Donald Duck pocket 200.

Seems like more congratulations are in order, as the crew of the Dutch Donald Duck weekly have put together their 200th paperback pocketbook, which will be out July 19th! Published monthly by Sanoma in the Netherlands and Belgium, the series usually collects ten or so longer stories by celebrated Italian Duck artists like Massimo Fecchi, Romano Scarpa and Giorgio Cavazano, with a lot of stories penned by American writers such as Paul Halas, Pat & Carol McGreal and Michael Gilbert. The covers are always done excellently by Dutch Disney artist Michel Nadorp.

This is actually the 200th book in the third series, which started in February 1992. The second series, also had 53 pocketbooks and ran from July 1977 to October 1991. The first series ran from May 1970 to December 1975, carrying eleven pocketbooks.

Below: Covers from the first issues of each run. From left to right: Marco Rota's illustration for the very first pocketbook from 1970, which was also used for issue 89 of the third run from September 2002, which was actually a fascimile reprint of that first book. The title on the cover ('The Zebra Mussel') refers to the first story inside, the 54 page 'Paperino e le conchiglie zebrate' by the Italian brothers Abramo and Giampaolo Barosso, with artwork by Carpi.

Middle: The premier issue of the second run from July 1977 has Barks illustration 'Sailing the Spanish Main' from 1949 on the cover. The title ('On the search for the Magic Eye') refers to one of the Italian stories inside, the 30 page 'Zio Paperone e 'l'occhio di zampirone' by Rodolfo Cimino and Giorgio Cavazano. Right: In February 1992, the first book of the current run was published, which contained the seven part 'Le sette meraviglie dei paperi' ('The Seven Wonders of the World'), a 227-page story by Fabio Michelini with art by Giuseppe Dalla Santa and Marizio Amendola. This issue also had the first cover by Michel Nadorp, who has done all covers diligently since.

Above: 'The Fantastic River Race' by Carl Barks was one of the stories in the very first pocket from May 1970. It was originally first published in Dell Comics' 'Uncle Scrooge goes to Disneyland' from August 1957. As you can see from these pages, the pocketbooks were then still partly printed in Black & white.

Above: After the first hundred of the current run, the editors came up with the idea that all these little books should also look nice on the shelf at home, so they decided that each issue would contain a small part of a larger illustration on the back which, spread out over 16 or 17 books, make up one of Carl Barks' classic paintings (reworked by Tony Fernandez from the Spanish Comicup studios). The current pockets (191 to 207) contain his illustration 'A Binful of Fun' from 1974 (click the painting to check it out full scale!)

By the way, The Dutch Donald Duck Weekly currently celebrates it's 60th year of existence, as the first issue dates back from October 25, 1952, so it seems they're in for a few more parties this year! Cheers guys!