Christensen then kept drawing the rubber band around Arne's head until Disney finally withdrew the lawsuit threat, as the whole event attracted quite a bit of public attention in Sweden, and increased the comic's popularity tenfold.Ĭhristensen then kept the comic going until 1995, where he felt he had said all he had to say and ended the comic on a high note with Arne finally finding success and getting married. After first fruitlessly trying to reason with Disney, Christensen drew a strip wherein Arne faked his own death in order to get a plastic operation which radically changed the shape of his beak, and took a name charge to Arne X, which also became a temporary name for the series.Īfter getting complaints from his readers about the changes, Christensen decided to spite Disney by having Arne buy a fake beak in the shape of his old one, which was held up by a rubber band, and simultaneously changing the comic's name back to its original title. Well, so did Disney and they threatened Christensen with a lawsuit. note And no, we aren't talking about Howard the Duck, although that would probably be a more justified comparison. One of the first thing the reader will notice is probably Arne's close resemblance to a certain other anthropomorphic duck.
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The series follows the titular character, a bitter and cynical anthropomorphic duck and unsuccessful poet and writer, with an alcohol problem note "I'm not having problems with the alcohol, I'm having problems with the reality!", who spends most of his time hanging out in Zeke's, the local bar, where he discusses politics, the state of both the Swedish and the international society, sex, and high, as well as very low, philosophy with his friend Krille Krokodil (Krille Crocodile), a script writer. Arne Anka ( Arne Duck) is a Swedish comic series by Charlie Christensen, who started drawing and writing the series under the pseudonym Alexander Barks in 1983.