Comics are for children?

[Ari Seppi]

Olaf:
>OK, so you and I may don't need those toys
>much, but if DD&Co didn't have them, lots of children would prefer a
>magazine who DOES (like Tom & Jerry), and these children would never meet
>the great stories we grew up with and therefor never even have a CHANCE
>becoming donaldists.

In Finland we don't get toys with comics but Aku Ankka still is
read by children of all ages (from 4 to 100 years, about). Of course
the Finnish situation can't be one-to-one compared with Norway and
the rest of the Scandinavia for several reasons.

Firstly, I remember hearing/reading from somewhere that the Scandinavian
weeklies need toys since big part of their circulation comes from
single copy sales while Aku Ankka is mostly subscribed so it doesn't
need these child baits.

Naturally there might be a cultural reasons too. The Finnish children
aren't as used to toy gifts with magazines as Scandinavians so
publishers don't have to use them here. For example W.i.t.c.h. became
popular here even without gifts. (There is the magic boom going on but still:
no gifts, plain comics.) But anyway, from this point of view it is a bit sad
if the gifts are so important for child readers even in countries like Norway
(after all, _all_ the children _must_ love Disney comics :-) ).

On the other hand...

>plus we have Donald Pocket, Mikke Mus Månedshefte, Skrue
>Pocket, Fantonald

...you still have Paperinik publication (possibly thanks to the toys?).
For that, I'm envious.

-- 
Ari Seppi (ari.seppi at iki.fi)
http://www.iki.fi/mani/