colleges or universities in Duckburg

[Matilda]

What are the names of Duckburg colleges or universities you've seen in English-language comics, and which comics did you see them in? Have there been any more creative names than "Duckburg University" or "Duckburg College"? I'm trying to remember what I've seen, and am having trouble. I do remember that the Bey in "The Mummy's Ring" says he went to Yarvard, but that is probably not in Duckburg.

Has any comic named the university where Ludwig Von Drake teaches?

Years ago in my mental Duckiverse I decided on "the University of Calisota at Duckburg" (by analogy with the U of California schools) and "Coot College" as the two institutions of higher learning in Duckburg.

Of course, Drake University would be a natural, too!

[Ramapith]

Ludwig teaches at Coot University in Lars Jensen's "Wiener Schnitzel Woes," and after we ran it at IDW, our translator Thad Komorowski carried on its continuity by using Coot U in our version of this Italian story, too.

Mouseton has Dryupp University where Prof Dustibones works. In the very first story, it seemed to be out of town (Mickey took a train home from it), but it couldn't have been too distant. Just one story later, Mouseton tycoon Mrs. Van Astorocks mentions Dustibones as a close friend and notes that she'd heard about Mickey from him; not too likely in 1941 if he was far away.
From the early 1990s, most new stories have shown Dryupp as being located in Mouseton... but a few, like this one, have placed it in Duckburg!

[RobbK1]

Uncle Scrooge attended Webfoot Tech, where he played football in the 1890s. But, I prefer to believe that Webfoot Tech is in Webfoot, Oregon, where Gladstone's Aunt, Suzibelle Swan moved.

[Matilda]

Thanks, Ramapith! I was sure there'd been some recent named university, but I couldn't place it. Perhaps my Coot College got upgraded to a university, as so many American colleges have been! I had chosen "College" for the alliteration, of course.

I see that "Egghead Duck" coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+2005-097

hasn't been published in English yet--perhaps I read it in French. The English summary in INDUCKS mentions "Duckburg University," but if it's published here, y'all can give it any name you like.

Wasn't there a story that *was* published here in recent history in which Donald became super-smart? Did that have a named college in it?

Happy to place Webfoot Tech in Webfoot, Oregon, Robb! What a fine idea!

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Jan 11, 2017 15:02:08 GMT Matilda said:

Happy to place Webfoot Tech in Webfoot, Oregon, Robb! What a fine idea!

Although it's hard to reconcile Scrooge attending college with Rosa's timeline in Life of Scrooge. Then again, this comes from a Barks story, so what excuse did Rosa have for ignoring it?

[drakeborough]

Jan 11, 2017 15:35:22 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

Jan 11, 2017 15:02:08 GMT Matilda said:

Happy to place Webfoot Tech in Webfoot, Oregon, Robb! What a fine idea!

Although it's hard to reconcile Scrooge attending college with Rosa's timeline in Life of Scrooge. Then again, this comes from a Barks story, so what excuse did Rosa have for ignoring it?

This is what he wrote in a 2004 DCML message:

I was well aware of this story when I did my "Lo$". But "my" $crooge certainly never went to college. He didn't have the money and he didn't have the time and he wasn't even in America during those years. I simply regard that as a Barks story that can't possibly fit into his own continuity or circumstances or his other stories and which I chose to disregard, such as "The Magic Hourglass"... or I see it as a story where $crooge is bragging about something that never really happened like the tale of the gold field where it was so hot the gold was melting... or, since the story appeared in a special issue, that the story was written by someone else such as the screwy tales that Barks drew but did not write that appeared in books like "Grandma's Farm Friends" in FOUR COLOR comics (even if that's not the case). But whatever the case, "my" $crooge McDuck did not go to college, and was, in fact, a grade school drop out, if he ever went to school at all, which is in itself is unlikely. He didn't need school since he had the ambition to teach himself more than could be spoon-fed to him along with all those other kids who are resisting knowledge as hard as they can.

Then, in 2012, a user of the Papersera Forum asked Don the followig question:

In "September Scrimmage" (from Mickey Mouse Almanac 1, 1957), Unca $crooge mentions that he was once a student (or at least played football) at Webfoot Tech. "back in the 80's". Do you acknowledge this piece of Barks trivia to be canon, and if so, why is this not mentioned in any chapter of "The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck"?

Don's answer:

I only need to refer to what Barks had previously written about $crooge's pas: He was a poor shoeshine boy in Glasgow. He made his first money as a 30-something sourdough in the Yukon in 1898. He moved to Duckburg years after that. Why on Earth would he attend college at that point? I either -- A) dismiss this as a fib or a "throwaway gag". B) This story appeared in a "special" issue of Dell comics, and not in one of the main titles like WDC&S, DONALD DUCK or UNCLE $CROOGE -- Barks often only drew and did not write these stories (perhaps never?). So I might decide this is not an actual Barks fact. C) It is a Barks fact, like a very few others, that is self-contradictory to other previously established Barks facts, so I openly choose to ignore it as impossible.
For any one, or all three, of these reasons, I dismiss the idea that $crooge ever went to college, *especially* in Duckburg, as clearly false.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Could be that "Webfoot Tech" was located in Mississippi, though; it would mesh together with Rosa's timeline. Scrooge needn't have attended it, either — I suppose he simply played football there as a distraction one summer.

[drakeborough]

Jan 11, 2017 16:19:25 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Could be that "Webfoot Tech" was located in Mississippi, though; it would mesh together with Rosa's timeline. Scrooge needn't have attended it, either — I suppose he simply played football there as a distraction one summer.

Well, Scrooge was on Mississippi from 1880 to 1882 (according to Don Rosa's timeline), so it would fit the "back in the 80's" remark. If one assumes "Webfoot Tech" is in Mississippi then it's not out of question that when Scrooge was Pothole's assistant or when he was a riverboat captain there was some event that lead him to play football for a short period of time (though there's the fact that he was 13-15 in this period, would they let him play with older students?). If this is true, I could see why Rosa didn't show this fact: there wasn't enough space in just 12 chapters to include it. I mean, even a much more important fact like his time at Pizen Bluff didn't make it to the original 12 and ended up in an extra chapter (though it also got a mention in the original).

The alternative is that Scrooge was just bragging, and if I remember correctly the tone of the story may support this.

At any rate, I definitely can't see Scrooge attending college.

[Matilda]

Jan 11, 2017 15:35:22 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

Jan 11, 2017 15:02:08 GMT Matilda said:

Happy to place Webfoot Tech in Webfoot, Oregon, Robb! What a fine idea!

Although it's hard to reconcile Scrooge attending college with Rosa's timeline in Life of Scrooge. Then again, this comes from a Barks story, so what excuse did Rosa have for ignoring it?

I didn't say that I personally "believe" that Scrooge attended Webfoot Tech! I prefer to accept Rosa's L&T and to assume that in "September Scrimmage" Scrooge was (as he was sometimes wont to do) embroidering his past. Still, I don't imagine he would use a made-up name for a college if he were embroidering his legend--so I think there is a Webfoot Tech somewhere in the Duckiverse. Webfoot, Oregon, seems like the right spot for it.

[RobbK1]

Jan 11, 2017 16:02:59 GMT drakeborough said:

Jan 11, 2017 15:35:22 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

Although it's hard to reconcile Scrooge attending college with Rosa's timeline in Life of Scrooge. Then again, this comes from a Barks story, so what excuse did Rosa have for ignoring it?

This is what he wrote in a 2004 DCML message:

I was well aware of this story when I did my "Lo$". But "my" $crooge certainly never went to college. He didn't have the money and he didn't have the time and he wasn't even in America during those years. I simply regard that as a Barks story that can't possibly fit into his own continuity or circumstances or his other stories and which I chose to disregard, such as "The Magic Hourglass"... or I see it as a story where $crooge is bragging about something that never really happened like the tale of the gold field where it was so hot the gold was melting... or, since the story appeared in a special issue, that the story was written by someone else such as the screwy tales that Barks drew but did not write that appeared in books like "Grandma's Farm Friends" in FOUR COLOR comics (even if that's not the case). But whatever the case, "my" $crooge McDuck did not go to college, and was, in fact, a grade school drop out, if he ever went to school at all, which is in itself is unlikely. He didn't need school since he had the ambition to teach himself more than could be spoon-fed to him along with all those other kids who are resisting knowledge as hard as they can.

Then, in 2012, a user of the Papersera Forum asked Don the followig question:

In "September Scrimmage" (from Mickey Mouse Almanac 1, 1957), Unca $crooge mentions that he was once a student (or at least played football) at Webfoot Tech. "back in the 80's". Do you acknowledge this piece of Barks trivia to be canon, and if so, why is this not mentioned in any chapter of "The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck"?

Don's answer:

I only need to refer to what Barks had previously written about $crooge's pas: He was a poor shoeshine boy in Glasgow. He made his first money as a 30-something sourdough in the Yukon in 1898. He moved to Duckburg years after that. Why on Earth would he attend college at that point? I either -- A) dismiss this as a fib or a "throwaway gag". B) This story appeared in a "special" issue of Dell comics, and not in one of the main titles like WDC&S, DONALD DUCK or UNCLE $CROOGE -- Barks often only drew and did not write these stories (perhaps never?). So I might decide this is not an actual Barks fact. C) It is a Barks fact, like a very few others, that is self-contradictory to other previously established Barks facts, so I openly choose to ignore it as impossible.
For any one, or all three, of these reasons, I dismiss the idea that $crooge ever went to college, *especially* in Duckburg, as clearly false.

I asked Carl, himself, about that story in the first of my 3 visits with him and Garé at his house in 1969, (as it was the only Barks Uncle Scrooge story I could remember that didn't involved business, money or riches in any form).  He told me that he had written that story, himself, and the idea came to him from an urge to use the natural attribute of Scrooge's old age, wisdom and knowledge, to give him an advantage over younger people.  It gave him a fresh, new angle on Scrooge, which didn't involve him trying to add to his riches, or protect his horde. 

I prefer to think of Scrooge's time playing football for Webfoot Tech as follows:  He spent one season as Captain of Webfoot Tech's football team, in Webfoot, Oregon, in 1888, after leaving The Mississippi River area in the early 1880s, and mining for copper in Montana in the mid 1880s, and while on his way to The Pacific Northwest, in the early 1890s, and then to The Klondike, in 1897.  Scrooge was sitting in the stands, watching the team's first game of that season, because he was negotiating a business deal with a deal partner, who happened to be a football fan of Webfoot tech's team.  He noticed that although Webfoot Tech was losing badly, they could win the game easily if they would simply change their strategy.  The team heard that statement, and insulted Scrooge for seemingly having bragged about knowing how to play a game about which he knew nothing as a foreigner to the North American game.  Scrooge took that as a challenge, stating that HE could lead them to victory, if they would let him captain their team.  Doing so badly on their own, they assumed they could do no worse with him.  So they tried him out.  He led them to victory.  So, they let him Captain their team for that entire season.  Taking 4 months of Saturdays out of his time for searching after wealth wasn't a problem for Scrooge, as he made money betting on his team to win, when they were usually the underdog.  He won loads of money that way.

[Matilda]

Just to repeat the original question: I'd be happy to hear of other named colleges or universities in English-language Duck comics, especially ones called something other than Duckburg College or Duckburg University (though I'd be happy to get citations for those, too). So far we've got Coot University, Webfoot Tech, and Yarvard, with only the first being definitely in Duckburg. Plus, Dryupp University in Mouseton. Any others?

[RobbK1]

I seem to remember reading a non-Barks (modern) story or two with a McDuck University in Duckburg, which had been founded with funds donated by Scrooge, to use as an "industrial research factory" to feed new inventions and research findings to McDuck Industries. That could be a decent strategy for Scrooge ostensibly because Scrooge would not need to be the exclusive financier of their research efforts, as they could also take advantage of government funding, as an educational institution. As one of their financiers, and being on The University's Board or Higher Council Members, he would, naturally, have first claim to any of their discoveries, at a fraction of the cost payed by any outsider.

[drakeborough]

Jan 12, 2017 0:46:14 GMT RobbK1 said:

I prefer to think of Scrooge's time playing football for Webfoot Tech as follows:  He spent one season as Captain of Webfoot Tech's football team, in Webfoot, Oregon, in 1888, after leaving The Mississippi River area in the early 1880s, and mining for copper in Montana in the mid 1880s, and while on his way to The Pacific Northwest, in the early 1890s, and then to The Klondike, in 1897.  Scrooge was sitting in the stands, watching the team's first game of that season, because he was negotiating a business deal with a deal partner, who happened to be a football fan of Webfoot tech's team.  He noticed that although Webfoot Tech was losing badly, they could win the game easily if they would simply change their strategy.  The team heard that statement, and insulted Scrooge for seemingly having bragged about knowing how to play a game about which he knew nothing as a foreigner to the North American game.  Scrooge took that as a challenge, stating that HE could lead them to victory, if they would let him captain their team.  Doing so badly on their own, they assumed they could do no worse with him.  So they tried him out.  He led them to victory.  So, they let him Captain their team for that entire season.  Taking 4 months of Saturdays out of his time for searching after wealth wasn't a problem for Scrooge, as he made money betting on his team to win, when they were usually the underdog.  He won loads of money that way.

It seems a bit convoluted to me, but at least your idea doesn't have Scrooge attending college, which would be impossible for me to imagine. As long as he didn't attend college, I have nothing against the idea that for some reason he may have ended up playing football, but I prefer to think it happened for a short period of time rather than for a whole season. But I wouldn't choose the year 1888, since according to Don Rosa's timeline which I folllow he was in South Africa at this point, taking part to the Transvaal Gold Rush. I would prefer to think it happened between his return to Scotland (1885) and his arrival to Transvaal (1886), or between his departure from Transvaal and arrival to Pizen Bluff (1889 both).

 

Or maybe Scrooge was just bragging, and I'm aslo perfectly fine with this idea.

Jan 12, 2017 1:29:27 GMT Matilda said:

Just to repeat the original question: I'd be happy to hear of other named colleges or universities in English-language Duck comics, especially ones called something other than Duckburg College or Duckburg University (though I'd be happy to get citations for those, too). So far we've got Coot University, Webfoot Tech, and Yarvard, with only the first being definitely in Duckburg. Plus, Dryupp University in Mouseton. Any others?

According to Paperpedia there is Università del Calisota (English name: Calisota State University), though it is not stated in which stories it appeared, and the only cited sources are some maps of Duckburg published as extra-material (not part of any story) in a few issues of Topolino dated 2014. I wouln't be surprised to discover that most of the elements from these maps do not come from any story but are just made up.

[The KKM]

Vito Stabile's recent Dickie Duck comics show her as a college student, so wouldn't be surprised if that's where Università del Calisota comes from

[drakeborough]

You are right, according to a few messages in the Papersera Forum she attends Calisota State University (referred to by its English name) in these stories.

But I see the name Calisota State University is also mentioned in this 2002 article (which describes an idea for a strategy game) and in this Darkwing Duck/DuckTales crossover fanfiction (published in 2004 and updated in 2005). Maybe the name is just that obvious?