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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #28
14 December 1997
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
Yes, it's now official. All but WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES and
UNCLE $CROOGE have been cancelled by Gladstone. And since this is finals
week and I'm looking for something quick to put together, you're all going
to have to suffer through my rant on this. I originally wrote and posted
this to CompuServe and the Disney Comics Mailing List. I'll have more to
say after it, including a couple of quick reviews.
So what we have here is something close to what I predicted. Uncle $crooge
will continue in a WDC&S-like monthly format. The newsstand distribution deal
is not profitable anymore. And the direct market is too shallow to support
these titles alone.
Gladstone has made some whoppers of mistakes in their second run. The
complete repudiation of their fans by removing the letters columns in favor
of subscriber-only newsletters, the coverless comics, the computer lettering,
some of the poor choices of content, the huge price of WDC&S... But most of
that can be attributed to things they have to do to survive and I can't
begrudge them that. (Of course, some of the cost-cutting measures may have
lost them fans, but then you get into the whole chicken-and-the-egg line of
thought, and I'm too upset to go there right now.)
Disney is to blame just as much as Gladstone for this failure. Words can't
describe the animosity I feel towards their so-called "censorship" ideas.
The hassles they've caused and the distribution problems they won't help to
solve have helped effectively end this latest round of Duck books.
In the end, if only they had put Daisy Duck on the cover, showing a little
T&A, wearing spandex, and sporting super-powers, we might not have this
problem. If we had an industry in which quality really counted -- in which
diversity was supported and appreciated -- in which people didn't look down
their noses at quality story-telling because, oh, it's a bunch of talking
ducks... If store owners ordered and supported the titles... Promoted the
titles... Didn't hide them in a corner, afraid to show them off... If the
distributor didn't stick the listings next to Vampirella on one side and
some other crotch-baring, breast-jiggling talentless art on the other... If
newsstands supported comic books... If the direct market weren't the be-all
and end-all... If we had a strong industry and not a house of cards waiting
to collapse on itself, this might never have happened. This might not have
been possible.
Welcome to the Disney Implosion. Round Two.
Well, we're still not sure what to call it, a week later. Last time
around, Dana Gabbard coined the term the Disney Implosion. This similar
event has no such name for it yet, although a couple have been floated
about. Please feel free to make suggestions.
BATGIRL ADVENTURES #1 by Paul Dini and Rick Burchett is a must-read. I
have some more things to say about it and hopefully will next week. Kurt
Busiek and Sean Chen put together IRON MAN #1, as well, and it's a very
well-thought-out issue. TRANSMETROPOLITAN #6 is funny and definitely worth
a read, from the wacky minds of Warren Ellis and Darrick Robertson.
QUANTUM AND WOODY #11 came out this week, and it's a touching and
heart-wrenching issue, save for one possible miscue. Maybe Christopher
Priest didn't realize this when he wrote the scene. Maybe he had never
seen South Park yet. Or maybe it was intentional in which case he ruined a
key moment with a bit of ill-timed humor. I'm going to have to break my
"no spoiler" rule for this one. So this will be the last review. If you
don't want it spoilered, read on no further and you won't miss much. Your
column is done. Otherwise, join me in a few lines...
SPOILER SPACE
SPOILER SPACE
At the climax of the issue, Woody's friend, Tammy, is killed. A couple of
panels later, we see the presumed killer, a punk named Kenny. And there's
Woody screaming, "I'll kill you -- ! Kenny -- you bastard." And I bust
out laughing. Why? Think South Park. Every episode Kenny dies. And one
of the kids invariably screams out, "You bastard, you killed Kenny!" or
some variant thereof. Maybe it's a stretch, but it is a weird
juxtaposition.
-Augie
[NOTE: After putting together this column, I took another study break and
read a couple other on-line reviews from this past week. Yup, Dave Van
Domelen beat me to the South Park connection. Good going, Dave!]
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