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Donald Duck, a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company, is today the star of dozens of comic-book and comic-strip stories published each month (in certain parts of the world, each week) around the world.

The earliest print mention of Donald Duck is likely in 1931, in the book, The Adventures of Mickey Mouse, published by David McKay Company, Philadelphia. On the first text page, none of which are numbered, the third paragraph begins, "Mickey has many friends in the old barn and the barnyard, besides Minnie Mouse. They are Henry Horse and Carolyn Cow and Patricia Pig and Donald Duck,...."

Donald may well have made another early printed appearance in Mickey Mouse Annual 3 (published 1932; the annual for 1933), a 128-page British hardback. This book included the poem Mickey's Hoozoo, Witswitch and Wotswot, which listed all of Mickey's then-current barnyard animal friends. Among them was a duckling named Donald Duck. Besides the name, however, there is little similarity between this character and the one introduced in The Wise Little Hen during 1934. Mickey Mouse Annual 3 was drawn entirely by Wilfred Haughton.

The Donald of The Wise Little Hen made his printed debut in the newspaper comic strip adaptation of that cartoon. It was released between September 16 and December 16, 1934, in the Silly Symphonies Sunday pages by Ted Osborne and Al Taliaferro. On February 10, 1935, Donald appeared in the Mickey Mouse daily strip by Ted Osborne and Floyd Gottfredson.

A supporting character in Mickey's strip, Donald came to dominate the Silly Symphonies strips between August 30, 1936, and December 12, 1937. At the time, Ted Osborne was credited as writer and Al Taliaferro as artist and inker. The duo turned Donald from a countryman to a city dweller. They also introduced the first members of The Duck family other than Donald himself, namely Donald's identical triplet nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, who debuted on October 17, 1937. The sons of his sister Della Duck (his sister in the animated shorts), the triplets were sent to spend some time with him as guests while their father recovered at the hospital from their latest prank. Nevertheless, Donald ended up serving as their adoptive parent.

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Wikipedia