I wonder if Dutch Swamp Thing comics change Alec Holland’s last name to, like, “Wyoming” or “Sacramento” or something.

So pal Dorian recently took a trip to Holland and Germany and all sorts of fun places, and whilst there he picked up all manner of Donald Duck comics and digests, including this one that he brought back for me:

Apparently this is a Donald Duck comic available exclusively at the Rijksmuseum Ruks Museum (or Rijksmuseum, if I’m understanding my Googling properly) [EDIT: see this correction to my bad eyesight] in Amsterdam. You can get your own copy directly from the museum here, though I shudder to think of the shipping charges.

Anyway, that page provides the following description for the comic:

“Donald Duck takes readers on an adventure along the Rijksmuseum’s famous works of art. This children’s book introduces Donald to iconic Dutch masterpieces, including Rembrandt’s Night Watch. This comic not only provides entertainment for children, but is also a playful way to learn about the Rijksmuseum’s art.”

…which I presumed by paging through the publication and looking at the pictures, since the entire thing is in Dutch, a language in which I have absolutely zero proficiency. It looks fun, however, and in a region where Donald Duck comics still retain their popularity, I imagine this museum edition fits right in.

Here are a couple of interior panels from the book, like this shot of Donald with a couple of pieces of art that…I don’t know if they’re based on any specific real pieces of not…I mean, not that there’s a statue with a weird duck face, but maybe one of similar design?

Ah heck, I don’t know, maybe there are duck statues like that in the museum, I don’t know what’s goin’ on over there.

And is Mickey Mouse in this comic? Sure, Mickey is in this comic, and Goofy too!

And here’s a thing that threw me off for just a second…Daisy Duck’s nieces, April, May and June, get some wild localized names:

I imagine this’ll be explained to me in the comments, but using the Dutch names for the months as their names (“April, Mei, Juni”) might have worked okay, unless there were some real objections to using those words as specific names for people. Even duck people. I have no idea. But they all run up against Magica De Spell in their story.

Oh, and in looking this up, I found a page (in Dutch, which my browser or Google or the magical imp that lives in my monitor translated) which lists at the end the variety of names by which the three nieces are called in different countries.

So big thanks to pal Dorian for picking this up for me…I know he saw some stunning pieces of art and beautiful scenery and all that. But I still think most amazing of all was him telling me just how many different types of Donald Duck comics there were, and how widely available they are to the general public. What a different world that feels like.