Disney-comics digest #432.

[Don Rosa]

	The sysop of the COMPUSERVE comics forum is a Disney Duck fan
and a good friend, and has wanted to put me into a live conference over
there, or into my own temporary section to talk to fans, but I have told
him for about 3 years that I could tell there was just no point. There
is a virtually total lack of interest in Disney comics on that forum. I
doubt if I get 10 messages per year asking me about or otherwise
discussing my work or any Disney comics. I would have dropped COMPUSERVE
a year ago if I hadn't started receiving THIS Digest -- and I can't find
any other source to obtain this Digest that is significantly cheaper
than COMPUSERVE, so I stay on there.
	I forget why we finally decided to try a Disney comics section
just now -- I believe a European Duck fan stumbled onto the service
briefly and asked why there was no section for such popular comics,
little realizing how UNpopular they are in America. (One of the first
messages on the section was from someone wondering, without much tact,
why on earth there should be a section for comics that no one reads.) It
never occurred to me that a Disney comics section on COMPUSERVE might
have any affect on this Digest. Those people are completely unaware of
this Digest, and even if they were aware I doubt if they'd join. I've
announced the existance of this Digest several times on there, and the
few people who expressed a vague interest were discouraged when they
realized what it would cost them (as I always remind you folks who like
to repeat all those parts of previous Digests, this costs us on
COMPUSERVE a piece of a penny to read every letter that's typed in here,
and it usually comes to about $20 per month on my bill. There just
aren't any Disney fans over there interested enough to join up here.
	I've seen a few people say the Disney comics section there is
off to a good start. I don't think I can agree. For the THOUSANDS of
people in that forum who can see the Disney comics section every day
with the push of a button, there have been messages from the same
half-dozen people, and none have had anything much to say other than "hi
-- here we are -- lookit this -- far out". I'm kidding sorta... but
there's nothing going on over there even as deep as the discussion of
story-codes or of Hillbilly Moe that we've seen on the last few Digests.
And I'm not going out of my way to stimulate the section -- I want to
see what happens to it without me goosing it around. (After all, you can
see at this very moment how I can run off at the keyboard when I feel
the urge.)

	Lion King? I haven't seen it, and feel no more interested in
doing so than I did for ALADDIN. But it does seem very popular
regardless of the quality of its contents. And the reason surely is
PROMOTION. Disney has learned that it doesn't matter what they have to
sell, if they sell it with enough omnipresent hype and toys and
burger-joint giveaways and endless promotions, that the kids of America
(and their parents) will need to see it just as part of the sheep
syndrome. The only comments I've seen from intelligent adult Disney fans
about THE LION KING is "feh" or "yuch" or such; but I haven't seen it,
so I dunno.