Donaldism is the fandom associated with Disney comics and cartoons. The name refers to Donald Duck and was first used by author Jon Gisle in his essay "Donaldismen" from 1971 and expanded in his book Donaldismen in 1973.

In some (especially European) countries, Donaldism is mainly centred on comics and comic strips, while in other countries, e.g. the U.S. and Japan, these are largely neglected while motion pictures and shorts are relatively much more popular. Originally the term, as defined by Gisle, referred to a "Research branch as well as the material that is the object of this research. In the latter meaning, the word denotes every Disney signed comic story. In the former meaning, Donaldism is a branch of comics research, specialising in the study of precisely Disney's production." While this original meaning of the word was defined in 1973, today Donaldism tends to also cover general fandom within Disney comics and even motion pictures and shorts.

Although the term refers directly to the Donald Duck universe, it includes other Disney universes.

A Donaldist is a supporter of Donaldism: a fan or researcher of Disney comics. According to the 1977 manifest of Norwegian Donaldist society "Donaldistene", "donaldists are Donald Duck fans who study Donald Duck & Co [Norwegian Disney comic book, editor] from social and political structures and viewpoints. Moreover, they try in the best possible way to preserve donaldistic cultural material for their own and others' collections."

Part of Donaldist culture is to create backronyms for names and titles; this usage stems from Carl Barks's Junior Woodchucks comics, where the scout leaders generally had long and pompous titles, leading to jocular acronyms.

The term Donaldist has been used in authorized Disney publications: the collector-themed Gemstone Publishing album series Walt Disney Treasures was advertised with the questioning slogan "Are You a Donaldist?"

One of the first important discoveries was in 1960 when American fan John Spicer wrote the first fan letter to Carl Barks, to which Barks replied. Until then, Walt Disney was thought to have drawn and written all comics himself, although fans suspected otherwise. It was later discovered that Disney himself had only been involved in the production of a handful of comics.

In 1973 Jon Gisle published the Donald Duck analysis Donaldismen: En muntert-vitenskapelig studie over Donald Duck og hans verden.