I'm not sure for that. As I remember in one Barks' story Uncle Scrooge call Grandma Duck "Grandma", if she is Donald's mom, that would be rather weird.
I believe this was discussed in another thread. But just out of curiosity, how come you say that Barks and Taliaferro believed Grandma is Donald's mother, Jopduck? In which stories do they say this?
I think Jopduck is referring to the fact that in the early Barks story Donald refers to her as Grandma when speaking to the boys, which can be interpreted to mean that she is *their* Grandma and his mother. In a Karp/Taliaferro strip, both the boys and Donald call her "Grandma," with one nephew saying, "Grandma's coming!" Also, Jopduck is influenced by the many European stories in which Scrooge and Grandma Duck were portrayed as siblings. My understanding is that in most recent stories they are no longer portrayed in this way, largely due to the fact that the Rosa stories and family tree have set out a view of the family relationships which is now fairly generally accepted. Since Rosa's family tree is based on Barks' own outline, it is apparent that Barks himself came to think of Grandma Duck as Donald's grandmother on his father's side, while Scrooge is Donald's uncle on his mother's side. (If you want to see Barks' outline, Jopduck, google "Carl Barks family tree".) However, if Jopduck wants to maintain an alternate view where Scrooge and Grandma Duck are brother and sister and GD is Donald's mother, I believe he has every right to do so.
Since I'm an American, I didn't encounter any stories in which Scrooge and Grandma Duck were portrayed as siblings until I started reading comics from other countries. So the Barks/Rosa family tree always felt right to me.
It's a common misconception that Al Taliaferro intended Grandma to be Donald's mother, but there is no evidence that this was the case, and plenty of evidence that he intended her as Donald grandmother right from the start (the most obvious sf these being that Donald always refers to her as "Grandma" or "Granny" and never as "Mother" or "Mom", not even when the nephews are not around (which they aren't in the vast majority of the strips that feature Grandma). In fact, even stories that portray Scrooge and Grandma as siblings show Grandma as Donald's grandmother as his aunt. There has never been any production where Grandma Duck was said to be Donald's mother (though, of course that doesn't make it illegal for you to think otherwise it's just that the claim that Taliaferro intended her as Donald's mother is false. I wrote a post about this a few years ago in the topic "Grandma Duck as Sscrooge's sister: where does it come from?" where I went into all of it, so I'll quote it here:
Indeed, Grandma Duck was never actually said to be Donald's mother, not even in Taliaferro's newspaper comics and "This is Your Life, Donald Duck" (where Donald refers to her as "Grandma" throughout the episode). In "From Egg to Duck" (or at least its German translation; I haven't read the original Italian version) Grandma is more of an adoptive grandmother to Donald, because "in terms of age [she] could have easily been a grandmother" (again, German version). Later in the story, Scrooge discovers that Donald is his *actual* nephew, making Grandma Donald's aunt.
The fact that she refers to Donald as "son" doesn't necessarily mean that she's Donald's mother. In Taliaferro's Donald Duck strips, both Ludwig and Scrooge often referred to Donald as "son", ( for example coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=YD+61-11-30 and coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=ZD+51-03-18 ), while both of them are uncles of Donald's.
As for Grandma referring to herself as HDL's grandmother: Scrooge has been referred to as HDL's uncle, too, while he's actually their great-uncle, and Gladstone has been referred to has HDL's cousin (Gladstone Returns). The newspaper comics were centered around Donald, and the nephews weren't as prominent; most of the strips that featured Grandma Duck focused on the large generation gap between Grandma and Donald (e.g. Grandma gives Donald money that she's been saving, which turns out to be confederate money (!). The strips also revealed that Grandma hasn't missed a train in "60 years" ( coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=ZD+51-02-25&search=train%20%20GD ). Also, (though it was only mentioned once in the newspaper strips) HDL were the sons of Donald's cousin Della. With this in mind, if Grandma were Donald's mother, she wouldn't be HDL's grandma, but their great-aunt.
Last Edit: May 16, 2018 15:49:05 GMT by Scroogerello
I know those family trees from Barks. It is only that Grandma Duck can be another character than Grandma Duck. In a Barks story she is called Elvira. Her real name is Elvira. And you do have a grandmother yourself. That just has to be done. How then can your father and mother be born who have brought you to life. I also think stories are more important than pedigrees.
When I started that message, your message was not there yet so that was a reaction from before. But a reaction about your message: Grandma can just be a nickname. I also wrote some things about it in DCML where I started a topic.
And on the Spanish version of: inducks.org/story.php?c=YD+43-10-07 says Donald mother. Spain is already enjoying it. About that newspaper strip is a lot of talk at McDrake.
I already alluded to that in my previous message. She doesn't refer to herself as Donald's mother, so it's not evidence that Taliaferro (or Karp, rather) thought of her as such. I highly doubt that the writers of the strip even realized that her being Donald's grandmother would make her Huey, Dewey and Louie's great-grandmother. And as I mentioned if she were HDL's grandmother, she'd be Donald's aunt, since the comic strips had HDL as the sons of "Cousin Della". Now, of there were a strip where Donald calls her "mom" or "mother", that would change things. But he never did in any Disney production to date, which already pretty much proves my point.
As I said, you can theorize as you please, but there has never been any indication that Taliaferro intended her as Donald's mother. But I'm just repeating my arguments from the message I previously quoted.
My theory is that Thelma is the niece and sister of Donald. She is married to Donald's cousin. She is married to her cousin. And there is nowhere that she sends her own children. Perhaps the children were first sent to Della and then sent it to Donald.
This is incorrect. Neither Barks nor Taliaferro ever gave Grandma a first name. The issue of Grandma's relationship to Donald and to Scrooge, as well as her first name (including the provenance of "Elvira") has been discussed extensively elsewhere on this forum. For example, here, here and here. It might be helpful to run a search and continue the discussion on the relevant threads, otherwise we will all be repeating ourselves endlessly every time a new thread on this topic is posted.
it's just that the claim that Taliaferro intended her as Donald's mother is false. I wrote a post about this a few years ago in the topic "Grandma Duck as Sscrooge's sister: where does it come from?" where I went into all of it, so I'll quote it here: