DER DONALDIST 136

Good evening. As if you haven’t had enough from me today, considering the Daily Monster™ Papers No. 15, and the first of the New Year’s Eve Monsters, here is a little something that just arrived in the mail:

I was honored to design and illustrate issue 136 of the German science journal Der Donaldist. Now, just in case you’re not familiar with this, allow me to explain: Donaldism is the scientific study of the universe occupied by Donald Duck — Donald, Daisy, his nephews, Scrooge McDuck, the lot. We’re not talking comic book collecting, either. The Donaldists are a group of writers, philosophers and scientists of every stripe (professors, applied physicists, journalists and judges among them) that have spent the last 32 years analyzing the available source material — the canonical work of Carl Barks — to formulate theories about the laws of physics and rules of society in Duckburgh.

They explained the scatter-shot nature of entropy in the duck universe, dealt with the phenomenon known as Veronkelung (literally uncle-ing — there are only aunts and uncles, never parents), and they explained how ducks can have teeth when they’re happy or angry. (Turns out that it’s erectile tissue that pops up in emotionally heightened states.)

Back in 1977, led by out-of-work meteorology professor Hans von Storch, they formed the Deutsche Organisation der Nichtkommerziellen Anhänger des Lauteren Donaldismus — the German Organization of Non-Commercial Followers of True Donaldism — or D.O.N.A.L.D.

You’ll be shocked — shocked — to learn that I was once one of them. 

Back in 1985, thanks to my then brand-new friend Elke Imberger, Der Donaldist was the first magazine to ever publish one of my drawings. Issue 54, page 40, bottom left. I was 12 and I was hooked!

Since then I’ve designed a few of their covers, like issue 94 below, and the poster for their 2000 National Congress in Marburg (entitled M2K), and actually brought the National Congress to my hometown of Rinteln in 1989, driving the town fathers to complete distraction. So if you thought I was a nerd now, boy oh boy, you should’ve seen me then…

Incidentally, the font on this poster is German Bold Italic by Towa Tei that shipped with the excellent album Sound Museum. How could it be anything else? That drawing is by Carl Barks, by the way.

This cover marks my 25 year anniversary with the Donaldists. Good timing, don’t you think? If you like, you can click on the image below to download a 1920 x 1200 pixel desktop image of the cover, with a handy white bar on the right for your icons.

I’ve mentioned, have I not, that 344 LOVES YOU