Post by Scrooge MacDuck on Feb 13, 2016 18:17:25 GMT
So, pretty self-explanatory: what are your favorites ?
RULES:
— Do note that we said Disney Comics, not Donald & Mickey Comics; if you want to pick Zeke Wolf or Brer Rabbit, it's allowed.
— It doesn't have to be a main character, but it mustn't a one-shot, either.
— You have to pick your favorites, not a single favorite, so don't go into big dilemma if you have two characters from which you don't want to choose. • That being said, you're still allowed to say a single character if you want to.
Favorite character is a threefer: Huey, Dewey & Louie.
Since male characters have so much more "screen time" (panel time?) than female characters in Disney comics, my favorite character overall just about has to be male. Favorite female character: Eurasia Toft--thank you for bringing her to the English-speaking world, IDW Disney! In childhood, I would have said Madam Mim. I liked Magica, too, but she always had to lose in the end.
If I had to pick a favorite Disney Comics character, it would be tempting to say Uncle Scrooge, but Donald Duck would have the edge over Unca' Scrooge. Donald is more flexible...you can easily put Unca' Donald in almost any type of a story, where Scrooge is more limited...his stories usually involve protecting his money, increasing his money, competing with other "multi-zulti-zillionaires" or going on a treasure hunt. Donald isn't bound to the McDuck formula. Mickey is tied with Scrooge for second place. Mickey is more the classic Hero type, which lends his stories a bit less moral ambiguity than the Duck world, but you can always count on Mickey to do the right thing. It's a nice break from some of the more cynical Duck material sometimes.
If I had to pick a favorite female character, it's Minnie Mouse almost by default. More so than Daisy, Minnie often gets to be an active participant in some of Mickey's adventures, especially in early Gottfredson strips.
Favorite filler character? I have a soft spot for Scamp (and I'm not even a dog person...) The little pup's adventures are cute and sweet. You just want to give the little guy a hug and a scratch behind his ears.
Post by Scrooge MacDuck on Feb 14, 2016 12:27:46 GMT
Well, in the Donald vs Scrooge vs Mickey dilemma, I disagree… for the same reasons for which you like Donald better: since they're more flexible, Donald and Mickey often feel more like plot devices than like characters with a distinctive personality and backstory, while Scrooge has those things. I too am a Mad Madam Mim fan. I also love Ludwig von Drake, as I already said on my blog, though of course he fits a cartoon format better than a comic one (oh, I so wish Don Rosa could have used him !). Eega Beeva is a good character too, and so is Goofy…
I also like Pluto a lot in cartoon format, but it's mostly due to his often very creative animation; he looses much of his appeal in static drawings. So I guess he doesn't count here.
I have a special spot in my heart for the "Duck Quintet": Donald, Scrooge, Huey, Dewey and Louie. Having "rode along" on their fantastic adventures over the decades (especially the Barks tales) I feel that they are old friends.
But Mickey gets equal space. I love mysteries, and so does that mouse! The Carl Fallberg/Paul Murry serials were exciting when I was young.
Honorable mentions go out to the supporting characters who always brought their own "something" to the stories, like Daisy Duck, Minnie Mouse, Neighbor Jones, Magica de Spell and...the Phantom Blot!
Post by Scrooge MacDuck on Feb 14, 2016 16:27:08 GMT
Hello ! Welcome !
And yes, of course, the Duck Quintet is familiar to (and loved by) us all; it's just that, however we may like them, we can think that other characters are, nostalgia aside, better-written. Interesting opinions, though !
Yay, another Madam Mim fan! Nice to hear it, scroogemacduck. She'd still be my favorite female character, if there had been more recent stories about her. I've found a bunch of short stories featuring Mim in 1990's German comics, including a couple I like, but she hasn't been seen on these shores in many a year. I see on Inducks that Sarah Kinney wrote a Mim story in 2002 (Flavor of the Month) which never got printed in French *or* German--I wonder if we'll ever see that (or any other Mim story) in the IDW comics. There might be a licensing issue. The Gemstone editor wrote that they weren't allowed to print Mim stories because she was a feature film character, and they didn't have that license. (Scamp didn't count as a feature film character, because while he came from Lady and the Tramp, he was created as a named character for the comics.)
Debbie, I think Minnie might have been my favorite female character in childhood if I had been exposed to the early Gottfredson stuff. But I saw only the Murry stories where Mickey's adventuring sidekick was Goofy. Minnie, like Daisy, was just The Girlfriend. A nicer girlfriend, but not a very interesting one. More recently, I have read some European stories where Minnie goes on adventures with a female friend: Clarabelle, or Danda, an archaeologist one-shot character, or even in one story Eurasia Toft!
Donald has an everyman spirit in the comics that I enjoy.
He struggles with bills, and jobs, and failures and I think that makes his stories feel particularly relatable.
I really became a fan of Bucky Bug during the Gemstone era. I couldn't point out a particular reason, but I consistently enjoy the stories.
I also enjoy watching what Little Helper does in his limited appearances. Perhaps it draws from my love for characters who seldom speak (Pink Panther), but I like subtle storytelling where you have to pay attention to what's going on in the surrounding environment.
It's also one of my favorite aspects of Don Rosa's work and an area he doesn't get nearly enough credit for - his humor.
When I was small, I might've said HDL, or maybe Scrooge, but these days, predictable though it may be, Donald is my favorite Disney character hands-down, and possibly my favorite character in anything ever. I wrote an article in some journal, I forget the name, arguing that the character, as portrayed by Barks, is perfectly representative of the modern condition: constant striving in spite of existing in an unstable, constantly shifting world, and I still maintain that. I admire the hell out of him, even--sort of--when he's being a WAK-up. I like plenty of characters, but all of the others that I can think of are limited in a way that Donald isn't.
Just to give a different answer than usual, as a kid I think some of my favourite stories to read were the Sherlock Holmes parody ones with The Sleuth. So I'm putting my vote there. The character has a nice design and was amusing, despite his incompetence.
also Geox, thanks for that test of the swear-filter :V
Just to give a different answer than usual, as a kid I think some of my favourite stories to read were the Sherlock Holmes parody ones with The Sleuth. So I'm putting my vote there. The character has a nice design and was amusing, despite his incompetence.
also Geox, thanks for that test of the swear-filter :V
Original, indeed. I liked the Sleuth very much too, and also Professor Nefarious.
When I was small, I might've said HDL, or maybe Scrooge, but these days, predictable though it may be, Donald is my favorite Disney character hands-down, and possibly my favorite character in anything ever. I wrote an article in some journal, I forget the name, arguing that the character, as portrayed by Barks, is perfectly representative of the modern condition: constant striving in spite of existing in an unstable, constantly shifting world, and I still maintain that. I admire the hell out of him, even--sort of--when he's being a WAK-up. I like plenty of characters, but all of the others that I can think of are limited in a way that Donald isn't.
Sounds interesting, that article. Can I read it anywhere?
I'm going to be typically contrary and say that it's impossible for me to pick a favorite. The comic creators influence a story just too much for me to tell. Scrooge is gold in the hands of Don Rosa, Barks can make Donald come to life like nobody else, but some Italian artists can make Grandma Duck or Magica DeSpell simply amazing, or some of their own creations like Bum-Bum Ghigno, and William Van Horn's style transcends all of his characters. Duck Avenger is unique, but so is Brigitta MacBridge.
Just to give a different answer than usual, as a kid I think some of my favourite stories to read were the Sherlock Holmes parody ones with The Sleuth. So I'm putting my vote there. The character has a nice design and was amusing, despite his incompetence.
Say, I have good news for you and all The Sleuth fans around: the character has recently gotten a totally unexpected new appearance. He is cast as Captain Smollet in the recent “Grand Parody” of Treasure Island.