In his Weblog, News From Me, Mark Evanier revealed that pioneering comic book collector and publisher Bruce Hamilton died on Saturday after a long illness.  Hamilton teamed with Russ Cochran in 1981 to form Another Rainbow Publishing and began publishing the authoritative Carl Barks Library in 1983.  Hamilton championed the work of Carl Barks, and helped make sure that the creator of Uncle Scrooge and Gladstone Gander had a prominent place in the pantheon of American comic book creators as well as a comfortable retirement.  In 1985 Hamilton founded Gladstone Comics and soon began publishing Carl Barks' classic stories (as well as those of the best of the modern 'duck' artists like Don Rosa) in color.

Hamilton began his career in comics as a collector and dealer and he acquired a fine collection of the books he loved, but he made his greatest mark as a publisher by allowing millions of readers who were born too late to enjoy the works of Carl Barks when they were first published, a chance to sample the delights of what are simply some of the finest 'funny animal' stories ever created -- superb tales of thwarted enthusiasm set in a parallel universe filled with archetypal characters whose emotions of anger, greed, envy and jealousy mirror our own failings in a most delightfully humorous way, where Barks explored themes such as environmental degradation, the follies of a consumer society, and the irreducible unfairness of life in stories that were as hilarious as they were prescient.