Last year the Dutch Donald Duck magazine celebrated their 90th birthday. They organized a contest to give the readers a chance to create a new neighbor for Donald Duck. The day I noticed the contest it was also brought to my attention by Nadija. We talked a bit about it and I decided to give it a go.
I thought it would be fun to revisit something that I read when I still had a subscription to the magazine. One of the most fun ideas came from Wilma van den Bosch. From time to time Donald would do something that made him run out of Duckburg and take refuge in Timbuktu. She decided to show us some of his adventures over there. Those were a lot of fun to read.
So I decided to create a character that made the trip in reverse. Say hello to Usma Asiza, born and raised in Timbuktu. She got very curious about Duckburg after hearing stories from Donald during his many visits in her country.
When moving to Duckburg she is happy to discover that she has become Donald’s new neighbor. Usma gets along with Donald as well as neighbor Jones and will always try to be the voice of reason during their many conflicts. She’s an artist and will come up with a creative solution to bring a temporary truce between her fighting neighbors. Since Usma enjoys traveling, she won’t always be present to play peacekeeper.
I didn’t win the contest, but the winner came up with not one, but two interesting new neighbors. You can read more about them here: Eva and Lex Hamerslag
If you enjoy watching videos of drawing hands, I’ve got you covered here.
Thanks for your time!