This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (February 2019) |
Industry | Comics |
---|---|
Founded | 1986 |
Defunct | 1998 |
Parent | Another Rainbow Publishing |
Gladstone Publishing was an American company that published Disney comics from 1986 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1998. The company had its origins as a subsidiary of Another Rainbow Publishing, a company formed by Bruce Hamilton and Russ Cochran to publish the Carl Barks Library and produce limited edition lithographs of Carl Barks oil paintings of the Disney ducks. The name references Gladstone Gander.
Reprints of classic Donald Duck stories by Carl Barks and Mickey Mouse stories by Floyd Gottfredson were the foundation of their output. Don Rosa, William Van Horn, and Pat Block are among the modern Disney comics artists who got their start at Gladstone. Some of the Van Horn stories had scripts by frequent collaborator John Lustig. The company also published translations of European Disney comic book stories produced by Egmont, Oberon and Mondadori. These included stories by such famed creators as Romano Scarpa, Marco Rota, Daan Jippes and Freddy Milton.
While still distributed on news stands, their orientation toward the collectors market was visible in their inclusion of scholarly articles, mostly by associate editor Geoffrey Blum. Unlike the previous Disney comic book licensee Western Publishing, Gladstone provided credits for the stories.
Although Gladstone is no longer an active publisher, it continues to offer its back issues through its website.