Walt Disney Legacy Collection/The Chronological Donald Duck - Volume One/Booklet

The following is a near-accurate transcript of the booklet included with the first volume of The Chronological Donald Duck. Although some of the information in this article will for the most part be identical to what the booklet could look like in print, parts not written by WaltWiz1901 will not be included and will instead be replaced by a note about who will write that particular spot.

Foreword
Written by J.B. Kaufman

Overview
"To meet him is to love him. To work with him is a rare, unforgettable experience. Yes - Donald is a Duck of Distinction! - Walt Disney'

Mickey Mouse may be the Walt Disney Company's most celebrated and recognizable character, but he once wasn't Uncle Walt's most popular cartoon star. For that title, we'll turn to the most prolific and arguably funniest member of the studio's collectively named Fab Five - Donald Fauntleroy Duck.

Not long after he appeared as a supporting character in the 1934 "Silly Symphony" cartoon The Wise Little Hen (which you may have watched elsewhere before watching this set), Donald's personality came out (almost) fully-formed. His explosive temper, bad habits, and more edgier personality made for more fresher story ideas than the "nicer" and toned-down Mickey of the same time period. Perhaps the most prominent example of the difference between Mickey's "wholesomeness" and Donald's "troublesomeness" is in the mouse's first color cartoon, The Band Concert, where Mickey and his titular band are repeatedly disrupted by the antics of a certain fife-playing duck.

When the "Mickey Mouse" series switched to color in 1935, the titular character was mostly reduced to playing second fiddle to his more "fleshed-out" co-stars - the hot-tempered Donald, the big-hearted but dim-witted Goofy, and (most notably) his dog, Pluto. While Mickey's popularity began to go down, Donald's popularity went up, and he was granted not one, but three shorts in the "Mickey" series where he was the primary focus - Donald and Pluto (from 1936), Don Donald (notable for the first appearance of Donald's girlfriend - initially titled 'Donna Duck'), and Modern Inventions (both 1937). During all three of these shorts, we don't even get a glimpse of everyone's favorite mouse, which paves the way for what we'll see in Donald's own solo series in late 1937.