German supplements

[Torsten Wesley Adair]

On Mon, 29 Nov 1993, David A Gerstein wrote:
> 	Dear Folks,
> 	Don Rosa, discussing Disney comics in Germany, stated that
> there, like Finland and Sweden, their weekly comic "also do[es]n't have 
> supplement issues."
> 	Actually, Ehapa *does* put out supplements, but they simply do
> it about half as often as other Egmont affiliates (about once every
> two months, rather than once a month).
> 	There have been such specials as:

[...]
 
> 	"Bundesliga-Stars 1992" (I kid you not, a full 32 pages of
> photographs of soccer stars);

Hey, if Gladstone (actually, it's some other name, starts with an "H") can
publish "Charles Barkley and the Referee Murders", then why not a book of
Bundesliga stars?  I'm surprised someone hasn't done the same here with
the NFL, NBA, NHL, NBL, ETC.

> 	So you see, there are special supplements in Germany.  So why
> did the Germans not make the Lo$ into the supplement that Egmont
> offered them?  Simple... they were planning to wait to print ANY Lo$
> until they could launch it as an album series.  It was not originally
> to appear in the weekly comic.  But eventually they decided it was
> better to run it in the weekly first... why not make *MORE* money,
> especially when in Deutschland people will buy ANYTHING with a Duck or
> Mouse on it?

Or a Rabbit, or a bug.  putt-putt-putt...
 
> 	(BTW:  Mickey has equal popularity to Donald in Germany... the
> German weekly has battled the problem of too few Egmont MM stories by
> re-reprinting many Paul Murry stories, and often the Germans won't
> print the cover Egmont offers them in favor of doing their own MM
> cover for the weekly... a good idea, but usually terribly drawn!  In
> Germany two of the three regular comics have Mickey's name in the
> title, and as of this decade have given MM equal exposure on the
> cover.)

I've noticed the awful MM artwork inside.  The covers, however, have been
very professional and "on model".  I thought the Donald Duck cover with
the baby dinosaur was cute.  (sorry Don, I'll won't use that word again.)

So, what did the German readers think of the undersea voyage of Donald Duck?
I liked the story, but isn't it Standard Operating Procedure for Donald to
loose in the end?  Or is it acceptable for Donald to win by sheer dumb
luck?  I thought that was Goofy's domain.  I would have expanded the story
by having whats-her-name sweet-talk Donald into doing dangerous things,
like going into a shark cage and filming sharks underwater.  

Torsten Adair	torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu	Omaha, NE, USA