Filler stories

[Kai Saarto]

One thing I've been personally wondering for years are the 
"filler"-stories in weeklies. For example "Big Bad Wolf",  "Hiawatha" 
and others that use different universes than mice/ducks. Those have 
evolved little or nothing during decades, 90% of time Zeke tries to 
capture the three little pigs or Hiawatha tries to convince everyone 
that he is a big warrior. (I am provocating a bit here, I know that 
someone could claim duck-stories to be as one-dimensional plotwise)

On the same vein. "Bucky Bug" reads like its something aimed for 3-5 
year olds. I know that Bucky is a character from old Silly Symphonies, 
but I have only recently seen those new stories appearing. Anyone know 
why they are making those now? Have they started to re-use to characters 
in cartoons or something and then decided to make a comic version as well?

Are they popular among the readers?  Has publishers made polls or 
something? I don't like them that much, so I am trying to figure out if 
anyone else does.Since so many older characters are now banned by Egmont 
for example Moby Duck, I just can´t get why they do stories about Bucky 
Bug but not Moby Duck (except for those Italian Bay stories, which are 
actually good).

Are publishers trying to meet a quota with these? Perhaps their deal 
with Disney includes a clause that "requires" them to use certain 
characters besides just ducks and mice.