Upcoming Gemstone titles and re-re-reprinting

David Gerstein gdavid at gemstonepub.com
Tue Nov 14 17:32:14 CET 2006


	Hi Blot,

> For this year 2006, we have had 11 Uncle Scrooge issues so far. 
> 
> 8 of the 11 issues have had a reprint (in English) as the opening story.
> 
	That initially sounds bad for fans of new stories; that's true. But let's turn the situation on its head and total up the pages of new-to-North-America stories per issue, regardless of whether the opening story was a reprint.

	In UNCLE SCROOGE 349, 38 of 62 total comics pages were new to North America.
	In US 350, 34 of 62 pages were new.
	In US 351, all 62 pages were new.
	In US 352, 39 of 62 pages were new.
	In US 353, 57 of 61 pages were new.
	In US 354, all 61 pages were new.
	In US 355, 32 of 60 pages were new.
	In US 356, 34 of 60 pages were new.
	In US 357, 30 of 60 pages were new.
	In US 358, 37 of 61 pages were new.
	In US 359, 33 of 60 pages are new, if you count the three pages of "Incredible Shrinking Tightwad" material that weren't in the previous American printing.
	And finally, in next month's US 360, you'll find that 56 pages of 60 will be new.

	That's a year's worth of issues, and an average of 43 new pages per book out of 60-62 total comics pages. I think we're doing pretty well!
	I've done a similar computation for next year's UNCLE SCROOGE issues as planned thus far, and find that we're even doing slightly better, with an average of 45 new pages per issue.

> Translating more Scarpa stories, appears to me, to be the best option for future issues.
> 
	While I don't think many readers would like to see Scarpa dominate the title, we've got a long Scarpa story next month and another long Scarpa coming in the spring. Scarpa isn't the only Italian creator with a long story coming, either.

> I am also disappointed that the Mickey Mouse title is disappearing just as the
> Paul Murry drawn serials were being printed in the one book. I was hoping for
> every story of his to be published this way.
> 
	Eh? Too many Scrooge reprints are a problem, but it seems you'd be perfectly happy to have Mickey's title dominated by reprints? (Or does your concern have something to do with the price of the Mickey book vs the Scrooge book?)
	Whenever we get back to publishing a regular Mickey title, I'd really like to see it contain a mix... as it's actually been doing.

> > I realize that Gemstone wants to talk about their new titles and direction at
> > their own place and time.  Wherever and whenever that happens though, could 
> > Gemstone *please* address why they are to my way of thinking largely giving 
> > up on new stories?
> 
> The silence is deafening.
> 
	Huh? In a letter to Dean last week, I was hardly silent... in fact, I once again pointed out that we had a lot of new material coming. http://nafsk.se/pipermail/dcml/2006-November/024647.html
	The rumors of our reprint fixation have, I hope, been greatly exaggerated.

	Best, David

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