Four of Scrooge's ancestors appeared in this Taliaferro/Karp strip: inducks.org/story.php?c=ZD+60-07-17 . The Stone Age ancestor is called "Oogbog McDuck", the other three go unnamed.
Ah, cool! Nice find!
I guess the story is implying that the McDucks are native American? I don't like that - they should be Scottish. I guess the fourth ancestor is from somewhere in the 1400s, when the musket was invented...?
This implies that BOTH sides of Scrooge's family (e,g, that of his father AND mother had pioneers in North America by no later than the early 1800s, and that at least one of them had a child with a Native American woman, and that that child was a male, who decided to follow the ways of his mother's people (Native American clothing, using a canoe, hunting, etc.), OR that the Native American in the picture is an ancestor of the woman who married The McDuck or Scottish man from Scrooge's mother's side of the family, whose progeny led to Scrooge's mother's birth.
I guess the story is implying that the McDucks are native American? I don't like that - they should be Scottish.
I don't think it's trying to imply anything; the notion of a family named “McDuck” being anything other than Scottish in origins is of course not only objectionable, but utterly preposterous. Karp (or whoever) just didn't think that one all the way through because deadlines, I think.
If one wants to rationalize it, this ancestor there might be the son of Matey McDuck (who per Rosa settled, and died, in Fort Drakeborough) who, finding himself orphaned, went native with the Crazy Ducks tribe?
It could be that the Native American ancestor of Scrooge could be the illegitimate son or grandson of Matey McDuck, or one of his children's or grandchildren's illegitimate sons, who stayed with his mother's people. But, for Scrooge to remember him as being his ancestor, the family had to have known about him, and passed that knowledge on. In addition, there is a big problem, as the dugout canoe was "invented" a few thousand years before The Brith came to North America, and long before The Vikings came there. So, we would need to believe in the theories that European stone age people traveled from Europe to North America along the shore of the sea ice, during the last ice age, and, somehow, against all odds, Scrooge's family kept alive the memory of that, and kept contact with that Native American family, all throughout history, until the other family members, who didn't go to The Americas, and they settled in Scotland, and that branch of the family kept track of its own history, straight through to its union with The McDucks. The odds of all that happening are nil. Much easier to dismiss this gag as apocryphal, or that the Native American was really a Scotsman who pretended to be a Native American (like "Chief Gray Owl- a Scotsman, who moved to Canada in the early 1920s, and pretended to be a nature-loving man of the forest. But EVEN THAT explanation is dubious, because the dugout canoe was invented several thousand years ago. And it's impossible that the story of the cave man could have been passed on that many thousands of generations that Scrooge's family would have known that to be true. So, it COULD be a "family legend", but is 99.99 % likely to be completely false, and, thus, a made up story.
But, for Scrooge to remember him as being his ancestor, the family had to have known about him, and passed that knowledge on.
Well, one Italian story (by Luciano Bottaro) showed Scrooge knowing full well about a 17th-century American relative of his, whom I have always assumed to be the grandson of Matey McDuck. So there's a precedent.
Your objection re: the canoe is a better one, but the ancestor in the Bottaro story was shown to have been a very dishonest man; the same could be true of the "Native American" McDuck, who could full well have conned some people into thinking he'd invented canoes when in fact he had pilfered the idea from somewhere.
Good evening. Or morning, depending on your location, I guess.
I recently stumbled upon ZD 43-12-26, which involves Donald going up to his attic to look through a chest containing a soldier's uniform from the American Civil war. Here's my thoughts on this:
1) I don't know if this is supposed to be a North- or South state uniform, since I've seen it colored both grey and blue.
2) To whom does this uniform belong? According to Rosa-timeline, Humperdink Duck (Donald's grandfather) would most likely have been born sometime around 1855. Thus, he would have been too young to participate in the war. A better candidate would have been his father (Donald's great-grandfather). This guy was also named Donald Duck, was seen in flashbacks in I TL 683-A. And wouldn't you know it, that story is all about Donald Sr. joining the war. Donald Sr. fights for the North, and his uniform is blue. This uniform could of course belong to another old relative of Donald who might have fought for the South. But any brother of Donald Sr. would likely have fought for the North as well. And the Coots were already living in Duckburg in the 1860s, so they should be part of the North too. The McDuck-side of Donald's ancestors were still in Scotland during the war, and are thus not relevant.
3) The suitcase has a name on it - 'Danial Duck'. Now, this is close to 'Daniel Duck', the name of a character that appeared in W DD 111-01. Coincidentally, I have him as Donald Sr.'s father on my family tree. Maybe this chest was passed down through the generations?
Note that I TL 683-A mentioned before with Donald Sr. did not have an English translation. Maybe Donald Sr.'s name could be translated into Danial in English? I don't like this theory, mostly because then his name would be too close to his father Daniel, but I guess it's a theory. (That being said, I don't like Donald Sr. having the same first name as Donald either. I prefer original names for characters.)
Looking at the Inducks page for this strip, the original newspaper version went with the blue uniform, while a WDC&S reprint used the gray one. Looking at the drawing, I think Taliaferro was thinking of something like this:
Looking at the Inducks page for this strip, the original newspaper version went with the blue uniform, while a WDC&S reprint used the gray one. Looking at the drawing, I think Taliaferro was thinking of something like this:
That's right - I forgot that the Sunday strips were published in color from the beginning! I wonder if Karp and Taliaferro had any say in how they were colored. And I wonder why the colors were changed in the WDC&S-version.
I did some quick Google searches, and to my un-trained eye, both sides of the war had uniform designs that look super similar to what we see in the strip. Maybe we could show the strip to some war-fanatic and ask which side they think the uniform belongs to. Since I'm not American, I'm on the wrong end of the expert-spectrum.
I just realized that the stickers on the chest doesn't necessarily mean that the soldier was from the South - it could simply be that he visited those places and maybe partook in some battles there. Like how Scrooge has Dawson and Cape Town and so on on his chest.
I don't think it's trying to imply anything; the notion of a family named “McDuck” being anything other than Scottish in origins is of course not only objectionable, but utterly preposterous. Karp (or whoever) just didn't think that one all the way through because deadlines, I think.
If one wants to rationalize it, this ancestor there might be the son of Matey McDuck (who per Rosa settled, and died, in Fort Drakeborough) who, finding himself orphaned, went native with the Crazy Ducks tribe?
It could be that the Native American ancestor of Scrooge could be the illegitimate son or grandson of Matey McDuck, or one of his children's or grandchildren's illegitimate sons, who stayed with his mother's people. But, for Scrooge to remember him as being his ancestor, the family had to have known about him, and passed that knowledge on. In addition, there is a big problem, as the dugout canoe was "invented" a few thousand years before The Brith came to North America, and long before The Vikings came there. So, we would need to believe in the theories that European stone age people traveled from Europe to North America along the shore of the sea ice, during the last ice age, and, somehow, against all odds, Scrooge's family kept alive the memory of that, and kept contact with that Native American family, all throughout history, until the other family members, who didn't go to The Americas, and they settled in Scotland, and that branch of the family kept track of its own history, straight through to its union with The McDucks. The odds of all that happening are nil. Much easier to dismiss this gag as apocryphal, or that the Native American was really a Scotsman who pretended to be a Native American (like "Chief Gray Owl- a Scotsman, who moved to Canada in the early 1920s, and pretended to be a nature-loving man of the forest. But EVEN THAT explanation is dubious, because the dugout canoe was invented several thousand years ago. And it's impossible that the story of the cave man could have been passed on that many thousands of generations that Scrooge's family would have known that to be true. So, it COULD be a "family legend", but is 99.99 % likely to be completely false, and, thus, a made up story.
I guess I have another theory: What if 'Matey McDuck's grandson' came up with the idea of a dugout canoe, all by himself. But then it turns out that it was invented by someone else long before. That would still make the story work, right? I mean, nothing says that the native American in the panel was in fact the one to invent the dugout canoe.
(By the way, him being Matey McDuck's descendant is a great solution!)
I guess I have another theory: What if 'Matey McDuck's grandson' came up with the idea of a dugout canoe, all by himself. But then it turns out that it was invented by someone else long before. That would still make the story work, right? I mean, nothing says that the native American in the panel was in fact the one to invent the dugout canoe.
(By the way, him being Matey McDuck's descendant is a great solution!)
We could opt for an even simpler solution. Perhaps the story of a Native American McDuck who invented the dugout canoe was some tall tale spun by Uncle Pothole that young Scrooge was perhaps gullible enough at the time to believe. Maybe Scrooge didn't believe the story at all at first, but later used it to brag while he was a cowboy in the West. By the time of the strip, he's used this obviously-false story to brag so many times, that he's completely forgotten just how implausible it is. I do not own the strip in question. I can't tell from the I.N.D.U.C.K.S. scan exactly what the book is titled that Scrooge shows to Donald, but, if it's not contradicted by what is in the strip or illogical, maybe it was a book written by Pothole himself to tell of how the McDuck's have been robbed of glory throughout the years. We already know that Pothole was a writer.
No matter what I say or do, know that Jesus loves you.
I have come across yet another Duck relative, this time from ZD 46-11-17. Here we have yet another relative sending Donald an ostrich, but this time it's in egg form. However, at the ripe old age of 24, my eyesight isn't what it used to be, and I can't make out what his name is from the INDUCKS-image! (Maybe it's something along the lines of Emanuel, but that's just a guess.) I can tell what every other word is in the panel, but not his first name (which frustratingly enough is the most important part)!
Does anyone have access to a better pair of eyes or a better scan?
Anyways - at least he lives in Australia and his last name is Duck. I would probably put him as a son of one of Humperdink's brothers, making him not a true uncle, but still close enough.
I have come across yet another Duck relative, this time from ZD 46-11-17. Here we have yet another relative sending Donald an ostrich, but this time it's in egg form. However, at the ripe old age of 24, my eyesight isn't what it used to be, and I can't make out what his name is from the INDUCKS-image! (Maybe it's something along the lines of Emanuel, but that's just a guess.) I can tell what every other word is in the panel, but not his first name (which frustratingly enough is the most important part)!
Does anyone have access to a better pair of eyes or a better scan?
Anyways - at least he lives in Australia and his last name is Duck. I would probably put him as a son of one of Humperdink's brothers, making him not a true uncle, but still close enough.
I have no idea what that name could be. To me, it looks like the first four letters of the name are P, E, N, and W. Then again, that "p" could be an "i". It also looks like there might be a couple of "g's" in there. I really don't though, as I too am having trouble reading it, and I have no access to a better scan.
No matter what I say or do, know that Jesus loves you.
I have come across yet another Duck relative, this time from ZD 46-11-17. Here we have yet another relative sending Donald an ostrich, but this time it's in egg form. However, at the ripe old age of 24, my eyesight isn't what it used to be, and I can't make out what his name is from the INDUCKS-image!
His name is Dinkum Duck. (As in the Australian expression "fair dinkum.")
Here's another relative of Daisy's. In YD 47-08-15, Daisy has plans to go on a date with her cousin... I assume it's not a romantic date... Anyways, we never learn of his name, but we do get a glimpse of him in the last panel. Because nothing contradicts it, for now I'm going to assume that this is the same person as cousin Dustin from YD 45-11-12.
In YD 48-06-09, Daisy mentions her grandmother who used to put loose change in a vase. There's no name mentioned, but I thought I'd include this anyways.
In YD 48-07-07, an "uncle Bill" is mentioned, but if I understand correctly this is just a radio host, and not Donald or Dewey's real uncle. However, this strip has Donald say that he has never phoned Australia, and that he doesn't know anyone there. This got me thinking of uncle Dinkum, whom we mentioned the other day. Sure, they communicate by letters and not by phone, but Donald sure knows him. Continuity was never a priority in the days of old, but this kind of bothers me. Then again, Donald could very well be lying, or this strip could possibly take place before Donald even became aware of his uncle Dinkum and his living in Australia.