Surviving Duck family members

[TheMidgetMoose]

Regarding Fanny, Luke, and Gus, I liked to imagine that Gus moved in with Grandma after Grandpa Duck died in order to both help her on the farm and provide emotional support. I also sort of liked to think that the reason he was sent to visit Donald in Donald's Cousin Gus wasn't just because Aunt Fanny had run out of food, but to provide emotional support to Donald, who may have been suffering with some PTSD from his World War II service. I suppose this story will likely contradict my hypothesis, which was basically that Gus, despite his gluttony and laziness, can be a genuinely caring person at times and, when he's not overpowered by his massive appetite, can be a friend and help to people who are suffering. I guess this was my attempt to give some more depth to Gus, who, at least in stories I've read, doesn't really much to him other than "lazy, gluttonous, kind of dumb farmhand." Regardless of what sort of origin this story proposes, I hope it does give some more depth to Gus and a deeper insight into his character. Of course, I won't be able to read it, at least at first, but I still hope it does good with a premise which I've pondered over many times.

[LP]

Sept 10, 2019 12:14:06 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

LP, your idea of repurposing the "dying from overeating at a picnic" story to instead apply to Luke and Fanny is a good one ... in general I don't like to kill off more relatives than we need to, but salvaging this bit of lore that came directly from Barks' mind is certainly attractive (and it seems like a fate befitting the parents of a glutton like Gus). Do you imagine then that Grandma raised Gus? Their relationship doesn't seem quite like foster child and foster parent (I know this new set of stories contradicts any such discussion, but anyway ...).

In my headcanon, Della is a single parent, and dead (yes, I know that contradicts Taliaferro, but I dismiss those early strips as having been written before the character relationships were solidified; Taliaferro also showed Scrooge being a visitor unfamiliar with Duckburg in his first appearance in the strip, as opposed to being instrumental in its development as in Barks/Rosa lore, so certain things in the Taliaferro strips need to be ignored). Quackmore is dead too, and both Della and Quackmore predeceased Hortense (probably in a tragic accident). Hortense lived until 1947 (she's the "Grandma" in "Donald Duck's Best Christmas" ... note that Donald never refers to this character as "Grandma" in that story, only the boys do, and her appearance and personality there is quite different from Elvira's ... as well as "the boys' grandmother" referred to in several early Barks stories previously discussed on this thread), but was incapacitated in some way towards the end of her life. Her death is what sparked Scrooge to contact Donald and arrange for their meeting in "Christmas on Bear Mountain"; Scrooge felt bad that he never reconciled with her during her lifetime, and wanted to at least try and develop a relationship with her surviving family. This Scrooge, of course, never met Della.

I would have liked Gladstone's parents to still be alive as well (you could explain their absence from Christmas gatherings at Elvira's farm based on the estrangement between the Gander and Duck families), but as we've discussed previously in this thread, Rosa's "Sign of the Triple Distelfink" suggests that they are not (Rosa himself seemed to have forgotten this in a later DCML post). For a long time I was resistant to the idea of Matilda being alive "in present day", since I couldn't imagine her distancing herself from Hortense's children and grandchildren, no matter what her problems with Scrooge were; in "Letter from Home", while Donald is aware of her, HD&L have never met her before. She should have had an active hand in raising them! However, I've come around, and she is alive in my headcanon now, although I still need to come up with an acceptable way to explain her motivations and actions. I'm aghast at Rosa's statement that he intended to have Hortense also be alive in "Letter from Home" ... that would have been a terrible decision! Thank goodness better sense prevailed and he was talked out of it (or ordered to cease-and-desist) by his editors!

I wouldn't say Grandma raised him. Fanny is the one writing the letter that Gus carries with him when he meets Donald for the first time, so she hasn't overeaten yet at this point. 
I seem to recall that early on in the Taliaferro strips, Gus had a farm of his own. I guess I imagine that eventually he got so lazy that he sold that farm and started working as a help on Grandma's farm (rather than than running one). I like MidgetMoose's idea that Grandma hired him as a replacement for Grandpa when he died. However, Gus was shown owning his farm after HDL had been introduced, so that was fairly close to the "present". I imagine Grandpa dying at least 5-10 years before the "present".

Here's my head-canon-fanfiction-idea about Della. I want to salvage as much as possible of what little exists in story form. However, I think the idea that she's an astronaut is silly. That being said, I believe that same story says that while Donald wanted to be a sailor, she wanted to become a pilot. That's more like it. So my idea is that once HDL's father was incapacitated, she finally started taking flying lessons. However, during one flight, she was lost somewhere (maybe she crashed in Tralla La to tie into Rosa's ideas, but I don't know). And one day, she shall come back... yes, one day.
The father is still in the hospital. He doesn't need to be anymore; HDL are now mature enough that they would have enormous guilt if they truly crippled their father for life. My original idea was that he's faking illness and living off of taxpayer money, but I don't think America's healthcare system works like that...

My not very developed idea about Gladstone's parents is that the Ganders have always been seen as the luckiest water fowl throughout the ages. And them Ganders never associate with Ducks (maybe because Ducks tend to be unlucky?). However, we see in Lo$ 10 that Daphne Duck is a lucky Duck. Maybe this is what attracted Goosetave? And maybe their union caused a "luck-overload", which resulted in nothing but bad things happening in their relationship. So maybe they split up, which is why Goosetave doesn't appear in Sign of the Triple Distlefink. This "luck-overload" (I already regret coining this term) might have resulted in two children that are totally opposite on the luck-scale - Super-lucky Gladstone, and not very lucky Sadstone... or Oscar... (I don't know).

[LP]

Sept 10, 2019 14:51:31 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

I was once partial to it, but since Jolley made a whole comic story out of retooling the "picnic" scenario into a properly dramatic (and thematically satisfying) end for the Gander parents, I really can't follow this idea anymore.

I'm curious about this. What are you talking about and how can I read it?

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Sept 12, 2019 20:29:17 GMT LP said:

I'm curious about this. What are you talking about and how can I read it?

Sarah Jolley is an immensly talented British comic artist and an equally immense Duck fan, who has, for many years now, been releasing what she terms "Duck Doodle Comics" on the side of her professional work, which, aside from the sketchier artstyle, are commonly held to be on par with much official output (most, if not all, are certainly worthier of the name of Duck comics than certain Kay Wright or Warren Spector missteps that shall not be named). 

The comic I am referring to is “The White Balloon”, released in January of this year, which you can read here (or here, though in lesser quality). 

[LP]

Sept 12, 2019 20:48:16 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Wow... that was sad. And dark. I like it! Disney is making a huge disservice to themselves for not hiring her. 
I'm not sure this will enter my head-canon though.

[Matilda]

Sept 13, 2019 10:03:54 GMT LP said:

Sept 12, 2019 20:48:16 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Wow... that was sad. And dark. I like it! Disney is making a huge disservice to themselves for not hiring her. 
I'm not sure this will enter my head-canon though.

In any case, please do go on and read all her other Duck comics! This one is unusual in its tone.

My personal favorites are Night in the Barn and Play Time. Those two are definitely in my headcanon. There's a whole series where she ships Magica and Gladstone (I believe, starting with The Sorceress's Apprentice); she hasn't convinced me of that relationship, but I still enjoy the comics.

[fredj]

In this panel from 3 paperi un deposito e... tanta fifa Scrooge imagines a list of his heirs: Dickie, Daisy, Grandma, Matilda, Hortense, Huey Dewey and Louie, Gladstone and Fethry. Aside from the absence of Donald I’m struck by the rare mention of Hortense. Is the list the same in Italian? 



]

[LP]

Sept 17, 2020 18:32:52 GMT fredj said:

In this panel from 3 paperi un deposito e... tanta fifa Scrooge imagines a list of his heirs: Dickie, Daisy, Grandma, Matilda, Hortense, Huey Dewey and Louie, Gladstone and Fethry. Aside from the absence of Donald I’m struck by the rare mention of Hortense. Is the list the same in Italian? 

I don't like that Daisy, Grandma, Gladstone, and Fethry are candidates, as none of them are related to Scrooge by blood. 
I find it odd that HDL aren't at the top of the list (or the only ones on the list) since they were made his top heirs in Some Heir Over the Rainbow. 
It is equally odd that Hortense is featured, since the last time the two met, they had a big fight. And the time before that they also fought... (also, she's probably dead.)
If this is set after A Letter From Home, I guess Matilda could be a candidate... if something bad were to happen to HDL, that is...
Why is Dickie here? Isn't she just the grand-daughter of Scrooge's ex-crush? Are they trying to sneakily confirm some blood relation between the two? 
And yeah - it is odd that Donald is absent. Especially since Dickie and Daisy are named.

[farmspirit]

Sept 17, 2020 18:32:52 GMT fredj said:

Is the list the same in Italian? 



]

In the original version the heirs are:
Donald, HDL, Gladstone, Daisy, Grandma (written as Nonnap, instead of Nonna Papera) and something that looks like CICO?
This is from the Topolino where the story firt appeared

[fredj]

Sept 18, 2020 1:21:20 GMT farmspirit said:

Sept 17, 2020 18:32:52 GMT fredj said:

Is the list the same in Italian? 



]

In the original version the heirs are:
Donald, HDL, Gladstone, Daisy, Grandma (written as Nonnap, instead of Nonna Papera) and something that looks like CICO?
This is from the Topolino where the story firt appeared

Thanks! I found the issue at Issuu:



It doesn’t surprise me that Egmont added Matilda, but Hortense seems a bit odd. Also strange that they added Dickie when she isn’t in the original.

[crazycatlord]

Sept 18, 2020 1:21:20 GMT farmspirit said:

Sept 17, 2020 18:32:52 GMT fredj said:

 (...) something that looks like CICO?

Perhaps Gus Goose ("Ciccio")?

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Sept 17, 2020 18:58:33 GMT LP said:

Why is Dickie here? Isn't she just the grand-daughter of Scrooge's ex-crush? Are they trying to sneakily confirm some blood relation between the two? 

I'd like to think so, but I assume it's just a consequence of the point of Miner's Granddaughter being that Goldie essentially makes Dickie into Scrooge's ward so long as she's in Duckburg. And at least a couple of subsequent Italian Dickie stories do have Scrooge acting as a kind of mentor to Dickie, trying to get her to learn some business acumen. So it makes a certain amount of sense that he would leave a share of his money to her.

[sim]

Oct 9, 2017 17:39:39 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Oct 9, 2017 1:55:54 GMT RobbK1 said:

I beg to differ from this statement, as all The Duck fans and artists and writers that I knew had already assumed that Donald was raised as an orphan because of Carl Barks' constant statements that Donald was Scrooge's nearest living relative.  Had Donald's mother been alive, she would have been a living person, more closely related to Scrooge than Donald.  Barks introduced Donald as Scrooge's "nearest living relative" in his 1949 story, "Race To The South Seas".  He re-introduced that fact in a few other stories before 1954. I realise that given this scenario, Donald's parents could have died after he left their home as a very young adult (if you assume he is an adult in charge of his nephews-which we should).  But, the fact that we never saw Donald's parents, nor any reference to them, made us assume that he was orphaned in childhood.

Well, in Volcano Valley (drawn 1946, printed 1947), Donald, thinking he'll spend his life in prison, tells Huey, Dewey and Louie to "take good care of their grandmother", which does seem to refer to his own mother.

Actually, I think this could fit somewhat nicely in Don Rosian continuity — Hortense dies in 1947, having survived Quackmore (Why would she need to be "taken care of" by her children/grandchildren, and her alone, if she was not a widow?) by several years; the news reach Scrooge, which is part of his motivation to reach out to Donald on Christmas of that same year to try and make up for the fact that he never did straighten things out with his sister.

Well, I'm kind of late, I know.

In I TL 118-BP (1955) is stated that Donald's parents are dead.



The notary asks Donald if he is the son of the deceased ... and deceased ... (names are omitted) and he replies "yes".

[Matilda]

Sept 8, 2019 11:41:16 GMT Scroogerello said:

The latest special issue of the Dutch Donald Duck weekly has two stories featuring Gus Goose's mom and dad, who (as far as I know) have never appeared before: inducks.org/issue.php?c=nl%2FDD2019X37 , which kinda breaks with the tradition of not showing main characters' parents in the comics.
However, it just so happens to be one of those darn "subscribers-only" issues, so they're not available in stores and exclusively available for subscribers, so I can't get my hands on a copy. But maybe some of the other Dutch fans on the forum who *do* have a subscription can tell us a little bit about them. I wonder what their characterization is like, since they basically had to be created from scratch. Here's an image of Gus and his mom from the INDUCKS.

Has anyone yet managed to see these two Dutch stories in which Fanny appears? I would *really* like to find out what happens in them, and what is conveyed about Gus's parents. Anyone have scans to share? I can read Dutch, sort of! I'd be happy to buy the issue, if I could find a way to do so.

[LP]

Eider Duck appears to have died sometime before The Golden River, as Donald says that Scrooge is his only uncle.