TedJohansson

70 years ago - in September 1948 - the first issue of the Swedish Donald Duck magazine was released. The version you see in this post is a facsimile edition released at the 50th anniversary in 1998. (A new facsimile edition has been released to this year's anniversary. More info at www.kalleanka.se) By the way, the cover art for the first Swedish issue was also used for the first issues in Norway (December 1948) and Denmark (March 1949).

I have always been a Disney fan and ever since I started reading Donald Duck comics the Disney ducks have been my favorites. And since I was young my dream has always been to become a Donald Duck comic artist. I have applied to Egmont in Copenhagen several times during the years, but I haven't been approved yet. I sent my first real application in December 2002. As you see on the cover of my "application magazine" I made a tribute to the cover of the first issue of "Kalle Anka & Co".

The application (30 pages, not counting front and back cover) consisted of different drawings, sketches and a 3-page "comic sequence". (with word balloons but without any text). I sent the application to Egmont but also to friends and to several people in the comic industry to be able to get proper criticism. When I now, almost 16 years later, see my artwork from that time I see a lot of mistakes. But that only shows that I have improved as an artist and that's of course a good thing.

(I guess most of you don't know what "The Daily Money Swim" at the bottom of my application cover refers to. You find my animated cartoon with Uncle Scrooge on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBRrCY…)

August 29, Michael Jackson would have turned 60 years old if he had been with us. This tribute to the King of Pop with the Swedish Bamse characters is a belated birthday gift to my dear friend Joel who turned 40 earlier this year. Joel and I are both MJ fans and we saw the History tour together in Gothenburg 1997.

Today (August 24) is the 76th anniversary of José Carioca's debut in Disney's 6th animated feature film - Saludos Amigos. The world premiere was in Brazil. It wasn't until February 6, 1943, as Saludos Amigos was shown in the United States. I take the opportunity to wish everybody a nice weekend!  

Drawing with the Swedish character Bamse I did for friends' son last year. I have been a comic artist for Bamse since 2006.