Bootleg Indonesian Donald Duck Comic

[bubbles]

Hey my buddy recently gave me this bootleg Indonesian Donald Duck comic. It's 48 pages. No year on it, but I was curious if anyone knew anything about it? The cover looks traced, is there a cover it's based on? 

[RobbK1]

Jun 24, 2023 17:41:09 GMT bubbles said:

Hey my buddy recently gave me this bootleg Indonesian Donald Duck comic. It's 48 pages. No year on it, but I was curious if anyone knew anything about it? The cover looks traced, is there a cover it's based on? 

I can't recall any cover with that same layout.  But Donald's pose was certainly copied and perhaps traced, over an enlargement of a panel from a Barks story.  He used that pose for Donald walking away, completely defeated and demoralised, probably after having his dreams ruined by Gladstone's luck, or defeated in an attempt to achieve something worthwhile.  I seem to remember him using that pose in "A Christmas for Shacktown".  I hope Arie Fachrisal will see this, and comment on whether or not he's seen it, who might have made it, and give us an English translation of the dialogue shown on these few pages.

[RobbK1]

Jun 24, 2023 17:41:09 GMT bubbles said:

Hey my buddy recently gave me this bootleg Indonesian Donald Duck comic. It's 48 pages. No year on it, but I was curious if anyone knew anything about it? The cover looks traced, is there a cover it's based on? 

I haven't seen that cover theme used before.  But Donald's pose looks like it was traced over an enlargement of a Barks panel.  The dejected Donald looks like a pose from "A Christmas For Shacktown".

I attempted to translate the panels shown, and the story appears to me as fairly boring, as most attempts by child fans would be, when compared to stories written and drawn professionally. I believe I was fairly successful, other than on the last panel (5B).  

here is what I discerned:

Note: This comic's panels are arranged to be read downward (vertical), rather than the normal horizontal direction.

Front Cover:  Children's Stories "The Clever One"

Panel 1:  "Presenting The Clever (One (understood))!

Panel 2A: "Hey, Guys! Let's go mountain climbing!"    

Panel 2B: "And what a mountain!  There are a LOT of mountains there!"

Panel 3A:  "You know..... Next to that mountain there is a very beautiful and interesting lake!"

Panel 3B:  "Oh! ..... That's right!"

Panel 4A:  "I'll have to go home first.  I haven't yet asked permission to go there.

Panel 4B:  "Well, that's IT! ..... Children who are diligent and obedient to their parents will grow up to become role models."

Panel 5A:  "Hey! I've heard stories of a mother who gives birth to a child when The Sun sets, and she gets nervous when she goes to the forest and gets threatened by wild animals."

Panel 5B:  "Even though Meta(not translated-taken as a proper name) used to be born right at sunset.  Oh! That could hurt!" 

I had trouble seeing clearly, and thus, making out some of the letters in this last dialogue balloon.  So, I'm sure my translation for that balloon is incorrect.  "neta" was also taken as a proper name.  So, apparently, there is no "meta" and no "neta" in The Indonesian language.

48 pages sounds impressive.  But the artist is not competent enough to show decent action, so I'd guess it's a lot of pages of talking heads.  Still and all, I'd be curious to read the entire book.  I can't believe it was a commercial "bootleg" like the Mickey Mouse underground bootlegs.  I think it was just a young hobbyist putting together a One-of-A-Kind, single copy of his attempt at writing and illustrating a Donald Duck comic book.

   

[Mesterius]

The cover drawing actually makes me think of Vicar more than anything else.

[RobbK1]

Jun 26, 2023 9:35:45 GMT Mesterius said:

The cover drawing actually makes me think of Vicar more than anything else.

Yes.  Vicar loved to draw Donald demoralised and hopeless.  Of course HIS poses were based on what he remembered Barks had drawn.

[Mesterius]

Jun 27, 2023 7:44:02 GMT RobbK1 said:

Jun 26, 2023 9:35:45 GMT Mesterius said:

The cover drawing actually makes me think of Vicar more than anything else.

Yes.  Vicar loved to draw Donald demoralised and hopeless.  Of course HIS poses were based on what he remembered Barks had drawn.

Of course, Vicar was very Barks-inspired. But there's something about the specific pose and facial expression here that really makes me feel this may have been ripped off from a Vicar panel.

[bats]

Yeah, that pose rings a lot of bells for me too, but I can't quite place exactly where it's from. But it's definitely traced.

[bubbles]

Thanks so much for the responses. RobbK1 your translation is awesome. I've messaged you, maybe we can get the whole thing done.

Here's the backcover of the "Komik" (love this logo). Makes me think it was a properly sold bootleg.

[sim]

Jun 29, 2023 12:58:16 GMT bubbles said:

Thanks so much for the responses. RobbK1 your translation is awesome. I've messaged you, maybe we can get the whole thing done.

Here's the backcover of the "Komik" (love this logo). Makes me think it was a properly sold bootleg.

Logo is fun indeed. I googled the other titles and only found a result for the 10th. It also seems cheap to get it, but apparently it only sells in Asian countries (I couldn't even sign up on the site).




The character design is waaaaay off and this has 4 panels per page instead of 2. I wonder if they had a proper license or if it was a bootleg indeed (even though I find it pretty odd that they could publish an entire series of it).

[bubbles]

Oh nice! I didn't think to do that.

My friend has another strange duck bootleg where they look more human haha, I'll return some photos soon.

[That Duckfan]

There's an underground vibe to these stories. I'm guessing this was the product of a small group of fans. Disney comics were first published in Indonesia under Dutch colonial rule, with local publications starting in 1976. Indonesia was US-aligned during the Cold War, so I'm guessing Disney comics were never verboten, despite the long-time authoritarian rule.

The business printed on the back cover is a stationary shop, based in the Surabaya Kota train station building. They still exist, so Google tells me.

[RobbK1]

Jun 29, 2023 12:58:16 GMT bubbles said:

Thanks so much for the responses. RobbK1 your translation is awesome. I've messaged you, maybe we can get the whole thing done.

Here's the backcover of the "Komik" (love this logo). Makes me think it was a properly sold bootleg.

It was a very limited run of each book in this "bootleg" series.  It is printed on top of the series issue titles:  "In Limted Stock.  It says at the bottom, in red:  These books can be bought at The Pelita Book Store, in The Semut Indah Complex (marketplace) Blocks 7&8, in Surabaya (Surabaja).  So, this book store printed up their own comic books to sell at their own book stall in a marketplace.  How quaint!    The other titles in this "Children's tales" series, lead me to believe they are mainly fairy tales and mostly star Southeast Asian characters, rather than Donald and his nephews, and the Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Morty and Ferdie book shown above ("The Mouse Princess (Minnie) Has a Worrisome Night").  

[RobbK1]

Jun 30, 2023 10:57:03 GMT sim said:

Jun 29, 2023 12:58:16 GMT bubbles said:

Thanks so much for the responses. RobbK1 your translation is awesome. I've messaged you, maybe we can get the whole thing done.

Here's the backcover of the "Komik" (love this logo). Makes me think it was a properly sold bootleg.

Logo is fun indeed. I googled the other titles and only found a result for the 10th. It also seems cheap to get it, but apparently it only sells in Asian countries (I couldn't even sign up on the site).




The character design is waaaaay off and this has 4 panels per page instead of 2. I wonder if they had a proper license or if it was a bootleg indeed (even though I find it pretty odd that they could publish an entire series of it).

Goofy smoking a cigar on the cover!  Interesting.  There is no price on the cover.  The so-called book "store" has no website, or other address than that one marketplace.  Other than buying it off individuals or collector comic book dealers online, you would need to go to that marketplace in Surabaya and haggle with the stall owner over the price.  For Western "White Devils", the cost would likely be 100 times what a local would pay!    Maybe they printed 50 or 100 of each book?  It's no wonder that you can't find them.  I'd guess they were made BEFORE "Donal Bebek" started their Disney franchise in Indonesia.  I think Dutch "Donald Duck Weekblad" was sold in Indonesia from the 1950s through the early 1970s, for Dutch expatriots and children of the wealthy upper class Indonesians, who also spoke and read Dutch.  But, since most of The Dutch had left by 1946 or 1947, and the comic only first started in 1952, it must have been quite rare in Indonesia during its run there.  Indonesian children stopped learning Dutch, probably in the 1950s.  So this was a very, very rare book.  Arie Fachrisal could probably tell us more about this series.  I hope he sees this thread.