And instead of drawing its inspiration from a toy line or popular movie (like other pioneers in the afternoon animated-syndication market), DuckTales drew its inspiration from a series of comic books that weren’t terribly well-known in the United States.
I think the author suffers a bit from US-centric short-sightedness here. If the goals was world-wide syndication, then the Carl Barks stories were the most logical option, as they have always been Disney's most popular comics internationally speaking.
Yeah, the Carl Barks stories and Donald Duck in general are very popular in the Nederlands for example. Most families will have a subscription to the weekly Donald Duck magazine; supposedly for the kids, but I think all the parents read it too.
Just to give a counter-example: I am from "international", but until you just mentioned him I never heard of Carl Barks. I do know Donald Duck an Co. though, they were wildly popular among children when I was growing up.
Well, do you know who the authors of the Donald Duck comics you read were? Maybe I should have said Donald Duck comics in general, but Carl Barks created the majority of that particular comic universe.
(The funny thing is, I still don't know any authors except Barks and Don Rosa, but I can see if a Donald Duck comic originates from the Netherlands, Italy, Denmark, etc.)
I think the author suffers a bit from US-centric short-sightedness here. If the goals was world-wide syndication, then the Carl Barks stories were the most logical option, as they have always been Disney's most popular comics internationally speaking.