1 - some reference to "The Wise Little Hen"; yes, it is difficult to reconcile with much of the "canon", but it is generally considered the debut of Donald Duck (even if older references had been discovered), then I think this is indispensable, even if with some kind of trick (DD as an actor for Disney? A school play?)
2 - at high school, some talk between Donald and Daisy like "Donald - I will never forget you; Daisy - Nonsense; I bet that, some years later, you can find me and not even remembering" (or perhaps Donald having this talk about Daisy with a third character); a reference to, for an hand, the childhood and youth stories that show already something between Donald and Daisy, and, for the other, the first stories with both (where they, apparently, don't know each other before).
3 - Some kind of training (in the Boneheads?), and very good (in the Boneheads??!!), of how to behave in a forest fire - a reference to "Vacation Time" (where Donald is depicted as much more competent than in most stories).
4 - That is more of a joke, but perhaps, in high school, Donald studying very hard to an exam of chemistry and having a kind of breakdown, forgetting every thing about the issue (perhaps after the exam? before? depending of the story having a happy or unhappy tone), and saying something like "I think I will only remembered what I studied with a knock on the head" (reference to "The Mad Chemist").
Last Edit: Jun 26, 2020 14:19:48 GMT by crazycatlord
And I will avoid the stories being in immediate sequence, like I think it is the case of LToS; this (stories in immediate sequence, instead of discrete episodes - Lord of the Rings/Star Wars instead of Indiana Jones/James Bond), imo, has the problem of "locking" the general story, making more difficult to other people to write other stories without entering in contradiction.
3 - Some kind of training (in the Boneheads?), and very good (in the Boneheads??!!), of how to behave in a forest fire - a reference to "Vacation Time" (where Donald is depicted as much more competent than in most stories).
Ah, that's a fine point! Where did he learn how to behave in a forest fire? In his short time in the JWs, before he was expelled due to temper tantrums? Or in the Booneheads? It could be funny to have a story involving the One Competent Boonehead Leader. How did the OCBL end up devoting his time to the Booneheads rather than to the JWs? Did someone in his family have a tiff with a Coot or a Gearloose? Was the leader's father a suitor of Elvira's, and when she chose Humperdink he determined that he and his family would never have anything to do with anything Cootish?
1. Young Donald. This would build on the flashback scene seen in Rosa's The Sign Of The Triple Distelfink and Donald's appearance at the end of Lo$ chapter 11. 2. A Disney friendly version of Donald's involvement in WW2 (without explicitly mentioning WW2 of course). 3. Young adult Donald back in the US, living just outside Duckburg (referencing Wise Little Hen). 4. A Donald + Mickey adventure. I always imagined Donald and Mickey's present day relationship as distant friends who used to be much closer, this chapter would elaborate on that. 5. Donald meeting HDL and becoming their foster parent (referencing HDL's first appearance by Taliaferro).
Post by TheMidgetMoose on Jul 15, 2020 0:30:07 GMT
I apologize in advance for the latest chapter being almost entirely based on cartoons and having very little to do with comics. I don't know of any comics that deal with the specifics of Donald's service in World War II. I think a few might have hinted to it, but I don't remember that had any useful details or nuggets of information.
Chapter 1 (19?? - 1931) - We're introduced to Donald and his family. Donald attends school with Della, Gyro, and Jughead Jones. Maybe Daisy is at his school, too, but she is only seen in the background and plays no major role in the chapter. Donald succumbs to bad influences and becomes more of a rascal than before. Hortense has a falling out with Scrooge.
Chapter 2 (1931 - 1932) - Quackmore and Hortense move around. Donald develops many skills in an attempt to make friends but never really makes any lasting friendships since he never stays anywhere long enough to really let the friendships grow. The family moves to Mickey Mouse's hometown.
Chapter 3 (1932) - Donald hears about and begins to look up to the legendary Mickey Mouse. He finally meets him after Mickey saves Quackmore from air pirates. Donald shows off his musical skills, which he might have learned from Amos P. Zoup, in front of Mickey. Mickey then introduces Donald to movie producer Walt Disney, who offers Donald a role in films.
Chapter 4 (1932 - 1933) - Donald becomes a child actor for Walt Disney Studios. He begins to feel more independent from his parents. He stars in films alongside Mickey and Goofy. However, his career doesn't really take off. He doesn't really become a "star" so much as a kid who appeared in a few films. Being so young, he thinks that he's now a great star and begins to have a higher opinion of himself.
Chapter 5 (1934 - 1935) - Quackmore dies in a plane crash, and the family moves back to Duckburg. When Hortense finds a new romance with the sleazy Mr. Drake, Donald leaves. First, he stays on Grandma's property and befriends Peter Pig. Eventually, he gets an offer to move in with Amos in Silo Center and takes him up on the offer so he can see Mickey and Goofy again.
Chapter 6 (1935 - 1936) - Donald decides to spend the summer sailing with his cousin, Moby Duck. They travel throughout North, Central, and South America. Along the way, they meet two fans of Donald's acting, José Carioca of Brazil and Panchito Pistoles of Mexico. Donald befriends them, and they dub themselves "The Three Caballeros". Panchito gifts Donald with a burro named Basil. Donald also falls in love with Donna Duck in Mexico, but the relationship doesn't last. Moby, Donald, José, and Panchito foil an evil plan before parting ways. A few months later, Donald, still a sailor, gets a letter from Della saying that Mr. Drake has left Hortense.
Chapter 7 (1936 - 1939) - Donald returns to Duckburg and reconciles with Hortense. He goes back to school and starts attending to Duckburg High School. He starts dating Daisy Duck and becomes somewhat close to Gyro's father, Fulton Gearloose. Fulton helps Donald build the 313 out of old car parts to impress Daisy. As school days go by, Donald gets a home in Hollywood, and Della marries. As graduation approaches, Donald plans to propose to Daisy but changes his mind after having an awful nightmare about their married life. He leaves Duckburg after graduation.
Chapter 8 (1939 - 1941) - Donald begins attending the University of Oregon. After he does what is perceived as a passionate display of school spirit but is really just anger at Gladstone, to whom he has lost a bet, Donald is made the mascot for the university's football team, which sparks jealousy from the previous mascot, Puddles Plumage. In early 1941, Puddles reveals behavioral issues (or something like that) of Donald's to the school staff, which leads to his expulsion from the University of Oregon.
Chapter 9 (1941 - 1944) - In March 1941, Donald excitedly discovers that he has been drafted into the United States Army. Remember, Donald is currently single, unemployed, and not in school. Government propaganda posters cause him to believe that joining the Army will get the attention of the ladies. He also loves the idea of travelling the world. Still bitter about the rumors concerning his father's piloting skills and newly inspired by stories of flying in the sky from his aviator sister Della and her aviator husband Jamie, Donald decides to request to join the United States Army Air Corps. He tells his family about his plans. Jamie reveals that he has planned to join the Army Air Corps in light of the war currently plaguing the world. The next way, Donald makes his way down to his local draft board with a pep in his step, excited about this new chapter of his life. (All of this is inspired by Donald Gets Drafted, save the bit about Jamie joining the Air Corps)
Donald's request to join the Air Corps is granted, and he's sent to Mallard Air Field Training Base. There, he immediately makes an enemy in the form of grumpy Drill Sergeant Pete, who quickly gets Donald punished to peeling potatoes. After being on the receiving end of a nasty prank from Pete (the one seen in Sky Trooper), Donald decides that the Army isn't for him. He pouts about the fact that he's forced to stay there. However, he soon makes friends that make his tough experiences worthwhile. Jamie does indeed join the Air Corps and begins to bond with Donald even more. One of the anthropomorphic dogs seen in Sky Trooper, who we'll call Marty Mallinois, befriends him and Jamie, as does a mustached anthropomorphic pig (inspired by one of the "dummies" seen in The Old Army Game) that we'll call Hogg Howard. Jamie, Donald, Marty, and Hogg become an inseparable quarter, bound by their mutual distaste for Sergeant Pete. Of the four, Jamie remains most serious about his enlistment in the Army, while Donald, Marty, and Benny essentially give up on being good soldiers.
Against Jamie's advice, Donald, Marty, and Benny make a habit of sneaking out of camp to hang out with the local ladies and make appearances at nearby parties. When Pete discovers this, he becomes even more antagonistic towards the trio. (The Old Army Game) However, having made new friends and new girlfriends, Donald comes to enjoy being in the Army once again, even if he still doesn't care for the strictness of it. One day, while camouflaging a cannon, he accidentally falls into a bucket of experimental invisible paint. Pete chases after the invisible Private Duck. He eventually becomes so angry that he grabs a load of grenades to attack Donald with. Thanks to Donald's shenanigans, several of them detonate when Pete is with a Brigadier General. The General has Pete put in a straitjacket and locked up. His guard? None other than Donald. Marty and Hogg rejoice that their foe is now longer able to boss them around, but Jamie warns that, though he may have been a jerk, Pete was a good sergeant and his training was valuable.
With Pete gone, Donald, Marty, and Hogg begin to see the Army as nothing more than fun and games. When they and Jamie are inevitably sent on the battle field, the fun-loving trio find themselves woefully unprepared for the horrors of war that face them. Donald, in particular, is traumatized by the things he sees on the battle field. Jamie, who thought that he was very prepared, finds himself shocked, too. The four pilots eventually find themselves in a situation wherein they must face their fears to defeat the enemy. I'm not clever enough to come up with the specifics of that situation, but you get the gist of it, I hope. They are initially afraid and try to retreat but overcome their fears to defeat the enemies (take down enemy planes?). However, in the process, they are nearly killed. They realize that they must stop fooling around. They must become serious soldiers and become more vigilant and sharp than ever before. When Pete is released from the insane asylum and is sent on the field, he agrees to help his former foes become better soldiers and pilots.
Within a couple of years and thanks to a lot of hard work, experience, and good advice from Pete, Jamie, Donald, Marty, and Hogg have become some of the best members of the Air Corps. The four become "commandos" and are sent to Japan with various missions. Each perform a mighty military feat in Japan. Working completely alone, Donald wipes out an entire Japanese air base. (Commando Duck) Jamie, Marty, and Hogg also complete their own great feats. It's now about 1944, and all four are succeeding as soldiers.
No matter what I say or do, know that Jesus loves you.
Post by Baar Baar Jinx on Jul 15, 2020 14:14:09 GMT
Do you imagine the "Pete" who's Donald's sergeant is the same character who acts as Mickey's villain in the comics? It's hard for me to reconcile the two (the cartoons in general have little internal consistency, which to my mind is the main stumbling block in having a unified cartoon-comics continuity).
Do you imagine the "Pete" who's Donald's sergeant is the same character who acts as Mickey's villain in the comics? It's hard for me to reconcile the two (the cartoons in general have little internal consistency, which to my mind is the main stumbling block in having a unified cartoon-comics continuity).
Yes? I don't know... That's a tough one for me. I don't have a firm answer. I don't think it's super hard to reconcile the two. They're similar enough personality and design wise. The only major potential issue is that some of Pete's crimes in the Gottfredson strips seem to have been pretty well-known in-universe. I was under the impression that the whole nation would have heard about the air pirates stuff. I don't know if such a high-profile criminal could have gotten his way into the Army back then or not. I really don't know, and that's the major stumbling block for me. Would he have been allowed to enlist despite his crimes? Did he maybe use an alias to join the military?
Didn't Pete also work for Germany in World War II in at least one comic? That might be another contradiction. Then again, maybe his service as a Drill Sergeant for the United States was really just to collect information for Germany. I don't know.
No matter what I say or do, know that Jesus loves you.
I was under the impression that the whole nation would have heard about the air pirates stuff. I don't know if such a high-profile criminal could have gotten his way into the Army back then or not. I really don't know, and that's the major stumbling block for me. Would he have been allowed to enlist despite his crimes? Did he maybe use an alias to join the military?
Did the entire nation hear about the air pirates stuff? Probably. Did the entire nation remember? Now there's the catch. From the 1920's onwards, the Disney Comics Universe is rife with increasingly ridiculous crime-related events. I feel like things like the Phantom Blot's various schemes, "that time giant robots piloted by the Beagle Boys nearly destroyed Duckburg", and so on would lead most normal people to essentially tune out the conga line of preposterous supervillainy.
(If this sounds unlikely to anyone, last year I'd have said, "yes, tis, and so is a centenarian with four cubic acres of cash in a bin and whose archenemy is an Italian witch". But if 2020 has proved anything, it's that it's easier than not to see things from the point of view of a background extra in an adventure comic. Just try to list every bizarre catastrophe that has befallen us in the last six months without missing one, I dare ya.)
At any rate, as for Pete's status in the eye of the law… it is a fact that in present-day stories, Pete usually seems to be a free man — one whom Chief O'Hara's forces are keen to keep an eye on, because sooner or later he'll slip and get charged with something, but not someone whom they are actively trying to put behind bars 24/7. How he got rolled back to that after the heights of his Gottfredson career, I don't know, but it did happen. Perhaps it happened as a result of WWII, even — Pete is a bully, but not incapable of the occasional good or bold deed; perhaps, after enlisting under a false name, he ended up performing some especially selfless and heroic feat that earned him a full pardon in '45 after his true identity as runaway crime boss Peg-Leg Pete was discovered?
(Would anyone be interested in a 'Life and Times of Peg-Leg Pete'? I sure would.)
But either way, I see no reason he couldn't have enlisted under a false name, perhaps generally to slip below the radar, perhaps because he was temporarily a spy for the Axis (before presumably having an epiphany about quite how evil his new bosses were and double-crossing them?). Even if we assume most Petes in cartoons to be the same individual, Barks alone still has plenty of Pete-lookalikes who are indubitably different people, like the villain in Frozen Gold. Like Donald (but unlike Mickey), I think we just have to accept that Pete has a very common face by the standards of the Duckverse.
At any rate, as for Pete's status in the eye of the law… it is a fact that in present-day stories, Pete usually seems to be a free man — one whom Chief O'Hara's forces are keen to keep an eye on, because sooner or later he'll slip and get charged with something, but not someone whom they are actively trying to put behind bars 24/7. How he got rolled back to that after the heights of his Gottfredson career, I don't know, but it did happen. Perhaps it happened as a result of WWII, even — Pete is a bully, but not incapable of the occasional good or bold deed; perhaps, after enlisting under a false name, he ended up performing some especially selfless and heroic feat that earned him a full pardon in '45 after his true identity as runaway crime boss Peg-Leg Pete was discovered?
Pete certainly had the qualities to be a drill sergeant. Maybe he gained some rank in the army after seeing some limited combat in the previous war. He certainly wouldn't be the first veteran to resort to petty crime after being unable to find a steady job after the war. Was Pete ever truly a "crime boss"? Most of his escapades that I recall were as a duo, or even as an uno.
(Would anyone be interested in a 'Life and Times of Peg-Leg Pete'? I sure would.)
Was Pete ever truly a "crime boss"? Most of his escapades that I recall were as a duo, or even as an uno.
It fluctuates. He certainly was in his introduction in 1925 — it's true that the early Gottfredson Pete is more often either acting solo, or a mercenary for more cerebral villains, but things once again seem to look up for him in the 1950's. He has a wide variety of henchpeople reporting to him in the Murry and Murry-type stories, including several different incarnations of Scuttle who may or may not always be the same individual — it's a Pig-Faced Villain sort of deal.
Scarpa's 1960 The Chirikawa Necklace (the introduction of Trudy) relies on the idea that Pete has a gang that he's operating from within prison thanks to Trudy, as I recall. And… rather obscure reference, I suppose, but I distinctly remember that the Mouseton chapter of the Millennium-Orb-style "crossover story arc" Where is Donald? features a meet-up of Mouseton's top criminals when the city falls into chaos due to the gobal power outage, in which Pete is clearly one of the top brass of the underworld.
Pete certainly had the qualities to be a drill sergeant. Maybe he gained some rank in the army after seeing some limited combat in the previous war.
Hm, true. Disney Babies aside, Pete may indeed be the only major Disney comics character who, timeline-wise, would have been the right age to fight in WWI — isn't he? I'd never really thought about it.
I suppose it is a little too gruesome for most schools of Disney comics and cartoons, but now you mention it, it's a bit strange that this has never been touched upon (or has it?). As a child, I recall that I had somehow cooked up the headcanon that his leg had been eaten by the very same Crocodile who bit off Captain Hook's hand. I may even have a terribly-drawn comic with this exact premise, gathering dust somewhere.
Pete certainly had the qualities to be a drill sergeant. Maybe he gained some rank in the army after seeing some limited combat in the previous war.
Hm, true. Disney Babies aside, Pete may indeed be the only major Disney comics character who, timeline-wise, would have been the right age to fight in WWI — isn't he? I'd never really thought about it.
Neither had I until just now. How old is classic Pete, anyway? The "fat" version of him must be in his thirties, but his earlier incarnations look younger than that.
I suppose it is a little too gruesome for most schools of Disney comics and cartoons, but now you mention it, it's a bit strange that this has never been touched upon (or has it?). As a child, I recall that I had somehow cooked up the headcanon that his leg had been eaten by the very same Crocodile who bit off Captain Hook's hand. I may even have a terribly-drawn comic with this exact premise, gathering dust somewhere.[/quote]Ha, that's awesome. My take? See previous comment.
At any rate, as for Pete's status in the eye of the law… it is a fact that in present-day stories, Pete usually seems to be a free man — one whom Chief O'Hara's forces are keen to keep an eye on, because sooner or later he'll slip and get charged with something, but not someone whom they are actively trying to put behind bars 24/7. How he got rolled back to that after the heights of his Gottfredson career, I don't know, but it did happen. Perhaps it happened as a result of WWII, even — Pete is a bully, but not incapable of the occasional good or bold deed; perhaps, after enlisting under a false name, he ended up performing some especially selfless and heroic feat that earned him a full pardon in '45 after his true identity as runaway crime boss Peg-Leg Pete was discovered?
Pete certainly had the qualities to be a drill sergeant. Maybe he gained some rank in the army after seeing some limited combat in the previous war. He certainly wouldn't be the first veteran to resort to petty crime after being unable to find a steady job after the war. Was Pete ever truly a "crime boss"? Most of his escapades that I recall were as a duo, or even as an uno.
(Would anyone be interested in a 'Life and Times of Peg-Leg Pete'? I sure would.)
How did he get that peg leg, anyway?
On the first emboldened point, I think he qualifies as one in Editor-in-Grief, but I don't have the story in front of me right now.
As for the second point, he and Yellow Beak both lost their feet during an incident when they were both sailors working under Captain Nathaniel Churchmouse in the 1910's. Shyster was a part of the crew, too, but he didn't lose his leg. I'm kidding of course. No evidence to back that up. It's just a headcanon of mine I conceived about half a year ago. Say, maybe someone should open a Life and Times of Peg-Leg Pete thread to discuss this kind of stuff. I can't come up with 12 chapters worth of info about Pete's life, but I do have a few scattered ideas that might inspire others, as any of you are more than welcome to utilize my ideas and adopt them into your own headcanons.
No matter what I say or do, know that Jesus loves you.
Pete certainly had the qualities to be a drill sergeant. Maybe he gained some rank in the army after seeing some limited combat in the previous war.
Hm, true. Disney Babies aside, Pete may indeed be the only major Disney comics character who, timeline-wise, would have been the right age to fight in WWI — isn't he? I'd never really thought about it.
I've toyed around with the thought of Horace Horsecollar being a World War I veteran. I've also hypothesized that the Mickey seen in Barnyard Battle is actually Mickey's father serving in World War I. I assume he died in the war. Also, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit arguably qualifies and did fight in some war in Great Guns, but I guess he doesn't really count as a "major Disney comics character" as he's more of a cartoon character this point and not even a "major" one at that.
No matter what I say or do, know that Jesus loves you.