Which characters would you like to see interact more?

[Orora]

We discussed before that we barely ever see Mickey hanging out with Daisy or Donald hanging out with Minnie.

Despite each being a major pop culture icon, it's very difficult to find each of them interacting with their friend's love partner.

I also mentioned Daisy interacting with Scrooge or Magica (which seems to happen a bit more, at least).


As for you, which characters, who rarely see or speak to each other, would you like to see interact more? To discover some fun new chemistries or even conflicts?

[That Duckfan]

My favourite odd couple is Gyro Gearloose with Gus Goose. According to Inducks, there are only three (!) stories where they share top billing. Two of these stories are personal favorites of mine, while the other is one that I hadn't come across before.

The first story in which they went on an adventure together was Barks' The Dream Planet, from 1959. Gyro flies Gus to a planet he saw in a dream, where everyone is as lazy as Gus is. But when Gyro shows them the first spark of invention, the natives get a taste for making life easier through invention and the comic spirals from there. Within the space of a few pages, the whole history of invention parades by.
The differences between Gus and Gyro here are interesting. Gus is a creature of comfort, and is portrayed as believing in fantasy whereas Gyro believes only in science. Of course, under the rules of funny comics, Gus' dream planet behind Pluto does turn out to be there. We also see the juxtaposition of Gyro's natural-born curiosity and inventiveness, and Gus' natural-born laziness and self-satisfaction.

The second story in which they feature together was published 43 years later in Italy: A Promise to Keep. This is the story I don't have, but given that it was created by Stefano Intini, it's probably pretty darn funny. Intini's work is reminiscent of Mastantuono's, with its broad, absurd comedy, and he has a very distinctive art style.

The third story, The Formidable Attraction, is one of the earliest Disney comics I ever read. Gyro and Gus are asked by Scrooge to fix up an old Western town he bought to make it into a tourist attraction. This should be a piece of cake thanks to Gyro's replicator. Unfortunately, Gus' questionable ideas about helping Gyro often do more harm than good. At one point, Gus makes a fire indoors in a wooden saloon because he wanted to roast some sausages for a midnight snack. They do eventually get the place fixed, but not before Gyro gets aggravated by Gus' ditzy misadventures.

According to Inducks, there are other stories in which they appear together but don't share top billing. However, these stories are difficult to find as the two often have small roles in Donald stories, or feature as cameos in a Duck family panel.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

As usual, mostly it's not a problem of what, but also and above all a problem of how.
These are the first matches that come to my mind, without thinking too much.


Donald and Mickey. 
This one is a bit of a conundrum, let me consider it properly.
So, we know the history. Donald Duck is somehow a spin-off of the original animation and comic strips series Silly Symphonies and Mickey Mouse. Donald stopped appearing in Mickey's strip continuity at the request of the distributor of the strips, not for a direct Disney studios decision. Once Donald's solo strips by Taliaferro appeared, it was somehow unfair that newspapers buying the Mickey Mouse strips hosted such a large cast of cartoon stars. This undermined the value of Donald's solo strips, often sold to rival local newspapers. (Information that I get from Gott's library.) I don't understand why they did not go with the opposite solution...letting Mickey, Goofy and so on appear as guests in Donald's strips every now and then, especially considering how well Taliaferro depicted those other cast members! But whatever. The separation became later the norm in WDCS, I guess because at the beginning those comic books were reprinting newspaper strip material, so they started with the two distinct (sub-)universes and sticked to it. Probably not to confuse the kid readers, or maybe not to complicate the job of the writers. I don't really like the separation per se, especially considering why it originated in the first place and how that original reason is not a thing anymore. Of course, we can be very happy of how things went, since I strongly doubt that we would have had the great body of work of Carl Barks if the mouse was still around in Donald's life in the 40's!
Today, Donald and Mickey interact rarely, mostly in Italian comics. They mostly meet in what we could call meta-comics: stories that celebrate anniversary of characters or comic books; meta-stories where Mickey and the gang are aware that they are Disney characters/actors, like the two vintage trio stories by Cavazzano that celebrated Gottfredson and Dalí; the phantasy series, like WoM, Donald Quest, that famous videogame; more and more rarely in literary parodies, the most recent I guess the one where Mickey and Donald were Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When they actually meet as regular characters of regular stories? I know of a Christmas story by Faraci and another one by Faccini, the one where they go for a week-end in the countryside with Goofy. Then there is a recent one by Artibani-Pastrovicchio, which is going to appear in the US too, but this one has 'the vintage trio' (pie-eyed Mickey, crazy ducky Donald, Dippy Dawn), so it is somehow a bit exceptional. Do you know of more? I do want their interaction to be an exceptional event every now and then, but twice every decade is not enough. 
There are so many possibilities to develop their relation. Mickey and Donald have the potential to make a great team. The dream would be to see the current Casty-like or Faraci-like Mickey interacting with the resourceful Donald à la Barks, which in my ideal comics universe would be the only one Donald Duck.    


Mickey, Donald and Goofy.
Well, I could repeat what written above. Goofy is a complicated character to write in comics. I wish he was actually used less as Mickey's sidekick. But I will always give a go to a trio story. Always. I mean, for me the greatest non-Barks non-Rosa Disney comic is House of The Seven Haunts! But the trio should only fall in the hands of authors who are good at writing energetic funny adventures. The recent effort by a trusted professional like Artibani, which I mentioned above, left me very cold. You will tell me what you think about the story once IDW will have released it. If you guys are still buying them.


Donald and Goofy. 
Did the two of them ever co-starred in a comic without the mouse? 


Mickey and Scrooge.
Ok, so this a mystery to me. Mickey Mouse is some kind of city hero in Mouseton. If you follow the Gottfredson-Walsh-Scarpa-Casty continuity the guy actually saved the world multiple times, sometimes with the public opinion being aware of it. Despite that, Scrooge McDuck never thought to use Mr. Mouse's services to save his money, unveil a mystery, kick Magica's feathery WAK or something. Never in modern regular publications. (Maybe sometimes in old Murray stuff?) How comes that nobody thinks of that? So much that when the publisher Glénat asks a star of French comics (who I think knows almost nothing about real Disney comics) to create a Mickey album/graphic novel, the guy goes "sure, no problem, let's make a story where Mickey and Donald must save Scrooge's money from the Beagle Boys"... and everyone goes "wow! this guy is a genius!"  🤦
Fun fact: when I decided to write comics as a hobby a few years ago, my first attempt was a story where Horace and Mickey are visiting Duckburg right while Magica and the Beagle Boys are teaming-up to attack the deposit. It was just a basic frenetic plot full of gags put down for me to try to handle the comic language, but that tells you that the idea has been for long in my mind. (In case you wonder, I then discovered that I hate scripting comics in prose. So in the latest years I have tried to learn some basic drawing skills, in order to at least create storyboards ... also, I am working on my own original series, still just for personal amusement.)

 
Fethry and Gladstone.
Barks, Rosa and minor Egmont writers have explored how the supernatural Gladstone's luck interferes with Scrooge's talent for making money. But what if that luck is confronted to the equally supernatural talent of turning every activity into an immane disaster that characterises Fethry Duck? If there is already such a story, let me now.


Fethry and Gyro.
Similar to the previous case. But less interesting to me, I never cared much about the chicken. (Wait a minute! A smart chicken ... only now I get it! Barks you son of a ...)

[LP]

I mentioned in another thread that Gyro Gearloose and Magica deSpell would be an interesting duo. Magic versus technology. It seems to me that Magica is mostly fueled by anger and some sort of obsession with Scrooge's number one dime, so there's her emotions versus Gyro's mind too. In many ways, the two of them are opposites, basically.

The idea that Donald and Daisy are meant for each other has been etched into our heads for decades now, even though they form a love triangle with Gladstone Gander. I think it could be interesting to pair Gladstone with the Daisy-prototype Donna Duck. Gladstone hates Donald, and Donna hates Daisy, and vice versa. Of course, Donna has even less of a defined personality than Daisy, so the writer would have a lot of freedom with her.

I have also thought of the Scrooge and Mickey-dynamic. I would like to see Scrooge try to make money of off Mickey's fame and heroism. Maybe Scrooge could sponsor him and produce Mickey-merchandise? This would make Donald super-jealous too, which would be great, character-wise.

I haven't seen Gladstone and Gus Goose together too often. I mean, they are always present at family gatherings, but I don't think I've ever read a conversation between the two of them. Both of them are lazy boys, and it could be interesting to see how their views on life would clash. 

Finally, I've never read a story where either the Phantom Blot or Pete travels to Duckburg to rob Scrooge McDuck. It seems like a very obvious plot, so I assume it has been done somewhere. 

[TheMidgetMoose]

I'm seeing Gyro's, Gladstone's, and Gus's names being brought up a lot. Coincidentally, the first pairing that came to my mind even before reading everyone's posts was Gladstone Gander and Gyro Gearloose. Maybe there are a good bit of stories in which they interact (If there are, please let me know which ones!), but I can't say that I know anything about their relationship from the stories I read. Their personalities are so different that I would first assume that they wouldn't get along, but then again, maybe they would. Gyro doesn't have as much reason as Donald to detest Gladstone, and I don't know why Gladstone would have anything against Gyro since Gyro isn't really a rival to him in any area. Basically, I don't know how these two do or would interact with each other, so I'd like to see at least one story (which may already exist) focusing on their relationship.

I'd also like to see more of Gus Goose with... everyone except Scrooge and Grandma (and Jaq and Gus, the Cinderella mice, I guess). We've already seen plenty of stories with Grandma and Gus interacting, and I feel like I get the gist of Scrooge and Gus's relationship. I feel like his relationships with everyone else are underdeveloped, though. There were some early Taliaferro-illustrated strips that showed Gus as having a rivalry with Donald almost like Donald and Gladstone's rivalry. Like Gladstone, he was shown as a potential suitor of Daisy's who Donald couldn't stand, though I don't remember Gus being as aggressive, boastful, or intentionally rude towards Donald as Gladstone is. It would be cool to see that aspect of the character be brought back to some extent, allowing a deeper look into his and Donald's relationship.

[TheMidgetMoose]

Apr 17, 2020 14:40:11 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

Mickey and Scrooge.
Ok, so this a mystery to me. Mickey Mouse is some kind of city hero in Mouseton. If you follow the Gottfredson-Walsh-Scarpa-Casty continuity the guy actually saved the world multiple times, sometimes with the public opinion being aware of it. Despite that, Scrooge McDuck never thought to use Mr. Mouse's services to save his money, unveil a mystery, kick Magica's feathery WAK or something. Never in modern regular publications. (Maybe sometimes in old Murray stuff?) How comes that nobody thinks of that? So much that when the publisher Glénat asks a star of French comics (who I think knows almost nothing about real Disney comics) to create a Mickey album/graphic novel, the guy goes "sure, no problem, let's make a story where Mickey and Donald must save Scrooge's money from the Beagle Boys"... and everyone goes "wow! this guy is a genius!"  🤦
Fun fact: when I decided to write comics as a hobby a few years ago, my first attempt was a story where Horace and Mickey are visiting Duckburg right while Magica and the Beagle Boys are teaming-up to attack the deposit. It was just a basic frenetic plot full of gags put down for me to try to hand the comic language, but that tells you that the idea has been for long in my mind. (In case you wonder, I then discovered that I hate scripting comics in prose. So in the latest years I have tried to learn some basic drawing skills, in order to at least create storyboards ... also, I am working on my own original series, still just for personal amusement.)

I'm sure you're already aware, but, if I remember correctly, Scrooge does actually hire Mickey to hunt down his money in this story by Romano Scarpa. I think it was stolen by the Beagle Boys in collaboration with Pete, Trudy, and Portis, so Scrooge enlisted Mickey's help since he knows quite a bit about Pete, though I could be remembering the details wrongly.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Apr 17, 2020 21:20:45 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

Apr 17, 2020 14:40:11 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

Mickey and Scrooge.
Ok, so this a mystery to me. Mickey Mouse is some kind of city hero in Mouseton. If you follow the Gottfredson-Walsh-Scarpa-Casty continuity the guy actually saved the world multiple times, sometimes with the public opinion being aware of it. Despite that, Scrooge McDuck never thought to use Mr. Mouse's services to save his money, unveil a mystery, kick Magica's feathery WAK or something. Never in modern regular publications. (Maybe sometimes in old Murray stuff?) How comes that nobody thinks of that? So much that when the publisher Glénat asks a star of French comics (who I think knows almost nothing about real Disney comics) to create a Mickey album/graphic novel, the guy goes "sure, no problem, let's make a story where Mickey and Donald must save Scrooge's money from the Beagle Boys"... and everyone goes "wow! this guy is a genius!"  🤦
Fun fact: when I decided to write comics as a hobby a few years ago, my first attempt was a story where Horace and Mickey are visiting Duckburg right while Magica and the Beagle Boys are teaming-up to attack the deposit. It was just a basic frenetic plot full of gags put down for me to try to hand the comic language, but that tells you that the idea has been for long in my mind. (In case you wonder, I then discovered that I hate scripting comics in prose. So in the latest years I have tried to learn some basic drawing skills, in order to at least create storyboards ... also, I am working on my own original series, still just for personal amusement.)

I'm sure you're already aware, but, if I remember correctly, Scrooge does actually hire Mickey to hunt down his money in this story by Romano Scarpa. I think it was stolen by the Beagle Boys in collaboration with Pete, Trudy, and Portis, so Scrooge enlisted Mickey's help since he knows quite a bit about Pete, though I could be remembering the details wrongly.

Mh. Never read it more than 20 pages of it. This is part of my personal "Ice Sword-like category": not necessarily bad, but definitely not good enough for me to engage into reading its 250 pages.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Apr 17, 2020 20:21:13 GMT LP said:

I mentioned in another thread that Gyro Gearloose and Magica deSpell would be an interesting duo. Magic versus technology. It seems to me that Magica is mostly fueled by anger and some sort of obsession with Scrooge's number one dime, so there's her emotions versus Gyro's mind too. In many ways, the two of them are opposites, basically.

Yes, interesting match. This sounds like one of those duck stories that Byron Erickson would conceive (and then ruin by stretching to the 10-pages format some plot idea that deserves six pages top!). 

I have also thought of the Scrooge and Mickey-dynamic. I would like to see Scrooge try to make money of off Mickey's fame and heroism. Maybe Scrooge could sponsor him and produce Mickey-merchandise? This would make Donald super-jealous too, which would be great, character-wise.

Great idea. It could be super funny, and contain some ironic meta-commentary on the exploitation of Mickey's iconic face in merchandising in our real world.  

Finally, I've never read a story where either the Phantom Blot or Pete travels to Duckburg to rob Scrooge McDuck. It seems like a very obvious plot, so I assume it has been done somewhere.

Yes, but I want to see them trying without teaming up with some regular Carl Barks villain! I want characters from the two familiar Calisota's city to interact, but I don't want crossovers. 

[TheMidgetMoose]

Apr 18, 2020 6:08:41 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

Apr 17, 2020 21:20:45 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

I'm sure you're already aware, but, if I remember correctly, Scrooge does actually hire Mickey to hunt down his money in this story by Romano Scarpa. I think it was stolen by the Beagle Boys in collaboration with Pete, Trudy, and Portis, so Scrooge enlisted Mickey's help since he knows quite a bit about Pete, though I could be remembering the details wrongly.

Mh. Never read it more than 20 pages of it. This is part of my personal "Ice Sword-like category": not necessarily bad, but definitely not good enough for me to engage into reading its 250 pages.

Yeah, it's definitely longer than it needs to be, but I liked it quite a bit. To each his own.

[Orora]

Apr 18, 2020 15:49:18 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

Apr 18, 2020 6:08:41 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

Mh. Never read it more than 20 pages of it. This is part of my personal "Ice Sword-like category": not necessarily bad, but definitely not good enough for me to engage into reading its 250 pages.

Yeah, it's definitely longer than it needs to be, but I liked it quite a bit. To each his own.

I am reading it currently. I wanted to read it for a long time because Korea is central to the plot and this is a culture you rarely see in Disney comics/cartoons...

Unfortunately, I felt it wasted a lot of pages on a pointless barely-related "chase" subplot.

[crazycatlord]

Apr 17, 2020 14:40:11 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

 
Fethry and Gladstone.
Barks, Rosa and minor Egmont writers have explored how the supernatural Gladstone's luck interferes with Scrooge's talent for making money. But what if that luck is confronted to the equally supernatural talent of turning every activity into an immane disaster that characterises Fethry Duck? If there is already such a story, let me now.

Almost the same thing - a story with Gladstone and Biquinho, the nephew of Fethry: Muito Azar Também É Sorte, and has some similarities with you are talking - luck versus disaster (the name in english means "Much bad luck is also luck"

Fethry and Gyro.
Similar to the previous case. But less interesting to me, I never cared much about the chicken. (Wait a minute! A smart chicken ... only now I get it! Barks you son of a ...)

Visitante Irritante (Fethry and Gyro)

O Concurso (Biquinho an Gyro)

[crazycatlord]

Apr 18, 2020 6:17:32 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

Finally, I've never read a story where either the Phantom Blot or Pete travels to Duckburg to rob Scrooge McDuck. It seems like a very obvious plot, so I assume it has been done somewhere.

Yes, but I want to see them trying without teaming up with some regular Carl Barks villain! I want characters from the two familiar Calisota's city to interact, but I don't want crossovers. 

"Reward For The Blot", perhaps (Phantom Blot and Mad Madam Mim against Scrooge); "Secret Sea Raider" does not count, because PB allies with the Beagle Brothers to rob Scrooge (and, technically, was not in Duckburg).

[drleevezan]

Apr 17, 2020 21:14:56 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

I'm seeing Gyro's, Gladstone's, and Gus's names being brought up a lot. Coincidentally, the first pairing that came to my mind even before reading everyone's posts was Gladstone Gander and Gyro Gearloose. Maybe there are a good bit of stories in which they interact (If there are, please let me know which ones!), but I can't say that I know anything about their relationship from the stories I read. Their personalities are so different that I would first assume that they wouldn't get along, but then again, maybe they would. Gyro doesn't have as much reason as Donald to detest Gladstone, and I don't know why Gladstone would have anything against Gyro since Gyro isn't really a rival to him in any area. Basically, I don't know how these two do or would interact with each other, so I'd like to see at least one story (which may already exist) focusing on their relationship.

I know of two stories which star Gyro and Gladstone together: It Takes Two to Tangle (https://inducks.org/story.php?c=W+WDC+247-02) and Lucky in the Lab (https://inducks.org/story.php?c=W+WDC+247-02).

[That Duckfan]

Apr 17, 2020 14:40:11 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

As usual, mostly it's not a problem of what, but also and above all a problem of how.
These are the first matches that come to my mind, without thinking too much.


Donald and Mickey. 
This one is a bit of a conundrum, let me consider it properly.
So, we know the history. Donald Duck is somehow a spin-off of the original animation and comic strips series Silly Symphonies and Mickey Mouse. Donald stopped appearing in Mickey's strip continuity at the request of the distributor of the strips, not for a direct Disney studios decision. Once Donald's solo strips by Taliaferro appeared, it was somehow unfair that newspapers buying the Mickey Mouse strips hosted such a large cast of cartoon stars. This undermined the value of Donald's solo strips, often sold to rival local newspapers. (Information that I get from Gott's library.) I don't understand why they did not go with the opposite solution...letting Mickey, Goofy and so on appear as guests in Donald's strips every now and then, especially considering how well Taliaferro depicted those other cast members! But whatever. The separation became later the norm in WDCS, I guess because at the beginning those comic books were reprinting newspaper strip material, so they started with the two distinct (sub-)universes and sticked to it. Probably not to confuse the kid readers, or maybe not to complicate the job of the writers. I don't really like the separation per se, especially considering why it originated in the first place and how that original reason is not a thing anymore. Of course, we can be very happy of how things went, since I strongly doubt that we would have had the great body of work of Carl Barks if the mouse was still around in Donald's life in the 40's!
Today, Donald and Mickey interact rarely, mostly in Italian comics. They meet in what we could call meta-comics: stories that celebrate anniversary of characters or comic books; meta-stories where Mickey and the gang are aware that they are Disney characters/actors, like the two vintage trio stories by Cavazzano that celebrated Gottfredson and Dalí; the phantasy series, like WoM, Donald Quest, that famous videogame; more and more rarely in literary parodies, the most recent I guess the one where Mickey and Donald were Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When they actually meet as regular characters of regular stories? I know of a Christmas story by Faraci and another one by Faccini, whereven e they go having a week-end in the countryside with Goofy. Then there is a recent one by Artibani-Pastrovicchio, which is going to appear in the US too, but this one has 'the vintage trio' (pie-eyed Mickey, crazy ducky Donald, Dippy Dawn), so it is somehow a bit exceptional. Do you know of more? I do want their interaction to be an exceptional event every now and then, but twice every decade is not enough. 
There are so many possibilities to develop their relation. Mickey and Donald have the potential to make a great team. The dream would be to see the current Casty-like or Faraci-like Mickey interacting with the resourceful Donald à la Barks, which in my ideal comics universe would be the only one Donald Duck.    


Mickey, Donald and Goofy.
Well, I could repeat what written above. Goofy is a complicated character to write in comics. I wish he was actually used less as Mickey's sidekick. But I will always give a go to a trio story. Always. I mean, for me the greatest non-Barks non-Rosa Disney comic is House of The Seven Haunts! But the trio should only fall in the hands of authors who are good at writing energetic funny adventures. The recent effort by a trusted professional like Artibani, which I mentioned above, left me very cold. You will tell me what you think about the story once IDW will have released it. If you guys are still buying them.

My mind wanders to Ferioli's Mystery of Freefer Hall... As with the "vintage trio" stories you mention, there's a tendency among artists to harken back to the heydays of the trio. Partying like it's 1938, as it were. But while this is fine for Mickey and Goofy, for Donald this means evolving back into a pre-Barks state. There's less of the ingenuity, less of the heroism in Donald when Mickey takes center stage. Mickey is fine -- I consider his 1938 incarnation to be the definitive one -- but it comes at the expense of the others.

That's why I'd rather see more adventures of The Three Caballeros. They've been shown to work in modern times, and each have got a number of unique attributes without either one of them necessarily being the leader. Jose is the city scamp, Panchito the rowdy cowboy, and Donald the adventurer/straight man.

As for women, I'd like to see more of Daisy and Brigitta. They seem to get on pretty well together, and there aren't many alternatives I could think of. (What does Minnie do? Isn't Magica a bit too... different?)
I mean, in general I think it would be nice to see more of permanent cast around Daisy and Magica that doesn't involve the usual suspects. There's Magica's family -- her niece, grandma, and stalker -- but there's much more you could do with her that doesn't directly have to do with that dime. Who does Magica talk to most days besides her raven? Her neighbor down Mount Vesuvius? The mailman? Friends?
As for Daisy, we know she's a bit of a socialite. She attends dinner lectures (the ones Donald always falls asleep during), she organizes events with her club, she writes in her diaries. I know much of this was created by Barks to make her a "reward" for Donald, but look at it from her perspective: she's clearly very involved in Duckburg's public life. And she's done some adventuring of her own, too. I bet she'd make a fine reporter, too.

[TheMidgetMoose]

Apr 19, 2020 5:49:22 GMT drleevezan said:

Apr 17, 2020 21:14:56 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

I'm seeing Gyro's, Gladstone's, and Gus's names being brought up a lot. Coincidentally, the first pairing that came to my mind even before reading everyone's posts was Gladstone Gander and Gyro Gearloose. Maybe there are a good bit of stories in which they interact (If there are, please let me know which ones!), but I can't say that I know anything about their relationship from the stories I read. Their personalities are so different that I would first assume that they wouldn't get along, but then again, maybe they would. Gyro doesn't have as much reason as Donald to detest Gladstone, and I don't know why Gladstone would have anything against Gyro since Gyro isn't really a rival to him in any area. Basically, I don't know how these two do or would interact with each other, so I'd like to see at least one story (which may already exist) focusing on their relationship.

I know of two stories which star Gyro and Gladstone together: It Takes Two to Tangle (https://inducks.org/story.php?c=W+WDC+247-02) and Lucky in the Lab (https://inducks.org/story.php?c=W+WDC+247-02).

Thank you! I'll try to check them out soon.