How come Goofy doesn't have his own comics universe?

[donalddisneyfan]

Looking at how Mickey and Donald have their own expanded worlds in the comics under Floyd Gottfredson for the Mouse comics and Carl Barks/Don Rosa for the Duck comics, how come Goofy's never had his own expanded comic world and lore like Mickey and Donald?

At most we had Super Goof, but even that still isn't quite as large to the extend of the Mouse and Duck comics lore. The closest we get overall is Goof Troop, but that's only in animation and didn't carry over to any comics.

It's telling that while you can name a lot of characters created for the Mouse and Duck comics (Mortimer, Phantom Blot, Chief O'Hara, Morty & Ferdie Fieldmouse, Doctor Vulter, and Sylvester Shyster in the Mouse comics and Scrooge McDuck (before making his animation debut), Gladstone Gander, Magica de Spell, Beagle Boys, Flintheart Glomgold, Gyro Gearloose, and John D Rockerduck for the Duck comics), the ones in Goofy comics are super low with Gilbert Goof being the only noteworthy Goofy comics character.

Why is it that among the Disney's big 3 stars, Goofy's never had his own expanded comics universe and lore like Mickey and Donald?

[fredj]

Donald, I think, quickly became very popular, even more so than Mickey, making it natural that he moved from a supporting character in Mickey's comic strip to getting his own. Goofy, presumably, never gained quite that level of popularity and so stayed on as a supporting character.

Also, when Donald got his own strip there wasn't any overlap between the two strips, no guest appearances, so new characters had to be created for Donald's "universe".

[RobbK1]

Sept 21, 2023 16:07:20 GMT fredj said:

Donald, I think, quickly became very popular, even more so than Mickey, making it natural that he moved from a supporting character in Mickey's comic strip to getting his own. Goofy, presumably, never gained quite that level of popularity and so stayed on as a supporting character.

Also, when Donald got his own strip there wasn't any overlap between the two strips, no guest appearances, so new characters had to be created for Donald's "universe".

Not only did Goofy not become enough more popular than Mickey, but he and Mickey were a team that worked well together.  When Donald got his own strip, he was removed from Mickey's strip.  Goofy was the main initiator of the comedy in mickey's strip.  If he were to be removed from it, Mickey's strip would have had to live and die on only the quality of his adventures.  That would have been a disaster for the strip.  It is the interplay between Mickey and Goofy that made the strip stand out, and work.  Otherwise, adventure fans would much rather have their heroes be Humans, in a completely serious plot, rather than watch a cartoon mouse fight evil, but silly-looking villains to preserve society in a cartoon world.  It wouldn't work.  The best way to leave the lightheartedness in Mickey's strip was to keep Goofy in it.  A Goofy strip with Goofy just in comedic situations might burn out fairly quickly, and Mickey alone, or with a new permanent sidekick, might burn out, much more quickly than it's 60+ year run eventually did.  In other words, Mickey and Goofy together, were much stronger than either would have been alone.  Donald, with his new supporting cast of his nephews, Daisy, Grandma, dog (Bolivar), Uncle Scrooge, Gladstone, and Gyro Gearloose, became a much more well-rounded character than Mickey or Goofy ever did, and so, could become much more popular carrying his new strip.

[Spectrus]

Agree with Rob. There also are some memorable characters brought to the Mickey strip and comics via Goofy, such as Ellsworth and the many relatives - e.g. Uncle Wombat and Grandma Goof. And in the Italian comics he interacted with Witch Hazel and Zenobia.