A fowl whose long list of character flaws won him almost instant popularity, Donald Duck made his screen debut and his comic strip debut in 1934. From a bit part in a Walt Disney Silly Symphony animated cartoon, he quickly climbed to stardom. In addition to movies and newspaper strips, Donald Duck was a major hit in comic books from the middle 1930s onward. Undoubtedly the most gifted artist ever to draw him was Carl Barks.

Donald was first seen in The Wise Little Hen, which was released on June 9, 1934. In that animated short he played a lazy loafer and, since he was residing on a houseboat, wore a sailor suit. The most appealing and intriguing thing about him was his voice, supplied by Clarence Nash. It was said that Walt Disney himself had heard Nash on a local radio station reciting "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and, fascinated by the voice, ordered him to be hired. "Donald's screen personality was largely the creation of animator Dick Lundy," says Leonard Maltin in Of Mice and Magic. Lundy used Donald in The Orphans' Benefit (released August 11, 1934), wherein the increasingly thwarted duck tries to recite the little lamb poem. It was Lundy who made him a vain show-off with an extremely short temper, a boastful fellow quick to anger.

After appearing in the increasingly larger bit parts in Mickey Mouse shorts, Donald costarred in Donald and Pluto in 1936 and then, in January of 1937, was the solo star of Don Donald. Apparently tired of the sweetness and light and the singing elves of many of the animated cartoons of the period, the public embraced the meanminded, blustering duck.

The Silly Symphony Sunday page ran as a topper to Mickey Mouse. Donald Duck was first seen there on September 16, 1934, in an adaptation of The Wise Little Hen. He was lazy and a mite cunning, and not at all sputtering or short-fused. But he reformed at the end of the continuity in December, observing that "I'm thinkin' that to dodge a job is more work than to do it!" When he returned to the page on August 30, 1936, he was closer to his present self. Donald remained a squatter there until late in 1937. Then, early in 1938, a daily Donald Duck strip began, also syndicated by King Features, and by the end of 1939 there was also a regular Donald Duck Sunday. Both were written by Bob Karp and drawn by Al Taliaferro. An excellent artist with a lively version of the Disney house style, Taliaferro had been with the studio since 1931. After inking Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse, he graduated to the Silly Symphonies Sunday. He was, therefore, the first artist to draw Donald in the funny papers and he remained with the character until his death in 1969.

There was rarely any continuity in the strip, since Karp, and apparently the syndicate, favored a joke-a-day format. Donald's three rascally nephews were regulars, as was his sweetheart Daisy and his lumbering pet St. Bernard, originally named Bolivar. The Donald Duck strip still runs, though in a much diminished list of papers. The current creative team consists of Bob Foster and Frank Smith.

Donald also hit the newsstands in 1935 as one of the characters in Mickey Mouse Magazine. After a few issues a joke column titled Wise Quacks was added and Donald was listed as its editor. In 1940 Walt Disney's Comics and Stories replaced the earlier title and Donald Duck, in the form of reprints of the Taliaferro strips, was part of the lineup. Carl Barks had gone to work for the Disney studios in the middle 1930s, chiefly as a story man. In 1942 he drew a one-shot original comic book titled Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold. Some of the pages were done by an artist named Jack Hannah and Bob Karp provided the script. As a result of that job, Barks was hired to do a monthly 10-page original Donald story for WDC&S. The first one appeared in #31 (April 1943).

Barks had found his calling at last. He proceeded to turn out a long series of funny, fast-moving duck tales that mixed satire, suspense, fantasy, mystery, and a whole lot more. He turned Donald into one of the great mock heroes, made Huey, Dewey and Louie into likable and resourceful kids, and he also created Uncle Scrooge. Soon there were full-length comic books about Donald, about Uncle Scrooge and the rest. Barks retired several years ago, but all his work is being reprinted in various forms today. Neither he nor Taliaferro ever got a credit during their active years with Donald Duck.

R.G.