Disney-Published Comics

[Kriton Kyrimis]

ROBERT:

> Why does everybody older than 25,
> especially people like Bob Foster and Don Rosa, hold
> Disney and their comics in such contempt? 

I'm not Bob Foster or Don Rosa, but I am slightly (cough! cough!) over 25, so 
here's my view on the subject.

First of all, contempt is a very harsh word. Let's just say that overall, 
Disney's version of their own comics is not my favorite.

The first thing I disliked was their emphasis on more modern titles, like 
Roger Rabbit or Rescue Rangers. Although I keep reading and re-reading my US 
Disney comics, I always skip these new titles; of all the stories produced, I 
only liked one.

Although this is a matter of peference, I didn't care much for the style of 
the new artists that they employed. I didn't like many of the modern, 
"bringing Disney comics into the '90s" stories, and I didn't like those weird 
stories, like "Goofy Frankenstein". Note that, judging from the letters 
columns, there were people who loved all of the above. For some comics, they 
commissioned accomplished superhero comics writers to write for Disney comics, 
with dubious results. Even when doing more standard stuff, like in Donald Duck 
adventures, I think they misjudged things a bit: devoting half of each issue 
to Taliaferro strips was a bit too much. Again, there were people who loved 
those strips, so this is purely subjective.

I think that what really made people dissatisfied with Disney's comics, 
however, is that Disney took a successful series of comics from Gladstone and 
turned it into a commercial failure, from which Disney comics never recovered 
in the US. Arguably, Disney may have only been partly responsible for this, 
but they can't have been completely innocent of it.

	Kriton.
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"I always believe everything, except on alternate Tuesdays."
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