Ramapith Through what channels does Fantagraphics receive demands/requests from people? I am asking because I would assume that people who would request specific artists for future Disney Masters books are big fans and would be active on some of the online places made for Disney comic fans, but I've pretty much never seen any demand for Murry books online.
Plenty of readers and comics fans email us directly.
We also look through various classic comics discussion boards online to get an idea of what people want.
For example, here at The Comics Reporter is a 2016 discussion of unreprinted comics series that people wanted to see anthologized, and the Murry serials quickly pop up.
And from early 2018, here on the CollectedEditions.com forum are two typical wishes for Murry (in succession!) from some people who didn't know the Masters had just been announced (later in the thread, you'll see me chiming in).
And here on the Danish Serieland forum from 2013 are numerous Murry fans encouraging each other to write in to Fantagraphics and request a Murry series. (These requests might matter a little less than American requests; but since some exporters do sell our books in Europe, this does guarantee additional interest.)
Our Amazon reviews for Barks, Rosa, and Gottfredson occasionally included a request for Murry (as seen in this 2015 example here).
And finally... the Amazon review for our first Murry book shows an instant stream of enthusiastic reviews. There was clearly an audience hungry for these.
Dear Mr. Gerstein- are you intentionally avoiding publishing things that were in the Timeless Tales collection? I want to know especially for some of the Casty stories because I’d prefer to get them as part of the Disney Masters series rather than lay out treasure for the IDW books. Also, publish whatever you have to in order to keep the series profitable and alive. I’ll keep buying even if it’s another Murry with the assumption that the series will continue to expand and diversify.
Of Paul Murray can have so many volumes, Tony Strobl deserves at least one. They're both around the same caliber of Disney talent.
Except perhaps that Tony Strobl’s work is requested less than Paul Murry’s? Murry’s Mickey stories had less competition during the Western Publishing run, where Strobl’s Duck work (and just about every other artist) had to compete with Barks’ popularity. Considering that Fantagraphics is running the Daan Jippes redrawns rather than Strobl’s art on the Junior Woodchucks stories, I think that it’s safe to say that Strobl still isn’t a very popular artist.
Dear Mr. Gerstein- are you intentionally avoiding publishing things [in the Disney Masters] that were in the [IDW] Timeless Tales collection?
Not always, but usually.
I worked heavily on the IDW Timeless Tales, and they often represented the *third* IDW printing of their included material—stories that had already appeared in IDW's comic books (first run) and trade paperbacks (second run, each collecting three or four of the comic books, whereas each Timeless Tales collected six).
Our team tried to make the third printings in Timeless Tales a little different, and the "definitive" ones for collectors; the books added some extras, and we got an approval from Disney to include aspects that were removed from the all-ages comics and TPBs (so characters whose cigars were deleted in the all-ages editions, for instance, usually got them back in Timeless Tales).
But nevertheless, these were stories that got a LOT of exposure—three printings at IDW apiece!
Thus, the only Timeless Tales stories that we've reused at Fantagraphics in Disney Masters were those that we absolutely needed to complete a comprehensive set of something: Jippes and Milton's "Bet You Didn't" (necessary for Masters Vol 4, a book of all their collaborations), Paul Murry's "Ridin' the Rails" (necessary for Masters Vol 3, a complete run of Murry's serials), and a couple of Kinney and Hubbard stories (necessary for Masters Vols 14 and 20, a complete run of their Fethry stories).
I'd rather reserve the Masters for content that hasn't been in collectors' books for a while—especially now that we have fewer Masters per year than we did at the start.
As for Tony Strobl, by the way, we do eventually plan to have at least one Masters book for him, though not for awhile. Our imminent Bear Mountain Tales, however, does include Fallberg's and Strobl's "Ducking Out," so we're not entirely overlooking him in the meantime.
Who drew the cover to the newest Paul Murry volume? It almost looks like Murry’s art, except for Mickey himself. (When finances allow, I’ll have to pick up that one myself).
Who drew the cover to the newest Paul Murry volume? It almost looks like Murry’s art, except for Mickey himself. (When finances allow, I’ll have to pick up that one myself).
It's this Brazilian cover, with one alteration: in the original printing, Goofy's face was clearly redrawn at the Abril office by someone other than the original artist, so we substituted a Murry Goofy face that fit better.
I wonder what Don Rosa thinks about Fantagraphics adding "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" to the title of this book.
Well, Don Rosa spent his career as a loving fan of Carl Barks, expanding on the old man’s legacy. Now Don Rosa is the grand old man of Disney comics, whose works are loved by many readers. I hope he will gracefully accept this as homage being offered by his fans. Also, I trust that this is a high quality work since Gerstein and Fantagraphics are publishing it. I’m looking forward to this one!
Actually, what you're seeing is a mistake—our initial plan was to make this album an honorary part of the LO$, but the current intent is to switch it to keeping it separate, saying just "Scrooge McDuck," not "The Life and Times of..."
So—you're seeing an early title and cover design on Amazon that's actually going to be revised, and the revised version should go up in a couple of days.
Actually, what you're seeing is a mistake—our initial plan was to make this album an honorary part of the LO$, but the current intent is to switch it to keeping it separate, saying just "Scrooge McDuck," not "The Life and Times of..."
So—you're seeing an early title and cover design on Amazon that's actually going to be revised, and the revised version should go up in a couple of days.
Makes sense, as that would potentially be a little confusing to some. As long as the reason wasn't caving into pressure or anything like that.
Actually, what you're seeing is a mistake—our initial plan was to make this album an honorary part of the LO$, but the current intent is to switch it to keeping it separate, saying just "Scrooge McDuck," not "The Life and Times of..."
So—you're seeing an early title and cover design on Amazon that's actually going to be revised, and the revised version should go up in a couple of days.
Makes sense, as that would potentially be a little confusing to some. As long as the reason wasn't caving into pressure or anything like that.
That does sound like a change for the better, considering how iconic Rosa's "Life and Times" series is.
It also makes sense considering that the original French edition of this Glénat album (because, as I just realized, that's what this is) is simpy titled "Picsou - Le dragon de Glasgow". In other words, "Uncle Scrooge - The Dragon of Glasgow".