The World-Famous Duck

I cannot imagine what my youth would have been like without me reading the weekly Donald Duck magazines. I was simply addicted to it. And after we finally got a TV which wasn’t before around the mid-sixties, we were glued to the screen whenever it was Disney time. Walt Disney had created the semi-intelligible duck by 1934 and he wanted it to be a buddy to Mickey Mouse. Quickly, the duck grew so popular that it got it’s own magazine and its own animated cartoon. The way it talked was unique and clearly there are certain parallels to the way some people sound. Why else would some government employees remind me of the duck? Donald Duck cartoons contain a lot of social criticism and have always tried to accentuate the American Way of Life. (we shan’t go there….:-)) New to me – the fact that Doanld was reading Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”. It remains open whether he reads it by interest or whether it was meant to be a teaser against Hitler. (having a duck read his book) And as if Donald himself wasn’t funny enough Disney also created his nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, who are always pondering a way to tease their uncle. Donald was most famously drawn by Al Taliaferro, Carl Barks, and Don Rosa. Barks in particular is credited for greatly expanding the "duck universe", the world in which Donald lives, and creating many additional characters such as Donald's maternal uncle Scrooge McDuck. Today Donald is a very popular character in Europe, particularly in the Low Countries and Scandinavian countries where his weekly magazine has remained the most popular comics publication for over 50 years. Disney comics' fandom is sometimes referred to as "Donaldism", a term which originated in Norway. (Norwegian: Donaldisme) With that in mind it doesn’t surprise to hear that Donald Duck remains the most read magazine in Norway. It wasn’t until a few evenings ago that I rediscovered the Disney cartoons movies on Youtube.com  So here I sat watching one episode after the other chuckling away the first long dark hours of this fall. From time to time I noticed Bea glancing over to my side and I kinda could guess what she was thinking. (doesn’t he have something else to do?)  NO, it was excellent entertainment and made me feel like in my long gone days as a boy.