened here?)
- GG The Madball Pitcher: Another Barks here, very nice, but the printing is
as the above... huh?
- US World Wide Witch: This story have caused a lot of talk... me I like it,
I find it's a nice story... not a masterpiece at all, but decent and nice
and funny, what a short non-pretencious story should be. I was also happy to
see the article by Blum himself explaining stuff... good job. (Articles are
always good, the more, the better)

Donald Duck Adventures 1
(This was a little surprise!)
- DD The Deep: Now, how creepy was this? I really loved this one, what a
surprise! Authors completely unknown to me... nice art, better than the
average) and nice plot!
- MM Panicking Pachiderms: well, nice one! Nothing special, but nice after
all.
- US Time of Reckoning: same here... even though I've seen thousands of
stories like this in Italy on "Topolino"...

So far I'm satisfied of what I'm getting. They're a bit expensive to tell
the truth, but nothing can be done for this, I know.

What I'd like to see in the future:
First I hope that it'll last much longer than Gladstone... possibly
indefinitely! How's it *really* going economically, anybody knows? Geppi
keeps buying expensive stuff at various auctions, is this a good sign? ;-)

Anyway, I was saying:
- Everything by Don Rosa: they were written in English and the only way to
really appreciate them deeply is to read them in English, so let them come!
- Stories written and drawn by Romano Scarpa: there are so many classical
stories from the Fifties (Both Ducks and Mice!) not published by
Gladstone... each one of them should be published in a nice edition and with
a good translation (possibily without "barks-in' 'em up" as it happenned
with the "Colossus of Rhodes" years ago... if there are no references to
Barks in a story let's not make them up, that's my opinion). Since there is
now this new pocket "Take-Along" comic book, it seems to me that it would be
the best place where to publish Scarpa (or any Italian 3-tiered stories), so
there would be no need to remount 3-tiers into 4-tiers.
I'd also love to see Scarpa's more recent (From the Seventies on) Mickey
stories, featuring Ellsworth's stepson... they're all part of a real
continuity so they should be published in order. These includes 4 strip
stories made at the beginning of the Ninenties, (really wonderful stuff) and
the 8-parter "Paperolimpiadi" starring both Ducks and Mice made in 1988 for
the Seoul Olympics, a true masterpiece.
- Anything by Gottfredson: he's still so little known in the US compared to
Barks, while he should be known by anyone. I guess the problem here is the
strip format... I wouldn't really know how to do, since I'd hate to have to
remount the strips, but... any affordable alternatives?
- Other Italian stuff: Lots. But most of all I'd love to see Massimo De
Vita's fantasy "Ice Sword Trilogy", undoubtedly the masterpiece of this
great Italian artist. It'd be great (and also almost impossible) to see
"Storia e Gloria della Dinastia dei Paperi" ("History and Glory of the
Ducks' Dynasty", and 8-part story made in 1971 by Guido Martina, Romano
Scarpa and Giovan Battista Carpi about the history of the Ducks, starting
from the ancient Egypt. Completely non-Barksian, since Scrooge, for example,
is born in Klondike, but I don't care much, since it's really fascinating).
And stories by Giorgio Cavazzano, Massimo De Vita, Luciano Bottaro, Giovan
Battista Carpi, Silvia Ziche and many others... Oh I was forgetting: the
recent "Bay Stories" written by Alberto Savini, probably the nicest thing
made in Italy in the latest years.

I guess that's all. What do you all think about it so far?

--
Francesco
http://www.dimensionedelta.net/scarpa/
"Vi faccio vedere *io* chi sono *io*!! *Io* vi compro la fabbrica e
*tutto*!!"
~ Scrooge, from I TL  174-A