Gemstone August Comics

[Thad]

What did you guys think of the last batch of issues?

I really liked C&S and US this month, the Mythos Island chapters were much better than last month's. MM and DD were a mixed bag though, I hated seeing "Camera Crazy" reprinted so soon.

MMA on the other hand... I liked the lead Mickey story, the Donald story was boring, and that Italian Mickey... well, the language I want to use to describe that isn't allowed... :mickey:

-Thad

[ohmahaaha]

Thad: as usual, I found Uncle Scrooge to be the standout issue. That being said, I say it because I enjoyed the lead-off story a lot; only thing was, unfortunately for me, I'd just read that one a few months ago while re-reading one of my old Gold Key issues of US!

WDC&S - I didn't like the Mythos Island chapters as much as you. I'm sort of getting the same feeling I get from an overly-long Justice League or Avengers story with this thing; any time you have these stories that have this many characters, there seems to be a tendency to give all short airtime in order to adequately move the story along. Also, as you pointed out in another thread, whenever there's a crossover, character's personalities seem to change to fit the story - I think as you put it, Donald vs. Mickey reminds one of Daffy vs. Bugs. Bleah. Or, whenever Spider-man and the Human Torch run into each other, for some reason they turn into real jerks - more so than if they're back in their own "title." This is annoying. However, I'm intrigued enough with Mythos Island to want to see how it ends in the next issue.

DD and MM - in both cases, loved the classic reprints that led off, but HATED the follow up stories. I maintain that the old, classic artists and writers knew how to write a properly paced short story (10 pages or so); but these newer stories just have too much goings-on crammed into their page count. They are written, it seems, for people with a short attention span. One of the letters in this month's MM column pointed out that the story in a previous issue "was just right for the attention span" of their child. I take exception to that! If the story is good enough, anyone's attention will be held for the duration, whether it's 5 pages or 50.

On the whole I find Gemstone's reliance on all of these half-jack shorter stories that seem slapped together to be an endangering practice. I think this especially so with the Uncle Scrooge and WDC&S titles, because of the page count. Why bother to have such a huge page count if you're not going to take advantage of it? WDCS is particularly guilty of this; at least in Uncle Scrooge we get a long Barks or Rosa story from time to time.

As for Donald Duck Adventures and Mickey Mouse Adventures, the art is so awful I just stay away from them altogether. It's a shame - these are the proper length of story I would like to see in the big books - but with improved art.

[Thad]

Well we'll be seeing a lot better variety in C&S in 2006. Gottfredson will show up in C&S #665 and #667, and Scamp will return around the same time. They're even being nifty and printing a 1950 Italian Mickey (40 Pages!) that takes place in Hell for #666!

-Thad

[ohmahaaha]

Well we'll be seeing a lot better variety in C&S in 2006. Gottfredson will show up in C&S #665 and #667, and Scamp will return around the same time. They're even being nifty and printing a 1950 Italian Mickey (40 Pages!) that takes place in Hell for #666!

-Thad
Oh swell - the conservatives should love that!! :tweety:

[David Gerstein]

Heh, neither left nor right should gripe about this one. The story we're planning to use is a parody of Dante's Inferno, a story as old as the hills— and the comic's basic interpretation of Hades has generally as much to do with the classical Greek version as the more modern conception.
It's reminiscent in some ways of how Disney's own Hercules treated the underworld.

[ohmahaaha]

Heh, neither left nor right should gripe about this one. The story we're planning to use is a parody of Dante's Inferno, a story as old as the hills— and the comic's basic interpretation of Hades has generally as much to do with the classical Greek version as the more modern conception.
It's reminiscent in some ways of how Disney's own Hercules treated the underworld.
This sounds really great!! Come on # 666!! The news about Gottfredson is uplifting too; I consider myself very underexposed to his stuff and would love to see a lot more.