NooneOfConsequence wrote on Sep 8
th, 2020 at 5:08am:
Mickey Mouse. Nobody dislikes Mickey.
I have to disagree.
I (or someone else) could write an entire book series exploring this topic but a single post on slinging.org will have to do.
The baseline is that Disney comic magazines are HUGE everywhere in Western Europe. Such magazines contain numerous different comics and are produced both in A4 format of 30-40 pages like American comics and A5 format of 80-100 pages like Japanese manga, and sold at gas stations and kiosks so everyone have been exposed to them at least a little. The height of Disney magazines, at least around here, both quality- and quantitywise were in the 90s and early 2000s.
Many different artists from European countries contribute. Local publishes then create their own localized magazines while using the comics foreign artists produce. Italy is the main producer of especially the A5 comics. However, the reason to why Disney comics are popular here in the first place is mainly because of just two American artists: Carl Barks and Don Rosa.
Starting with Barks it would only be SLIGHT hyperbole to say that Carl Barks is revered in Europe as a god. That is because:
1. When Disney comics began publishing in Europe his comics were licensed by many European publishers
2. Disney magazines mostly began publishing after WW2 and were among the first regular comic magazines to do so, meaning that everyone older than 20 have read them at least a little with the older generation having been showered in them since childhood
3. Carl Barks is awesome. He created the modern image of Donald Duck and completely revolutionized the character and brought the Donald Duck universe to its modern form.
The importance of Bark's work to Donald is tantamount to the creation of Donald Duck himself, I would argue, and if he had created his stories with another character that would probably have worked as well.
And now, to finally mention Mickey Mouse then the first thing to say is that he is not as popular as Donald Duck in Europe. Another point to mention is that there is a North/South divide on how popular Mickey is in relation to Donald. In the Mediterranean area Mickey is far more popular (maybe even more so than the duck) and many magazines bear his name. A pizza covered with french fries in Italy is called an Americana or Topolini (Italian for Mickey Mouse).
In the North, Donald Duck is undisputed king and Disney magazines are literally called "Donald Duck magazines". Stories featuring Mickey are rare and he appears at most once every one issue. In fact, he might very well be called disliked or even despised as he doesn't resonate among people used to Donald Duck (me being in that camp).
IN FACT, there are clubs in all the Nordic countries, and some other, named "Donaldist" unions that basically discuss comics featuring Donald Duck. I saw one of their yearly made-for-the-club illustrations depicting their members outright threatening Mickey Mouse.
In total, Duck over Mouse as the popularity of Donald in Southern Europe is not nearly as unbalanced as it is in North Europe.
Barks definitely have had a thing to say in this situation as he only produced a single Mouse comic during his decades long career. I am not sure why Italy likes Mickey Mouse so much but they had Mickey Mouse comics since the 30's.
The second Donald Duck artist to have an enormous impact on the character would be Don Rosa. He is unlike very few Disney artists before or after him (I can think of maybe 3 or 4 other) as he created long running stories that needed several magazine issues to be completed and often tied into one another (the main form of Disney comics are one shots or 2-4 issue long stories that aren't part of a greater universe). His stories were very mature and often featured carefully researched historically and scientifically accurate settings. His Disney career is basically a love letter to Carl Barks and many of Rosa's comics expanded on or continued on Barks stories that Barks himself had always intended to be nothing more than one-shots. Rosa neatly made sure that each and every of the more adventurous Bark stories fitted into a larger universe which again was in accordance with real historic events.
His magnus opus, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, tells the entire story of how Scrooge McDuck went from being a poor boy in Glasgow to become the richest duck in the universe and then meeting Donald Duck and his nephews. Barks had already painted the broad strokes of his life but only in passing, like how Kenobi mentioned the clone wars. Then came Rosa around and made what is the (or among, as some would say) the best comic ever created, anywhere.
Another of his Disney comics was specially made for Finland as the popularity of Donald Duck is at the VERY top there.
I mean
THE.
VERY.
TOP.
Even in other Nordic countries Donald Duck is not as popular. Its insane.
Any ways, this particular comic managed to tie the childhood of Scrooge McDuck into not only Finnish mythology but also historical Finnish persons and famous Finnish paintings in a respectful and historically accurate manner. So all in all, Rosa is awesome.
The whole Rosa/Barks/Europe/USA situation is very odd actually. Rosa was often told by American publishers to tone down his homages to Barks as the American audience was not very familiar with his stories.
Rosa also had a disdain for Mickey Mouse and just one of his many trademarks was to portray Mickey Mouse in humiliating manners either as squashed under the foot of an elephant or as hunting game (he never made a comic actually featuring him).
Also in spirit of what I wrote above my contender for this thread's topic would be Donald Duck.