black suit or blue suit? / US 179

[Gerstein, David DK - ECN]

	Hey!

>> Why does Donald have a blue sailor suit on the cover of books, but a
>> black one inside?

	Well...
	In cartoons, Donald's shirt is of course blue. Combined with his
white body, it makes for great, visually appealing contrast. When Donald
first appeared in comics - in the full-color Sunday funnies - the desire for
contrast continued, so the blue was kept.
	The problem came when Donald entered *daily* (i. e. non-colored)
newspaper comics of his own, in 1938. The shirt that had been colored blue
would now print as white. No contrast. So the decision came to make the
shirt black - thus preserving the desired contrast even on a black-and-white
newspaper page.
	When Western Publishing reprinted these daily newspaper strips in
their comic books (starting in 1940), it was easier simply to leave the
shirt black - even in full color - than to bleach it out and recolor it
blue.
	And when Western *then* began to create DD comic book stories of
their own (1942), they wanted them to be of-a-piece with the DD newspaper
strips they were then running. The majority of these strips, at the time,
were dailies (i. e. black shirt). So Barks and others gave Donald a black
shirt in the new comic book stories, disregarding the reason that the black
shirt was originally used.

	In short, we've still got a black-shirted Donald in sophisticated,
full-color comics of today because of a decision made in 1938 for black and
white newspapers. Funny, huh?

	David Gerstein
	<dge at ecn.egmont.com>