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Yeah, I see what you mean. I must say I don't know much about the history of Disney, did they push their brand so aggressively at the beginning? or was it more "organic"?

Thinking about that, it is interesting that Disney doesn't make movies with their traditional brand characters any more. Maybe because of those characters lack a bit of depth for a full blown movie? (like Angry Birds)

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Traditional Disney characters are very popular in Europe in the form of comic books: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_comics

I grew up with these books (I am Portuguese and we got the Brazilian ones) and the stories have much more depth, and the universe where they live more continuity than you'd might expect. This format is still very popular in France and Germany, for example. But not in the USA. I never quite understood why.

Just a couple of short OT notes to illustrate this:

# As an example of deep Disney comics, Don Rosa's Magnum Opus "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" should be pointed out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_and_Times_of_Scrooge_M...

This book and Don Rosa's works in general are a prime example for love of detail in every aspect, deep characterization of the seemingly flat Disney characters and rigorous background research for the historic embedding (and the embedding in the works of Carl Barks).

# Another person benefiting the popularity of Disney comics in Europe was the German translator Erika Fuchs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erika_Fuchs

Being an art historian and a member of the educated middle-class, she took the liberty to translate Disney comics in a very literary fashion, with multiple references to classic literature. Many of her word and phrase creations have become part of the German language.

# A couple of months ago the French-German rather highbrow TV channel arte screened a documentary that circulated around the internet: The first half of the piece deeply characterized Donald Duck, while the second half applied this characterization to the acceptance of disorientation and personal failure in our society.

# The traveling exhibition "Duckomenta": http://www.duckomenta.de/content/engdex.htm

I don't speak a word of German so I've not read any of the comics but I love the names "Tick, Trick & Track", do you know if Erika was responsible for those names?

The information in the German web on this is contradictory, so I'm not sure. While two articles mention that she translated them herself, another source says that the publisher decided on the names before she began working.

The nephew's names have been translated quite diversified in general:

English Original: Huey, Dewey, and Louie

Chinese: 路儿，杜儿和辉儿

Danish: Rip, Rap og Rup

Finnish: Tupu, Hupu ja Lupu

French: Riri, Fifi et Loulou

Italian: Qui, Quo, e Qua

Dutch: Kwik, Kwek, en Kwak

Swedish: Knatte, Fnatte och Tjatte

Spanish: Hugo, Paco y Luis / Hugo, Diego y Luis / Juanito, Jorgito y Jaimito (from different translations)

Turkish: Cin, Can ve Cem

This was particularly significant in Italy, where Disney opened their first foreign subsidiary (before WWII) and came to be one of the largest publishers in the country at one point. They even had to open an official "Academy" project to train artists and writers in order to sustain production; most Disney comic books published in Europe and South America were actually produced in Italy, back in the 80s and 90s.

One of the reasons for the popularity of such a format outside the US is the way the comic book market developed after the 60s. In the US, superhero comics built a parallel distribution system with dedicated stores; this system catered to hardcore superhero fans but not to the mainstream. Mainstream comics were mostly relegated to syndicated strips, a format that privileges simple joke-based comedy. Also, in the US most "newsagents" are actually convenience stores with a magazine rack; in Europe, this is very different: every town has (or used to have) a centrally-located, fully-dedicated newsagent stocking as much as it can of every publication under the sun. Press distribution is often regulated by law in much stricter terms than in the US. The typical father going to the newsagent every day to get a newspaper would also buy something like "Glamour" for the wife and "Topolino" (Mickey Mouse) for the kids at least once a week.

The Disney comics are very much 'slice of life' mixed with comedy; the stereotype I have of US comics is that they're action comics, mostly serious business (and explosions), and not a strong basis for comic comics (geddit).

I grew up with the weekly Donald Duck comics, <3.

Another OT data point from http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Duck_(comic_book):

"in 2014 it was read by 1.6 million Dutch citizens above the age of 13 [...] In 2008 it was the most read magazine among Dutch students (10%)."

There is not much particular about that 10%; it is about even with the "1.6 million Dutch citizens above the age of 13".

Part of the appeal is that it has new stories specially written for the Dutch comic. It also has cameo appearances of real life persons. It is not uncommon to see a newsreader, sports star, politician or criminal with a name that resembles that of a real Dutch person appear in a comic. Getting that done to you is a badge of honor. Google tells me Mark Zuckerberg even made it that far: http://duckipedia.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/mark-zuckerberg-i..., as did the Beatles (http://duckipedia.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/de-bietjes/) and Madness (http://duckipedia.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/madness-in-de-gal...)

Click around for other examples. Apparently, Carl Barks did that, too, with Brigitte Bobo (http://duckipedia.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/brigitte-bobo/)

The american authors did not write enough stores to fill the demand in Denmark so the Danish publisher had to write additional stories for the weekly magazine in Denmark.

http://www.b.dk/kultur/danskere-laver-anders-and-til-hele-ve...