Collecting Disney comics in different languages

[cheechako]

Part of the joy of collecting Disney comics for me is to collect items in different languages. What about you? In what languages do you own Disney comics?

As for myself, I now have Disney comics in Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, English (American and British), Frisian, Dutch (Netherlands and Belgium), German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Italian, Polish, Czech, Greek, Arab, Chinese (traditional and simplified) and Indonesian.

Apart from that, I have comics (mostly Asterix, which has been translated in a bewildering variety of languages and dialects) in Scottish Gaelic, Limburgs, Bavarian, Picard, Arpitan, Catalan, Latin, Classical Greek and Hebrew.

What I would most like to add to my collection now are Afrikaans and Low German, both of which are pretty close to Dutch (I'm Dutch myself, so I should be able to read them to some extent).

[Matilda]

I don’t intentionally collect comics from different countries other than to read them—so mostly I have comics in English, French, Dutch and German. A much smaller number of issues or collections in Italian, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish. Maybe one in Spanish from Mexico.

However! I do have a broadly representative collection of trading cards of characters from the Duck comics. (Trading cards being less expensive than comics to get from overseas, and taking up far less space!) I have Duckworld character cards made in or marketed to the following 14 countries: Australia, USA, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Brazil, Argentina, and Japan. Plus Chinese-made phone cards picturing covers of the Finnish Aku Ankka! Not too shabby, given the fact that there are doubtless a bunch of countries which have had their own Disney Duck comics but never had their own trading cards.

[hex]

I used to collect Disney comics from different countries (guess I still am, but not actively), and have comics from somewhere between 40 and 50 different ones. But a fun sub-collection is to get different languages or scripts within those counties too.

Some of the rare ones I got include Nynorsk (New Norwegian), Lule Sami, Northern Sami and Southern Sami, all published in Norway - and comics in Faroese from Faroe Islands.

On my long list of Disney comics to get are:

The German "Disney Mundart" series (in different dialects)

The German "Lustiges Taschenbuch Mundart" (in different dialects)

Different editions of the Indian "Adventures of Donald Duck", that exists in Assamese, Bengali, English, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil.

[RobbK1]

Sept 20, 2022 18:44:46 GMT cheechako said:

Part of the joy of collecting Disney comics for me is to collect items in different languages. What about you? In what languages do you own Disney comics?

As for myself, I now have Disney comics in Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, English (American and British), Frisian, Dutch (Netherlands and Belgium), German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Italian, Polish, Czech, Greek, Arab, Chinese (traditional and simplified) and Indonesian.

Apart from that, I have comics (mostly Asterix, which has been translated in a bewildering variety of languages and dialects) in (1) Scottish Gaelic, (2) Limburgs, (3) Bavarian, Picard, Arpitan, (4) Catalan, Latin, Classical Greek and Hebrew.

What I would most like to add to my collection now are (5) Afrikaans and (6) Low German, both of which are pretty close to Dutch (I'm Dutch myself, so I should be able to read them to some extent).

Hi Cheechako,
With a name like yours one would guess you would also have some comics in one of the Inuit dialects (maybe Greenlandic?  I wouldn't have been surprised to find that Egmont published something in that language.)

I have collected Dutch, Canadian , and US Disney Comics since the beginning of the 1950s, but also inherited from my older cousins, Canadian and US issues covering all of the 1940s as well, plus 20 or so British Egmont English comics from the 1990s.  So, English and Dutch are covered in the multiple thousands.  And among my Dutch issues, I also have West Frisian and Limburgs covered, plus a few handsful of Belgian Dutch (but it is standard Dutch rather than a Flemish or Brabants dialect) from the early '50s and 1990s. I also have a Hamburgse Plattdeutsch Donald Duck album. I have collected Danish Disney Comics since the 1960s, and got a subscription to Anders And and A.A. Extra during the late '80s and '90s (when I resided there part year) so, I have several hundred, probably approaching a thousand, in Danish.  I also have a few hundreds of German Disney Comics, and share a set of Ehapa's Carl Barks Collection, from living there part year for over 35 years.  I also have over 100 Swedish, Norwegian, and Italian.  The rest are mostly issues containing my own stories: about 50 French, about 40 Finnish(Suomi) and 3 Sami, 40 Brazilian Portuguese, 20 Indonesian, 5 Greek, and handful of Spanish (from Spain and Mexico), and without my own stories, about 10 Arabic (from Egypt - found in a book shop in Den Haag!), and in all the rest one or two issues with my stories from: Iceland (Icelandic), Lithuanian, Lettish, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Hindi, Gujrati, Bengali, Indian (English printing), Romanian, Serbian, Croatian, Hebrew(Israel), Turkish. 

I also have one Chinese comic, but not Disney.  I would like to get a Disney comic in Afrikaans.  I didn't know that any exists, as The Dutch publishers have always distributed their own series to South Africa. I would also like to get one in the Zuid Brabants dialect of Dutch (in Belgium), as my family came from there (Antwerpen) before coming to Den Haag, and also the Flemish dialect of Flanders. I would also like to get Disney Comics in Catalan, Provençal, Lowland Scots-Northumbrian, Gaelic(Scots), Bayrish(Bavarian), (Viennese), Angaelsk-NordFries, and Faeroese(existing Egmont album). I haven't heard that any Disney Comics exist in the other languages/dialects I just mentioned in this paragraph as wanting to obtain.

(5)(6) And yes, Cheechako, you would certainly be able to understand and read enjoyably any comic book in any dialect of Plattduits, Westfries, Nordfries, Oostfries (Saterland Fries), Afrikaans, and probably Lowland Scots-Northumbrian, too.

The Plattduits (Plattdeuts) album I have is titled: "Mid Käpten Donald op hoge See" "(Donald Snackt Platt)".  It was published in 2002, by Ehapa Verlag ISBN 3-7704-0646-X.  

It is not as easy to understand as Emslander Platt or Bremer Platt, but, being fluent in Dutch and English, and being at least semi-fluent in Deutsch, you should be able to read and enjoy the Hamburgse Platt, without trouble. It was Book 3 of a series of albums published in German dialects. I'm pretty sure that Bayrish was one of the others.  I think Frankish from The Frankfurt-am-Main area was the third (but I'm not certain).  But, I have not seen Books 1 or 2.  It was a plan of The Mundart Programme, to publish one book for each of the 10 most important dialects in Germany.  But, I believe it was cancelled after only three, because of low sales figures.  Good luck finding it!

The Limburgse book I have is an alternate issue of "De Beste Verhalen van Donald Duck" Deel 7

Titled:  "De Beste Verhaole Oet 't Waekblad". "Donald Duck es Kampeerder" deel 7

It was a reprint by VNU in 1999.   ISBN 90-5428-6563

It is very funny to read!  Do you already have this one?

[cheechako]

I don't know of any Disney comics in Inuit, but if they do exist, that would certainly be interesting to own. It would be the first Disney comic in a polysynthetic language. The name "Cheechako" comes from the time when I was trying to learn a bit of Chinook Jargon, by the way. But alas, no Disney comics in that language either 

 I haven't been able to find a copy of "Mit Käpten Donald op hoge See" yet. However, the "Lustiges Taschenbuch Mundart" series that hex mentions looks promising. With some luck, a Plattdeutsch Taschenbuch might be published in that series too. "Donald Duck es Kampeerder", on the other hand, is easily available, so I'll surely add that one to my collection.

As for Disney comics in Afrikaans, Inducks mentions a few pages occurring in Afrikaans-language newspapers/magazines, and a few translations of Dell One Shots during the fifties: inducks.org/language.php?c=af&mode=1 . So they'll probably be hard to find, but still, they do exist.

[hex]

Sept 22, 2022 18:04:00 GMT cheechako said:

As for Disney comics in Afrikaans, Inducks mentions a few pages occurring in Afrikaans-language newspapers/magazines, and a few translations of Dell One Shots during the fifties: inducks.org/language.php?c=af&mode=1 . So they'll probably be hard to find, but still, they do exist.

According to this blog post and also listed in GCD, at least one more Disney comic in Afrikaans from Sebra Uitgawe/Zebra Publications exist. Looks like a reprint of WDC #113 and would probably be more fun to have in a collection than the two listed in the inducks database.

[RobbK1]

Sept 22, 2022 18:04:00 GMT cheechako said:

I don't know of any Disney comics in Inuit, but if they do exist, that would certainly be interesting to own. It would be the first Disney comic in a polysynthetic language. The name "Cheechako" comes from the time when I was trying to learn a bit of Chinook Jargon, by the way. But alas, no Disney comics in that language either 

 I haven't been able to find a copy of "Mit Käpten Donald op hoge See" yet. However, the "Lustiges Taschenbuch Mundart" series that hex mentions looks promising. With some luck, a Plattdeutsch Taschenbuch might be published in that series too. "Donald Duck es Kampeerder", on the other hand, is easily available, so I'll surely add that one to my collection.

As for Disney comics in Afrikaans, Inducks mentions a few pages occurring in Afrikaans-language newspapers/magazines, and a few translations of Dell One Shots during the fifties: inducks.org/language.php?c=af&mode=1 . So they'll probably be hard to find, but still, they do exist.

Please let me know if you discover that a new Plattdeutsch Taschenbuch has been published, so I can get a copy.  Do so, also, if you come upon one of the Afrikaans 1950 Dell story translations.  I'd like to get scans of those, but not pay collectors' prices for the 1950s original book.  As for an Inuit book, I wouldn't be half-surprised if Egmont printed a special book in Grønlandic, as they, produced several Sami issues of Aku Ankka (and maybe one for Kalle Anka?), as well as an album in Færoese, and I think they have printed special issues in one or two Norwegian dialects. I might expect Danish Egmont to publish a special issue in Jysk, or Bornholmsk.

[cheechako]

Sept 22, 2022 21:14:26 GMT hex said:

According to this blog post and also listed in GCD, at least one more Disney comic in Afrikaans from Sebra Uitgawe/Zebra Publications exist. Looks like a reprint of WDC #113 and would probably be more fun to have in a collection than the two listed in the inducks database.

Thanks! Didn't know about that one, but it's high on my wish list now. 

@RobbK1 said:

Please let me know if you discover that a new Plattdeutsch Taschenbuch has been published, so I can get a copy. Do so, also, if you come upon one of the Afrikaans 1950 Dell story translations.

I will!

[RobbK1]

Sept 22, 2022 21:14:26 GMT hex said:

Sept 22, 2022 18:04:00 GMT cheechako said:

As for Disney comics in Afrikaans, Inducks mentions a few pages occurring in Afrikaans-language newspapers/magazines, and a few translations of Dell One Shots during the fifties: inducks.org/language.php?c=af&mode=1 . So they'll probably be hard to find, but still, they do exist.

According to this blog post and also listed in GCD, at least one more Disney comic in Afrikaans from Sebra Uitgawe/Zebra Publications exist. Looks like a reprint of WDC #113 and would probably be more fun to have in a collection than the two listed in the inducks database.

Unlike the translations of "The Seven Dwarfs" and "Pinocchio", which certainly must contain the the exact same stories that the original US "Four Color Series" issues had, I believe that Sebra South African issue is NOT guaranteed to have the exact same stories from the exact same US issue of "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" that used that particular front cover.  ALL foreign (e.g. non-US) franchises, worldwide, started reprinting US Disney Comics material later than its US original, and from their very first receipt of US comics stories and pages, received a backlog (stash) that would sustain them over a long period, parceling them out into their future monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly issues.  So, most, if not all, of the foreign franchisees kept their stories in one compartment of their printing masters cupboard, and comic book front cover masters kept in another, when it came to books that didn't have cover drawings with a special story tied to them.  Therefore most foreign Disney franchisees had many if not most of their original US "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" front covers NOT used with the same book inside stories and other pages.  Another factor that determined that was that the number of pages in the foreign comic books were almost never the same as were contained in the earlier, original US books. based on how The Dutch, Belgian, Brazilian, and Egmont reprints of stories from US books were handled, I think there is a LOT more likelihood that that Sebra South Afrikan issue did NOT have the same contents as WDC&S # 116.  In fact, I would guess that it likely had NONE of the stories that were in the US book that used that front cover.

[Pim]

Sept 25, 2022 16:57:56 GMT RobbK1 said:

Sept 22, 2022 21:14:26 GMT hex said:

According to this blog post and also listed in GCD, at least one more Disney comic in Afrikaans from Sebra Uitgawe/Zebra Publications exist. Looks like a reprint of WDC #113 and would probably be more fun to have in a collection than the two listed in the inducks database.

Unlike the translations of "The Seven Dwarfs" and "Pinocchio", which certainly must contain the the exact same stories that the original US "Four Color Series" issues had, I believe that Sebra South African issue is NOT guaranteed to have the exact same stories from the exact same US issue of "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" that used that particular front cover.  ALL foreign (e.g. non-US) franchises, worldwide, started reprinting US Disney Comics material later than its US original, and from their very first receipt of US comics stories and pages, received a backlog (stash) that would sustain them over a long period, parceling them out into their future monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly issues.  So, most, if not all, of the foreign franchisees kept their stories in one compartment of their printing masters cupboard, and comic book front cover masters kept in another, when it came to books that didn't have cover drawings with a special story tied to them.  Therefore most foreign Disney franchisees had many if not most of their original US "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" front covers NOT used with the same book inside stories and other pages.  Another factor that determined that was that the number of pages in the foreign comic books were almost never the same as were contained in the earlier, original US books. based on how The Dutch, Belgian, Brazilian, and Egmont reprints of stories from US books were handled, I think there is a LOT more likelihood that that Sebra South Afrikan issue did NOT have the same contents as WDC&S # 116.  In fact, I would guess that it likely had NONE of the stories that were in the US book that used that front cover.

Quite some issues in the Mexian Cuentos de Walt Disney series are either reprinting exactly an comic book, or a subset (in any order) of a single book. For example, issue 65 reprints Donald Duck 31 exactly, issue 98 reprints One Shot 586 exactly, issue 231 reprints Chip 'N' Dale (Dell) 20, with text stories replaced by a gag and issue 290 reprints a portion of Ludwig Von Drake 1. Walt Disney's Comic and Stories's were also reprinted: issue 87 reprints issue 186, except for some gags.

[RobbK1]

Sept 25, 2022 19:04:03 GMT Pim said:

Sept 25, 2022 16:57:56 GMT RobbK1 said:

Unlike the translations of "The Seven Dwarfs" and "Pinocchio", which certainly must contain the the exact same stories that the original US "Four Color Series" issues had, I believe that Sebra South African issue is NOT guaranteed to have the exact same stories from the exact same US issue of "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" that used that particular front cover.  ALL foreign (e.g. non-US) franchises, worldwide, started reprinting US Disney Comics material later than its US original, and from their very first receipt of US comics stories and pages, received a backlog (stash) that would sustain them over a long period, parceling them out into their future monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly issues.  So, most, if not all, of the foreign franchisees kept their stories in one compartment of their printing masters cupboard, and comic book front cover masters kept in another, when it came to books that didn't have cover drawings with a special story tied to them.  Therefore most foreign Disney franchisees had many if not most of their original US "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" front covers NOT used with the same book inside stories and other pages.  Another factor that determined that was that the number of pages in the foreign comic books were almost never the same as were contained in the earlier, original US books. based on how The Dutch, Belgian, Brazilian, and Egmont reprints of stories from US books were handled, I think there is a LOT more likelihood that that Sebra South Afrikan issue did NOT have the same contents as WDC&S # 116.  In fact, I would guess that it likely had NONE of the stories that were in the US book that used that front cover.

Quite some issues in the Mexian Cuentos de Walt Disney series are either reprinting exactly an comic book, or a subset (in any order) of a single book. For example, issue 65 reprints Donald Duck 31 exactly, issue 98 reprints One Shot 586 exactly, issue 231 reprints Chip 'N' Dale (Dell) 20, with text stories replaced by a gag and issue 290 reprints a portion of Ludwig Von Drake 1. Walt Disney's Comic and Stories's were also reprinted: issue 87 reprints issue 186, except for some gags.

Yes, but "Cuentos de Walt Disney' is a Classics reprint series.  Those are handled differently from current marketed series.  They are sold mainly to nostalgists and collectors, who are more likely to want to see what the original book was like.  The three South African translations of 1955 current English-language releases by The South African Disney Comics franchisee, were likely marketing TESTS to see how much interest from the Afrikaans-speaking potential market there would be in purchasing books regularly from a monthly Afrikaans series printed and distributed along with the English series (which means the very same current books that were issued currently, for the English-speaking market.  I suspect that, just like The Dutch publisher, the South African publisher was issuing US stories mostly from 1953 and 1954 in 1955, rather than WDC stories from 1950, but using cover drawings from all throughout their 1940s-early/mid 1950s, based on choosing the covers they liked best first, to build up interest in their relatively young history.

[Pim]

Sept 25, 2022 21:10:38 GMT RobbK1 said:

Sept 25, 2022 19:04:03 GMT Pim said:

Quite some issues in the Mexian Cuentos de Walt Disney series are either reprinting exactly an comic book, or a subset (in any order) of a single book. For example, issue 65 reprints Donald Duck 31 exactly, issue 98 reprints One Shot 586 exactly, issue 231 reprints Chip 'N' Dale (Dell) 20, with text stories replaced by a gag and issue 290 reprints a portion of Ludwig Von Drake 1. Walt Disney's Comic and Stories's were also reprinted: issue 87 reprints issue 186, except for some gags.

Yes, but "Cuentos de Walt Disney' is a Classics reprint series.  Those are handled differently from current marketed series.  They are sold mainly to nostalgists and collectors, who are more likely to want to see what the original book was like.  The three South African translations of 1955 current English-language releases by The South African Disney Comics franchisee, were likely marketing TESTS to see how much interest from the Afrikaans-speaking potential market there would be in purchasing books regularly from a monthly Afrikaans series printed and distributed along with the English series (which means the very same current books that were issued currently, for the English-speaking market.  I suspect that, just like The Dutch publisher, the South African publisher was issuing US stories mostly from 1953 and 1954 in 1955, rather than WDC stories from 1950, but using cover drawings from all throughout their 1940s-early/mid 1950s, based on choosing the covers they liked best first, to build up interest in their relatively young history.

I doubt if nostalgists would buy a comic in 1954 with stories first published in 1953 (as is the case for issue 65, for example), though I'm not sure what Serie Avestruz, Serie Clásica, Serie Águila and Serie Colibrí actually stand for.

I refrain myself from speculating about the content of those comic in the South African language; my comment was mostly targeted to you talking about foreign publishers not reprinting American Disney comic books in their somehow original format.

[RobbK1]

Sept 25, 2022 22:00:40 GMT Pim said:

Sept 25, 2022 21:10:38 GMT RobbK1 said:

Yes, but "Cuentos de Walt Disney' is a Classics reprint series.  Those are handled differently from current marketed series.  They are sold mainly to nostalgists and collectors, who are more likely to want to see what the original book was like.  The three South African translations of 1955 current English-language releases by The South African Disney Comics franchisee, were likely marketing TESTS to see how much interest from the Afrikaans-speaking potential market there would be in purchasing books regularly from a monthly Afrikaans series printed and distributed along with the English series (which means the very same current books that were issued currently, for the English-speaking market.  I suspect that, just like The Dutch publisher, the South African publisher was issuing US stories mostly from 1953 and 1954 in 1955, rather than WDC stories from 1950, but using cover drawings from all throughout their 1940s-early/mid 1950s, based on choosing the covers they liked best first, to build up interest in their relatively young history.

I doubt if nostalgists would buy a comic in 1954 with stories first published in 1953 (as is the case for issue 65, for example), though I'm not sure what Serie Avestruz, Serie Clásica, Serie Águila and Serie Colibrí actually stand for.

I refrain myself from speculating about the content of those comic in the South African language; my comment was mostly targeted to you talking about foreign publishers not reprinting American Disney comic books in their somehow original format.

I NEVER stated such a comment!  My point was that the people interested in getting copies of the 3 Sebra Afrikaans 1955 comic books should not be so sure that the Sebra book that has the front cover using the Walt Kelly drawing that was used on Walt Disney's Comics & Stories #113 will contain all the stories and pages that WDC&S 113 contained.  I admitted that the other two (7 Dwarfs and Pinocchio) WERE LIKELY to have contained the stories that were contained in those US Four Color Series books.  And like Dutch and German Disney, and the Scandinavian Disney franchises did during their early years of operation (the early 1950s), the South African publisher would probably do the same with its most regular series, which is mix covers and content from the big batches of US back-issue artwork (UNLESS the cover art matched a story contained inside the book).  In the Donald Duck weeklies, the stories in 1955 were mainly US stories from 2 or3 years before, and the covers were coming from the late 1940s through to 2 to 3 years before, seemingly used randomly, mixed with newly produced cover drawings from The Dutch artist staff (some of which were drawn to match a story inside the book).  The special issue books often contained the Carl Barks-drawn cover that he had on the Carl Barks-drawn story that was contained inside the US book that had that cover.  But the regular weekly at that time, contained random US stories of the main characters features from 2-3 years before.  The same was true for The Scandinavian and German weekly magazines.  So, I'm guessing that The South African franchisee would do the same.  I am not speaking for ALL the Disney Comics franchise publishers all over The World.

I wrote that the regular monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly showcase comic book like Dutch "Donald Duck Weekblad", or Danish "Anders And & Co.", or Swedish "Kalle Anka & Co.", all of which contained less pages in 1955 (the early days of their franchise operation) than "Walt Disney's Comics & Stories" did in 1950, when #113 was issued (52 pages); and so, they would NOT likely be an exact replicas of that book in a 1955 test marketing book for deciding whether or not to issue their English language series also in Afrikaans.  1955 was way too early for the fairly new South African franchise to just offer books in Afrikaans language as a "fun novelty".  Afrikaans was the second national language of that country, and it seems to me that this was a test marketing to see if it could be profitable to also issue their main, showcase series, and special extra books in their other main national language.  

And IF a publisher were especially choosing only 3 Disney comic books to translate as a treat for their young Disney Comic Book-starved Afrikaans-speaking children, why would they choose a WDC&S book with NO Barks story from the only remotely recent year that that series had no Barks stories???  That makes no sense. 

The Pinocchio and 7 Dwarfs US Four Color books both contained 36 pages, as did their Sebra South African  "exact reprints", just as they were advertised in South Africa.  However, The "Walt Disney Strokiesverhale" (Comics Stories) states right on its front cover that it contains 32 pages (not counting the 4 cover sides (pages).  The US WDC # 113 contained 52 pages.  So, it CAN'T POSSIBLY be a translated EXACT COPY of ANY previous Disney comic.  So, my suspicions were correct.  I would bet you that it contains a Carl Barks 10 page story from probably a couple years before 1955, and probably a L'il Bad Wolf story from the same period, and, maybe a self-contained Mickey Mouse story, OR the first episode of a Mickey serialised story, as the front cover shows a number Deel 1, Number 1 (Volume 1, Number 1).  So, my suspicions that this, and the 2 "special Disney books were test marketing, to see if it could be profitable to publish Disney Comics to South Africa's Afrikaans population.  I find it interesting that, at that time, there was no English Disney Comics franchise operating in that country, and they only have 2 very short (1-2 years) failed series listed for South Africa after 1970.