I sure hope that Boom! will do something similar. I have no interest in buying books that cobble together Barks stories with newer Disney comics, and I think that people who want the new stuff probably don’t need the same re-re-reprints of Barks material they may already have.

The best idea is for them to do a definitive run of Barks and Rosa work, in some kind of quality format that can get reviewed and promoted the same way that books like The Complete Peanuts and Moomin and other classic reprints series have been. Get Barks fans like Spielberg and Lucas to blurb the books or write intros talking about how awesome Barks was. The US market is ripe for a re-discovery of the Carl Barks, but Boom! has to do it the right way…

And there was a successful American publisher of Barks: Gladstone in series 1. Disney wanted the success which is why they took over. Gladstone was going in exactly the right direction initially.

Ironically, a message topic on a forum (Quarter to Three) I frequent is about comics and the consensus there is that American kids don’t read *any* comics anymore–superhero or not. I hardly take that as conclusive, of course, but it’s interesting that the same conversations in the Disney community are being held elsewhere.

And wouldn’t it be smart to offer new material to the collectors AND kids? Why print two titles with split circulation when you can publish one title with great circulation?

(And when I was a kid, the Newbery titles were boring. They are chosen by librarians.)

Of interest: These titles are issued simultaneously in hardcover AND trade paperback editions, which suggests that BOOM! is actively pursuing the library market, which prefers durable bindings.

BOOM! does not need to publish everything at once. I expect an archival series within the next ten years.

My advice: Wait a year. Look what BOOM! has already announced in a short time. We still haven’t heard what they plan to do with the Uncle Scrooge magazine, the other big Disney title.

And here are some other titles…courtesy of Books In Print:

978-1-60886-554-3 Wall E: Recharge (HC)
978-1-60886-512-3 Wall E: Recharge (TP)
978-1-60886-544-4 Mickey Mouse Classics: Mouse Mayhem (HC)
978-1-60886-545-1 Donald Duck and Friends: Double Duck (TP)
978-1-60886-551-2 Donald Duck and Friends: Double Duck (HC)

(Yup, a heretofore unknown Wall-E comic! May 2010. Shannon Wheeler writing, Morgan Luthi drawing.)

(If you wish to scan for BOOM! titles, their new EAN prefix is 978-1-60886-5xx-x