Donald Duck #13/1955

History

De Geïllustreerde Pers launched the Dutch Donald Duck weekly on 25 October 1952, drawing direct inspiration from the Danish publisher Gutenberghus, which had successfully run Disney weeklies in Scandinavia since the late 1940s; the Dutch edition was initially produced in the offices of the women's weekly Margriet under chief editor Anton Weehuizen, with translation and layout handled there. Hungarian-Dutch illustrator Endre Lukács was hired in 1952 as the magazine's first local artist, quickly becoming the defining visual voice of its covers through the 1950s, introducing distinctly Dutch architectural details into his artwork. By 1955 the editorial team — now also including editor John Bakkenhoven, who had transferred from De Spaarnestad — was beginning to commission short original Dutch-made back-up stories alongside the translated American Barks material that filled the lead pages, a modest but significant step toward the homegrown Dutch Disney tradition that would flourish in later decades.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Donald Duck #13/1955 was published by De Geïllustreerde Pers under the series title 'Een vrolijk weekblad' ('A Cheerful Weekly'), the magazine's founding subtitle.
• The issue falls within the first full-colour run of the series: starting with issue #10/1954, the weekly transitioned to full colour on every page, replacing the earlier alternating colour-and-monochrome format.
• Lead stories in 1955 issues were primarily translated Carl Barks material sourced via the Danish publisher Gutenberghus, which supplied printing films shared across Dutch, Danish, and German Disney publications — meaning colouring in Dutch, Danish, and German editions of this era was often identical.
• Endre Lukács, the Hungarian-Dutch illustrator hired by De Geïllustreerde Pers in 1952, served as the principal cover artist throughout 1955; he was the first regular local Disney artist in the Netherlands and introduced Dutch architectural elements such as Amsterdam canal-house facades into his compositions.
• Guus Geluk (Dutch name for Gladstone Gander), indexed in this issue, is a Carl Barks creation who debuted in the 1948 story 'Wintertime Wager'; as Donald's perpetually lucky cousin and romantic rival for Katrien Duck's attention, he represents one of the defining character dynamics of the Barks Duckburg universe.
• The magazine ran 24 pages per issue throughout 1955, a page count that would not increase until issue #40/1958.
• Editor John Bakkenhoven joined the De Geïllustreerde Pers editorial team around this period, contributing scripts for original Dutch-produced back-up stories alongside the translated American material.
• Stories from the 1955 run of the Dutch weekly were later eligible for reprinting in the long-running album series 'De beste verhalen van Donald Duck' (135 volumes, 1975–2010), which systematically collected Barks material that had first appeared in the Dutch weekly.

Cast · 11 characters

Full credits

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