Donald Duck in comics
Encyclopedia
Donald Duck
, a cartoon
character
created by the Walt Disney Company, is today the star of dozens of comic-book
and comic-strip
stories published each month (in certain parts of the world, each week) around the world.
and Al Taliaferro
. On February 10, 1935, Donald appeared in the Mickey Mouse daily strip by Ted Osborne and Floyd Gottfredson
.
, who debuted on October 17, 1937. The sons of his sister Della Duck (his sister in the animated shorts), the triplets were sent to spend some time with him as guests while their father recovered at the hospital from their latest prank. Nevertheless, Donald ended up serving as their adoptive parent.
, Fleetway
also created original stories with Donald Duck. "Donald and Donna", published in Mickey Mouse Weekly #67 (May 15, 1937) is the first Donald Duck adventure ever. The story was 15 pages long and published in weekly episodes. The last appeared on August 21, 1937. All episodes were drawn by William A. Ward.
Disney had also licensed the Italian publishing house Mondadori to create stories with the Disney characters as their stars. The first to star Donald, under his Italian name Paolino Paperino, was "Paolino Paperino e il mistero di Marte" (later reprinted in the United States as "The Secret of Mars", Donald Duck 286) by Federico Pedrocchi, first published on December 30, 1937. The story was only 18 pages long and crude by later standards, but it is credited as the first to feature Donald in an adventuring rather than a comedic role. It is also the first of many to depict Donald as a space traveler, in this case traveling to Mars
(see Mars in fiction
).
. Like before, Taliaferro continued to contribute plot ideas and gags, and some studies credit Taliaferro with most of the ideas that would turn his run of the strip into a so-called classic. He continued to work at the daily strip until October 10, 1968 and at the Sunday page until February 16, 1969.
Among other things, Taliaferro made several additions to Donald's supporting cast. Bolivar, Donald's pet St. Bernard
first appeared in the strip on March 17, 1938, following his animated appearances in Alpine Climbers (July 25, 1936) and More Kittens (December 19, 1936). Donald's second cousin Gus Goose, the son of Fanny Coot, made his first appearance on May 9, 1938—the first member of the Coot Kin to appear (he would make the leap to animation a year later in 1939's Donald's Cousin Gus
). Daisy Duck first appeared in the strip on November 4, 1940, following her first proper animated appearance in Mr. Duck Steps Out
, first released on June 7, 1940. Donald's paternal grandmother Elviry (Elvira Coot, usually just called Grandma Duck) first appeared in a portrait on August 11, 1940 and in person on September 28, 1943. Taliaferro also reintroduced Donna Duck as a separate character from Daisy. This old flame of Donald rivaled Daisy for his affections between August 7, 1951 – August 18, 1951, before leaving him for another man. Though he did not create most of those characters, Taliaferro is credited with the development of their personalities as well as Donald's own personality. It has been said that Taliaferro set the foundations for the later development of the character under Carl Barks
and his successors.
to create original comic book stories, with Disney characters as their stars. But the first American Donald Duck story originally created for a comic book was created by Studio-employed artists. More specifically it was Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold
, first published on October, 1942. The plot for the story had been originally suggested by Harry Reeves and Homer Brightman for a cartoon that never reached production. The notes for the cartoon were given to Bob Karp, who had been assigned to write Western's script. As intended, he used it as the basis for his story. Then it was given to Carl Barks
and Jack Hannah
to illustrate. Each of them drew half of the story's 64 pages. More specifically Barks drew pages #1, 2, 5, 12-40, Hannah drew pages #3, 4, 6-11, 41-64. The story places Donald and his nephews on a treasure hunt for the lost treasure of Henry Morgan
and it manages to combine elements of humor and adventure with dramatic moments and mystery rather well. Though it is an early drawing effort by Barks, his attention to detail is already visible. The script demanded him to draw a Harbor
and a sailing ship
. Barks decided to use issues of National Geographic, which he collected, as reference sources. The result was a largely accurate depiction of his subjects. Probably as a result of every person contributing in the story's creation being more familiar with the standards of cartoons shorts and/or newspaper comic strips, rather than those of comic books, the story had very few dialogue scenes. The story is considered significant as both the first Donald story drawn by Barks for a comic book and the first to involve Donald in a treasure hunting expedition. Barks would later use the treasure-hunting theme in many of his own stories.
beginning in 1943.
The comic version had already diverged from the animated one in a number of ways, as was the case with Mickey at the time. When Donald Duck gained his own separate newspaper comic strip, this meant that both he and his supporting characters had to be split off from the standard Disney cartoon world as featured in the Mickey Mouse strip. This same division between Mouse strips and Duck strips was generally followed in the comic books. This suited Barks who did not particularly like the Mouse stories. Carl later credited Floyd Gottfredson
and his adventure stories for influencing his own work. However, he seemed to find Mickey and his supporting cast to be less than interesting as characters. In fact his only story with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Clarabell Cow as the featured characters was The Riddle of the Red Hat (first published in August, 1945, otherwise considered insignificant). Pete however remained his villain
of choice for the first few years of his comic book work.
Barks largely did away with Donald's animated persona as a loafing, lazy hothead whose main quality is his hardly understandable quacking. To make him suitable for a comic-book story, Barks redefined his personality, gave him articulated speech, and shaded emotions. To give Donald a world to live in, Barks developed the city of Duckburg in the American state of Calisota. He was allowed to focus entirely on his own cast of Duckburg citizens like the richest duck in the world, Uncle Scrooge McDuck
, lucky cousin Gladstone Gander, and the peculiar inventor Gyro Gearloose
. In the comics, Donald lives in a Duckburg house with Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck.
Much of this scenario would resurface in the 1987 television series DuckTales
. In that cartoon, however, Donald works and lives as a sailor on an aircraft carrier
, and Huey, Dewey and Louie live with Uncle Scrooge for a while.
, first published in April, 1943. Barks had made his point by improving the original script beyond what had been expected of him. From then on, Barks both scripted and illustrated his stories.
His production during that year seems to be at the pace he would follow for much of the following decade. Eight 10-pagers to be published in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
, published in a monthly basis, and one longer story for the sporadically published Donald Duck. In this case the story was The Mummy's Ring, 28-pages long, first published in September, 1943. The shorter stories would usually focus on Donald's everyday life and on comedy, while the longer ones were usually adventure stories set in exotic locales. The latter would often contain more dramatic elements and darker themes, and would place Donald and his nephews into dangerous and often near-fatal situations. To add realism to his illustration of those stories' settings, Barks would still seek reference sources. The magazine National Geographic would usually provide most of the material he needed.
In both cases the stories presented Donald's personality as having multiple aspects that would surface according to circumstance. Or as Barks would say later: "He was sometimes a villain, and he was often a real good guy and at all times he was just a blundering person like the average human being." Adding another note of realism was the fact that Donald could end up being either the victor or the loser in his stories. And often even his victories were hollow. This gave a sense of realism to Donald's character and the characters and situations around him.
His nephews accompanied him in those stories and Barks also gave many aspects to their personalities. In some cases they acted as the mischievous brats Taliaferro had introduced, often antagonizing their uncle. In some cases they got in trouble and Donald would have to save them. But in others they proved remarkably resourceful and inventive, often helping their uncle out of a difficult situation. But most of the time, they would appear to have developed a deeper understanding of things and level of maturity than their uncle.
made his first appearance in Christmas on Bear Mountain, first published on December, 1947. The first member of The Clan McDuck to appear, his name was based on Ebenezer Scrooge
, another fictional character
from Charles Dickens
's A Christmas Carol
. The story's title was based on A Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
, a scene of Fantasia
. Scrooge's first appearance was almost immediately followed by that of Donald's first cousin Gladstone Gander in Wintertime Wager, first published on January, 1948. In fact this is acknowledged in the stories' internal chronology. The first story occurs at December 24, 1947 and has a scene occurring on the night of December 25, 1947. The second occurs on the morning of December 25, 1947.
Both characters didn't yet have their familiar characteristics. Gladstone was presented as a rather arrogant cousin that had a claim on Donald's house. More specifically, in summer he had gotten Donald to agree to a wager. On Christmas
he had to either swim in a lake near his house or to pass his house to Gladstone. Gladstone does not yet lay claim to the title of The Luckiest Duck In the World. Daisy, who saves Donald from losing his house, still seems to have no interest in Gladstone. Their love triangle hadn't formed yet.
As for Scrooge, he was a bearded, bespectacled, reasonably wealthy old man who is visibly leaning on his cane. He was living in isolation in a Huge Mansion, which is said to be influenced by that present in Orson Welles
's Citizen Kane
. Concerning his sense of humor, he planned to entertain himself by inviting his nephews to his mountain cabin and then scaring them out of it.
Scrooge was soon established as a recurring character and various stories cast him as a featured character alongside Donald. By 1952, Scrooge had gained a magazine of his own. From then on Barks produced most of his longer stories in Uncle Scrooge with Scrooge as their star and focusing in adventure, while his ten-pagers continued to feature Donald as their star and focused on comedy. Scrooge became the central figure of the stories while Donald and their nephews were cast as Scrooge's Helpers, hired helping-hands who followed Scrooge around the world. Other contemporary creators also reflected this change of focus from Donald to Scrooge in stories. Since then Scrooge remains the central figure of their Universe, coining the term Scrooge McDuck Universe
.
For example the Disney Studio artists, who made comics directly for the European market. Two of them, Dick Kinney
and Al Hubbard
created Donald's cousin Fethry Duck, an obsessive dreamer with a love of discovering new lifestyles and hobbies. Fethry remains one of the most popular Duck characters in Italy and Brazil, frequently carrying his own comic book title in the latter.
The American artists Vic Lockman and Tony Strobl
, who were working directly for the American comic books, created Moby Duck
.
Italian publisher Mondadori created many of the stories that were published throughout Europe. They also introduced numerous new characters who are today well known in Europe. One example is Donald Duck's alter-ego, a superhero
called Paperinik in Italian
, created by Guido Martina and Giovan Battista Carpi
.
Giorgio Cavazzano
and Carlo Chendi created Umperio Bogarto (no consistent English name as of 2010), a detective whose name is an obvious parody on Humphrey Bogart
. They also created OK Quack, an extraterrestrial Duck who landed on earth in a coin-shaped spaceship. When the ship shrank in size, OK Quack lost track of it among the coins in Scrooge's money bin. But OK befriended Scrooge and is now allowed to search through the bin time after time, looking for his ship.
Romano Scarpa
a very important and influential Italian Disney artist, created Brigitta MacBridge, a female Duck who is madly in love with Scrooge. Her affections are rarely returned by him, although she always keeps trying to make it happen. Scarpa also came up with Dickie Duck, the granddaughter of Glittering Goldie (Scrooge's possible love interest from his days in the Klondike), and Kildare Coot, an eccentric nephew of Grandma Duck.
Italian artist Corrado Mastantuono
created Bum Bum Ghigno, a cynical, grumpy and not too good looking Duck who teams up with Donald and Gyro a lot.
The American artist William van Horn
also introduced a new character: Rumpus McFowl, a rather fat old Duck with a giant appetite and laziness, who in his earliest stories is said to be a cousin of Scrooge. Only later, Scrooge reveals to his nephews that Rumpus is actually his half-brother. Later, Rumpus also finds out.
Working for the Danish editor Egmont, artist Daniel Branca
and scriptwriters Paul Halas and Charlie Martin created Garvey Gull (British name "Sonny Seagull" more commonly seen), a mischievous orphan who befriends Huey, Duey and Louie, and his rival, Mr. Phelps.
Among the most productive Duck artists today is Victor Arriagada Rios, who is better known under the name Vicar. He has his own studio where he and his assistants draw the stories send in by Egmont. With writers Stefan and Unn Printz-Påhlson, Vicar created the character Oona, a prehistoric princess who traveled to Duckburg in the 1990s by using Gyro's time machine.
The best-known and most popular Duck-artist of this time is Keno Don Rosa. He started doing Disney comics in 1987 for the American publisher Gladstone. He later worked briefly for the Dutch editors, but moved to work directly for Egmont soon afterwards. Rosa created numerous sequels to Barks' stories as well as a 12-part series on "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck
," which won Rosa two Eisner awards. Also for Egmont, Rosa developed a popular interpretation of the Donald Duck family tree.
Other important artists who have worked with Donald are Freddy Milton
and Daan Jippes
, who made 18 ten-pagers in the 1970s-1980s which some claim are as good as Barks' work. More recently, both Jippes and Milton have continued to produce duck stories on a solo basis.
Paperinik (also known as PK [Italy; USA video game], Duck Avenger [USA], Superduck [UK], Fantomerik [Dutch, 1970s], Taikaviitta [Finland], Fantomiald [France], Fantonald [Norway], Φάντομ Ντακ (Phantom Duck) [Greece, 1970s], Superkwęk [Poland], Patomás [Spain], Phantomias [Germany], Stålanden [Denmark], Stálöndin [Iceland], Stål-Kalle [Sweden], and Superdonald [Dutch, today], and Superpato [Brazil]) is a comic book costumed vigilante, Donald Duck's alter ego
. Donald originally created his superheroic identity as a means of secretly seeking revenge against relatives such as Scrooge McDuck and Gladstone Gander, but soon found himself fighting other menaces. The character is an Italian
invention and, as a pervasive feature where he appears, very much not in canon
with stories that do not feature him. The creators (Elisa Penna, Guido Martina and Giovan Battista Carpi
) introduced Paperinik in the two-part, 60-page story "Paperinik il diabolico vendicatore" ("Paperinik the Diabolical Avenger") published on June 8 and June 15, 1969.
The debut story featured Donald receiving the ownership papers of Villa Rose (Italian: Villa Rosa), an abandoned villa
outside of Duckburg whose owner had disappeared decades ago. Donald soon finds that the ownership papers were actually intended for his cousin Gladstone, but he is content not to correct the mistake. Visiting the villa with his nephews, he discovers the diary
and an abandoned suit of Phantom Duck (Italian original: Fantomius), who was known as a notorious gentleman burglar and sometime vigilante
active long ago. Donald learns Phantom Duck's methods of maintaining a secret identity
by acting as a harmless and rather incompetent gentleman during the day and during the night as a vindicator, taking revenge for his grievances against society.
In the early stories, Paperinik was not actually a superhero, but an anti-hero
vindicator. The writers toned this aspect down later and turned him into a heroic avenger instead, and he started targeting the criminal population of Duckburg, in particular the Beagle Boys
. This still remains his main mission today, although he occasionally faces higher profile adversaries and finds missions which require him to travel away from Duckburg. His most important ally in his heroic identity is the inventor Gyro Gearloose
, who fabricates most of his special equipment, but in some stories, without knowing his identity.
In 2002, a video game starring Paperinik was released for PlayStation 2
and Nintendo
GameCube
, entitled Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows
(sometimes called Disney's Donald Duck PK, or just PK). In the game, Donald Duck is transported into the future and tasked with saving the world from the Evronians; a race of aliens who also serve as the main antagonists in the PKNA
comics. He is given special powers, and told that he has become a "platyrhynchos kineticus", an energized duck, or PK for short, stepping around his Paperinik roots. The game was a commercial failure and represented the only English language use of the name PK. Before the game and after it, "Duck Avenger" has remained standard in American comic books.
, Donald was born somewhere around 1920, however, this is not an official year of birth. According to Carl Barks, Donald's parents are Hortense McDuck and Quackmore Duck. Donald’s sister is named Della Duck, but neither she nor Donald's parents appear in the cartoons or comics except for special cases, like The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck
. According to Rosa, Donald and Della are twins.
According to Donald Duck comics #85, Donald Duck grew up in Elm City, a town not far from Duckburg.
A famous quote from Donald Duck himself:
, a 1934 Belchfire Runabout, on July 1, 1938. Donald is said to have constructed it himself from spare parts of various sources. It is recognizable by its license plate number 313. The car is modeled around the 1938 American Bantam. Though Donald briefly drove other cars both in Taliaferro's strip and in later stories, this car would stay with Donald throughout the following decades. The car's constant breakdowns and need of repairs is often used as a source of humor. Immediately recognizable by readers, it seems to have become as much a trademark of Donald as his sailor shirt and cap. His alias Paperinik on the other side has the 313 (which sports a different plate, namely X) equipped with a lot of high tech gadgets by Gyro Gearloose
to combat crime. in "Recalled Wreck", Donald tells his nephews
he can't buy new car parts instead of having them fixed because his car is made of parts that are no longer produced.
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
, a cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
created by the Walt Disney Company, is today the star of dozens of comic-book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
and comic-strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
stories published each month (in certain parts of the world, each week) around the world.
Early debut
Donald may well have made his first printed appearance in Mickey Mouse Annual 3 (published 1932; the annual for 1933), a 128-page British hardback. This book included the poem Mickey's Hoozoo, Witswitch and Wotswot, which listed all of Mickey's then-current barnyard animal friends (most of Disney's major characters developed out of this barnyard scenario). Among them was a duckling named Donald Duck. Besides the name, however, there is little similarity between this character and the one introduced in The Wise Little Hen during 1934. Mickey Mouse Annual 3 was drawn entirely by Wilfred Haughton.Comic strip debut
The Donald of The Wise Little Hen made his printed debut in the newspaper comic strip adaptation of that cartoon. It was released between September 16 and December 16, 1934 in the Silly Symphonies Sunday pages by Ted OsborneTed Osborne
Ted Osborne was an American writer of comics, radio shows and animated films, remembered for his contributions to the creation and refinement, during the 1930s, of Walt Disney cartoon characters....
and Al Taliaferro
Al Taliaferro
Charles Alfred Taliaferro , known simply as Al Taliaferro, was a Disney comics artist who used to produce Disney comic strips for King Features Syndicate...
. On February 10, 1935, Donald appeared in the Mickey Mouse daily strip by Ted Osborne and Floyd Gottfredson
Floyd Gottfredson
Arthur Floyd Gottfredson was an American cartoonist best known for his defining work on the Mickey Mouse comic strip. He has probably had the same impact on the Mickey Mouse comics as Carl Barks had on the Donald Duck comics...
.
Featured character
A supporting character in Mickey's strip, Donald came to dominate the Silly Symphonies strips between August 30, 1936 and December 12, 1937. At the time, Ted Osborne was credited as writer and Al Taliaferro as artist and inker. Later studies of their work, however, show that Taliaferro probably contributed plot ideas and gags as well. The duo turned Donald from a countryman to a city dweller. They also introduced the first members of The Duck family other than Donald himself, namely Donald's identical triplet nephews Huey, Dewey and LouieHuey, Dewey and Louie
Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck are a trio of fictional, anthropomorphic ducks who appear in animated cartoons and comic books published by the Walt Disney Company. Identical triplets, the three are Donald Duck's nephews. Huey, Dewey, and Louie were created by Ted Osborne and Al Taliaferro, and first...
, who debuted on October 17, 1937. The sons of his sister Della Duck (his sister in the animated shorts), the triplets were sent to spend some time with him as guests while their father recovered at the hospital from their latest prank. Nevertheless, Donald ended up serving as their adoptive parent.
Comic book debut
At this time the first Donald Duck stories which was originally created for a comic book made their appearance. In the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Fleetway
Fleetway
Fleetway, also known as Fleetway Publications and Fleetway Editions, was a UK publishing company which mainly produced comic magazines. For a time owned by IPC Media, they are now a division of Egmont Publishing....
also created original stories with Donald Duck. "Donald and Donna", published in Mickey Mouse Weekly #67 (May 15, 1937) is the first Donald Duck adventure ever. The story was 15 pages long and published in weekly episodes. The last appeared on August 21, 1937. All episodes were drawn by William A. Ward.
Disney had also licensed the Italian publishing house Mondadori to create stories with the Disney characters as their stars. The first to star Donald, under his Italian name Paolino Paperino, was "Paolino Paperino e il mistero di Marte" (later reprinted in the United States as "The Secret of Mars", Donald Duck 286) by Federico Pedrocchi, first published on December 30, 1937. The story was only 18 pages long and crude by later standards, but it is credited as the first to feature Donald in an adventuring rather than a comedic role. It is also the first of many to depict Donald as a space traveler, in this case traveling to Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
(see Mars in fiction
Mars in fiction
Fictional representations of Mars have been popular for over a century. Interest in Mars has been stimulated by the planet's dramatic red color, by early scientific speculations that its surface conditions might be capable of supporting life, and by the possibility that Mars could be colonized by...
).
Developments under Taliaferro
Back in the USA, Donald finally became the star of his own newspaper comic strip. The Donald Duck daily strip started on February 2, 1938, and the Donald Duck Sunday page began December 10, 1939. Taliaferro drew both, this time co-operating with writer Bob KarpBob Karp
Robert Louis Karp was an American comics writer. He began working for the Walt Disney Company in the 1930s, and from 1938 to 1974, he wrote the scripts for the daily Donald Duck newspaper strips. These were illustrated by Al Taliaferro and by Frank Grundeen after Taliaferro's death in 1969.Bob...
. Like before, Taliaferro continued to contribute plot ideas and gags, and some studies credit Taliaferro with most of the ideas that would turn his run of the strip into a so-called classic. He continued to work at the daily strip until October 10, 1968 and at the Sunday page until February 16, 1969.
Among other things, Taliaferro made several additions to Donald's supporting cast. Bolivar, Donald's pet St. Bernard
St. Bernard (dog)
The St. Bernard is a breed of very large working dog from the Italian and Swiss Alps, originally bred for rescue. The breed has become famous through tales of alpine rescues, as well as for its large size.-Appearance:The St. Bernard is a large dog...
first appeared in the strip on March 17, 1938, following his animated appearances in Alpine Climbers (July 25, 1936) and More Kittens (December 19, 1936). Donald's second cousin Gus Goose, the son of Fanny Coot, made his first appearance on May 9, 1938—the first member of the Coot Kin to appear (he would make the leap to animation a year later in 1939's Donald's Cousin Gus
Donald's Cousin Gus
Donald's Cousin Gus is a 1939 Walt Disney cartoon in which Donald Duck is visited by his gluttonous cousin, Gus Goose, who proceeds to eat Donald out of house and home...
). Daisy Duck first appeared in the strip on November 4, 1940, following her first proper animated appearance in Mr. Duck Steps Out
Mr. Duck Steps Out
Mr. Duck Steps Out is a Donald Duck cartoon made by The Walt Disney Company. The film was released on June 7, 1940 and featured the debut of Daisy Duck. The short was directed by Jack King and scripted by Carl Barks.-Synopsis:...
, first released on June 7, 1940. Donald's paternal grandmother Elviry (Elvira Coot, usually just called Grandma Duck) first appeared in a portrait on August 11, 1940 and in person on September 28, 1943. Taliaferro also reintroduced Donna Duck as a separate character from Daisy. This old flame of Donald rivaled Daisy for his affections between August 7, 1951 – August 18, 1951, before leaving him for another man. Though he did not create most of those characters, Taliaferro is credited with the development of their personalities as well as Donald's own personality. It has been said that Taliaferro set the foundations for the later development of the character under Carl Barks
Carl Barks
Carl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...
and his successors.
First treasure hunt
Donald had already been familiar to the American reading public through his newspaper comic strip by 1942. Then Disney licensed Western PublishingWestern Publishing
Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company was a Racine, Wisconsin firm responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books. Western Publishing also produced children's books and family-related entertainment products as Golden Books Family Entertainment...
to create original comic book stories, with Disney characters as their stars. But the first American Donald Duck story originally created for a comic book was created by Studio-employed artists. More specifically it was Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold
Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold
Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold is a comic book starring Donald Duck that was originally printed in Four Color #9 in October 1942. In this story Donald and his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie meet a parrot named Yellow Beak and they wind up searching for the lost treasure of Henry Morgan...
, first published on October, 1942. The plot for the story had been originally suggested by Harry Reeves and Homer Brightman for a cartoon that never reached production. The notes for the cartoon were given to Bob Karp, who had been assigned to write Western's script. As intended, he used it as the basis for his story. Then it was given to Carl Barks
Carl Barks
Carl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...
and Jack Hannah
Jack Hannah
Jack Hannah was an animator, writer and director of animated shorts.Hannah was born January 15, 1913, in Nogales, Arizona. He moved to Los Angeles in 1931 to study at the Art Guild Academy. One of his first jobs was designing movie posters for Hollywood theaters...
to illustrate. Each of them drew half of the story's 64 pages. More specifically Barks drew pages #1, 2, 5, 12-40, Hannah drew pages #3, 4, 6-11, 41-64. The story places Donald and his nephews on a treasure hunt for the lost treasure of Henry Morgan
Henry Morgan
Admiral Sir Henry Morgan was an Admiral of the Royal Navy, a privateer, and a pirate who made a name for himself during activities in the Caribbean, primarily raiding Spanish settlements...
and it manages to combine elements of humor and adventure with dramatic moments and mystery rather well. Though it is an early drawing effort by Barks, his attention to detail is already visible. The script demanded him to draw a Harbor
Harbor
A harbor or harbour , or haven, is a place where ships, boats, and barges can seek shelter from stormy weather, or else are stored for future use. Harbors can be natural or artificial...
and a sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
. Barks decided to use issues of National Geographic, which he collected, as reference sources. The result was a largely accurate depiction of his subjects. Probably as a result of every person contributing in the story's creation being more familiar with the standards of cartoons shorts and/or newspaper comic strips, rather than those of comic books, the story had very few dialogue scenes. The story is considered significant as both the first Donald story drawn by Barks for a comic book and the first to involve Donald in a treasure hunting expedition. Barks would later use the treasure-hunting theme in many of his own stories.
Origins of the comic book version
Until this point, the development of both the animated and the comic strip version of Donald was the result of a combined effort by a number of different creators, rather than a single one, but the comic book version of Donald was mainly developed by Carl BarksCarl Barks
Carl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...
beginning in 1943.
The comic version had already diverged from the animated one in a number of ways, as was the case with Mickey at the time. When Donald Duck gained his own separate newspaper comic strip, this meant that both he and his supporting characters had to be split off from the standard Disney cartoon world as featured in the Mickey Mouse strip. This same division between Mouse strips and Duck strips was generally followed in the comic books. This suited Barks who did not particularly like the Mouse stories. Carl later credited Floyd Gottfredson
Floyd Gottfredson
Arthur Floyd Gottfredson was an American cartoonist best known for his defining work on the Mickey Mouse comic strip. He has probably had the same impact on the Mickey Mouse comics as Carl Barks had on the Donald Duck comics...
and his adventure stories for influencing his own work. However, he seemed to find Mickey and his supporting cast to be less than interesting as characters. In fact his only story with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Clarabell Cow as the featured characters was The Riddle of the Red Hat (first published in August, 1945, otherwise considered insignificant). Pete however remained his villain
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
of choice for the first few years of his comic book work.
Barks largely did away with Donald's animated persona as a loafing, lazy hothead whose main quality is his hardly understandable quacking. To make him suitable for a comic-book story, Barks redefined his personality, gave him articulated speech, and shaded emotions. To give Donald a world to live in, Barks developed the city of Duckburg in the American state of Calisota. He was allowed to focus entirely on his own cast of Duckburg citizens like the richest duck in the world, Uncle Scrooge McDuck
Scrooge McDuck
Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 by Carl Barks and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Scrooge is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a red or blue frock coat, top hat, pince-nez glasses, and spats...
, lucky cousin Gladstone Gander, and the peculiar inventor Gyro Gearloose
Gyro Gearloose
Gyro Gearloose is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic chicken created by Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company. He is part of the Scrooge McDuck universe, appearing in comic book stories as a friend of Donald Duck, Scrooge and anyone who is associated with them. He was also a frequent star...
. In the comics, Donald lives in a Duckburg house with Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck.
Much of this scenario would resurface in the 1987 television series DuckTales
DuckTales
DuckTales is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Based on Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge comic book series, it premiered on September 18, 1987 and ended on November 28, 1990 with a total of four seasons and 100 episodes...
. In that cartoon, however, Donald works and lives as a sailor on an aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
, and Huey, Dewey and Louie live with Uncle Scrooge for a while.
Early developments under Barks
Barks quit working at the Studio and found employment at Western Publishing with a starting pay of twelve dollars and fifty cents per page. According to a later interview by Barks, the company originally expected him to illustrate stories based on the scripts of others. They had sent him a script along with the following note: "Here is a 10-page story for Donald Duck. Hope that you like it. You are to stage it, of course. And if you see that it can be strengthened, or that it deviates from Donald either in narration or action, please make the improvements." Wanting to script his own stories, Barks started working on the script provided, freely changing whatever he wished. When he had finished with it, very little of the original remained. The story was The Victory GardenThe Victory Garden (comic book)
The Victory Garden is the first ten page comic book story starring Donald Duck that was done by Carl Barks. In this story Donald tries to grow a victory garden but three crows keep eating his seeds...
, first published in April, 1943. Barks had made his point by improving the original script beyond what had been expected of him. From then on, Barks both scripted and illustrated his stories.
His production during that year seems to be at the pace he would follow for much of the following decade. Eight 10-pagers to be published in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, sometimes abbreviated WDC or WDC&S, is an anthology comic book series that has an assortment of Disney characters, including Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Mickey Mouse, Chip 'n Dale, Lil Bad Wolf, Scamp, Bucky Bug, Grandma Duck, Brer Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, and...
, published in a monthly basis, and one longer story for the sporadically published Donald Duck. In this case the story was The Mummy's Ring, 28-pages long, first published in September, 1943. The shorter stories would usually focus on Donald's everyday life and on comedy, while the longer ones were usually adventure stories set in exotic locales. The latter would often contain more dramatic elements and darker themes, and would place Donald and his nephews into dangerous and often near-fatal situations. To add realism to his illustration of those stories' settings, Barks would still seek reference sources. The magazine National Geographic would usually provide most of the material he needed.
In both cases the stories presented Donald's personality as having multiple aspects that would surface according to circumstance. Or as Barks would say later: "He was sometimes a villain, and he was often a real good guy and at all times he was just a blundering person like the average human being." Adding another note of realism was the fact that Donald could end up being either the victor or the loser in his stories. And often even his victories were hollow. This gave a sense of realism to Donald's character and the characters and situations around him.
His nephews accompanied him in those stories and Barks also gave many aspects to their personalities. In some cases they acted as the mischievous brats Taliaferro had introduced, often antagonizing their uncle. In some cases they got in trouble and Donald would have to save them. But in others they proved remarkably resourceful and inventive, often helping their uncle out of a difficult situation. But most of the time, they would appear to have developed a deeper understanding of things and level of maturity than their uncle.
An early supporting-cast addition
The first recurring character that Barks would introduce was Donald's next-door Neighbor Jones. He was mentioned by name and made a cameo in Good Deeds, first published in July, 1943. He was mentioned as a neighbor that Donald likes to harass, but more as a form of teasing than anything more serious. Then he made his first full appearance in Good Neighbors, first published on November 11, 1943. There Donald and he appear to have agreed to a truce. But when they misinterpret a number of chance events to be covert attacks by their respective neighbor, they resume their fighting with renewed determination. In the process of their backyard warfare, they almost managed to destroy each other’s houses. The Nephews, who had enough of this fighting, reported it to the houses' owners. The two neighbors had to find new houses to rent. But to their disappointment, they found themselves as next-door neighbors. The fighting, not surprisingly, continues. Jones seems to always be in a bad mood and Donald just serves to make him angry. The two irrational and easily irritated neighbors would serve as the focus of a number of short stories. From 1947, Jones was also used by non-Barks comics writers; from the 1960s onward, he has frequently reappeared in stories by a great number of authors.Introduction to Scrooge and Gladstone
The next two recurring characters to be introduced by Barks were arguably more significant. Donald's maternal uncle Scrooge McDuckScrooge McDuck
Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 by Carl Barks and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Scrooge is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a red or blue frock coat, top hat, pince-nez glasses, and spats...
made his first appearance in Christmas on Bear Mountain, first published on December, 1947. The first member of The Clan McDuck to appear, his name was based on Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness...
, another fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
's A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
. The story's title was based on A Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
, a scene of Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
. Scrooge's first appearance was almost immediately followed by that of Donald's first cousin Gladstone Gander in Wintertime Wager, first published on January, 1948. In fact this is acknowledged in the stories' internal chronology. The first story occurs at December 24, 1947 and has a scene occurring on the night of December 25, 1947. The second occurs on the morning of December 25, 1947.
Both characters didn't yet have their familiar characteristics. Gladstone was presented as a rather arrogant cousin that had a claim on Donald's house. More specifically, in summer he had gotten Donald to agree to a wager. On Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
he had to either swim in a lake near his house or to pass his house to Gladstone. Gladstone does not yet lay claim to the title of The Luckiest Duck In the World. Daisy, who saves Donald from losing his house, still seems to have no interest in Gladstone. Their love triangle hadn't formed yet.
As for Scrooge, he was a bearded, bespectacled, reasonably wealthy old man who is visibly leaning on his cane. He was living in isolation in a Huge Mansion, which is said to be influenced by that present in Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
's Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
. Concerning his sense of humor, he planned to entertain himself by inviting his nephews to his mountain cabin and then scaring them out of it.
Developments on Gladstone
In the following years both characters would become prominent members of Donald's supporting cast. In Gladstone's case, he soon started to rival his cousin in a number of personal wagers and organized contests. His incredible luck was introduced in Race to the South Seas, first published in 1949. This story also was the first to present Donald and Gladstone trying to win Scrooge's favor in order for one of them to become his heir. They both claim to be Scrooge's closest living relative, as Donald is the son of Scrooge's sister and Gladstone is the son of Scrooge's sister's sister-in-law. Scrooge would later express his doubts that the latter constitutes an actual familial relationship. Gladstone would also rival his cousin in a treasure hunt in Luck of the North, first published in December, 1949. The later story is still considered as one of his strongest appearances. It is one of the rare occasions where his luck is combined with conscious efforts on his part and he proves to be a rather competent and resourceful adventurer in his own right. Gladstone soon also became Donald's rival for Daisy's affections. The love-triangle of Donald, Daisy and Gladstone would become an on-going theme for the following decades. Daisy actually dates both cousins and is said to have them both wrapped around her little finger.Losing ground to Scrooge
While Gladstone's development and establishment seemed to take about a year after his appearance, Barks continued to experiment with Scrooge's appearance and personality for the following four years. Barks would later claim that he originally only intended to use Scrooge as a one-shot character, but then he decided he could prove useful in further stories.Scrooge was soon established as a recurring character and various stories cast him as a featured character alongside Donald. By 1952, Scrooge had gained a magazine of his own. From then on Barks produced most of his longer stories in Uncle Scrooge with Scrooge as their star and focusing in adventure, while his ten-pagers continued to feature Donald as their star and focused on comedy. Scrooge became the central figure of the stories while Donald and their nephews were cast as Scrooge's Helpers, hired helping-hands who followed Scrooge around the world. Other contemporary creators also reflected this change of focus from Donald to Scrooge in stories. Since then Scrooge remains the central figure of their Universe, coining the term Scrooge McDuck Universe
Scrooge McDuck universe
The Duck universe is a fictional universe where Disney cartoon characters Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck live. It is a spin off of the older Mickey Mouse universe, yet has become much more extensive...
.
Further developments
Barks wasn't the only author to develop Donald. All over the world hundreds of other authors have used the character, sometimes with great results.For example the Disney Studio artists, who made comics directly for the European market. Two of them, Dick Kinney
Dick Kinney
Richard Timothy "Dick" Kinney was an American animator and comic book writer. His comic book work was mostly on Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck stories. He was the writer who, along with artist Al Hubbard, created Fethry Duck and Hard Haid Moe...
and Al Hubbard
Al Hubbard (comic book artist)
Allan "Al" Hubbard was an American animator and comic book writer. He is best known for his work on the Donald Duck stories, and was the cocreator of the character Fethry Duck- Biography :...
created Donald's cousin Fethry Duck, an obsessive dreamer with a love of discovering new lifestyles and hobbies. Fethry remains one of the most popular Duck characters in Italy and Brazil, frequently carrying his own comic book title in the latter.
The American artists Vic Lockman and Tony Strobl
Tony Strobl
Anthony Joseph Strobl was an American comics artist and animator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and attended Cleveland School of Art from 1933–37, with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who actually got some help from Strobl creating Superman...
, who were working directly for the American comic books, created Moby Duck
Moby Duck
Moby Duck may refer to:* Moby Duck, a Disney cartoon character* Moby Duck, a 1965 Warner Bros. cartoon starring Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales* The Seafair Pirates' ship...
.
Italian publisher Mondadori created many of the stories that were published throughout Europe. They also introduced numerous new characters who are today well known in Europe. One example is Donald Duck's alter-ego, a superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
called Paperinik in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, created by Guido Martina and Giovan Battista Carpi
Giovan Battista Carpi
Giovan Battista Carpi was an Italian comics artist. He worked mainly for Disney comics, mostly on books featuring Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck, although he occasionally drew Mickey Mouse as well...
.
Giorgio Cavazzano
Giorgio Cavazzano
Giorgio Cavazzano is an Italian comic strip artist. He started his career at age 14, as an inker for Romano Scarpa...
and Carlo Chendi created Umperio Bogarto (no consistent English name as of 2010), a detective whose name is an obvious parody on Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
. They also created OK Quack, an extraterrestrial Duck who landed on earth in a coin-shaped spaceship. When the ship shrank in size, OK Quack lost track of it among the coins in Scrooge's money bin. But OK befriended Scrooge and is now allowed to search through the bin time after time, looking for his ship.
Romano Scarpa
Romano Scarpa
Romano Scarpa was one of the most famous Italian creators of Disney comics.-Biography:Growing up in Venice he developed a particular love for American cartoons and Disney comics, that, at the time, were published in the big format of the Topolino Giornale which was then printing now classic Floyd...
a very important and influential Italian Disney artist, created Brigitta MacBridge, a female Duck who is madly in love with Scrooge. Her affections are rarely returned by him, although she always keeps trying to make it happen. Scarpa also came up with Dickie Duck, the granddaughter of Glittering Goldie (Scrooge's possible love interest from his days in the Klondike), and Kildare Coot, an eccentric nephew of Grandma Duck.
Italian artist Corrado Mastantuono
Corrado Mastantuono
Corrado Mastantuono is an Italian comic book artist.Born in Rome, Mastantuono worked in the animation field until 1989, and then started to work for the Italian magazine L'Eternauta...
created Bum Bum Ghigno, a cynical, grumpy and not too good looking Duck who teams up with Donald and Gyro a lot.
The American artist William van Horn
William Van Horn
William Van Horn has been a Disney comics artist and writer since 1988. He draws mostly Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, and he has also written and/or illustrated stories based on the animated series DuckTales...
also introduced a new character: Rumpus McFowl, a rather fat old Duck with a giant appetite and laziness, who in his earliest stories is said to be a cousin of Scrooge. Only later, Scrooge reveals to his nephews that Rumpus is actually his half-brother. Later, Rumpus also finds out.
Working for the Danish editor Egmont, artist Daniel Branca
Daniel Branca
Daniel Branca was an Argentine comic artist.Born in Buenos Aires, Branca got interested in comics and arts at an early age, and started his career working for a children's magazine at 14. At 16, Branca found employment as assistant animator for an advertising company...
and scriptwriters Paul Halas and Charlie Martin created Garvey Gull (British name "Sonny Seagull" more commonly seen), a mischievous orphan who befriends Huey, Duey and Louie, and his rival, Mr. Phelps.
Among the most productive Duck artists today is Victor Arriagada Rios, who is better known under the name Vicar. He has his own studio where he and his assistants draw the stories send in by Egmont. With writers Stefan and Unn Printz-Påhlson, Vicar created the character Oona, a prehistoric princess who traveled to Duckburg in the 1990s by using Gyro's time machine.
The best-known and most popular Duck-artist of this time is Keno Don Rosa. He started doing Disney comics in 1987 for the American publisher Gladstone. He later worked briefly for the Dutch editors, but moved to work directly for Egmont soon afterwards. Rosa created numerous sequels to Barks' stories as well as a 12-part series on "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is a comic book story by Don Rosa about Scrooge McDuck. Originally, the story had twelve chapters totalling 212 pages...
," which won Rosa two Eisner awards. Also for Egmont, Rosa developed a popular interpretation of the Donald Duck family tree.
Other important artists who have worked with Donald are Freddy Milton
Freddy Milton
Freddy Milton is a Danish comic-book writer-artist, best known for his work on Disney comics, Woody Woodpecker and Gnuff. He also in 1974 founded and was editor/publisher of the fanzine Carl Barks & Co.-External links:* page on Lambiek.net...
and Daan Jippes
Daan Jippes
Daan Jippes is a cartoonist, who has worked with Disney and other comics. He is admired by his fans for his lively emulation of Carl Barks' drawing style, and was therefore chosen by Egmont to redraw some old Junior Woodchucks stories from the 1970s, originally written by Carl Barks and drawn by...
, who made 18 ten-pagers in the 1970s-1980s which some claim are as good as Barks' work. More recently, both Jippes and Milton have continued to produce duck stories on a solo basis.
Paperinik (Duck Avenger)
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
. Donald originally created his superheroic identity as a means of secretly seeking revenge against relatives such as Scrooge McDuck and Gladstone Gander, but soon found himself fighting other menaces. The character is an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
invention and, as a pervasive feature where he appears, very much not in canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
with stories that do not feature him. The creators (Elisa Penna, Guido Martina and Giovan Battista Carpi
Giovan Battista Carpi
Giovan Battista Carpi was an Italian comics artist. He worked mainly for Disney comics, mostly on books featuring Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck, although he occasionally drew Mickey Mouse as well...
) introduced Paperinik in the two-part, 60-page story "Paperinik il diabolico vendicatore" ("Paperinik the Diabolical Avenger") published on June 8 and June 15, 1969.
The debut story featured Donald receiving the ownership papers of Villa Rose (Italian: Villa Rosa), an abandoned villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
outside of Duckburg whose owner had disappeared decades ago. Donald soon finds that the ownership papers were actually intended for his cousin Gladstone, but he is content not to correct the mistake. Visiting the villa with his nephews, he discovers the diary
Diary
A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...
and an abandoned suit of Phantom Duck (Italian original: Fantomius), who was known as a notorious gentleman burglar and sometime vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
active long ago. Donald learns Phantom Duck's methods of maintaining a secret identity
Secret identity
A secret identity is an element of fiction wherein a character develops a separate persona , while keeping their true identity hidden. The character also may wear a disguise...
by acting as a harmless and rather incompetent gentleman during the day and during the night as a vindicator, taking revenge for his grievances against society.
In the early stories, Paperinik was not actually a superhero, but an anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
vindicator. The writers toned this aspect down later and turned him into a heroic avenger instead, and he started targeting the criminal population of Duckburg, in particular the Beagle Boys
Beagle Boys
The Beagle Boys are a group of fictional characters from the Scrooge McDuck universe. Created by Carl Barks, they are a gang of criminals who constantly try to rob Scrooge McDuck. Their introduction and first appearance was in Terror of the Beagle Boys, in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #134,...
. This still remains his main mission today, although he occasionally faces higher profile adversaries and finds missions which require him to travel away from Duckburg. His most important ally in his heroic identity is the inventor Gyro Gearloose
Gyro Gearloose
Gyro Gearloose is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic chicken created by Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company. He is part of the Scrooge McDuck universe, appearing in comic book stories as a friend of Donald Duck, Scrooge and anyone who is associated with them. He was also a frequent star...
, who fabricates most of his special equipment, but in some stories, without knowing his identity.
In 2002, a video game starring Paperinik was released for PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
and Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
, entitled Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows
Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows
Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows, also known as Disney's Donald Duck PK or simply PK, is an action-adventure video game released in by Ubisoft. It stars Donald Duck as Paperinik or "PK" as he battles the Evron Empire.-Plot:...
(sometimes called Disney's Donald Duck PK, or just PK). In the game, Donald Duck is transported into the future and tasked with saving the world from the Evronians; a race of aliens who also serve as the main antagonists in the PKNA
PKNA
PKNA - Paperinik New Adventures is a Disney comic, published in Italy from 14 March 1996 to 20 December 2000, about the new adventures of Paperinik, the superhero created in 1969 by Guido Martina, Elisa Penna and Giovan Battista Carpi, which served as Donald Duck's secret identity.The first issue...
comics. He is given special powers, and told that he has become a "platyrhynchos kineticus", an energized duck, or PK for short, stepping around his Paperinik roots. The game was a commercial failure and represented the only English language use of the name PK. Before the game and after it, "Duck Avenger" has remained standard in American comic books.
Donald's character history
According to Disney comics author Don RosaDon Rosa
Keno Don Hugo Rosa, known simply as Don Rosa, is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck and other characters created by Carl Barks for Disney comics, such as The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.-Early life:Don Rosa's grandfather,...
, Donald was born somewhere around 1920, however, this is not an official year of birth. According to Carl Barks, Donald's parents are Hortense McDuck and Quackmore Duck. Donald’s sister is named Della Duck, but neither she nor Donald's parents appear in the cartoons or comics except for special cases, like The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is a comic book story by Don Rosa about Scrooge McDuck. Originally, the story had twelve chapters totalling 212 pages...
. According to Rosa, Donald and Della are twins.
According to Donald Duck comics #85, Donald Duck grew up in Elm City, a town not far from Duckburg.
Barks's comments on Donald and his stories
- "The thing that I consider most important about my work is this: I told it like it is. I told my readers that the bad guys have a little of good in them, and the good guys have a lot of bad in them, and that you can't depend on anything much; nothing is always going to turn out roses." — May 29, 1973.
- "In fact I laid it right on the line. There was no difference between my characters and the life my readers were going to have to face. When the Ducks went out in the desert, so did Joe Blow down the street with his kids. When Donald got buffeted around, I tried to put it over in such a way that kids would see it could happen to them. Unlike the superhero comics, my comics had parallels in human experience."
- "I always felt myself to be an unlucky person like Donald, who is a victim of so many circumstances. But there isn't a person in the United States who couldn't identify with him. He is everything, he is everybody; he makes the same mistakes that we all make."
- "I carried in my head the idea that there was a whole town and a whole family of characters around these ducks at all times, he recalls. There were cousins and nephews and nieces, and villains and bankers and all kinds of people that they dealt with in everyday life. So whenever I needed a character, I would create one that apparently had been around but just hadn't been used yet. The way I presented these characters was the way they were in my head: they had been there all the time". — August 4, 1975.
- "I've always looked upon the Ducks as caricature human beings. Perhaps I've been years writing in that middle world that J. R. R. TolkienJ. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
describes, and never knew it." (After his retirement Barks started reading Tolkien, and discovered similarities between their stories. At this point he was comparing his Ducks to Tolkien's hobbitHobbitHobbits are a fictional diminutive race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction.Hobbits first appeared in the novel The Hobbit, in which the main protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is the titular hobbit...
s of Middle-earthMiddle-earthMiddle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
.) - "I broadened his character out very much. Instead of making just a quarrelsome little guy out of him, I made a sympathetic character. He was sometimes a villain, and he was often a real good guy and at all times he was just a blundering person like the average human being, and I think that is one of the reasons people like the duck." — Spring, 1981.
- "I didn't expect any great rosy things out of life for my characters and it's a good way to be, I think. If you get too darned optimistic, your stuff gets sweet like PollyannaPollyannaPollyanna is a best-selling 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter that is now considered a classic of children's literature, with the title character's name becoming a popular term for someone with the same optimistic outlook. The book was such a success, that Porter soon produced a sequel, Pollyanna...
." - "I even tried to tone down the malicious streak in Donald's character. I resented it in Bugs Bunny; it just turned me off. I thought: why put that same character into Donald and turn off millions of readers? It was okay for the Ducks from time to time, provided there were reasons for it."
A famous quote from Donald Duck himself:
- "Four dollars is very little money when you got 'em; but a heck of a lot of money when you ain't got 'em." (From the Carl Barks story "A Christmas for ShacktownA Christmas for ShacktownA Christmas for Shacktown is a Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge story written and drawn by Carl Barks and first published in the comic book Donald Duck, #367 in January, 1952. The story line revolves around the Duck family attempting to raise money to throw a Christmas party for the poor children of the...
".)
Donald's car
Taliaferro introduced Donald's carAutomobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
, a 1934 Belchfire Runabout, on July 1, 1938. Donald is said to have constructed it himself from spare parts of various sources. It is recognizable by its license plate number 313. The car is modeled around the 1938 American Bantam. Though Donald briefly drove other cars both in Taliaferro's strip and in later stories, this car would stay with Donald throughout the following decades. The car's constant breakdowns and need of repairs is often used as a source of humor. Immediately recognizable by readers, it seems to have become as much a trademark of Donald as his sailor shirt and cap. His alias Paperinik on the other side has the 313 (which sports a different plate, namely X) equipped with a lot of high tech gadgets by Gyro Gearloose
Gyro Gearloose
Gyro Gearloose is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic chicken created by Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company. He is part of the Scrooge McDuck universe, appearing in comic book stories as a friend of Donald Duck, Scrooge and anyone who is associated with them. He was also a frequent star...
to combat crime. in "Recalled Wreck", Donald tells his nephews
Huey, Dewey and Louie
Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck are a trio of fictional, anthropomorphic ducks who appear in animated cartoons and comic books published by the Walt Disney Company. Identical triplets, the three are Donald Duck's nephews. Huey, Dewey, and Louie were created by Ted Osborne and Al Taliaferro, and first...
he can't buy new car parts instead of having them fixed because his car is made of parts that are no longer produced.
United States
- Walt Disney's Comics and StoriesWalt Disney's Comics and StoriesWalt Disney's Comics and Stories, sometimes abbreviated WDC or WDC&S, is an anthology comic book series that has an assortment of Disney characters, including Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Mickey Mouse, Chip 'n Dale, Lil Bad Wolf, Scamp, Bucky Bug, Grandma Duck, Brer Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, and...
- Donald Duck
- Donald Duck and Friends
- Uncle ScroogeUncle ScroogeUncle Scrooge is a comic book with the stingy Scrooge McDuck "the richest duck in the world" as the main character. The series also featured Donald Duck and his nephews as supporting characters. The first 70 issues mostly consisted of stories written and drawn by Carl Barks, the creator of Scrooge...
- Uncle Scrooge AdventuresUncle Scrooge AdventuresUncle Scrooge Adventures is a comic book published by Gladstone Publishing under license from the Walt Disney Company. It features the adventures of Scrooge McDuck and his nephews...
- Donald Duck AdventuresDonald Duck AdventuresDonald Duck Adventures was a comic book featuring the adventures of Donald Duck and his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie.- Gladstone I: 1987–1990 and Gladstone II: 1993–1997 :Gladstone Publishing published 48 issues...
- Mickey and Donald
- DuckTales
- Donald and Mickey
- Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse
- Walt Disney Giant
- Walt Disney's Comics and Stories Penny Pincher
- Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck
- The Adventurous Uncle Scrooge McDuck
- Donald Duck and Friends
- Mickey Mouse and Friends
- Disney's Hero Squad
- Wizards of Mickey
Brazil
- Pato Donald (since 1950)
- Mickey (since 1952)
- Zé Carioca (since 1961)
- Tio Patinhas (since 1963)
- Minnie
- Disney Big
- Disney Gigante
- Natal de Ouro Disney
- Almanaque do Pato Donald
- Almanaque do Mickey
- Almanaque do Zé Carioca
- Almanaque do Tio Patinhas
- Almanaque do Prof. Pardal
- Almanaque do Pluto
- Almanaque do Peninha
- Almanaque do Margarida
- Almanaque do Pateta
- Almanaque dos Super-Heróis Disney
- Pato Donald Férias
- Mickey Férias
- Tio Patinhas Férias
- Pateta Férias
- Pato Donald Extra!
- Mickey Extra!
- Tio Patinhas Extra!
- Pateta Extra!
- Princesas
- Almanaque Encantado de Férias das Princesas
- Almanacão de Férias Disney
- Almanaque Toy Story
- Carros Revista Oficial
Egypt
- مجلة سمير (Sameer Comics)
- مجلة ميكى (Mickey Comics)
- ميكى جيب (Pocket Mickey)
- سوبر ميكى (Super Mickey)
- ميكى و بطوط (Mickey & Donald)
Finland
- Aku AnkkaAku AnkkaAku Ankka is a Finnish weekly Disney comics magazine published by Sanoma Magazines.The first issue was published on December 5, 1951 and sold 34,017 copies...
- Aku Ankan taskukirja (Donald Duck pocket book)
- Aku Ankka Sarjisekstra (Donal Duck Comic Extra)
- Aku-Palat (Donald Digest)
- Roope-setä (Uncle-Scrooge)
- Iines (Daisy)
France
- Le Journal de MickeyLe Journal de MickeyLe Journal de Mickey is a French weekly comics magazine established in 1934 and currently published by Disney Hachette Presse. It is centered around the adventures of Mickey Mouse and other Disney figures but contains also other comics. It is credited with "the birth of the modern bande dessinée"...
- Hardi présente Donald
- Picsou MagazinePicsou MagazinePicsou Magazine is a French magazine featuring characters from The Scrooge McDuck universe, as Picsou is the French name of Scrooge McDuck. It is published by Hachette, which has a license from the Walt Disney Company for producing and distributing Disney comics in France.In every magazine, the...
- Mickey Parade Géant
- Super Picsou Géant
Germany
- Micky Maus Magazin
- Die tollsten Geschichten von Donald Duck
- Donald Duck (Taschenbuch)
- Lustiges Taschenbuch
- Lustiges Taschenbuch Spezial
- Lustiges Taschenbuch Entenedition
- Lustiges Taschenbuch Weihnachtsedition
- Lustiges Taschenbuch Sonderband Ostern
Italy
- Paperino (1930s)
- TopolinoTopolinoTopolino, is an Italian digest-sized comic series featuring Disney comics. The series has had a long running history, first appearing in 1932...
- I Classici Disney
- Zio Paperone
- Paperino Mese (changed name to Paperino in the late 90s)
Japan
- Kingdom Hearts - (mangaMangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
adaption by Shiro AmanoShiro Amanois a Japanese manga artist who has worked on several projects, including his adaptation on the popular Kingdom Hearts series.-Manga:* Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories* Kingdom Hearts II* Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days* Legend of Mana...
) - Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories - (mangaMangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
adaption by Shiro AmanoShiro Amanois a Japanese manga artist who has worked on several projects, including his adaptation on the popular Kingdom Hearts series.-Manga:* Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories* Kingdom Hearts II* Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days* Legend of Mana...
) - Kingdom Hearts II - (mangaMangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
adaption by Shiro AmanoShiro Amanois a Japanese manga artist who has worked on several projects, including his adaptation on the popular Kingdom Hearts series.-Manga:* Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories* Kingdom Hearts II* Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days* Legend of Mana...
)
The Netherlands
- Donald Duck Weekblad
- Donald Duck pocket
- Donald Duck extra
- De beste verhalen van Donald Duck albums
- De grappigste avonturen van Donald Duck
- Donald Duck dubbelpocket
- Donald Duck vakantieboek
- Donald Duck winterboek
- Donald Duck mini-pocket
- extra Donald Duck Extra
Norway
- Donald Duck & Co.
- Mikke Mus
- Donald Duck Pocket / Onkel Skrue Pocket
- Fantonald
Poland
- Kaczor Donald
- Gigant Poleca
- MegaGiga
- Kaczogród
- Gigant Mamut
External links
- http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Easel/4942/rare.htm&date=2009-10-25+10:00:07
- http://www.coa.inducks.org
- http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=ww070516ws