The eye color of characters

[juicymcduck]

I've just re-read this gag by Kirsten de Graaff and Mau Heymans, in which it is stated that Donald has brown eyes (at least that's what the French version says). Do we have other examples of a character's eye color beng explicited like that? (Surely there must be some.)

[RobbK1]

Apr 30, 2022 11:50:19 GMT juicymcduck said:

I've just re-read this gag by Kirsten de Graaff and Mau Heymans, in which it is stated that Donald has brown eyes (at least that's what the French version says). Do we have other examples of a character's eye color being explicited like that? (Surely there must be some.)

The original, Dutch version of that gag says nothing about Donald having brown-coloured eyes.  Donald needs a passport photo, and goes to the passport photo machine, but accidentally butts into another man while making his photo, and so both are in the pictures.  The man is angry, and hits Donald in his eye, and gives him the blood-vessel injured eye that darkens greatly.  The idiomatic phrase name for that injury result, called a "Black Eye" in English, and een "Blauw oog"  ('blue eye) in Dutch, is called "oeil au beurre noir" (literally, a "Dark Butter Eye") in French.  In the Dutch original, there is no mention of Donald's iris colour.  The gag only states that Donald's "Eye Colour:" reads "Een Blauw Oog" (One Blue Eye - meaning one injured "Black Eye" in English). 

Given that dark (burnt) butter is brownish, I can see how a French speaker, reading the French translation of that gag might think Donald's birth eye (iris) colour must be brown.  But the original gag only makes a reference to the injured eye colour (blue).  And THAT, in any case, is not his genetic inherited iris colour.

I should know the natural eye colour of ducks, because, when we were children, my sister found a wild mallard with a broken leg, and nursed it back to health until it was healed.  If I remember correctly, wild ducks' iris colour is brown.  I also lived on a farm for 5 years, and we had domestic ducks.  I think I remember them having brown irises.  But, I never made it a habit of gazing fondly into the eyes of ducks.

But Duck people, though they have feathers, are NOT actually ducks as we know them, in Barks stories, as Grandma Duck's ducks are NOT the same species as she is.  So we have no way of knowing The Duck Universe's characters' iris colours, unless they are mentioned in a drawn or text-only story.

[Pim]

Rob: in the French version, the passport states 'Eye colour: brown', and when Donald shows up with his blue eye, the cashier tells him "you should have put 'blue'!"
I thus don't think we have to bring in theories about the colour of dark butter: the translator simply made a different gag than the original Dutch one, and it is explicitely stated that his natural eye colour of Donald is brown.

[RobbK1]

Apr 30, 2022 17:28:00 GMT Pim said:

Rob: in the French version, the passport states 'Eye colour: brown', and when Donald shows up with his blue eye, the cashier tells him "you should have put 'blue'!"
I thus don't think we have to bring in theories about the colour of dark butter: the translator simply made a different gag than the original Dutch one, and it is explicitely stated that his natural eye colour of Donald is brown.

Thanks for pointing that out.  I only looked at the analogous word balloon where the Dutch version stated the blue colour.  So, I didn't see the other balloon with the explicit mention that his eyes were brown.  So, it is interesting to me that the French idiom for the injured eye is also blue, like our Dutch one, but The English is "black eye".  If the common European saying is "blue eye", I wonder how English became "black", as that particular expression should be very old, and one would guess was coined before Old Frisian and Old English separated.  So, English should be "blue" also.  But we all know how The English have, for hundreds of years, wanted to be different from the rest of The Europeans (on the continent).  So, some time after 600 A.D., or so, they must have changed from blue to black.

[juicymcduck]

All right, this gag isn't an actual example, then. But my question stands: do you guys know of any story in which the eye color of a character (preferably a major character) is explicited?

[farmspirit]

Apr 30, 2022 21:25:21 GMT RobbK1 said:

Apr 30, 2022 17:28:00 GMT Pim said:

Rob: in the French version, the passport states 'Eye colour: brown', and when Donald shows up with his blue eye, the cashier tells him "you should have put 'blue'!"
I thus don't think we have to bring in theories about the colour of dark butter: the translator simply made a different gag than the original Dutch one, and it is explicitely stated that his natural eye colour of Donald is brown.

Thanks for pointing that out.  I only looked at the analogous word balloon where the Dutch version stated the blue colour.  So, I didn't see the other balloon with the explicit mention that his eyes were brown.  So, it is interesting to me that the French idiom for the injured eye is also blue, like our Dutch one, but The English is "black eye".  If the common European saying is "blue eye", I wonder how English became "black", as that particular expression should be very old, and one would guess was coined before Old Frisian and Old English separated.  So, English should be "blue" also.  But we all know how The English have, for hundreds of years, wanted to be different from the rest of The Europeans (on the continent).  So, some time after 600 A.D., or so, they must have changed from blue to black.

In italian an injured eye is usually referred as "a black eye" ("un occhio nero"). So, at least for this one, Albion isn't the only one on the continent 

[RobbK1]

May 1, 2022 9:43:32 GMT farmspirit said:

Apr 30, 2022 21:25:21 GMT RobbK1 said:

Thanks for pointing that out.  I only looked at the analogous word balloon where the Dutch version stated the blue colour.  So, I didn't see the other balloon with the explicit mention that his eyes were brown.  So, it is interesting to me that the French idiom for the injured eye is also blue, like our Dutch one, but The English is "black eye".  If the common European saying is "blue eye", I wonder how English became "black", as that particular expression should be very old, and one would guess was coined before Old Frisian and Old English separated.  So, English should be "blue" also.  But we all know how The English have, for hundreds of years, wanted to be different from the rest of The Europeans (on the continent).  So, some time after 600 A.D., or so, they must have changed from blue to black.

In italian an injured eye is usually referred as "a black eye" ("un occhio nero"). So, at least for this one, Albion isn't the only one on the continent 

Thanks for telling us that.  I find all of this interesting, as, to me, the injured eye usually has damaged blood vessels and that gives it a purplish tint.  So a more blue than red purple hue is the closest approximation.  So, I wonder why the popular idiomatic saying didn't become "purple eye"?

[crazycatlord]

May 1, 2022 9:43:32 GMT farmspirit said:

Apr 30, 2022 21:25:21 GMT RobbK1 said:

Thanks for pointing that out.  I only looked at the analogous word balloon where the Dutch version stated the blue colour.  So, I didn't see the other balloon with the explicit mention that his eyes were brown.  So, it is interesting to me that the French idiom for the injured eye is also blue, like our Dutch one, but The English is "black eye".  If the common European saying is "blue eye", I wonder how English became "black", as that particular expression should be very old, and one would guess was coined before Old Frisian and Old English separated.  So, English should be "blue" also.  But we all know how The English have, for hundreds of years, wanted to be different from the rest of The Europeans (on the continent).  So, some time after 600 A.D., or so, they must have changed from blue to black.

In italian an injured eye is usually referred as "a black eye" ("un occhio nero"). So, at least for this one, Albion isn't the only one on the continent 

In Portugal is "olho roxo" ("purple[?] eye").

[Daniel Maline]

In Finland, Donald's passport reads: "eye color: black (one)".

But instead, the bank clerk doesn't comment on the color of his eyes at all but this says that Donald, who has got a black eye, rarely looks exactly like his picture: "Funny! It is rare to see such accurate looking photo."

In this way, the joke comments with humor on the real world problem that a perfect photo for a passport is hard to get, and all the photos for it always fail in one way or another (And in Finland failed photos is common because the price of four passport photos varies from about €15 to €35 (about $16 to $37) ).

[RobbK1]

May 2, 2022 0:48:40 GMT Daniel Maline said:

In Finland, Donald's passport reads: "eye color: black (one)".

But instead, the bank clerk doesn't comment on the color of his eyes at all but this says that Donald, who has got a black eye, rarely looks exactly like his picture: "Funny! It is rare to see such accurate looking photo."

In this way, the joke comments with humor on the real world problem that a perfect photo for a passport is hard to get, and all the photos for it always fail in one way or another (And in Finland failed photos is common because the price of four passport photos varies from about €15 to €35 (about $16 to $37) ).

In USA, people used to spend 25 cents and later, 50 cents for 4 passport photos from the machines that look like the one in the gag.  I wonder what they cost now?  Inflation since I was young has gone very high.  More than 25 times what prices were when I was young.  In The Netherlands they are a little less than 20 times higher, but not much less.  Most people nowadays probably have professional photographers take their passport photos, because the self-made machine photos are usually terrible, and people can't afford to risk not being able to enter or leave a country because the border clerks don't believe they are the true passport holder.  I was held over in East Berlin by the borderguards for such an offence in 1966. It was a very scary incident.  That's what happens when someone is taught to be ultra frugal by Uncle Scrooge from being raised on Carl Barks comics!

[Daniel Maline]

May 2, 2022 1:21:22 GMT RobbK1 said:

May 2, 2022 0:48:40 GMT Daniel Maline said:

In Finland, Donald's passport reads: "eye color: black (one)".

But instead, the bank clerk doesn't comment on the color of his eyes at all but this says that Donald, who has got a black eye, rarely looks exactly like his picture: "Funny! It is rare to see such accurate looking photo."

In this way, the joke comments with humor on the real world problem that a perfect photo for a passport is hard to get, and all the photos for it always fail in one way or another (And in Finland failed photos is common because the price of four passport photos varies from about €15 to €35 (about $16 to $37) ).

In USA, people used to spend 25 cents and later, 50 cents for 4 passport photos from the machines that look like the one in the gag.  I wonder what they cost now?  Inflation since I was young has gone very high.  More than 25 times what prices were when I was young.  In The Netherlands they are a little less than 20 times higher, but not much less.  Most people nowadays probably have professional photographers take their passport photos, because the self-made machine photos are usually terrible, and people can't afford to risk not being able to enter or leave a country because the border clerks don't believe they are the true passport holder.  I was held over in East Berlin by the borderguards for such an offence in 1966. It was a very scary incident.  That's what happens when someone is taught to be ultra frugal by Uncle Scrooge from being raised on Carl Barks comics!

There are no similar booths in Finland outside Helsinki and passport photos have to be taken from a professional photographer, which is why they are expensive. In addition to this, the passport must be renewed every four years because a person’s appearance changes as a person ages and, for example, if they grow a beard or change their hair style.

The price of a passport alone is €50 (physical) or €48 (digital) every four years (previously it was €58).

[LP]

According to YD 61-07-04, Daisy has blue eyes.