Siblings of Major Characters

[swedishforesteagle]

Feb 9, 2020 0:23:40 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

Feb 9, 2020 0:05:21 GMT swedishforesteagle said:

I have a strong memory of one issue of some comic having a story about one of Goofy's brothers/cousins (or another such relative) visit him as Mickey was tagging along. It conveyed a character that Goofy apparently was quite envious of because each time he'd visit he'd tell him of all his adventures and travels.

If I want to continue to recall correctly, there was also a resolution ending up showing that he was a bit fraudulent and that a lot of his claimed deeds were photo-edits and on-set shots.

I've tried using inducks to sniff them out, although with little success so far.

Very interesting, especially if it's a brother. The closest thing I can find on INDUCKS is this. The INDUCKS scan is too small for me to actually read the story, but it mostly fits your description as far as I can tell. The character in this story is a cousin according to the INDUCKS description.

Precisely the one I was thinking about! So, yup, turns out it was a cousin. Neat!

[TheMidgetMoose]

It's been over two -- actually, almost three -- years since I first made this thread, and in the time since, I've learned so much more about these siblings of major characters. For example, in LP 's Goofy Family Tree thread, it's been deducted that Joe, whom I mentioned as a potential brother of Goofy's, is probably Goofy's brother-in-law, though I think things are vague enough that it could be interpreted either way. Another potential Goofy sibling, Loony, has been confirmed by sim to be Goofy's brother according to Piece-Work, though I see now that, when opening this thread, I mistakenly referred to Loony as a "barber." He is, in fact, a butcher. He stills get to cut stuff, I guess. Anyhow, this little addendum is not about any that, but rather about a character that I've been thinking about a good bit lately. Now, this is not a character that I would really consider to be major, but I've begun to wonder if he could maybe, just maybe, be the brother of another character who definitely counts as "major." Mr. Not-so-major is Dimwitty Duck, and Ms. Major is the leading lady of Duck comics herself, Daisy...

Daisy Duck (addendum)

To reiterate what I stated in my original posts over two years ago, Daisy Duck has three younger brothers according to the 1954 short Donald's Diary. These rambunctious little ducklings appear to be triplets.

Now, here are some questions to ponder. Does Donald's Diary take place in the past or the present-day? Since it purports to show the beginning of Donald and Daisy's dating relationship, I would actually say that this short takes place in the "past," some years before the complete establishment of the status quo which most stories abide by. This means that Daisy's little brother could possibly be much older by the time in which most comics and cartoons occur. They could be young adults much like Daisy herself...

I linked previously to some blog posts from xanderares where he outlines his theories and musings on the Duck brothers. This is the post from Xanderares which I would to direct you today. Xanderares states that the story Paperino e Paperotta, which I have never personally read, is some sort of fantasy or historical story taking place centuries ago. He says that one of the main characters is a Daisy Duck-clone. This Daisy Duck-clone is apparently given, yup, three brothers. These brothers, however, are much older than the Donald's Diary brothers and also have more variation amongst themselves, no longer appearing to just be Huey, Dewey, and Louie clones. Having not read the story, I don't know if these characters are really the Daisy lookalike's brothers or not. Does anyone here possibly have this story and can just give a little extra confirmation as to who these guys are? Xanderares did provide pictures of these fellows. See below.

Now, of course, these characters are just the brothers of a Daisy Duck lookalike, not of Daisy Duck herself. Still, I think it's an interesting coincidence to consider that modern Daisy does have three brothers in Donald's Diary, and these fellows could be representations of what those little ducklings look like today, as adults, albeit without the medieval armor.

Keep all of this in mind as I bring you to Mr. Not-so-major and, I propose, one of Daisy's brothers, Dimwitty Duck. Dimwitty is an interesting character when it comes to genealogy. I've seen him on fanmade Duck family trees before, but I've never seen firm evidence that he is actually related to Donald Duck's family and not just an unrelated drake with the same surname. The best piece of evidence, to my knowledge, that Dimwitty is indeed somehow genealogically to one of the definitively major Ducks is found in Bob Gregory's 1977 story The Birthday Booby Trap (INDUCKS). Here, Scrooge McDuck is hypnotized into sending bags of money to members of his family. These family members who received some of that McDuck dough later show up in his office, and we see there what is definitely the silhouette of Dimwitty Duck, who steps out of the shadows in the last panel of the story to attend Uncle Scrooge's birthday party.

That is the best piece of evidence from an official story, at least of which I am aware, that Dimwitty is indeed a Duck family relative. How, though, is he related to the Duck family? I decided to look at Dimwitty's first ever appearance. Though Dimwitty may be most well-known as salty old Moby Duck's first mate and deckhand, he started out not as Moby's buddy, but as a janitor for a detective agency run by Donald and Daisy Duck! This is seen in Dimwitty's debut, The Vanishing Bannister (INDUCKS). Dimwitty (or Dim-witty) here seems to be familiar with Donald and Daisy, and honestly, Donald and Daisy are a bit too nice to him, at least for their characters. Dim-witty mocks Daisy and is pretty incompetent, yet Daisy does not lose her temper at him and Donald still takes him with him to go solve a mystery. This dynamic between these three, to me, makes sense when one views Dim-witty as Daisy's obnoxious younger brother. He's allowed to make fun of Daisy without Donald or Daisy blowing a fuse because it's it's something he's done all his life. Donald takes him along because he's used to having to take this kid with him to do stuff, as he probably had to do when he and Daisy were first dating back in the Donald's Diary days. Dim-witty looks practically nothing like Daisy, but he does look like he could be the son of Daisy's parents as they appear in Donald's diary. See the graph below.

I also think that Dimwitty bears a passing resemblance to the tall, skinny character Paperino e Paperotta whom Xanderares believes is a representation of our Daisy's brothers as adults. They both have what appear to be somewhat longer than usual beaks, an above-average height, and long or longish hair.

Now, all of this is speculative. I am not all trying to imply that Dim-witty being Daisy's little brother was the intent of Vic Lockman or any other Disney comics author. This is speculation in the vein of the previous speculation that an unnamed jeweler appearing in a text story called Inspector Clumper could be Gladstone Gander's brother. We have some evidence that Daisy has younger brothers, that one of these brothers may grow up to be tall and skinny with a long beak and a head full of hair, and that Dim-witty Duck is somehow related to the "main" Duck family. The real question now is this: Can Daisy and Dim-witty even be siblings? Are there are any stories which explicitly deny a potential siblinghood between these two? To my knowledge, the answer to the latter question is no.

According to INDUCKS, Daisy and Dimwitty have appeared in only nine actual stories together (the list is here). Of these, Musical Skipper is just a one-pager in which Dim-witty and Daisy don't seem to interact, and Dim-witty's appearance in Dangerous Currency is just a cameo that doesn't prove anything about his relationship to Daisy. That leaves seven stories to analyze. Of those seven, I have only been able to read the aforementioned Vanishing Bannister and Birthday Booby Trap (neither of which had anything in it that explicitly denied a Daisy and Dim-witty siblinghood) and two other stories, The Fix-it Fiasco and The Not-so-Magic Mirror. As best as I can tell, nothing in these stories makes a Daisy and Dim-witty siblinghood impossible. Indeed, I think Dimwitty being Daisy's younger brother helps their interactions in this story make more sense. In both of these stories, Dim-witty is a rather incapable handyman who only seems to make situations with him. Daisy isn't pleased with this, of course, but she, to me, seems uncharacteristically patient. I'm surprised Daisy would even let Dimwitty work on her house, but I could see it if he's her younger brother trying to start his own business.

IF INDUCKS is correct, that leaves just three Dimwitty and Daisy stories which could possibly contain information that condemns the very concept of Dimwitty being Daisy's brother. Those three stories are The Big Escape, The Spotted Polar Puss, and Hero Worship. I may try to find and read these stories some day myself, but in the mean time, has anyone hear read them? How would you describe Dimwitty and Daisy's dynamic in these stories?

On a final note, when Dimwitty does step out of his silhouette in The Birthday Booby Trap, he is seen standing close to an anonymous female duck who was invited to Uncle Scrooge's birthday party, is dressed similarly to Daisy, and who, as was mentioned in the original post on this thread, could be Daisy's sister. If she is indeed Daisy's sister, and if Dim-witty is Daisy's brother, then this panel depicts siblings stepping up at the same time to give birthday gifts to their sort-of-kind-of relative Scrooge McDuck. Now that is fun!

What do you think of this theory? Again, I know that this was not the authorial intent, but does it maybe make some sense? Is it even possible, or is there some official comic or cartoon out there which makes this relationship impossible? Can we find other characters to identify with Daisy's other two brothers in their adulthood?

[sim]

Oct 2, 2022 2:34:09 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

It's been over two -- actually, almost three -- years since I first made this thread, and in the time since, I've learned so much more about these siblings of major characters. For example, in LP 's Goofy Family Tree thread, it's been deducted that Joe, whom I mentioned as a potential brother of Goofy's, is probably Goofy's brother-in-law, though I think things are vague enough that it could be interpreted either way. Another potential Goofy sibling, Loony, has been confirmed by sim to be Goofy's brother according to Piece-Work, though I see now that, when opening this thread, I mistakenly referred to Loony as a "barber." He is, in fact, a butcher. He stills get to cut stuff, I guess. Anyhow, this little addendum is not about any that, but rather about a character that I've been thinking about a good bit lately. Now, this is not a character that I would really consider to be major, but I've begun to wonder if he could maybe, just maybe, be the brother of another character who definitely counts as "major." Mr. Not-so-major is Dimwitty Duck, and Ms. Major is the leading lady of Duck comics herself, Daisy...

Daisy Duck (addendum)

To reiterate what I stated in my original posts over two years ago, Daisy Duck has three younger brothers according to the 1954 short Donald's Diary. These rambunctious little ducklings appear to be triplets.

Now, here are some questions to ponder. Does Donald's Diary take place in the past or the present-day? Since it purports to show the beginning of Donald and Daisy's dating relationship, I would actually say that this short takes place in the "past," some years before the complete establishment of the status quo which most stories abide by. This means that Daisy's little brother could possibly be much older by the time in which most comics and cartoons occur. They could be young adults much like Daisy herself...

I linked previously to some blog posts from xanderares where he outlines his theories and musings on the Duck brothers. This is the post from Xanderares which I would to direct you today. Xanderares states that the story Paperino e Paperotta, which I have never personally read, is some sort of fantasy or historical story taking place centuries ago. He says that one of the main characters is a Daisy Duck-clone. This Daisy Duck-clone is apparently given, yup, three brothers. These brothers, however, are much older than the Donald's Diary brothers and also have more variation amongst themselves, no longer appearing to just be Huey, Dewey, and Louie clones. Having not read the story, I don't know if these characters are really the Daisy lookalike's brothers or not. Does anyone here possibly have this story and can just give a little extra confirmation as to who these guys are? Xanderares did provide pictures of these fellows. See below.

Now, of course, these characters are just the brothers of a Daisy Duck lookalike, not of Daisy Duck herself. Still, I think it's an interesting coincidence to consider that modern Daisy does have three brothers in Donald's Diary, and these fellows could be representations of what those little ducklings look like today, as adults, albeit without the medieval armor.

Keep all of this in mind as I bring you to Mr. Not-so-major and, I propose, one of Daisy's brothers, Dimwitty Duck. Dimwitty is an interesting character when it comes to genealogy. I've seen him on fanmade Duck family trees before, but I've never seen firm evidence that he is actually related to Donald Duck's family and not just an unrelated drake with the same surname. The best piece of evidence, to my knowledge, that Dimwitty is indeed somehow genealogically to one of the definitively major Ducks is found in Bob Gregory's 1977 story The Birthday Booby Trap (INDUCKS). Here, Scrooge McDuck is hypnotized into sending bags of money to members of his family. These family members who received some of that McDuck dough later show up in his office, and we see there what is definitely the silhouette of Dimwitty Duck, who steps out of the shadows in the last panel of the story to attend Uncle Scrooge's birthday party.

That is the best piece of evidence from an official story, at least of which I am aware, that Dimwitty is indeed a Duck family relative. How, though, is he related to the Duck family? I decided to look at Dimwitty's first ever appearance. Though Dimwitty may be most well-known as salty old Moby Duck's first mate and deckhand, he started out not as Moby's buddy, but as a janitor for a detective agency run by Donald and Daisy Duck! This is seen in Dimwitty's debut, The Vanishing Bannister (INDUCKS). Dimwitty (or Dim-witty) here seems to be familiar with Donald and Daisy, and honestly, Donald and Daisy are a bit too nice to him, at least for their characters. Dim-witty mocks Daisy and is pretty incompetent, yet Daisy does not lose her temper at him and Donald still takes him with him to go solve a mystery. This dynamic between these three, to me, makes sense when one views Dim-witty as Daisy's obnoxious younger brother. He's allowed to make fun of Daisy without Donald or Daisy blowing a fuse because it's it's something he's done all his life. Donald takes him along because he's used to having to take this kid with him to do stuff, as he probably had to do when he and Daisy were first dating back in the Donald's Diary days. Dim-witty looks practically nothing like Daisy, but he does look like he could be the son of Daisy's parents as they appear in Donald's diary. See the graph below.

I also think that Dimwitty bears a passing resemblance to the tall, skinny character Paperino e Paperotta whom Xanderares believes is a representation of our Daisy's brothers as adults. They both have what appear to be somewhat longer than usual beaks, an above-average height, and long or longish hair.

Now, all of this is speculative. I am not all trying to imply that Dim-witty being Daisy's little brother was the intent of Vic Lockman or any other Disney comics author. This is speculation in the vein of the previous speculation that an unnamed jeweler appearing in a text story called Inspector Clumper could be Gladstone Gander's brother. We have some evidence that Daisy has younger brothers, that one of these brothers may grow up to be tall and skinny with a long beak and a head full of hair, and that Dim-witty Duck is somehow related to the "main" Duck family. The real question now is this: Can Daisy and Dim-witty even be siblings? Are there are any stories which explicitly deny a potential siblinghood between these two? To my knowledge, the answer to the latter question is no.

According to INDUCKS, Daisy and Dimwitty have appeared in only nine actual stories together (the list is here). Of these, Musical Skipper is just a one-pager in which Dim-witty and Daisy don't seem to interact, and Dim-witty's appearance in Dangerous Currency is just a cameo that doesn't prove anything about his relationship to Daisy. That leaves seven stories to analyze. Of those seven, I have only been able to read the aforementioned Vanishing Bannister and Birthday Booby Trap (neither of which had anything in it that explicitly denied a Daisy and Dim-witty siblinghood) and two other stories, The Fix-it Fiasco and The Not-so-Magic Mirror. As best as I can tell, nothing in these stories makes a Daisy and Dim-witty siblinghood impossible. Indeed, I think Dimwitty being Daisy's younger brother helps their interactions in this story make more sense. In both of these stories, Dim-witty is a rather incapable handyman who only seems to make situations with him. Daisy isn't pleased with this, of course, but she, to me, seems uncharacteristically patient. I'm surprised Daisy would even let Dimwitty work on her house, but I could see it if he's her younger brother trying to start his own business.

IF INDUCKS is correct, that leaves just three Dimwitty and Daisy stories which could possibly contain information that condemns the very concept of Dimwitty being Daisy's brother. Those three stories are The Big Escape, The Spotted Polar Puss, and Hero Worship. I may try to find and read these stories some day myself, but in the mean time, has anyone hear read them? How would you describe Dimwitty and Daisy's dynamic in these stories?

On a final note, when Dimwitty does step out of his silhouette in The Birthday Booby Trap, he is seen standing close to an anonymous female duck who was invited to Uncle Scrooge's birthday party, is dressed similarly to Daisy, and who, as was mentioned in the original post on this thread, could be Daisy's sister. If she is indeed Daisy's sister, and if Dim-witty is Daisy's brother, then this panel depicts siblings stepping up at the same time to give birthday gifts to their sort-of-kind-of relative Scrooge McDuck. Now that is fun!

What do you think of this theory? Again, I know that this was not the authorial intent, but does it maybe make some sense? Is it even possible, or is there some official comic or cartoon out there which makes this relationship impossible? Can we find other characters to identify with Daisy's other two brothers in their adulthood?

Your theory is interesting. I only read The Big Escape of the three you are missing and nothing would contradict your idea except for Daisy calling his "brother" by full name when she sees him, which would sound a bit weird to me.

[TheMidgetMoose]

Oct 11, 2022 20:21:39 GMT sim said:

Your theory is interesting. I only read The Big Escape of the three you are missing and nothing would contradict your idea except for Daisy calling his "brother" by full name when she sees him, which would sound a bit weird to me.

Thank you so much for the scan and information, sim! I love seeing progress made towards either denying a theory or leaving open the possibility! Indeed, that is a bit weird, though I find it personally weird to refer to anyone that you know by their full name like that. I could see a sister doing this to a younger brother in the context of, to some extent, correcting or chiding that sibling. Just borrowing names from the cartoon that my name and avatar come from, say that I randomly see my brother "Balsam" doing something stupid or odd and call out "Balsam Horatio Moose! What do you think you are doing?" I can't tell if that's what Daisy is or could be doing here. Is this Daisy's first time seeing Dimwitty in the story? Also, I really hope that Dimwitty's full name is actually "Dimothy Witticus Duck" or something fancy like that.

[sim]

Oct 12, 2022 1:57:19 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

Is this Daisy's first time seeing Dimwitty in the story?

Yes.