Post by Scrooge MacDuck on Aug 6, 2022 14:48:02 GMT
I'm too much of the Italian school to view them as anything but closely-intertwined, but Barks-Rosa-axis-focued purists might think otherwise. (And in any case, I have a notoriously vast conception of the Disney Comics universe — I don't balk at any of the crazier “crossovers” of yesteryear. Sure, Sleeping Beauty is canonical, why not?)
I accept them as related. Mouseton and Duckburg are to me as Metropolis and Gotham: in the same world, but usually featuring a different set of characters and having a different tone. I think Mickey benefits when Donald tags along sometimes, though I can’t see any purpose for Mickey in Duckburg TBH. I also think villains like the Phantom Blot can do well in both “universes”.
Going back to the 1930s, Donald Duck appeared a few times in the Mickey Mouse newspaper strip before eventually getting his own strip, effectively keeping the Mouse and Duck “universes” separate for sales reasons. In US comic books, this was mostly followed as the new material Western Publishing commissioned used the newspaper strips as a template. In European publications, Donald and Mickey would mingle in each other’s stories far more frequently. In the 1950s when Disneyland opened, just about any combination of Disney characters would intermingle, as Disneyland was where they all lived or worked, or in the case of Donald and Uncle Scrooge, visited, sometimes with Mickey showing them around the park. There have been so many different approaches to writing these characters that one writer’s version has Mice and Ducks together, while in another, they never meet ever. There really isn’t a definitive answer that fits all stories.
I accept them as related. Mouseton and Duckburg are to me as Metropolis and Gotham: in the same world, but usually featuring a different set of characters and having a different tone. I think Mickey benefits when Donald tags along sometimes, though I can’t see any purpose for Mickey in Duckburg TBH. I also think villains like the Phantom Blot can do well in both “universes”.
In my childhood in the early and mid-1960’s USA, I read a fair amount of Disney comics, just out or part of the family collection. The Ducks became “real” to me, thanks of course mostly to Barks, but Mickey & co. never did. I remember only a very few Mouse stories from my childhood and I never connected to the characters. As Deb says, they were virtually never shown interacting with the Ducks in the comics I read. So the two worlds are quite separate for me and have remained so. This was reinforced for me when in my adulthood I managed to get my godson hooked on Disney comics. Party due to my buying patterns, but largely because his favorite author was Rosa, he also became a Ducks-only fan!
I sometimes enjoy Mouse stories, but I don’t care deeply about the characters or their world, which has never become “real” to me, in the way that certain fictional characters do, whether from comics, novels or movies.
For us in Germany it’s easy to answer to this question: they live in the same town But also ignorating german specifities it seems natural to me that Ducks and Mices are in the same universe due to the lots of crossovers (mostly the early Italian ones) where they clearly are …
They are not; as a Portuguese, I spent my childhood and adolescence reading stories where both were supposed to live in the same town (although almost never interacting...). I think the first story that I read with both "ducks" and "mices" were "The House of the Seven Haunts", but there is also the Paul Murray's stories Phantom-Blot-escapes-from jail-and-Mickey-and-Donald-go-after-him ("Secret Sea Raider", "The Case of the Disappearing Diamonds", "The Crown of Tasbah"), and many minor characters from both "universes" usually interacting - "Red Bat" (Fethry) and O'Hara, some Mickey vs. Emil Eagle stories...
Then, separating the two universes (or even simply put Duckburg and Mousetown very distant from each other) will invalidate much of my "personal Disney world".
Last Edit: Aug 7, 2022 22:33:34 GMT by crazycatlord
Post by Dr Ivo G Bombastus on Aug 8, 2022 0:42:30 GMT
It's purely a question of whether or not Mickey's world exists. If Mickey's world does exist, then of course Donald and his world also exist and are part of it, since Donald has appeared alongside Mickey in important-to-the-Mouse-universe stories like House of Seven Ghosts and Editor-in-Grief.
While nothing really requires 'that Donald' who costars with Mickey to be the same character as the Donald who appears in Duckburg centric comics, no one would particularly want him to be some different character with a different past or family members. Anyone casually familiar with Disney comics would just assume that the Donald who appears in Mickey stories and the Donald who appears in his own titles are the same. It's only looking from the perspective of Donald Duck comics as a self-contained world that there's a motive to compartmentalize the Mickey Mouse world as something separate.
Personally I prefer to think of Mickey and Donald as inhabiting one world- the best comic book world, the oldest continuously published shared universe in all of fiction, older than DC and Marvel by nine years.
In Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark (and possibly in Germany), Mickey and Donald officially live in the same share comic universe, although they rarely see each other. Mickey's home town Mouseton or Mouseville is usually translated as Duckburg (Ankkalinna, Ankeborg, Andeby and Entenhausen) in Nordic translations. Chief O'Hara is commonly referred to as the head of Duckburg's police force, Pete often robs Duckburg's bank, and Doc Static lives in the Cape Quack lighthouse from Carl Barks' lighthouse story.
In Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark (and possibly in Germany), Mickey and Donald officially live in the same share comic universe, although they rarely see each other. Mickey's home town Mouseton or Mouseville is usually translated as Duckburg (Ankkalinna, Ankeborg, Andeby and Entenhausen) in Nordic translations. Chief O'Hara is commonly referred to as the head of Duckburg's police force, Pete often robs Duckburg's bank, and Doc Static lives in the Cape Quack lighthouse from Carl Barks' lighthouse story.
While we're on that topic, at least the Norwegian translation of this story likewise curiously involved Fat Cat trying to hypnotize the citizens of Duckburg.
I read several stories in which they are together (both Italian and foreign, both old and new ones), but it seems to me that the Duck universe works very different (nature, witchcraft, science...) and so I would have difficulty believing they somehow are in the same kind of world. Anyway, there are some characters that seems to fit in both universes (Clarabelle, Emil Eagle, Horace also..., but they probably are used better in the Mouse one).
Post by TheMidgetMoose on Aug 10, 2022 4:50:03 GMT
In my personal headcanon, they're interconnected, but there's still separation. I tend to anchor my Mouse stories around the 1930's or so, since I'm most drawn to Floyd Gottfredson strips from that era. Donald is a major supporting character in Mouse stories (again, in my mental Mouse and Duck universes), but he's younger, more mischievous, and normally lacking his own supporting cast such as his nephews, girlfriend, and crazily rich uncle. The Duck universe in my headcanon is anchored moreso around the early 1950's, since I'm very Don Rosa-influenced in my view of the Duck universe. Mickey Mouse will rarely if at all appear in Duck universe stories that are part of my headcanon. If he does, then I'll probably imagine him as being a bit older and more mature than he is in most Mouse stories I indulge in. Basically, I kind of view it as the same universe but at different points in the timeline and at different locations. I don't view Mickey as living in Duckburg.
No matter what I say or do, know that Jesus loves you.
But also ignorating german specifities it seems natural to me that Ducks and Mices are in the same universe due to the lots of crossovers (mostly the early Italian ones) where they clearly are …
