Disney Policies

[August DeBlieck]

                                        Date:     22-Feb-1995 02:09pm EST
                                        From:     DeBlieck, August
                                                  ADEBLIEC
                                        Dept:     STUDENT
                                        Tel No:   

TO:  Remote INTERNET Address              ( _IN%DISNEY-COMICS at MINSK.DOCS.UU.SE )


Subject: Disney Policies

I'm feeling particularly literate today, so here comes my next post:

I have what may be considered a hideously naive question.

How do we help change Disney's system of doing comics, which
includes stealing original art and not paying reprint royalties?

The first thing that occurred to me would be to have everyone who
works on Disney comic books quit working until a better system
can be put in place.  But there are two problems with that.  One
is it sounds a lot like the baseball strike.  :)  Two is that it
wouldn't matter to Disney one whit. They could survive on
reprints indefinitely at this point. Also, I doubt all the
artists and writers could live that long without a paycheck.

Having discarded that notion, the only other thing to do would be
to boycott Disney comics.  First of all, I hate the very notion
of a boycott.  Second, Disney doesn't have a big enough fan base
to be affected by that.  It's not like Disney would be losing a
half a million readers this way. (Not in America, anyway.)  Even
worse, Disney just might decide it's not worth bothering with and
pull all their licenses.  I wouldn't put it past them.

Next idea: Sue Disney.  Yeah, right...

The only way to do it seems to be to put pressure on Disney from
an "enraged public."  Pointing the fallacies of the system out to
the comic book crowd wouldn't do much good since we know already. 
You'd have to educate even more people, and somehow cause Disney
some sort of public embarrassment.  Even that would be a messy
process. (Besides, it's not like 60 Minutes is going to do an
expose on this.)

So what can we do?  Any ideas anyone?

I thought of writing a letter to HERO in the hopes they might
publish it given the upcoming HERO article on Disney comics.  But
I'm afraid that would work opposite of the intended way.  i.e. 
The backlash would be aimed at Gladstone instead of Disney.  This
article should help bring people into Disney comics.  Let's not
put a negative mark on an otherwise potentially great public
relations piece. I could save it for a later date and send it
after the piece is published.  I don't know.

I want to help, but I'm not sure how - or even if - I can.

Thoughts, comments, "Augie you're a lame-brained nut" criticisms
welcome.

-Augie De Blieck Jr.

P.S. DON: (Since most of the above rant was inspried by you...) I
noticed the upcoming Donald and Mickey comic due next week has a
cover by you of Donald Duck giving a tour of Duckburg (with the
Money Bin) to Mickey Mouse!  Did you actually draw the mouse, or
did somebody else draw that in?  I know how much you disagree
with the notion of Mickey and Donald mixing it up, so to speak.