You can read it translated in English here: [removed]
The Dutch Donald Duck Weekblad Extra Jubilee Edition celebrating Donald Duck's 80th birthday - story "80 is Prachtig!" depicts TV documentary reporters wanting to find out how Donald Duck and his related comic book characters have avoided aging over an 80 year period. An eccentric (loony) PHD university student has a theory that in Duckburg, people don't age. So with the TV reporters' coverage of people in Duckburg (e.g. comic book characters) not aging, if normal people (e.g. real 3D Humans, who live in the real World) would move to Duckburg, and live with the comic book characters, the latter, would also not age (get older) as time passes. So, the story is filled with vignettes showing "real people" coming to Duckburg, and paying the comic book characters rent for being allowed to lodge with them in their homes for 2 weeks. They all do that, and find out that they don't feel younger. They all attend a "festival" luncheon held by the TV network, to celebrate their becoming younger (not aging for 2 weeks), and to hear their stories about their experiences. Donald doesn't understand why the people who wanted to become younger don't know that time HASN'T stood still in Duckburg. He asks Gyro why they thought so silly an idea.
Gyro tells Donald and his nephews that when people travel into Space at speeds over the speed of light, time moves slower for them than it is moving on Earth (a theory of Albert Eggbrain). So Donald asks Gyro if he knows anyone who has spent time in Space travelling faster than the speed of light. Gyro looks in his special app on his personally-made powerful tablet computer, and finds someone currently travelling in Space. He projects their receiving his video connection with his tablet on a giant screen. It turns out to be the rocket manned by The Nephews' mother, Dumbella. She sees her children and recognises that they look very like her babies, but are several years older. Huey, Dewey and Louie ask her how long she has been away, she tells them she's been gone only fifteen minutes, and will return to Earth in one hour (which based on how many years have passed on Earth, would be several more years in their future). She tells them that she would never want to be away from her babies for more than a day. She tells them that she will have more adventures in space, but implies that she'll never be away for much more than a day. So Huey, Dewey, and Louie pretend to NOT be her sons, giving false names. They explain that they want to remain living with Donald, because he will always be there for them.
So, we readers understand that time DOES NOT stand still in Duckburg, and that the status quo in The Duck Universe will continue. Dumbella will not return to Earth until roughly about 4X the years she's already been gone, roughly 28-35 more years. So, Don Rosa's estimate that our comic book "view" of The Ducks and McDuck's adventures (not including the historical stories of Uncle Scrooge's youth and his family's history) takes place over less than a 10-year period is correct, rather than ALL their adventures shown in the comics happening over a 2-3 year period in which The Nephews don't change in appearance. We also have to assume that because they've aged 7-10 years, that Duck-people only change slightly in looks over 7-10 years, and THEN move into adolescence with a growth spurt. That also matches my own view.
Do you count this as canon according to your interpretation of the Duck/Carl Barks comics canon? In other words, do you think this really happened?
It was NOT published in English! Only its first page (1 out of 29 pages) was printed in the English-language publication, "Bear Mountain Tales". And there is no mention of how time passes or not in Duckstad (Duckburg) on that particular page.
Rob, apologies—but as the editor of this book I'll have to correct you; I didn't publish the first page (i.e. Page 1) in Bear Mountain Tales; I published a ten-panel sequence from Pages 3 and 4.
My chosen segment didn't touch on the subject of how time passes, though; that much is right!
The Dutch Donald Duck Weekblad Extra Jubilee Edition celebrating Donald Duck's 80th birthday - story "80 is Prachtig!" depicts TV documentary reporters wanting to find out how Donald Duck and his related comic book characters have avoided aging over an 80 year period. An eccentric (loony) PHD university student has a theory that in Duckburg, people don't age. So with the TV reporters' coverage of people in Duckburg (e.g. comic book characters) not aging, if normal people (e.g. real 3D Humans, who live in the real World) would move to Duckburg, and live with the comic book characters, the latter, would also not age (get older) as time passes. So, the story is filled with vignettes showing "real people" coming to Duckburg, and paying the comic book characters rent for being allowed to lodge with them in their homes for 2 weeks. They all do that, and find out that they don't feel younger. They all attend a "festival" luncheon held by the TV network, to celebrate their becoming younger (not aging for 2 weeks), and to hear their stories about their experiences. Donald doesn't understand why the people who wanted to become younger don't know that time HASN'T stood still in Duckburg. He asks Gyro why they thought so silly an idea.
Gyro tells Donald and his nephews that when people travel into Space at speeds over the speed of light, time moves slower for them than it is moving on Earth (a theory of Albert Eggbrain). So Donald asks Gyro if he knows anyone who has spent time in Space travelling faster than the speed of light. Gyro looks in his special app on his personally-made powerful tablet computer, and finds someone currently travelling in Space. He projects their receiving his video connection with his tablet on a giant screen. It turns out to be the rocket manned by The Nephews' mother, Dumbella. She sees her children and recognises that they look very like her babies, but are several years older. Huey, Dewey and Louie ask her how long she has been away, she tells them she's been gone only fifteen minutes, and will return to Earth in one hour (which based on how many years have passed on Earth, would be several more years in their future). She tells them that she would never want to be away from her babies for more than a day. She tells them that she will have more adventures in space, but implies that she'll never be away for much more than a day. So Huey, Dewey, and Louie pretend to NOT be her sons, giving false names. They explain that they want to remain living with Donald, because he will always be there for them.
So, we readers understand that time DOES NOT stand still in Duckburg, and that the status quo in The Duck Universe will continue. Dumbella will not return to Earth until roughly about 4X the years she's already been gone, roughly 28-35 more years. So, Don Rosa's estimate that our comic book "view" of The Ducks and McDuck's adventures (not including the historical stories of Uncle Scrooge's youth and his family's history) takes place over less than a 10-year period is correct, rather than ALL their adventures shown in the comics happening over a 2-3 year period in which The Nephews don't change in appearance. We also have to assume that because they've aged 7-10 years, that Duck-people only change slightly in looks over 7-10 years, and THEN move into adolescence with a growth spurt. That also matches my own view.
Do you count this as canon according to your interpretation of the Duck/Carl Barks comics canon? In other words, do you think this really happened?
As I no longer write stories for Egmont, and the only few stories I write are for Dutch Disney (DPG), I try to avoid having character relationships or Duckstad geographic elements that conflict with what is currently being accepted/encouraged by the editorship. So, yes, I need to not conflict with what that story laid out as Dumbella's current status. So, my stories will likely all avoid that issue. She is truly living up to her given name, by being a highly educated, highly-trained astronaut, who unbelievably doesn't know that time passes more slowly in space than on The Earth. Either she skipped the classes that covered that issue, or Duckstads (Duckburg's) Space Administration erred in not informing their Astronauts about that Space Travel/Time relationship, which results in her missing much of her children's youth, and saddles Donald with an awesome responsibility. As for my personal preference on this matter, I probably would prefer a different explanation for her absence that doesn't place her in the bad light of potentially being a dimwit, or Duckburg's Space Administration being negligent or incompetent, or dishonest with their employees. It makes for one single funny joke; but it puts someone who should become a major continuing character and lead family member, in a bad light.
