Grandpa Duck

[drakeborough]

I happened into the page of GeoX's review of this Dutch story from 1992, and I saw that in the comments David Gerstein wrote

How could the Ducks have been editing the Webfoot Waddle for 70 years? Er—they haven't! Donald mentions that his grandpa founded it.

I am not sure if the grandfather mention is present in the Dutch version, in the American localization, or in both.

Also, one thing I forgot to say earlier (I already mentioned it in another thread, but it is better if I also say it here): on 6 January of this year I asked Evert Geradts (who is working on a series of 1-pagers about young Donald) the following question:

And will we see the late husband of Grandma Duck (Humperdink Duck/"Grandpa Duck")?

His answer from the following day was:

Grandpa Duck would be funny to do in a story, but I’d have to check with the editors first!

Even though it's not sure he will eventually use the character, I thought his answer was worth a mention in a thread titled "Grandpa Duck". We will wait and see.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Feb 21, 2017 10:23:44 GMT drakeborough said:

I happened into the page of GeoX's review of this Dutch story from 1992, and I saw that in the comments David Gerstein wrote

How could the Ducks have been editing the Webfoot Waddle for 70 years? Er—they haven't! Donald mentions that his grandpa founded it.

I am not sure if the grandfather mention is present in the Dutch version, in the American localization, or in both.

If the French translation I read was accurate (and it is reasonable to assume it was), this was added in the American localization. In the Dutch version, they have been editing the Waddle for 40 years (the number in the original is 40, not 70). It's like 80 is Praachtig.

[Huwey]

They have, in the german version, the magazine has got 20 years, and ist was founded by Donald in the year 1982. Here's why I think, the german version is accurate:
The Story has been translated firstly by Peter Daibenzeiher in a complete collection (which wasn't complete...) of Daan Jippes in 2002 and the story plays in 1992.
Anyways, in the english INDUCKS summary, made by a greek, says, that they're celebrating 300 issues of the magazine. I think this is because the story was published in the issue #300 of the greek 4-row magazin Κόμιξ.

[drakeborough]

Jan 25, 2017 22:43:57 GMT drakeborough said:

This Italian story from 1952 may mention Donald's grandfather, but I don't have it so I can't check.

In this Italian story from 2011 he appears or is mentioned, and is called Dabney.

In this Italian story from 2015 he appears and is called "Nonno Papero" ("Grandpa Duck").

Update: I still don't have the first and third story from that list, but I got hold of the second story, which is Nonna Papera e il segreto della quercia secolare, from Topolino #2875 (January 4, 2011), written by Carlo Panaro and drawn by Michele Mazzon.

Grandma Duck is going to tear down an old, rotten oak, and she briefly tells about good memories she related to that oak. This leads to this panel:

The previous panel showed her as a kid, with a caption box saying (of the oak) "It was the silent friend of my carefree games..." The caption box in the panel above continues the sentence, saying "... of the first throbs of my heart...".

The names Elvira and Dabney are obviously taken from Don Rosa's work, though the name Elvira has been used in Italy several times since the 1990's. Even Dabney's design is taken from Rosa's work, but Mazzon gave Elvira her glasses even though this scene supposedly takes place before their marriage, while Rosa shows her without glasses when they have three grown children. Even the colorist's choice of giving young Dabney a white beard is inconsistent with the Italian versions of "The Invader of Fort Duckburg" and "The Sign of the Triple Distelfink", where he has a brown beard in all three shown stages of his life (in the English version, however, he has a white beard in all three stages, so the colorist's choice casually matches that).

[drakeborough]

Now I also got hold of Paperino e le onorificenze, from Albi d'oro #52322 (July 12, 1952), written by an unknown author (identified by some sources as Alberto Testa, in what would be his only work for Disney) and drawn by Luciano Bottaro in his first Disney work.

As far as Italian stories are concerned, this is the first appearance of Grandma Duck and Gladstone, as well as Scrooge's second appearance and HDL's fourth appearance. HDL call Gladstone "zio Gastone" ("uncle Gladstone"), and I guess it makes sense since there's no word in Italian for your mother's cousin, so calling him an uncle or a cousin is an approssimation in either case.

But I'm going OT: what really matters for this topic is that, after reading the story, I can confirm Donald's grandfather is mentioned:

GRANDMA DUCK: "Well, now I can tell you in person. I was informing you that the heraldic researches started by your Grandpa Duck thirty years ago..."

[sirtao]

HDL call Gladstone "zio Gastone" ("uncle Gladstone"), and I guess it makes sense since there's no word in Italian for your mother's cousin, so calling him an uncle or a cousin is an approssimation in either case.

Also, like I stated in another topic, it's relatively common to call "uncle" or "aunt" any adult(or sufficiently older) relative up to nth degree or even if they aren't actually related, if close enough family friends.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Mar 11, 2017 22:50:07 GMT drakeborough said:

Now I also got hold of Paperino e le onorificenze, from Albi d'oro #52322 (July 12, 1952), written by an unknown author (identified by some sources as Alberto Testa, in what would be his only work for Disney) and drawn by Luciano Bottaro in his first Disney work.

As far as Italian stories are concerned, this is the first appearance of Grandma Duck and Gladstone, as well as Scrooge's second appearance and HDL's fourth appearance. HDL call Gladstone "zio Gastone" ("uncle Gladstone"), and I guess it makes sense since there's no word in Italian for your mother's cousin, so calling him an uncle or a cousin is an approssimation in either case.

But I'm going OT: what really matters for this topic is that, after reading the story, I can confirm Donald's grandfather is mentioned:

GRANDMA DUCK: "Well, now I can tell you in person. I was informing you that the heraldic researches started by your Grandpa Duck thirty years ago..."

Oh, that story! As a matter of fact, it has an unofficial title, They call me MISTER Duck, which GeoX gave it when he reviewed the thing on his blog.

[drakeborough]

Mar 13, 2017 19:30:42 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Oh, that story! As a matter of fact, it has an unofficial title, They call me MISTER Duck, which GeoX gave it when he reviewed the thing on his blog.

I didn't know GeoX reviewed it, now I am going to read his review as soon as I finish publishing this message.

By the way, the two pages of this topic are already the ultimate source when it comes to the various versions of Grandpa Duck, but the project won't be complete until I get hold of the 2015 story.

[drakeborough]

A 9-part guide of Duckburg called "Paperopoli - Guida della città" was published in nine consecutive issues of Topolino, from #3062 (August 5, 2014) to #3070 (September 30, 2014): the texts are by Barbara Garufi and Blasco Pisapia, the art is by Pisapia.

Part 9 (Topolino #3070) includes a two-page description of Grandma Duck's farm, and we can see a picture with the label "ritratto del nonno" ("portrait of grandpa"):

Here is a zoom in on the portrait:

Assuming it's meant to be Donald's grandfather and Grandma Duck's late husband, it's hard to say if he's based on any earlier version of it, given that his picture is very small and he is not given any name.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll now expand on an old message of mine.

Jan 25, 2017 22:17:30 GMT drakeborough said:

Jan 25, 2017 19:03:12 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

July of 1951 — Bill Wright
In the 1951 story Grandma Duck and the Charity Sale (from Vacation Parade #2), Grandma is prepared to give various old possessions of hers to a charity sale until she begins to reminesce about how each and every one of them reminds her in some way of the wonderful romantic times she used to have with her sweetheart, Humperdink, who is implied to have become her husband and thus Grandpa Duck. 

I couldn't find the full panel in English, but I found it in Italian (not sure if he appears in other panels or not):

Two panels from the same story (not sure of which one comes first):

Does the story imply the romantic moments recalled by Grandma happened before they married and had kids? If so, the timeline seems far off, since 1905 is too late a date for Grandma being still without children, if we assume Donald was born around 1920.

I got hold of the first Italian edition of this story (from Topolino #36, which kept the 4-tier layout), and after reading it my opinion is that it's a bad story (those mice from Cinderella are really annoying and out of place). Anyway, now I can answer my own questions.

First, I can say that, despite being mentioned by name in several panels, Humperdink appears in only one panel (the one shown above twice), which is on page 5, panel 2.

The panel that mentions that Humperdink's letters are gone is on page 6, panel 3.

The panel that mention the fish peddlers picnic is on page 4, panel 5. And it is not said if they were already married or not when this picnic took place.

[drakeborough]

In the Italian Fantomallard series, Dolly Duck (secret identity of Dolly Paprika and girlfriend of Lord Quackett/Fantomallard) is the granddaughter of Samuel Duck, who is a cousin of Dabney Duck. Neither Dabney nor Samuel actually appear in the series, but they are mentioned in an accompanying article. According to that article, Samuel moved to Duckburg in 1848 as Dabney had a farm there. This does not fit well into Don Rosa's timeline: if Grandma Duck was born circa 1855, then I guess Dabney was born around the same time.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Mar 21, 2017 17:12:56 GMT drakeborough said:

In the Italian Fantomallard series, Dolly Duck (secret identity of Dolly Paprika and girlfriend of Lord Quackett/Fantomallard) is the granddaughter of Samuel Duck, who is a cousin of Dabney Duck. Neither Dabney nor Samuel actually appear in the series, but they are mentioned in an accompanying article. According to that article, Samuel moved to Duckburg in 1848 as Dabney had a farm there. This does not fit well into Don Rosa's timeline: if Grandma Duck was born circa 1855, then I guess Dabney was born around the same time.

Interesting. As for the picture, I think it's based on Rosa. Notice the goatee.

[drakeborough]

Mar 21, 2017 17:22:28 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

As for the picture, I think it's based on Rosa. Notice the goatee.

It may be, as the articles of the series "Paperopoli - Guida della città" are often based on Rosa. For example the very next page shows another portion of Grandma's farm and we can see a picture of Cornelius Coot, which fits well with Rosa's idea that she is Cornelius' granddaughter. Of course, this idea has been used in many Italian stories since the 1990's, including one in the most recent issue of Topolino.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Mar 21, 2017 17:40:31 GMT drakeborough said:

Mar 21, 2017 17:22:28 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

As for the picture, I think it's based on Rosa. Notice the goatee.

It may be, as the articles of the series "Paperopoli - Guida della città" are often based on Rosa. For example the very next page shows another portion of Grandma's farm and we can see a picture of Cornelius Coot, which fits well with Rosa's idea that she is Cornelius' granddaughter. Of course, this idea has been used in many Italian stories since the 1990's, including one in the most recent issue of Topolino.

I've been thinking, there's no reason why Grandpa Duck, as depicted by Strobl in The Good Old Daze, couldn't visually be an older version of Rosa's Humperdink. He could have lost his hair and grown out his beard in the intervening years. I like the idea of congruity between these two "Grandpas".

[drakeborough]

Mar 21, 2017 18:05:03 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

I've been thinking, there's no reason why Grandpa Duck, as depicted by Strobl in The Good Old Daze, couldn't visually be an older version of Rosa's Humperdink. He could have lost his hair and grown out his beard in the intervening years. I like the idea of congruity between these two "Grandpas".

Well, it's not like this is a new idea: in his page about the various versions of Grandpa Duck, Gilles Maurice wrote:

We can assume that Strobl's and Rosa's grandpa Ducks are the same person, and that maybe just after the Triple Distelfink story, he let his beard grow...

Maurice's article does not have a date, but it has been online for many years.

[Scroogerello]

Something else that I thought would be worth adding to this topic: in Don Rosa's original sketches & script for "The King of the Klondike", Grandpa Duck had a considerably larger role.
This storyline is very different from want the printed story ended up with, but I think it's a shame it was abandoned. In fact, I personally find this unpublished storyline much more entertaining and funny than the *actual* story; I never really liked that 'Hulk-smash' sequence in the printed story, where Scrooge beats up Soapy Slick and destroys an entire riverboat.
(the sketches in question can be found here: www.duckhunt.de/Scripts/ ).