Donald Duck Visits Norway

«Donald Duck & Co» is Norway’s most popular comic book of all time, and has taught generations of children to read and write since the first issue appeared in 1948.

In its heyday in the 1980s, over 13 million Donald magazines were published a year.

This year, the magazine celebrates its 75th anniversary with a quack-tactical issue signed by an all-Norwegian team in which Donald and the gang take Oslo. Gaute Moe (51) has written the story, while Arild Midthun (58) provides the illustrations.

– It is always the case that if there is someone you know well and they live somewhere else, for example Andeby, then the greatest joy is to be able to take them to your home district, Midthun tells Dagbladet.

He himself lived in Oslo for ten years before moving to Son.

– The summer I turned 17, I lived at Majorstua and worked for, among other things Norwegian FOOD. So for me it was great fun to be able to take our beaked friends through Oslo. Or Fjonslo, as the town is called in the cartoon.

Want to buy the subway

According to Forbes Skrue McDuck has a fortune of over 44 billion dollars (!). Then it comes as no surprise that the business empire of the world’s richest duck extends to all corners of the globe.

Now the Scottish-born miserly quack has – as via Twitter in 2022 stated that he had secured sales positions on Norwegian crude oil – set out on the subway itself in Oslo.

In the magazine, which goes on sale on March 17, Skrue travels with Donald, Ole, Dole and Doffen to Gardermoen to buy Norway’s only subway. In his pocket he has his beloved lucky ring, which soon falls into the hands of his arch-rival Magica from Tryll.

It all culminates in a neck-snapping ride on the Holmenkollbahnen, which offers everything from moose in the tracks to brutal ticket inspectors.

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– Stands out

Donald author Gaute Moe has over 350 written stories on conscience. At the same time, he has worked as a subway driver in Oslo on a daily basis since 2008.

Thus, he could easily draw inspiration from his own everyday life when he had to write about our beaked friends’ Norwegian adventures.

– It sometimes happens that you have to do research when writing a story. But here it was not necessary, he explains to Dagbladet.

He thinks it was nice to be able to add history to line 1 Frognerseteren with its quaint surroundings.

– It is the line that stands out the most in terms of tourist attractions and well-known landmarks. It’s an incredibly nice stretch, says the author behind “Neste stasjon Fjollenkollen”.

Broken magical record

Made his debut as a 40-year-old

Arild Midthun is an award-winning cartoonist, illustrator, newspaper cartoonist and Norway’s only officially approved Donald cartoonist.

Since 2004, he has put his signature on more than 160 stories and countless Donald covers that have ended up on magazine shelves around the world.

When he got the request to draw Donald almost 20 years ago, he brought his own taste and style from Franco-Belgian cartoons that Asterix and Viggointerspersed with experiences with caricatured humor cartoons and comic strips in newspapers.

– I was 40 years old when I drew my first Donald. Many people have tried to draw Donald during their upbringing, but I never did. Not until I made the first parody in Python.

During the 90s, Midthun did many illustrations for Aftenposten. Whenever a rich person was needed, he drew Skrue McDuck.

– So it is really through Pyton, Norsk MAD and Aftenposten that I drew our beaked friends, but in a caricatured style. When I started as a Donald cartoonist, I had to combine all of this and try to settle on a style that allowed our stories to literally stand side by side with Carl Barks.

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“Duckification”

The Duck clan is, to put it mildly, a well-travelled family who experience epic adventures around the world. Midthun says that he likes to travel to the same places in order to be able to study the surroundings in detail with his own eyes when he has to illustrate Donald stories.

At the same time, certain caveats apply.

– According to Disney guidelines, we must not reproduce buildings completely naturalistically. I take care to “duckify” everything, this is after all our interpretation of reality into an Andeby universe. It’s perfectly fine that people can recognize things like the Castle, but it’s not quite realistically drawn. It’s a balancing act I always have to do.

– In other words, you make changes so that it does not appear that Andeby is located somewhere in the actual world?

– The whole of Andeby is a fable, we replant all elements from the reality we know into a world of pantless ducks.

The danger, according to Midthun, is that you otherwise risk getting hung up on details that spoil the good narrative.

– It’s like if a newscaster is wearing a tie that takes up all the attention so you don’t catch the news.

Heartbreaking revelation

Fjottsplassen and Majonestuen

It’s not just the surroundings that are anddiverted from reality.

In classic Donald style, all place names have been ‘duckified’. Oslo has been given the name Fjonslo, while history sneaks into places such as “Fjottsplassen” and “Majonestuen”.

Dagbladet asks Midthun if this has been done so that there is no suspicion that, for example, Visit Oslo has sponsored the cartoon.

– Disney is a company that tells stories, and they are very careful about how their intellectual property is used in, for example, advertising for other industries, replies the Donald cartoonist before continuing:

– It will be a bit the same as if you tell a fairy tale where trolls are replaced by a forest machine. Then you lose the magic and the very nerve of the story. It is a goal in itself to have a distance between the reality we know, and the Andeby world we tell from.

Disney has never done this

Guest stars as a pig

Gaute Moe is referred to as the country’s most quack-tive Donald author. According to himself, he writes between 20 and 25 stories a year.

– I take as many as I have time for, he says to Dagbladet before he sets off on today’s subway sections.

As a fun detail, Gaute Moe himself has a guest role as a subway driver with the initials “GM” on the coffee cup. Although he had written in a subway driver, he had no idea that Arild Midthun was going to write him in as a pig.

– I didn’t know anything, it was almost a bit embarrassing. I noticed that I had gotten a little fatter, but I hope I don’t look like that, says Moe with a chuckle before continuing:

– But then I guess I’ve got a new favorite character.

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Of course, the center point

When Midthun is asked the classic question of which is his own personal Andeby favourite, he replies that there are two that stand out.

– I love drawing Magica from Tryll. She is my absolute favorite character because she is tough, sexy and she knows what she wants. She also has a lot of black, which makes it so dramatic and nice to draw her.

As the main character in a story, it is always Donald who applies.

– The whole of Andeby is built around him – everything that happens is created to make Donald’s personality clear. That’s why you have lucky cousin Anton to show how unlucky Donald is, or how poor he is by having the world’s richest uncle.

Midthun thinks Donald Duck is the perfect anti-hero.

– He is governed exclusively by emotions, never by intellect, and that is why we love him. He does the stupid things so we don’t have to.