Duckburg

[Olaf Solstrand]

Donald lives in North America, Mickey lives in Norway.

OK, maybe he doesn't anymore. But in a half-page printed in Norway in 1950 
(sorry I don't have the code), it is clearly stated that Mickey's address 
is "Oslo".

But hey... that's a translation, it's as easy as that.

Still... I've never doubted that Donald is an American - at least in the wider 
state of the word ("American" not meaning "Unitedstatesian"). The proof for 
that is the brilliant Barks story "The Golden Helmet".

I don't know if Barks ever pinpointed this to the USA, but that would seem most 
likely, concidering that Barks was an American (uhm... Unitedstatesian) 
himself, so was his publisher, and that he created the state name "Calisota", 
an obvious pun on the American (uhm... Unitedstatesian) states California and 
Minnesota.

So, I think we can say for sure that Donald lives in the United States of 
America.

Thus, the most obvious seems to be him talking English. Still... As long as 
I've known Donald, he's been talking perfect Norwegian. But (sigh) I guess I 
just have to settle with that being a Disney Comic Translation Service existing 
so that readers can understand what's going on.

I mean, it's obvious that some parts are translated. When Scrooge and the 
nephews first came to Tralla La, the inhabitants spoke to Scrooge in their own 
language, and Scrooge answered them in the same language. In the rest of the 
story... they all spoke English (or Norwegian or German or whatever). So... did 
Scrooge in the white field between the frame where they're talking Tibetan and 
the frame where they're talking English, run around in the village and learn 
everybody English? Did they all know English already? Or was this a translation 
Barks did for us, because he figured it would be rather dull for an 
Unitedstatesian to reed a whole story in Tibetan?

Based on pure logic, I want to rule out option one. Option two sounds better, 
but concidering that the ducks have travelled all over the globe, and most 
people everywhere has been speaking English, I don't find that very likely 
either. And... the Trallalaians spoke English even when speaking to each other. 
So let's face it - our comics are translated for our pleasure.

That would also mean that Donald and Mickey speaks a million languages each. 
Unlike Tintin, who runs around in African towns looking for people speaking his 
own language.

So, I've written two things this far, I think:
1. It seems likely to me that Duckburg is located in North America, and that 
the inhabitants speak English.
2. I DON'T think all other creatures all over the world speak English - so, 
their conversations must be translated by the writer for our pleasure. That 
would mean that Donald, Mickey and Scrooge knows an awful lot of languages.

I just have to ask - can any of you remember cases where a language is spoken, 
and the Ducks/Mouses does not understand it? I remember one case - Don 
Rosa's "Attaaaaack!", where Scrooge doesn't understand Brutopian. I assume 
there's others as well, but I'm happy to be reminded of them.


Best,
Olaf