This is very old news, but I just came across the topic for the first time in the pages of Funny Times (October 2009), in Chuck Shepherd’s “News of the Weird”:
Donaldism — Donald Duck may be a lovable icon of comic mishap to American youngsters, but in Germany, he is wise and complicated and retains followers well past their childhoods. Using licensed Disney storyline and art, the legendary translator Erika Fuchs created an erudite Donald, who often “quotes from German literature, speaks in grammatically complex sentences, and is prone to philosophical musings,” according to a Wall Street Journal dispatch.
Not just Germany (see the detailed Wikipedia page), though the 32nd annual convention of the German Organization for Non-Commercial Followers of Pure Donaldism (the German name has the acronym DONALD) was held recently in Stuttgart.
The roots of donaldism are in Norway (Jon Gisle’s 1973 book Donaldismen), but it has spread, mostly to northern European countries; there are donaldist fanzines in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, and Sweden, plus the U.S.
September 28, 2009 at 2:42 pm |
Clearly the title of The Donald is merely Trumped-up.