Libros: Walt Disney's Donald Duck

Walt Disney's Donald Duck

The Ultimate History

David Gerstein, J. B. Kaufman

Taschen

564 págs. 

A Duck’s Life. The legacy of Walt Disney’s Donald Duck

Nothing succeeds like success, as the saying goes, but in the case of Donald Duck the opposite is true: the candor with which Donald reveals his weaknesses wins our hearts and stays with us forever.

Revisit Donald’s life’s work from nine decades in one of the most expansive illustrated publications on the Disney universe. Following TASCHEN’s Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History, we witness the career of Mickey’s only rival for the throne as Disney’s most popular creation. From his debut in the Silly Symphony short film The Wise Little Hen on June 9, 1934, the authors trace Donald’s more than 170 cartoons, groundbreaking adventures in comics and TV, and theme park appearances. As a special treat to his fans, they also dive deep into the vaults to tell the story of his unfinished film projects.

With unprecedented access to Disney’s vast historical archives and collections as well as public and private collections, the authors illuminate Donald’s life story with rare concept art, story sketches, background paintings, animation, and comic drawings as well as historical photographs. We encounter the work of all major Donald artists in both film and comics who defined his character, including a vast tribute to the “Duck Man” himself, master storyteller Carl Barks, alongside unseen early storyboard drawings.

In the history of comics, Donald Duck is the most frequently printed figure outside the superhero genre, and has appeared on screen more often than any other Disney character. Since the 1950s, Duckburg has expanded into a truly global village, with American artists being joined by a new generation of international colleagues.

As Carl Barks once said of Donald: “He is everything, he is everybody; he makes the same mistakes that we all make.” He may often be unlucky, but this is precisely why everybody can relate to the world’s most famous and best loved Duck, fittingly celebrated with this monumental tribute.

Sobre el editor

Daniel Kothenschulte es escritor, comisario artístico y profesor de Historia del Arte y del Cine, además de un amante de la animación desde que viera por primera vez El libro de la selva a los tres años. Como periodista es responsable de la sección cinematográfica del diario nacional alemán Frankfurter Rundschau. Ha sido profesor en varias universidades y es autor de numerosos libros, como Hollywood en los años 30 y The Walt Disney Film Archives.

Sobre los autores

David Gerstein es un historiador de animación y cómics, escritor y editor de historietas que trabaja con The Walt Disney Company y sus asociados. Sus publicaciones incluyen Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Don Rosa Library y Floyd Gottfredson Library of Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse. Gerstein ha trabajado en los esfuerzos para localizar los cortometrajes perdidos Oswald the Lucky Rabbit y Laugh-O-gram y para preservar la tira de periódico de Mickey Mouse.

J. B. Kaufman es escritor e historiador de cine. Ha publicado e impartido numerosas conferencias sobre el cine de animación de Disney y la historia del cine mudo estadounidense. Entre sus libros se cuentan The Fairest One of All: The Making of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, South of the Border with Disney y Pinocchio: The Making of the Disney Epic. También es coautor, junto a Russell Merritt, del premiado Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney.