How to explain Whitewater's position in Don Rosa's tree?
Oct 27, 2019 19:15:16 GMT
Fethryfan likes this
Post by drakeborough on Oct 27, 2019 19:15:16 GMT
There isn't really one. It's one of the few Rosa facts that simply breaks down immediately when you wander out of his canon. No one else but Rosa ever thought the idea of Scrooge as the only male McDuck alive held much water.
Too bad, I think it was a very good and powerful idea, both poetic and dramatic. It's one of the instances of what TV Ttropes calls Uniqueness Decay, which usually don't do any good to fiction.
Brigitta:
>>>>>the user "Phantom Duck" has discovered an "extended version" of your Duck Family tree which seems to have some differences from the one we all know very well:
The things some users were wondering about are:
1) The presence of Fethry Duck in the tree (I seem to remeber he always was in the tree, but others don't think so)
2) The presence of Ludwig Von Drake as Matilda's husband (you already said you liked to think they were married, but the thing was never made "official")
3) And most of all, the presence of one "Jamie Hawkins" as HDL's father!
Hello! Glad to see you're still here (and so am I). Francesco Stajano was my houseguest a few weeks ago -- he mentioned you and/or others on this forum are helping with translating some of the interviews he has done with me here during this and previous visits. Thanks for that.
As to your query:
That image is of a new version of my Duck Family Tree that I did for a friend of mine as a gift, and kept a copy of it after I gave the (huge!) piece of original art to him. Lately I thought that, if I made it into one of the prints I take to American comics shows to which I'm invited, maybe some other Duckfans would like it. What you have found somewhere on-line is an image of one of those prints.
As to Fethry Duck, he is a European character... more precisely, he was created by writers/artists in America for the European market back in the 60's when that market was demanding more Duck comics than the collapsing American comics market was producing. His stories have never appeared in America, only in Europe (until Gladstone reprinted a few of them in the 90's). He is a character that I did not grow up with, nor is he a character that Barks created or ever used. Therefore, I originally did not intend to include him in the Duck Family Tree that I created for Egmont back around 1992 which is the only version prior to this new one done for my pal. But Egmont convinced me how well-established Fethry was for European readers and how his absence from any Duck Family Tree would have seemed quite puzzling. So, yes, he was on my 1992 Duck Family Tree.
On the other hand, there was Ludwig Von Drake with whom I *had* grown up as the host of Disney's WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR TV series (designed to promote new Disney movies and theme parks and to sell RCA color TV sets in the early 60's), as well as in American comics of the period. LVD was even used ONCE by Unca Carl, so he was "canon" to my Barks-only way of thinking. I wanted to include LVD in my 1992 Tree, but Egmont's editors of that period did not like the character (for unknown and probably stupid reasons), had declared him "dead" or "nonexistent", and would not allow me to put him into the Tree.
When I did that new version of the Tree for my pal, the Tree as I actually always intended it, I included LVD in the only position he could occupy and still be Donald's Uncle -- that being as husband to $crooge's sister Matilda. And I left Fethry in the Tree since I was now convinced he deserved his spot in the Barks/Northern Europe Duck "universe", whether created/used by Barks or not.
(Italian Duck fans should not get themselves bent out of shape by the absence from my Tree of the many Italian Duck relatives -- remember, those characters only appear in Italian comics and Scandinavian Italian-reprint digests. They are all TOTALLY UNKNOWN in the USA -- I never even knew they existed until the 90's. They are of a separate "Universe" from the American/Northern-Euro Barks-based Duck Universe. And don't blame me for that -- that's just the way it is.)
As to your third question, the name on the plate below the Nephews' father is the name of the fan to whom I gave that particular print at some recent comics convention. I left that plate blank on the original art since it has never been determined what the Nephews' father's name is. But at conventions I write the name of (male) Duckfans into that space to reveal that fan to be the unknown father of Huey, Dewey and Louie. It makes an interesting conversation piece when framed on the fan's wall at home or office, even though the main conversation in America would more likely be "Donald Duck comics? There are Donald Duck comics?!"
>>>>>the user "Phantom Duck" has discovered an "extended version" of your Duck Family tree which seems to have some differences from the one we all know very well:
The things some users were wondering about are:
1) The presence of Fethry Duck in the tree (I seem to remeber he always was in the tree, but others don't think so)
2) The presence of Ludwig Von Drake as Matilda's husband (you already said you liked to think they were married, but the thing was never made "official")
3) And most of all, the presence of one "Jamie Hawkins" as HDL's father!
Hello! Glad to see you're still here (and so am I). Francesco Stajano was my houseguest a few weeks ago -- he mentioned you and/or others on this forum are helping with translating some of the interviews he has done with me here during this and previous visits. Thanks for that.
As to your query:
That image is of a new version of my Duck Family Tree that I did for a friend of mine as a gift, and kept a copy of it after I gave the (huge!) piece of original art to him. Lately I thought that, if I made it into one of the prints I take to American comics shows to which I'm invited, maybe some other Duckfans would like it. What you have found somewhere on-line is an image of one of those prints.
As to Fethry Duck, he is a European character... more precisely, he was created by writers/artists in America for the European market back in the 60's when that market was demanding more Duck comics than the collapsing American comics market was producing. His stories have never appeared in America, only in Europe (until Gladstone reprinted a few of them in the 90's). He is a character that I did not grow up with, nor is he a character that Barks created or ever used. Therefore, I originally did not intend to include him in the Duck Family Tree that I created for Egmont back around 1992 which is the only version prior to this new one done for my pal. But Egmont convinced me how well-established Fethry was for European readers and how his absence from any Duck Family Tree would have seemed quite puzzling. So, yes, he was on my 1992 Duck Family Tree.
On the other hand, there was Ludwig Von Drake with whom I *had* grown up as the host of Disney's WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR TV series (designed to promote new Disney movies and theme parks and to sell RCA color TV sets in the early 60's), as well as in American comics of the period. LVD was even used ONCE by Unca Carl, so he was "canon" to my Barks-only way of thinking. I wanted to include LVD in my 1992 Tree, but Egmont's editors of that period did not like the character (for unknown and probably stupid reasons), had declared him "dead" or "nonexistent", and would not allow me to put him into the Tree.
When I did that new version of the Tree for my pal, the Tree as I actually always intended it, I included LVD in the only position he could occupy and still be Donald's Uncle -- that being as husband to $crooge's sister Matilda. And I left Fethry in the Tree since I was now convinced he deserved his spot in the Barks/Northern Europe Duck "universe", whether created/used by Barks or not.
(Italian Duck fans should not get themselves bent out of shape by the absence from my Tree of the many Italian Duck relatives -- remember, those characters only appear in Italian comics and Scandinavian Italian-reprint digests. They are all TOTALLY UNKNOWN in the USA -- I never even knew they existed until the 90's. They are of a separate "Universe" from the American/Northern-Euro Barks-based Duck Universe. And don't blame me for that -- that's just the way it is.)
As to your third question, the name on the plate below the Nephews' father is the name of the fan to whom I gave that particular print at some recent comics convention. I left that plate blank on the original art since it has never been determined what the Nephews' father's name is. But at conventions I write the name of (male) Duckfans into that space to reveal that fan to be the unknown father of Huey, Dewey and Louie. It makes an interesting conversation piece when framed on the fan's wall at home or office, even though the main conversation in America would more likely be "Donald Duck comics? There are Donald Duck comics?!"
You may also be interested in this: Fethry indirectly appears in the family tree Gus draws in "The Duck Who Never Was". There are no names in it, but you can tell from the structure who is who: Eider and Lulubelle have two children.
I must admit, it never made sense. I mean, were almost all McDuck's killed or something, and only Dingus, Quagmire and his children survived? The "Last of" is a reocurring theme in Barks' works (Chisel McSue was the "last heir of clan McSue", and there is also the guy who described himself as the "last of clan Whiskerville")