Digital Databases and Donald Duck Weekblad (or Double Data Entry is Double Dutch to Me)

This paper introduces a project examining fan understanding of the character coherence of transnational variations of Donald Duck in stories appearing in pan-European comic books, with those published in the Netherlands providing a central case study.

During the 1950s the Dutch publication Donald Duck Weekblad gradually started to introduce locally produced strips alongside their usual American reprints. Other European Disney magazines did the same, and soon began sharing material with each other. Strips produced in these other national centres of production would have to be translated and occasionally redrawn to fit the local context, such as dollar signs being redrawn to reflect the local currency, and thus the character coherence of Donald Duck was often unstable and subject to change.

This transnational translation and re-presentation of characters forms the focus of this project. It builds on the theoretical and methodological model developed in Hibbett’s book Data and Doctor Doom (2024) which provides a practical tool for measuring transmedia character coherence over time and media types.

The project engages with the online community based around the I.N.D.U.C.K.S. database, using their expertise to crowdsource data entry about the character. This will test the robustness of data entry systems and allow large amounts of data to be collected across Europe. Outputs from the project will include a re-useable data entry system and two datasets; the data generated by use of the tool, along with a separate survey of fan attitudes towards the character.