The latest special issue of the Dutch Donald Duck weekly has two stories featuring Gus Goose's mom and dad, who (as far as I know) have never appeared before: inducks.org/issue.php?c=nl%2FDD2019X37 , which kinda breaks with the tradition of not showing main characters' parents in the comics. However, it just so happens to be one of those darn "subscribers-only" issues, so they're not available in stores and exclusively available for subscribers, so I can't get my hands on a copy. But maybe some of the other Dutch fans on the forum who *do* have a subscription can tell us a little bit about them. I wonder what their characterization is like, since they basically had to be created from scratch. Here's an image of Gus and his mom from the INDUCKS.
Last Edit: Sept 8, 2019 11:43:00 GMT by Scroogerello
The latest special issue of the Dutch Donald Duck weekly has two stories featuring Gus Goose's mom and dad, who (as far as I know) have never appeared before: inducks.org/issue.php?c=nl%2FDD2019X37 , which kinda breaks with the tradition of not showing main characters' parents in the comics. However, it just so happens to be one of those darn "subscribers-only" issues, so they're not available in stores and exclusively available for subscribers, so I can't get my hands on a copy. But maybe some of the other Dutch fans on the forum who *do* have a subscription can tell us a little bit about them. I wonder what their characterization is like, since they basically had to be created from scratch. Here's an image of Gus and his mom from the INDUCKS.
I really like this redesign, actually! Well, should could have kept the pointed beak that Rosa gave her, but otherwise I like the head. I'm curious to see what they did with Luke.
Post by Baar Baar Jinx on Sept 8, 2019 22:53:34 GMT
I'm just glad that the Duck/McDuck/Coot/Gander/Goose family members who really shouldn't be dead are finally being used in "modern day" stories (assuming that's what this is, but Gus looks like an adult, so it's probably not a flashback story).
EDIT: Just translated it ... is this supposed to be a scene from before Gus goes to work on Grandma's farm?
I'm just glad that the Duck/McDuck/Coot/Gander/Goose family members who really shouldn't be dead are finally being used in "modern day" stories (assuming that's what this is, but Gus looks like an adult, so it's probably not a flashback story).
EDIT: Just translated it ... is this supposed to be a scene from before Gus goes to work on Grandma's farm?
Yep, it's called "Hoe Gijs bij Oma Duck kwam" ("How Gus ended up at Grandma Duck's"). But from the way Gus looks, I'm assuming it's supposed to take place very shortly before the "present-day". Plus, INDUCKS mentions Fanny and Luke also appear in the opening story of the issue, which doesn't seem to be a flashback.
I'm just glad that the Duck/McDuck/Coot/Gander/Goose family members who really shouldn't be dead are finally being used in "modern day" stories (assuming that's what this is, but Gus looks like an adult, so it's probably not a flashback story).
I guess my head-canon has been that at least Fanny and Luke are dead. It's a re-appropriated idea from Barks' old family tree, in which Luke Goose and his wife overate at a free lunch. Of course, originally, that wife was Daphne, not Fanny, and they were Gladstone's parents, not Gus'. But I think that would be a fitting end to Gus Goose's parents, and also it makes use of some almost forgotten lore. I also think that Hortense should be dead, but otherwise I'm okay with that generation being alive. Certainly Eider, Daphne and Goosetave. I'm on the fence about Quackmore though. We never see him anywhere. Where is he?
I view Quackmore as having predeceased Hortensia, perhaps (if one prefers the tragic) in the same accident that in my headcanon killed Della and her husband.
Post by Baar Baar Jinx on Sept 10, 2019 12:14:06 GMT
LP, your idea of repurposing the "dying from overeating at a picnic" story to instead apply to Luke and Fanny is a good one ... in general I don't like to kill off more relatives than we need to, but salvaging this bit of lore that came directly from Barks' mind is certainly attractive (and it seems like a fate befitting the parents of a glutton like Gus). Do you imagine then that Grandma raised Gus? Their relationship doesn't seem quite like foster child and foster parent (I know this new set of stories contradicts any such discussion, but anyway ...).
In my headcanon, Della is a single parent, and dead (yes, I know that contradicts Taliaferro, but I dismiss those early strips as having been written before the character relationships were solidified; Taliaferro also showed Scrooge being a visitor unfamiliar with Duckburg in his first appearance in the strip, as opposed to being instrumental in its development as in Barks/Rosa lore, so certain things in the Taliaferro strips need to be ignored). Quackmore is dead too, and both Della and Quackmore predeceased Hortense (probably in a tragic accident). Hortense lived until 1947 (she's the "Grandma" in "Donald Duck's Best Christmas" ... note that Donald never refers to this character as "Grandma" in that story, only the boys do, and her appearance and personality there is quite different from Elvira's ... as well as "the boys' grandmother" referred to in several early Barks stories previously discussed on this thread), but was incapacitated in some way towards the end of her life. Her death is what sparked Scrooge to contact Donald and arrange for their meeting in "Christmas on Bear Mountain"; Scrooge felt bad that he never reconciled with her during her lifetime, and wanted to at least try and develop a relationship with her surviving family. This Scrooge, of course, never met Della.
I would have liked Gladstone's parents to still be alive as well (you could explain their absence from Christmas gatherings at Elvira's farm based on the estrangement between the Gander and Duck families), but as we've discussed previously in this thread, Rosa's "Sign of the Triple Distelfink" suggests that they are not (Rosa himself seemed to have forgotten this in a later DCML post). For a long time I was resistant to the idea of Matilda being alive "in present day", since I couldn't imagine her distancing herself from Hortense's children and grandchildren, no matter what her problems with Scrooge were; in "Letter from Home", while Donald is aware of her, HD&L have never met her before. She should have had an active hand in raising them! However, I've come around, and she is alive in my headcanon now, although I still need to come up with an acceptable way to explain her motivations and actions. I'm aghast at Rosa's statement that he intended to have Hortense also be alive in "Letter from Home" ... that would have been a terrible decision! Thank goodness better sense prevailed and he was talked out of it (or ordered to cease-and-desist) by his editors!
LP, your idea of repurposing the "dying from overeating at a picnic" story to instead apply to Luke and Fanny is a good one ...
I was once partial to it, but since Jolley made a whole comic story out of retooling the "picnic" scenario into a properly dramatic (and thematically satisfying) end for the Gander parents, I really can't follow this idea anymore.
Actually, Rosa for once showed good sense in planning to have Hortense alive in Letter from Home. Her interactions with Donald and with Scrooge would have enhanced the story a great deal, and that's the important consideration in writing a story--not appeasing fandom's obsessions with "realism." If Barks had been as concerned with continuity and "logic" as Rosa usually is and as today's fans always are, he would never have created Scrooge, Gladstone, Gyro, the Beagle Boys, or any of his other great characters--characters who just walk on and act as if they'd always been there, without their creator engaging in any agonizing over where they've been before now.
Post by Scroogerello on Sept 10, 2019 16:11:06 GMT
I don't understand why the absence of parents in the stories means they must be dead? If you look at any show or novel, film, etc. you'll rarely get to see every single character's parents--that doesn't mean everyone's an orphan! As long as they don't have an important role to fulfill in the stories, there's no reason they *should* appear.
I don't understand why the absence of parents in the stories means they must be dead? If you look at any show or novel, film, etc. you'll rarely get to see every single character's parents--that doesn't mean everyone's an orphan! As long as they don't have an important role to fulfill in the stories, there's no reason they *should* appear.
I agree that this is true for most relatives of supporting characters (such as Gladstone's or Gus' parents, for example), but with main characters like HD&L's or Donald's parents, it seems hard to accept that they never appear over so many stories, or family gatherings, or in discussions where such a relationship would come up.
I don't see why it's hard to accept at all. The Duck stories are usually either far-flung adventures (with Donald, Scrooge, and HDL) or domestic comedies (usually just with Donald, HDL, and sometimes a single relative/foil like Scrooge or Gladstone). Neither type of story requires grandparents to regularly participate; Grandma Duck herself only occasionally appeared with her relatives in Barks' stories. There's no reason to pronounce a character "dead" just because they're generally unnecessary to telling typical Duck stories. If a good story idea involving Donald's parents arose, I think writers should be free to use it, and just as free to stop using the parents again until they're needed.
Post by Baar Baar Jinx on Sept 10, 2019 17:24:28 GMT
I do see your point. However, with HD&L, there's the question of why they live with Donald in the first place. With Donald's parents, I agree there doesn't need to be regular use of them, but when questions come up about inheritance and the like, it's clear they're not in the picture. Part of it, I think, at least in my mind, is that the Duckverse is very family-centric. For example, we don't ask or care about Mickey' parents. But the Mouseverse main characters are not related to each other (except Morty and Ferdie, who clearly don't have as much a role as HD&L do in the Duckverse, and writers have in any case addressed the question of their mother at least).
I don't see why it's hard to accept at all. The Duck stories are usually either far-flung adventures (with Donald, Scrooge, and HDL) or domestic comedies (usually just with Donald, HDL, and sometimes a single relative/foil like Scrooge or Gladstone). Neither type of story requires grandparents to regularly participate; Grandma Duck herself only occasionally appeared with her relatives in Barks' stories. There's no reason to pronounce a character "dead" just because they're generally unnecessary to telling typical Duck stories. If a good story idea involving Donald's parents arose, I think writers should be free to use it, and just as free to stop using the parents again until they're needed.
I agree with you that there's no reason to pronounce a character dead just because they haven't shown up in most Duck stories. There are some ways that certain characters' absence has been evident, though. As Baar Baar Jinx notes, the existence or nonexistence of relatives has come up in discussions about inheritance. Also, he mentioned above "family gatherings": another fairly common type of Duck story, in addition to those you mention, is the holiday or birthday story, often involving a gathering of family and friends. If parents/grandparents/siblings of current characters were alive, you'd really expect them to show up or at least be mentioned at such gatherings. Sure, I agree that given the loosey-goosey nature of Disney comics canon, creators should be free to come up with some relative never seen before for a particular story. But they've got to be aware that it might seem weird to people who've read a pile of birthday/Christmas stories that this person has never been seen or heard of before.
I myself have found a way to deal with the issue of Daisy's family in this context, but that wouldn't work with every character. Daisy often appears at Donald's family's Christmas gatherings. I've decided that her sister, her sister's husband, and the triplets AMJ spend the Christmas holidays with his family of origin out of state, leaving Daisy without family in Duckburg at Christmastime. The parents of Daisy and her sister could still be alive and local, but not well enough for a big festive gathering. Maybe she spends time with them at Christmas as well as sharing Christmas dinner with Donald's family.