Disney Comics, Where are they Popular?

Throughout our class and dealing with many Disney stories and aspects of the corporation, I kept having to think back to what I used to read as a child, one thing that always had me filled with anticipation as a child growing up in Germany was the magazine “Mickey Mouse,” this was a fun filled little magazine that came out every week and included a few stories with popular characters like Mickey mouse, Pluto and Donald duck, but also had a little explorer section and came with a little toy every week, sometimes relying on a few previous issues to complete a more complex toy. There was also a comic book that came out every month or so, with about a hundred pages of fresh Mickey Mouse and related character material. 

While these were things I grew up with, I never really saw ether of these here in the US. Now that we have dealt with Disney so much throughout our course, and the many influences it has on American society, it left me curious as to how Disney represents its self differently in other countries. Through doing some research on the topic and wanting to find out who is responsible for the comics and magazines I had as a child in Europe I found a few publishers and media companies that are independent from the Disney we know in the US, and are primarily working to publish material In certain European countries. The Danish publisher “Egmont” is responsible for one of the largest Disney comic productions in the world. This company publishes magazines every week in many Nordic Countries, and exports much of its material to other countries as well. These independent publications first started appearing during the 1960’s, and clearly shows how Scandinavian countries actually much prefer Donald Duck over Mickey Mouse, with many tales centering around Donald as protagonist, and Mickey only making an appearance once in a while. In Germany, Mickey Mouse has been popular since the 1920’s, and although during WWII and while the Nazi government was in charge there were no comic books being published, after WWII this changed. Now a subsidiary company of the Danish publisher Egmont started producing the magazine I mentioned, Mickey Mouse. This magazine is still published today and is thus Germany’s longest running comic magazine. Ironically, although the magazine is called Mickey Mouse, it follows the same format of Danish magazines, as Like in Scandinavian countries, Donald Duck Is much more popular than Mickey Mouse in Germany, and most stories are based around his adventures. 

In Conclusion, it is interesting to see how comic magazines and books based on Disney characters managed to flourish and become so popular in Europe, while the Nazi government imposed a great handicap to the German comic industry, it still did not keep Mickey Mouse from becoming Germany’s longest lasting comic publication.