The German INDUCKS description of this story: coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+2010-113&search=Frau%20%20Bolderbast claims that it contains an appearance by Jones' wife, as well. However, I have the story in Dutch, and in the Dutch translation she is said to be Jones' sister, instead, so Im not sure which translation is faithful to the original, and whether she was intended to be his wife or his sister.
Have you considered which of the characters can be widowed or divorced? Brigitta and Rockerduck both belong to high society and are too old to be naively considered by anyone as inexperienced. Considering it is common knowledge that high society marriages are usually short lived, i think that both of them were married at some point in the past. And what about Glomgold? I don't think that he was as noble as Scrooge to sacrifice his love life. And i always wondered how he became wealthy in the first place. Could he have inherited his first millions/billions from a cougar wife that ''accidentally'' died soon after the wedding?
The German INDUCKS description of this story: coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+2010-113&search=Frau%20%20Bolderbast claims that it contains an appearance by Jones' wife, as well. However, I have the story in Dutch, and in the Dutch translation she is said to be Jones' sister, instead, so Im not sure which translation is faithful to the original, and whether she was intended to be his wife or his sister.
Have you considered which of the characters can be widowed or divorced? Brigitta and Rockerduck both belong to high society and are too old to be naively considered by anyone as inexperienced. Considering it is common knowledge that high society marriages are usually short lived, i think that both of them were married at some point in the past. And what about Glomgold? I don't think that he was as noble as Scrooge to sacrifice his love life. And i always wondered how he became wealthy in the first place. Could he have inherited his first millions/billions from a cougar wife that ''accidentally'' died soon after the wedding?
I agree that it makes more sense to think of Rockerduck as divorced than as having never married. That's even more true if, as I do, one sees these stories as taking place in the mid-20th century.
I said before that Glomgold is probably single because he mirrors Scrooge in almost every way except for morals. I wouldn't say Scrooge's choice to sacrifice his love life was "noble"--more just a matter of exclusive obsessive focus on amassing wealth. In that Glomgold certainly mirrors Scrooge.
Brigitta has never become real to me in my headcanon, so I don't care about her personal past. But yes, she's old enough that it would be odd if someone so romantically focused hadn't had some previous liaisons, including possibly a marriage.
If one accepts that Dickie is Goldie's granddaughter but doesn't think she is Scrooge's, then Goldie may have been married and either widowed or divorced. Even if Dickie is Scrooge's granddaughter, of course, Goldie could still have married someone else in the many intervening years. The same applies to Belle Duck. She also could have been married and then widowed or divorced.
There are widows, of course: Grandma Duck, obviously, and presumably also Katie Mallard.
On another note, it looks like the appearance of Daisy's parents in "The Danger Caves" may be just as framed photographs....which doesn't establish whether they are alive.
The American comic A Phantom Blot Bedtime Story (1991) introduces the Phantom Brat, daughter of the Phantom Blot. I haven't read it: does the story talk about her mother?
The American comic A Phantom Blot Bedtime Story (1991) introduces the Phantom Brat, daughter of the Phantom Blot. I haven't read it: does the story talk about her mother?
Nope. It's a rather heart-breaking diptic, too, and I love it. (I say diptic because the 'Bedtime Story' only makes sense as a 'second part' to another story, the Phantom Brat already appears in that story.)
If you don't mind spoilers… throughout that first story, the Phantom Blot has been chased by Mickey and Goofy for having stolen a large diamond. The story ends with the Blot presumed dead after falling down a pit. In the last page, after Mickey and Goofy have already gone, we see the Phantom Blot's very young daughter ("Phantom Brat" is a fan name that does not appear in the story, and not a very good name, because she's not a "brat" at all) emerges from the nearby woods, calling for her "daddy" over and over, before saying, crying: "I… I didn't want the diamond that badly…" And on to the next part. If said second part did not exist, I feel that story would probably be one of the saddes endings to a Disney comics.
In Bedtime Story itself, we see the Phantom Blot telling a distorted version of the previous story's event to his daughter as a bedtime story. In this version, Mickey is an "evil rat king" and the Phantom Blot is a hero. At the end, after the girl has fallen asleep, we see the Phantom Blot has already been arrested by Mickey, but asked for enough time to say goodbye to his daughter and tell her why he's going to be missing "in his own way" (it's shown that the girl is going to be taken care of by the housekeeper Mrs Fragmuffin, so there's no mother in sight).
The American comic A Phantom Blot Bedtime Story (1991) introduces the Phantom Brat, daughter of the Phantom Blot. I haven't read it: does the story talk about her mother?
Nope. It's a rather heart-breaking diptic, too, and I love it. (I say diptic because the 'Bedtime Story' only makes sense as a 'second part' to another story, the Phantom Brat already appears in that story.)
I guess the "first part" is The Big Fall (1990). I was surprised to see that the Phantom Brat doesn't have an Inducks page, and now that I know that she appears in two stories I am even more surprised.
Anyway, I find annoying that the Blot keeps his hood even when he is at home with his daughter, and I find even more annoying that said daughter wears a similar hood herself.
Nope. It's a rather heart-breaking diptic, too, and I love it. (I say diptic because the 'Bedtime Story' only makes sense as a 'second part' to another story, the Phantom Brat already appears in that story.)
I guess the "first part" is The Big Fall (1990). I was surprised to see that the Phantom Brat doesn't have an Inducks page, and now that I know that she appears in two stories I am even more surprised.
Anyway, I find annoying that the Blot keeps his hood even when he is at home with his daughter, and I find even more annoying that said daughter wears a similar hood herself.
Perhaps, but on the other hand the authors are clearly having fun with it. The toys have hoods too.
I guess the "first part" is The Big Fall (1990). I was surprised to see that the Phantom Brat doesn't have an Inducks page, and now that I know that she appears in two stories I am even more surprised.
Anyway, I find annoying that the Blot keeps his hood even when he is at home with his daughter, and I find even more annoying that said daughter wears a similar hood herself.
Perhaps, but on the other hand the authors are clearly having fun with it. The toys have hoods too.
Even the toys?
In my opinion, these stories clearly misunderstood the reason the Blot wears a hood in the fist place. But I guess it's also a matter of imprinting: I grew up with stories in which the Blot wears it the whole story, wears it only in scenes where it's needed, or doesn't wear it at all depending on the context, so for me that's the natural way to do. Only later I read W-coded stories with the always-hooded Blot: I found them awful, and not just for the hood.
I even heard that in some countries (France maybe?) the Blot has been given different names depending on whether he has his hood or not.
Post by Scrooge MacDuck on Jul 10, 2017 13:31:59 GMT
Yeah, it was France. The unmasked Blot's name was given as Joe Criss (a pun on "jocrisse", an antiquated word for a wily, untrustworthy hoodlum). (Also, I don't find the hooded toys cringeworthy; it seems pretty clear to me that the authors also thought not allowing the Blot to go unmasked was ridiculous, and decided to take it up to eleven as a self-parodying joke.)
(Also, I don't find the hooded toys cringeworthy; it seems pretty clear to me that the authors also thought not allowing the Blot to go unmasked was ridiculous, and decided to take it up to eleven as a self-parodying joke.)
If they thought it was ridiculous, they could have avoided doing that like plenty of stories have avoided it.
(Also, I don't find the hooded toys cringeworthy; it seems pretty clear to me that the authors also thought not allowing the Blot to go unmasked was ridiculous, and decided to take it up to eleven as a self-parodying joke.)
If they thought it was ridiculous, they could have avoided doing that like plenty of stories have avoided it.
Stories where the Blot is temporarily unmasked usually just called him the Phantom Blot. The whole Jo/Joe Crisse (I think both spellings were used, memory may trick me though) thing wasn't a conscious decision, it was the translators getting confused because they didn't know that was what an unmasked Blot looked like. One exception I recall, however, showed them "finally" unmasking the Phantom Blot and being surprised that the Blot and Crisse were the same person all along.
I'm not sure they could have showed him unmasked. Would the Disney Adventures editors have authorized it?
Stories where the Blot is temporarily unmasked usually just called him the Phantom Blot. The whole Jo/Joe Crisse (I think both spellings were used, memory may trick me though) thing wasn't a conscious decision, it was the translators getting confused because they didn't know that was what an unmasked Blot looked like. One exception I recall, however, showed them "finally" unmasking the Phantom Blot and being surprised that the Blot and Crisse were the same person all along.
I get it. Do you remember the title of that story? Was it a French comic, or the French translation of a foreign story?
I'm not sure they could have showed him unmasked. Would the Disney Adventures editors have authorized it?
I don't know these editors so I can't say, but the Phantom Blot is shown unmasked all the times and for editors it's not a big deal. Of course, most of these stories were not produced in the USA (in fact, has the Blot's face ever been shown in an American story, excluding "Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot" and its various remakes?), but this didn't prevent American comics from printing foreign stories (like "The Blot's Double Secret") in which we see the Blot's face.
Disney Comics' MMA was different from anything published before in that it more or less treated itself as starting fresh, modernizing the American Gottfredsonian tradition for a 90s audience. Anything outside that range simply wasn't included.
Much as the cloak has a purpose to it, it's also BP's iconic look. I have no doubt that if the series had continued we'd have gotten the guy without mask, but as these two stories "revived" the character by their own reckoning, it's understandable they prioritized his iconic look. Another matter might be that the Phantom Brat was a gamble. You can tell from the editorial there was doubt how she'd be received, even a between-the-lines that no future was set out for her, and possibly it was preferred to wait with a design until after audience feedback.
In-story, I like to go with the fact she idolizes her father and loves the stories he tells of his deeds. Her own cloak and the toys' mask would just be an expression of that; a child dressing up like their hero.
Post by Baar Baar Jinx on Jul 10, 2017 17:04:52 GMT
We're getting off topic here, but ...
I still maintain that the Blot works best as a villain if an air of mystery is maintained about what he looks like under the hood. I agree that having him cloaked all the time is a silly way to achieve it, but perhaps, on those occasions when he is not in costume, he could be hidden in shadow or obscured from view by some clever camera angles. In the American comics, he was never shown unmasked after his original Gottfredson appearance, so it would have still been plausible to pursue such an artifice (in the Italian comics, I guess, his being unmasked was de rigueur). But having his daughter also be masked was, indeed, ridiculous.