Obviously, America devotes untold resources to imposing our idea of pop culture onto the rest of the world, but sometimes, you just never know what will stick. The Finns, for example, are curiously addicted to the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, and they just love Donald Duck (known thereabouts as Aku Ankka, or "Uncle Duck"). There's a weekly Donald Duck manga that everyone seems to read, and you can't walk a block without seeing an ad for Donald Duck at a bus stop or train station. Upon looking online for an explanation for this phenomenon, I found this article on Carl Barks, the father of Duckburg, by Don Rosa, a brilliant duck artist in his own right. Rosa notes:

I know some specific numbers for several of the countries I'm invited to the most—Donald Duck & Co. in little Norway sells a quarter of a million copies each week. In Finland, the Donald Duck & Co. weekly sells 350,000 copies per issue! In such countries, the Donald Duck weekly is not simply the best-selling comic (sales of other comics are a tiny fraction as large), it is the best selling anything. No publications outsell the weekly Donald Duck comics in these and other European nations. Donald Duck is literally a national hero in these countries. A prime minister might make a reference to Scrooge McDuck or Gyro Gearloose in a speech before parliament. For decades Donald Duck has come in first in the write-in category of the Finnish presidential elections. [Italics mine]

Rosa concludes: "In Norway in about 1992 and then again in Finland as a "Y2K" event, major newspapers asked groups of scholars to list the 10 greatest works of literature of the 20th century. Again, note well that these were recognized, highly respected critics and scholars of world literature, not comic-fanzine journalists. And one expert in each of these polls included 'the works of Carl Barks' in their lists." Maybe it's my Finnish blood speaking here, but I heartily concur.

Carl Barks collections are becoming very hard to find in this country, which is too bad. If anybody is looking for a birthday or holiday present for yours truly, a couple of digest-sized copies of classic Barks stories would fit the bill quite nicely....