Perhaps a letter Fergus wrote before passing away and gave it to Scrooge in 1902
Yes, I thought so too, but we don't know that. It's strange that Van Horn left it hanging that way, unless he expected to follow up in a subsequent story and never did ("Travails" would have been the place to do it).
Also, Donald is actively involved in the events of "Secrets", but seems shocked to learn Rumpus' true relationship to Scrooge in "Travails". How did HD&L and Scrooge forget to tell him?
(We also don't know if Fergus knew that Rumpus was his son. The only ones who we are sure were in the know before Rumpus discovered the letter are Rumpus' mother and Vera, and later somehow Scrooge and through him HD&L. I've always imagined that Fergus, Downy and Mr. McFowl were none the wiser.)
As to the criticism leveled against Van Horn vis-à-vis his decision to make Rumpus Scrooge's "sole surviving sibling"; yes, he ignored Gideon (whom he must have been aware of) but he did remain true to the Barks-via-Rosa canon. Barks had already declared (in "Some Heir Over the Rainbow") that Donald, Gladstone and HD&L were Scrooge's only heirs (and in another Barks story Donald refers to Scrooge as his only uncle), and when "Travails" came out, Rosa had not yet published his decision to have Matilda (and, although thankfully withdrawn, Hortense) still be alive.
Which is the Barks story in which Donald refers to Scrooge as his only uncle?
As for Van Horn being aware of Gideon, I am not so sure: no story with the character had appeared in America before 2015.
I see. The portuguese version says: "Her sisters have a discrete life nowadays! They were last seen in this footage taken 17 years ago!".
It's actually kind of interesting that we haven't discussed this before (perhaps this topic is deserving of its own thread), but what do different translations of that first panel say?
In the Italian translation, it is said that his sisters have long retired to private life (literally "da tempo conducono vita privata").
On the other hand, the Italian version of this panel from "The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut"...
... has Donald say that "Hortense was your grandmother".
When I read the original, I assumed that "long since disappeared from public life" was Rosa's way of hinting that Matilda, Hortense and Quackmore were dead, but I guess I was wrong since it seems Rosa had all along planned for Scrooge's sisters at least to still be alive in "present day".
And what other changes did I make in Barks old Family Tree? The only other one I can think of is that I eleiminated the business of Gladstone's parents dying from overeating at a free picnic, so he was never adopted by $crooge's sister Matilda. I saw no purpose behind such a "plot twist" which would have been very hard to get included in a comic book. Unfortunately, this left Matilda an "old maid"; I wanted to have her married to Ludwig Von Drake; I like Ludwig and that would be the ONLY way he could actually be a relative of Donald. But I was vetoed by everyone from Bob Foster to Carl Barks on that one... so poor Matilda is still an old maid. (Actually, she'd be DEAD by now, anyhow. $crooge is the last McDuck alive.)
Of course, this is not the right thread to mention our opinions on the supposed marriage between Ludwig and Matilda, but it's interesting to note that, in a message written while he was still working on Lo$ (I think he finished it in October) he regarded Scrooge's sisters as being dead in the present day. I seem to recall he also wrote the same thing in another message, but I am not sure.
Anyway, at some point later he decided to re-use Scrooge's sisters in a present-day story, possibly because the idea that Scrooge never saw them after the ending of part 11 was too sad and depressing, and Scrooge's "redemption" in part 12 only partially compensated for it. Anyway, I should check to see when he first considerated the idea, but I remember that he talked about it when discussing his plans for Scrooge's 50th anniversary story. Of course, that story didn't include them in the end, and he didn't bring back Matilda until "A Letter from Home", though the editor prevented him from also using Hortense.
As to the criticism leveled against Van Horn vis-à-vis his decision to make Rumpus Scrooge's "sole surviving sibling"; yes, he ignored Gideon (whom he must have been aware of) but he did remain true to the Barks-via-Rosa canon. Barks had already declared (in "Some Heir Over the Rainbow") that Donald, Gladstone and HD&L were Scrooge's only heirs (and in another Barks story Donald refers to Scrooge as his only uncle), and when "Travails" came out, Rosa had not yet published his decision to have Matilda (and, although thankfully withdrawn, Hortense) still be alive.
Which is the Barks story in which Donald refers to Scrooge as his only uncle?
As for Van Horn being aware of Gideon, I am not so sure: no story with the character had appeared in America before 2015.
It's actually kind of interesting that we haven't discussed this before (perhaps this topic is deserving of its own thread), but what do different translations of that first panel say?
In the Italian translation, it is said that his sisters have long retired to private life (literally "da tempo conducono vita privata").
On the other hand, the Italian version of this panel from "The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut"...
... has Donald say that "Hortense was your grandmother".
When I read the original, I assumed that "long since disappeared from public life" was Rosa's way of hinting that Matilda, Hortense and Quackmore were dead, but I guess I was wrong since it seems Rosa had all along planned for Scrooge's sisters at least to still be alive in "present day".
And what other changes did I make in Barks old Family Tree? The only other one I can think of is that I eleiminated the business of Gladstone's parents dying from overeating at a free picnic, so he was never adopted by $crooge's sister Matilda. I saw no purpose behind such a "plot twist" which would have been very hard to get included in a comic book. Unfortunately, this left Matilda an "old maid"; I wanted to have her married to Ludwig Von Drake; I like Ludwig and that would be the ONLY way he could actually be a relative of Donald. But I was vetoed by everyone from Bob Foster to Carl Barks on that one... so poor Matilda is still an old maid. (Actually, she'd be DEAD by now, anyhow. $crooge is the last McDuck alive.)
Of course, this is not the right thread to mention our opinions on the supposed marriage between Ludwig and Matilda, but it's interesting to note that, in a message written while he was still working on Lo$ (I think he finished it in October) he regarded Scrooge's sisters as being dead in the present day. I seem to recall he also wrote the same thing in another message, but I am not sure.
Anyway, at some point later he decided to re-use Scrooge's sisters in a present-day story, possibly because the idea that Scrooge never saw them after the ending of part 11 was too sad and depressing, and Scrooge's "redemption" in part 12 only partially compensated for it. Anyway, I should check to see when he first considerated the idea, but I remember that he talked about it when discussing his plans for Scrooge's 50th anniversary story. Of course, that story didn't include them in the end, and he didn't bring back Matilda until "A Letter from Home", though the editor prevented him from also using Hortense.
As for Eider, I believe he died sometime after sending Farragut to Donald.
There is a present-day story which shows him as alive, though I guess very few people view it as canon. I am talking about "Dangerous Currency":
Judging by Glmogold's clothes, i would say this is a Ducktales comic, so it's not part of the main Comics universe, even though i believe Eider is still alive, since there is nothing in Rosa's work to contradict it
When I read the original, I assumed that "long since disappeared from public life" was Rosa's way of hinting that Matilda, Hortense and Quackmore were dead, but I guess I was wrong since it seems Rosa had all along planned for Scrooge's sisters at least to still be alive in "present day".
And what other changes did I make in Barks old Family Tree? The only other one I can think of is that I eleiminated the business of Gladstone's parents dying from overeating at a free picnic, so he was never adopted by $crooge's sister Matilda. I saw no purpose behind such a "plot twist" which would have been very hard to get included in a comic book. Unfortunately, this left Matilda an "old maid"; I wanted to have her married to Ludwig Von Drake; I like Ludwig and that would be the ONLY way he could actually be a relative of Donald. But I was vetoed by everyone from Bob Foster to Carl Barks on that one... so poor Matilda is still an old maid. (Actually, she'd be DEAD by now, anyhow. $crooge is the last McDuck alive.)
Of course, this is not the right thread to mention our opinions on the supposed marriage between Ludwig and Matilda, but it's interesting to note that, in a message written while he was still working on Lo$ (I think he finished it in October) he regarded Scrooge's sisters as being dead in the present day. I seem to recall he also wrote the same thing in another message, but I am not sure.
Ok, I found the other quote. Rosa had been asked the following question about Lo$ part 11:
The end of the story raised a question to me. Maybe I'm asking for a spoiler, but was this the last time that Scrooge saw his family? If so, do you intend them all to be death in the 1954-period?
I didn't plan to ever do anymore stories set in the 1930-1947 time frame, so I won't need to worry whether $crooge ever again saw his two sisters. But if I tell you what I was thinking when I wrote that, I do NOT think he ever again saw either of his sisters, and that they probably went away and died or never returned to Duckburg. Sad, eh? I never saw $crooge's life as a deleriously happy one. I think that last page of "Only a Poor Old Man" sums it up -- he's learned to live with himself and take pleasure in his memories, but he also has the bit of self-doubt that you see in that one panel on that page. Ew... too heavy! This stuff feels way to leaden when you put it down into words. But that's why I love this cast of characters. Donald, the happy failure... and $crooge, the worried, never content, success.
There is a present-day story which shows him as alive, though I guess very few people view it as canon. I am talking about "Dangerous Currency":
Judging by Glmogold's clothes, i would say this is a Ducktales comic, so it's not part of the main Comics universe, even though i believe Eider is still alive, since there is nothing in Rosa's work to contradict it
Indeed, that's the infamous 2011 story "Dangerous Cureency", which is a crossover between DuckTales and Darkwing Duck, but also includes various characters/objects/facts from regular comic books, both by Barks/Rosa and by other authors. It is a mess continuity-wise, and has bad art in many points, as I think has been discussed somewhere.
As for Glomgold's clothes, I know of one Scarpa story from 1992 which gave Glomgold his DuckTales design despite not being a DT story, but I think it was an exception rather than the rule.
Last Edit: Nov 8, 2019 12:18:07 GMT by drakeborough
I didn't plan to ever do anymore stories set in the 1930-1947 time frame, so I won't need to worry whether $crooge ever again saw his two sisters. But if I tell you what I was thinking when I wrote that, I do NOT think he ever again saw either of his sisters, and that they probably went away and died or never returned to Duckburg. Sad, eh? I never saw $crooge's life as a deleriously happy one. I think that last page of "Only a Poor Old Man" sums it up -- he's learned to live with himself and take pleasure in his memories, but he also has the bit of self-doubt that you see in that one panel on that page. Ew... too heavy! This stuff feels way to leaden when you put it down into words. But that's why I love this cast of characters. Donald, the happy failure... and $crooge, the worried, never content, success.
Thanks for posting this. In conjunction with the panel from "Sharpie of Culebra Cut" that you also posted, it's clear that Rosa initially meant for Scrooge's sisters to be dead, then for some reason changed his mind. It's strange that I've seen that panel several times (including very recently in fact) but never grasped its import until you pointed it out ... the Italian version is even more explicit, referring to Hortense in the past tense.
Thanks for posting this. In conjunction with the panel from "Sharpie of Culebra Cut" that you also posted, it's clear that Rosa initially meant for Scrooge's sisters to be dead, then for some reason changed his mind. It's strange that I've seen that panel several times (including very recently in fact) but never grasped its import until you pointed it out ... the Italian version is even more explicit, referring to Hortense in the past tense.
The two DCML quotes from 1993 and 1995 definitely prove that, at the beginning, Rosa saw them as dead. However, I wouldn't consider 2001's "The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut" as a proof that Hortense is dead, since Donald says "That's your grandmother" rather than "That was your grandmother", plus the story was done in a period in which Rosa was considering to bring back both Hortense and Matilda in the present.
Thanks for posting this. In conjunction with the panel from "Sharpie of Culebra Cut" that you also posted, it's clear that Rosa initially meant for Scrooge's sisters to be dead, then for some reason changed his mind. It's strange that I've seen that panel several times (including very recently in fact) but never grasped its import until you pointed it out ... the Italian version is even more explicit, referring to Hortense in the past tense.
The two DCML quotes from 1993 and 1995 definitely prove that, at the beginning, Rosa saw them as dead. However, I wouldn't consider 2001's "The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut" as a proof that Hortense is dead, since Donald says "That's your grandmother" rather than "That was your grandmother", plus the story was done in a period in which Rosa was considering to bring back both Hortense and Matilda in the present.
"The only woman who could" (vs "the only woman who can") suggests that she is no longer in the picture. Admittedly, it doesn't necessarily mean she is dead, but why would she stay out of the lives of her own son and grandchildren? You could make arguments in favor of that for Matilda in this situation, but not Hortense. Also, what would Donald need to explain to HD&L who Hortense was if she was still alive? Although nothing is conclusive, the preponderance of evidence in that panel favors Hortense being dead.
Judging by Glmogold's clothes, i would say this is a Ducktales comic, so it's not part of the main Comics universe, even though i believe Eider is still alive, since there is nothing in Rosa's work to contradict it
Close, but no cigar. See, Dangerous Currency is indeed a DuckTales comic, but it's one that's wholly predicated on the notion that DuckTales happened in the comics universe a few years after the bulk of the Barks-Rosa canon (all inconsistencies be damned). You may not accept it as part of your headcanon, but in the mind of its creators, it absolutely does take place in the main comics universe.
The two DCML quotes from 1993 and 1995 definitely prove that, at the beginning, Rosa saw them as dead. However, I wouldn't consider 2001's "The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut" as a proof that Hortense is dead, since Donald says "That's your grandmother" rather than "That was your grandmother", plus the story was done in a period in which Rosa was considering to bring back both Hortense and Matilda in the present.
"The only woman who could" (vs "the only woman who can") suggests that she is no longer in the picture. Admittedly, it doesn't necessarily mean she is dead, but why would she stay out of the lives of her own son and grandchildren? You could make arguments in favor of that for Matilda in this situation, but not Hortense. Also, what would Donald need to explain to HD&L who Hortense was if she was still alive? Although nothing is conclusive, the preponderance of evidence in that panel favors Hortense being dead.
Maybe "could" (which I think can also be used while talking in the present) refers to the fact that, when they had a fight in the past, she could push Scrooge around, while she can't do that now since they haven't had any contact in decades. Unlike the Italian version, which seems to make it explicit that she is dead, the original version is a bit more ambiguous, which makes sense given that, like I said, the story was done in a period in which Rosa was considering to bring back Scrooge's sister in the present.
As for why she would return to Scotland rather than staying in the USA: well, it's hard to discuss the issue without rehashing things that we have written in the past, but I'll mention that I live in Northern Italy where there are many people who came from Southern Italy that have moved, or are about to move, back to the place they were born to spend there the last part of their life. Couldn't the same thing be true for Hortense? Her connection to Scotland is stronger than Scrooge's, since she had stayed there much longer in her youth, so after their sons left home and became indipendent it doesn't seem impossible that she would think about doing the same thing. And if she lives in Scotland (i.e. in another continent rather than just in another town) this would explain neatly why we don't see them in the present, since not only she was trying to avoid big family reunions that included Scrooge, but there is also the fact that intercontinental travel was a big deal back then. She may have stayed in contact with Donald by letter and phone, and it doesn't feel a cop-out to say that she may even have occasionally visited Donald (and/or vice versa) but that these visits happened off-screen.
Donald explaining who Hortense is seems more like a plot device so that the reader who is not familiar with Rosa's work will learn about her. It's a bit like in Barks stories using characters he had created only recently, in which you often see redundant dialogues like "Was that uncle Scrooge McDuck, richest man in the world, on the phone, unca' Donad?" rather than just "Was that uncle Scrooge on the phone, unca' Donad?" Plus, even if Hortense is alive, it's not impossible that HDL haven't seen her in years and thus Donald feels the need to explain who she is.
I have to say that I’m a bit sad that because William Van Horn is now retired, we might never see good old Unca Rumpus ever again. He might be my favorite non-Barks/non-Rosa character in the Duck universe.
I think I already wrote it somewhere else on this forum, but Scrooge's sisters are said to be alive in F DBG 16 and Matilda even appears in present days in I TL 3536-1P (here a couple of pictures). Unluckily, Gideon seems to be excluded from Scrooge's past (in recent Italian stories we have seen him with his family, but the depiction is faithful to Lo$).
Regarding Rumpus (of whom I wrote something here), I can say that sure he is a character I would like to see more. I wish that Fantagraphics would publish more Van Horn volumes so that I will be finally able to read more stories featuring him, and in English. Nobody ever used this character besides Van Horn. Perhaps, he was misunderstood or not understood and writers don't know what to do with him? I am glad that Flintheart's nephew Slackjaw Snorehead has been used by other authors after Lars Jensen, but we can say that he fills a gap. Scrooge's half-brother... I wouldn't know. Do we really need him?
Nobody ever used this character besides Van Horn. Perhaps, he was misunderstood or not understood and writers don't know what to do with him?
Egmont doesn't want other authors to use the character.
Yes, I know it. It's even written in the post that I linked to. At least, we have direct information that this happened until 2005. I don't know if it's still like that. However, I don't believe that many authors actually knew what to do with him. Kari Korhonen once told me:"Rumpus as a character? A bit empty. I could take him or leave him."