''Aku Ankka'' (

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

for

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...

) is a

weekly

Disney comic book Disney comics are comic books and comic strips featuring characters created by the Walt Disney Company, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge. The first Disney comics were newspaper strips appearing from 1930 on, starting with the ...

published by Sanoma Magazines since 1951.

History and profile

The first issue of ''Aku Ankka'' was published on 5 December 1951 and sold 34,017 copies. The first issue, with a special

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

theme, and the

Snow White "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as Ta ...

story published later in the 1950s are very prized collectors' items and can fetch a price of several thousand

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s on the collector market. The magazine was published monthly until 1956, twice a month between 1956 and 1960, and every Wednesday since 1961. ''Aku Ankka'' is published by Sanoma Media (formerly Sanoma Magazines), which is part of

Sanoma Sanoma Corporation (, formerly SanomaWSOY) is Finland's largest media group. The company has media business in Finland and a learning business in Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Norway and Spain, among others. The company is headquarte ...

. Despite being part of a multinational franchise and despite most stories being translations into Finnish of stories first published abroad, ''Aku Ankka'' has become a cultural icon in Finland. This is largely due to the magazine's colourful and innovative use of the Finnish language. Many characters' names are Finnish language spoofs of the names of celebrities. In 2001, in recognition of its work for the Finnish language, the editorial team was given the ''Kielihelmi'' award by the

Finnish language Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ...

department of the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

. The ''Aku Ankka'' comic is now more popular in Finland than in the country of its origin, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

(where Disney is better known for its cartoons and films than comics). The US Donald Duck cartoonist

Don Rosa Keno Don Hugo Rosa (), known simply as Don Rosa (born June 29, 1951), is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his Disney comics stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and other characters which Carl Barks created fo ...

is exceptionally popular in Finland, and he has acknowledged this by creating ''

The Quest for Kalevala "The Quest for Kalevala" is a 1999 Uncle Scrooge comic book story written and drawn by Don Rosa. The story was first published in the Danish '' Anders And & Co.'' #1999-48; the first American publication was in ''Uncle Scrooge'' #334, in October 20 ...

'', a Donald Duck story specifically set in Finland. There is a popular

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

that Donald Duck was once banned in Finland for not wearing pants. This myth was sparked by an incident in 1977, when

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

councilman Matti Holopainen proposed discontinuing the use of city funds to subscribe to ''Aku Ankka'' comics for

youth center A youth center or youth centre, often called youth club, is a place where young people can meet and participate in a variety of activities, for example table football, association football (US soccer, UK football), basketball, table tennis, vid ...

s, due to the city's financial difficulties. The following year, when Holopainen was running for a

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

seat, his opponent, called him "the man who banned Donald Duck from Helsinki" and Holopainen lost the election.

National Coalition Party sv, Samlingspartiet , leader1_title = Chairman , leader1_name = Petteri Orpo , leader2_title = Deputy chairs , leader2_name = Antti Häkkänen Elina ValtonenAnna-Kaisa Ikonen , merger = Finnish Party, Young Finnis ...

politician

Ben Zyskowicz Ben Berl Zyskowicz (born 24 May 1954) is a Finnish politician and member of parliament. Zyskowicz was chairman of the Finnish National Coalition Party's (Finnish: Kansallinen Kokoomus) parliamentary group from 1993 to 2006, and has been a member o ...

called Holopainen's decision "an accident at work". A similar incident had taken place a few years earlier in

Kemi Kemi (; sme, Giepma ; smn, Kiemâ; sms, Ǩeeʹmm; Swedish (historically): ''Kiemi'') is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located very near the city of Tornio and the Swedish border. The distance to Oulu is to the south and to Rovani ...

, and international reports exaggerated the situation in claims that the character's attire and his extramarital relationship with

Daisy Duck Daisy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. As the girlfriend of Donald Duck, she is an anthropomorphic white duck that has large eyelashes and ruffled tail feathers around her lowest region to suggest a skirt. She is ...

were the causes of the local ban.

Circulation

''Aku Ankka'' is one of the most popular weekly publications in Finland as well as the world's largest edition per capita of a Donald Duck magazine. It had a circulation of 320,500 in 2006, 324,000 in 2007, and 306,555 in 2010. Its circulation of 282,794 in 2012 made it the third most popular magazine in Finland. When 260,455 copies were sold in 2013, it became the best-selling Finnish magazine.

References

External links

Official website

Aku Ankka
at the

INDUCKS The International Network of Disney Universe Comic Knowers and SourcesFrom Inducks lecture
held at ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aku Ankka 1951 establishments in Finland 1951 comics debuts Comics magazines published in Finland Disney comics titles Donald Duck comics Magazines established in 1951 Magazines published in Helsinki Weekly newspapers published in Finland