Disney Book News, In Brief

R.I.P. Thomas M. Disch, 68; prolific science-fiction writer and author of The Brave Little Toaster, the children's book that was later made by Disney into an animated film. For a longer, more fitting obituary, click here.

In a previous D.B.N. update, I mentioned the upcoming release of Jeff Kurtti and Bruce Gordon's long awaited book, Walt Disney's Legends of Imagineering and the Genesis of the Disney Theme Parks. Well, Didier Ghez has just posted an interview with Kurtti, and it's a good one.

Disney has released some new info about their upcoming comics venture, Kingdom Comics, at Wizard World Chicago. Here's a bit of it, via Adventures In A Strange Land: If you'll remember a month or so ago Disney announced that they were launching a comic book company called Kingdom Comics. Well, this was a panel to show that they are serious. They've hired Ahmet Zappa, and Christian Beranek to head it up and both were on hand to 'answer questions'. Unfortunately the company is just getting off the ground and they couldn't even announce a single title. All they said was that they intend to cull from the Disney library of live action properties throughout the ages, and they only intend to produce graphic novels, no monthly issues.

Disney corporate politics, via that bastion of truth, The New York Post: An ex-employee of Harvey and Bob Weinstein is writing an "explosive" book about their management of Miramax, based on files and tapes compiled over a period of 15 years, a source claims. The so-far-anonymous author claims, "The book, which is told from a deep insider's point of view, will detail the day-to-day manipulation of the Disney company by the Weinstein Bros." The author attached a seven-minute audio file in his letter to The Post, "just to prove to you this is not some kook writing you." The recording is of a Dec. 12, 1996, phone call between Harvey and Joe Roth, then president of Walt Disney Studios, in which the two complain about the $138 million severance deal that Mike Ovitz negotiated to leave Disney after 16 months. (Click here to hear the recording.)