Donald Duck. The Ultimate History

He is the anti-hero par excellence and has been loved for decades precisely because of his fallibility. Donald Duck has been delighting fans all over the world since 1934 - the extensively illustrated volume "Donald Duck. The Ultimate History" now traces the famous duck and includes unpublished works by legendary illustrator Carl Barks.

He is clumsy and clumsy, he is work-shy and prefers to sleep in his armchair, he is (almost) always unlucky, he is plagued by money worries and his filthy rich uncle is the world's biggest miser and only takes advantage of him. And when all of this gets too much for him, he throws tantrums fit for a movie. Donald Duck is no hero, God knows, but he is all the more likeable because he is as average and full of flaws as we all are.
As fallible as Donald may be, he is just as successful as a comic figure. His adventures have been continued for nine decades, he is the star of over 170 cartoons and has appeared in more films than any other Disney protagonist. Of course, he lives on in numerous comics, appears on television and plays a major role in numerous theme parks.

In "Donald Duck. The Ultimate History", you can now delve deep into the Donald universe. On 564 pages, Taschen Verlag presents rare drawings, original editions and previously unpublished works by Carl Banks, who shaped the duck for many years. The authors had access to historical archives and Disney collections as well as other public and private collections and were thus able to unearth information and works that were not yet accessible in this form. The volume features early storyboard drawings by Carl Banks, for example, as well as rare concept drawings, story sketches, background images and animation and comic drawings from a total of nine decades.

Unlike Mickey Mouse, who had to be smart, reserved and sensible, Donald was allowed to blow his top from the very beginning. The team loved this character trait so much that Walt Disney warned his story writers to concentrate solely on making the duckling explode. But the audience also liked exactly this non-conformity. When Carl Banks switched from his position as an animator to writing stories, a whole new universe opened up for Donald. He was allowed to travel the world and experience the most fantastic adventures. In "Donald Duck. The Ultimate History" you can follow this development and see behind the scenes of the film and comic productions through many sketches, storyboards and old photographs.

The wealth of material is impressive and there is a lot to discover on the more than 500 pages. Taschen Verlag loves to publish large-format books and in this case it really pays off. The pictures and drawings look even more impressive on generous double pages and you can see even the smallest details. It's also nice that different types of paper have been used and, for example, the new chapters open with colored uncoated paper and die-cuts reveal the new topic. "Donald Duck. The Ultimate History" is a great treasure trove for Donald fans, but also for all those who loved following the angry little duck as a child.

Donald Duck. The Ultimate History
Daniel Kothenschulte (ed.), David Gerstein, J.B. Kaufman
Taschen Verlag
564 pages, hardcover, 29 x 6.3 x 39.5 cm, versions available in English, German and French
175,- Euro

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