Arthur, I couldn’t agree more with you about *most* wanting new 4 panel stories from Egmont in the classic Carl Barks style! I am *thrilled* that Boom has picked up the license, but if they ignore “new” classic format stories I will be very disappionted. 🙁 I think many other Disney fans may feel the same way.

“Wizards of Mickey” and “Mickey’s Hero Squad” are great ideas for kids to read, but I doubt these are the stories most longtime Disney fans want the most. As long as we get more classic stories though, such efforts to attract kids are a great idea. If it is the *only* type of new stories to be published, I think it is a very bad idea.

I think it is great Boom is going to publish collected editions. However, I have still have concerns. Why can’t Boom collect Barks’ stories in a systematic fashion, ala a Barks’ Library. I guess I see the appeal of a Christmas and Valentine’ Day collection for new -to- Disney comics fans. However, how many of us old fans are going to want to buy the umpteenth re-re-reprint of a Barks story? The one best way to get us old fans to buy Barks reprints one more time is to release a systematic library, like the Carl Barks Library in Color, but instead of albums, in a TPB format.

What do others think about what Boom is so far appearing to plan on publishing and the formats they are choosing?

I don’t understand why many seem to think that Boom!’s choices for the comic books are so great for kids to read. I am unimpressed with them, and I don’t understand why a kid would be much more impressed with them. I keep hearing people complain about Barks reprints in comics. OK, but if you want to attract a new generation of readers, shouldn’t you give them the best material available? There’s a reason Newbery-award winning children’s literature stays in print! If anything, the material targeted toward “collectors” should be new stories, since–as is said time and time and time again–they are tired of “old” stories. Put out a collector’s edition of Italian superheroes and give children *quality* reading material.

We all know that CBL and CBLiC were censored and by now, most of us know that they were printed (uncensored) in Denmark, Norway, Sweden (Finland?) and Germany…
These printings are available – with Carl and Garé’s lettering even more attractiv, IMHO…
Surprice me, please, surprice me…

I think it’s cool that Boom Studios is releasing special collections as well as regular Disney Comics.

I’m glad they are, but it’s not unusual. When you think about comic albums, every publisher has done so: Gladstone series 1, Disney, Gladstone series 2, and, of course, Gemstone. Heck, even Western issues special “Dynabrite” collections. Not doing so would be surprising, I think.

I’m excited about Boom’s Disney Classics series and have already ordered the Christmas Classics Vol.1 on Amazon. For years, I’ve hoped for a hard-bound series. Hopefully, they will include some more of Carl Barks’ heirs (other than just Daan Jippes).

If Barks’ comics stories are so wonderful, then why has every Disney publisher in the U.S. had such abysmal success printing them? Might they be too quaint for today’s kids?

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

Really? Most kids I know–and have taught–loved Maniac Magee, The Giver, and Holes, to name three. Sorry reading quality lit bored you as a child, but I don’t think my point is without merit.

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.

Any word on the dimensions of the books? Because I think BOOM only publishes its collection in 6×9 digest format. I hope they change it for the Disney books.

No word on the size. I’ve been searching for the info and cannot find it yet. Hopefully Boom will make a formal announcement at SDCC. LL

Before they lost the Disney license, Gemstone was on the verge of publishing a Complete Barks Library in color, and a Complete Don Rosa.

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…