Donald Duck #7/1955
Donald Duck #7/1955 is a representative issue from the first fully-in-color year of the Dutch Donald Duck weekblad — a milestone reached from issue #10/1954 onward — placing it squarely in the period that cemented the magazine's identity as the Netherlands' defining children's comics publication. The issue carries translated Carl Barks material alongside Dutch-localized Disney characters, illustrating the pipeline from American Dell originals through Gutenberghus in Denmark to Dutch-language readers that shaped an entire generation's encounter with the Duck universe. It also falls in the same year that cover artist Endre Lukács — the first regular Disney artist in the Netherlands — drew his celebrated first Sinterklaas cover, reflecting his broader effort to root the magazine in Dutch cultural life. As a 1955 issue of a series that would eventually run to thousands of numbers and outlast every competing Dutch children's magazine of its era, it documents the still-young weekly during the critical window when its commercial and cultural staying power was first being proven.
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De Geïllustreerde Pers launched the Donald Duck weekblad on 25 October 1952 as a supplement to its women's magazine Margriet, distributing the first issue free to 2.5 million households to build an audience in a market where comics had recently been officially discouraged by the Dutch government. Printing rights were secured from Danish publisher Gutenberghus, which held Disney comics licensing for the Germanic-language territories, meaning the stories in early issues — including those in 1955 — were translated from the same plates used for the Scandinavian editions, with coloring that was often shared across the Dutch, Danish, and German publications. By 1955, editor John Bakkenhoven and cover artist Endre Lukács were actively shaping the magazine's Dutch character, with Lukács supplying original cover art and occasional interior stories whenever suitable American material was unavailable.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published in 1955 by De Geïllustreerde Pers (Amsterdam) as part of the Dutch Donald Duck weekly series that launched 25 October 1952.
- Falls in the first fully-in-color year of the magazine: from issue #10/1954 onward, all pages were printed in color, ending the earlier alternating color/black-and-white format.
- Interior stories were primarily translated reprints of American Carl Barks material originally published in Dell's Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, licensed through Danish publisher Gutenberghus.
- The Dutch edition used localized character names throughout: Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie appear as Kwik, Kwek, and Kwak; Uncle Scrooge is Oom Dagobert Duck; Goofy and Mickey Mouse retain recognizable Dutch equivalents.
- The piglet character indexed as 'Knir' is one of the three Little Bad Wolf piglets (Knir, Knar, Knor) — supporting characters in the Big Bad Wolf / Little Bad Wolf strips that were a recurring backup feature in the early Dutch weekblad.
- Cover art for the 1955 issues was provided by Hungarian-Dutch illustrator Endre Lukács, the first regular Disney cover artist in the Netherlands, who that same year drew the magazine's first-ever Sinterklaas cover.
- The 24-page format was standard for the weekly throughout this period; the magazine would not expand to 32 pages until issue #40/1958.
- No dedicated key-issue database writeup (Key Collector, GoCollect) or specific collector-forum thread focused on this individual issue was found during research, consistent with its status as a regular weekly rather than a landmark single number.
Cast · 8 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Donald is a station master in rugged country and he is forced to care for ten thousand baby turkeys and to fend off Hairy Harry, the train robber.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).