Donald Duck in comics appeared in a portrait on August 11, 1940, and in person on September 28, 1943. Taliaferro also reintroduced Donna Duck as a separate character from Daisy. This old flame of Donald rivaled Daisy for his affections between August 7, 1951 and August 18, 1951, before leaving him for another. Donald had already been familiar to the American reading public through his newspaper comic strip by 1942. Then Disney licensed Western Publishing to create original comic book stories, with Disney characters as their stars. But the first American Donald Duck story originally created for a comic book was created by Studio-employed
Donald Duck "Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold". The new publisher meant new illustrators, however, Carl Barks and Jack Hannah would later repeat the treasure-hunting theme in many more stories. Barks soon took over the major development of the duck as both writer and illustrator. Under his pen, Donald became more adventurous, less temperamental and more eloquent. Pete was the only other major character from the "Mickey Mouse" comic strip to feature in Barks' new Donald Duck universe. Barks placed Donald in the city of Duckburg, which he populated with a host of supporting players, including Neighbor Jones (1944), Uncle Scrooge McDuck (1947),