Ludwig Von Drake

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Jul 11, 2018 16:44:24 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Jul 11, 2018 15:52:00 GMT jopduck1 said:

What do you think of this theory?

It's generally accepted that the "Scrooge" in Hero of Duckburg is not Pothole, or a McDuck ancestor at all, since he's the uncle of Donald Duck I, who is clearly of the Duck side of Donald's ancestry. He's usually known as Scrooge Duck. I don't see why you'd even suppose he was Pothole, they don't at all look or act alike.

This raises an interesting idea. Perhaps, in the Duck Universe, the name "Scrooge" isn't a reference to a Charles Dickens character who's a stingy misanthrope, but a typical first name like "Donald" or "Gus" (just like "Duck" is a common family name in that universe that "human" characters can have, although we never see it in our world). That would explain why seemingly loving and traditional parents like Fergus and Downy would name their son thus (while giving his sisters names common in our world), especially when they had no idea he would grow up to be rich (or stingy). That would also explain how Donald could have a non-McDuck ancestor named "Scrooge", as you are suggesting is the case in the story in question. Perhaps the Duck Universe's Dickens simply chose a pre-existing name (albeit a first name) as the last name for his famous character.  

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jul 11, 2018 16:58:18 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

This raises an interesting idea. Perhaps, in the Duck Universe, the name "Scrooge" isn't a reference to a Charles Dickens character who's a stingy misanthrope, but a typical first name like "Donald" or "Gus" (just like "Duck" is a common family name in that universe that "human" characters can have, although we never see it in our world). That would explain why seemingly loving and traditional parents like Fergus and Downy would name their son thus (while giving his sisters names common in our world), especially when they had no idea he would grow up to be rich (or stingy). That would also explain how Donald could have a non-McDuck ancestor named "Scrooge", as you are suggesting is the case in the story in question. Perhaps the Duck Universe's Dickens simply chose a pre-existing name (albeit a first name) as the last name for his famous character.  

I have often thought this to be the case, yes. Regardless of Scrooge Duck, there are, I believe, several McDuck ancestors with variations of the Scrooge name (take King Scrooge-Shah), so it even goes back a long way. 

[jopduck1]

Jul 11, 2018 16:44:24 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Jul 11, 2018 15:52:00 GMT jopduck1 said:

What do you think of this theory?

It's generally accepted that the "Scrooge" in Hero of Duckburg is not Pothole, or a McDuck ancestor at all, since he's the uncle of Donald Duck I, who is clearly of the Duck side of Donald's ancestry. He's usually known as Scrooge Duck. I don't see why you'd even suppose he was Pothole, they don't at all look or act alike.

First, I do not agree with the Rosa appearance of Pothole. Secondly, I believe that a sister of Pothole is an Aunt of Scrooge, the great-great-grandmother of Donald.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Jul 28, 2017 7:32:24 GMT Ramapith said:

There's another episode of the 1950s Disney TV show that dramatizes Donald's creation.

The animators discuss what to call their new character, settling on Donald Drake; then they decide that because it sounds better, they'll "give him his mother's maiden name": Duck.

Does anyone know where I can find a link to this episode?

[Scroogerello]

Something I read today that caught my attention: apparently there were plans for Ludwig to have a cameo in Disney's new animated feature "Wreck it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet", as he appears in some concept art of the film. Humphrey the bear, who is seen next to him on the artwork, does appear in the final version of the film from what I understand.

www.artstation.com/artwork/nnwo4

Attachments:

[Matilda]

Jan 8, 2019 1:15:51 GMT Scroogerello said:

Something I read today that caught my attention: apparently there were plans for Ludwig to have a cameo in Disney's new animated feature "Wreck it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet", as he appears in some concept art of the film. Humphrey the bear, who is seen next to him on the artwork, does appear in the final version of the film from what I understand.

www.artstation.com/artwork/nnwo4

That's interesting! And a cause for several muttered "if only"s....

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Nov 19, 2017 3:49:34 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

Interestingly, the Disney Wiki says this about Ludwig's place on the Duck family tree:

Some 1960s Disney comics (including Tony Strobl's 6-pager Barn Dance Doctor, first published in 1961) state that Ludwig is Grandma Duck's cousin. This relationship was even further established in the German translation of Duckburg, U.S.A (first published in 1961). Here, Grandma reveals that Ludwig is the son of her maternal aunt and a certain Hofrat Von Drake. In contrast to these classic comics, a character profile poster of Ludwig in the German Disney comic magazine Micky Maus Magazin states that he is Grandma Duck's nephew rather than her cousin.

"Duckburg, USA", is, I believe, the story published in the first issue of Ludwig's solo title, which I don't own, but which, it was pointed out earlier on this thread, did not elaborate on Ludwig's exact relationship to the rest of the Duck clan in its original English printing.  Is the above wiki entry with regards to the German translation accurate? If so, does anybody know where the German translators got this information?

I'm still curious about this, and since it's been a while, thought it was worth another try: does anyone have access to the German translation of "Duckburg, USA?" If so, where was the very specific description of Ludwig's relationship to Grandma mentioned above inserted? And can someone post a panel-by-panel comparison of the English version (which reportedly merely calls him "a distinguished relative") and the German version which provides the details?

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Coming back to the Karp/Taliaferro Sunday strip from September 24, 1961, that introduces Ludwig to comics, it's interesting that they chose to ignore the unambiguous statement made in Ludwig's animated debut, that he was Donald's father's brother, in favor of an implied more complex relationship ("a kind of uncle"). That was the right decision, of course, as the former relationship simply does not work, but I wonder how it came about; were Karp/Taliaferro unaware of what the animated version stated, or did they indeed discard it since it wouldn't work in the comics?

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Feb 7, 2019 13:34:10 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

the unambiguous statement made in Ludwig's animated debut, that he was Donald's father's brother,

…The what now? I don't remember the introduction of Ludwig in An Adventure in Color even mentioning that he's related to Donald. 

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Feb 7, 2019 13:37:52 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Feb 7, 2019 13:34:10 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

the unambiguous statement made in Ludwig's animated debut, that he was Donald's father's brother,

…The what now? I don't remember the introduction of Ludwig in An Adventure in Color even mentioning that he's related to Donald. 

It was "The Hunting Instinct" (see the first post in this thread); I see now that that was his second animated appearance, not his debut. So maybe that's the answer to my question;  Karp/Taliaferro simply did not know, since the animated cartoon mentioning the relationship came after the comics debut (although you'd think such an important fact would have been communicated to the comics team ahead of time; surely "The Hunting Instinct" was well into production by then).

[crazycatlord]

I think that in stories published in my country, Ludwig Von Drake is not explicitly related to the Duck family - they neve call him "uncle" or something (then, being difficult to understand why, in some stories and specially strips, he seems to live at Donald's house...).

However, in an universe (like seems to be in most countries) where LvD is related do Donald, I suppose that an easy solution was to made the Ducks a German-American family who changed its surname from "Von Drake" to "Duck" after the US entry in World War I.

[TheMidgetMoose]

Feb 21, 2019 16:15:35 GMT crazycatlord said:

I think that in stories published in my country, Ludwig Von Drake is not explicitly related to the Duck family - they neve call him "uncle" or something (then, being difficult to understand why, in some stories and specially strips, he seems to live at Donald's house...).

However, in an universe (like seems to be in most countries) where LvD is related do Donald, I suppose that an easy solution was to made the Ducks a German-American family who changed its surname from "Von Drake" to "Duck" after the US entry in World War I.

The only problem with this is that there seems to be sufficient evidence that there were relatives of Donald's family with the surname Duck prior to World War I. Pintail Duck, who was from the 1600's, if I remember correctly, comes to mind. "The Invader of Fort Duckburg" by Don Rosa takes place in 1902 and has Donald's grandfather already bearing the surname Duck. You can also look at the last page of "The Family Tree Spree" on this thread (uploaded by Zantaf) that shows Donald has a relative named Colombust Duck who seems to be a parody of Christopher Columbus, who lived pre-World War I.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Feb 21, 2019 16:15:35 GMT crazycatlord said:

I think that in stories published in my country, Ludwig Von Drake is not explicitly related to the Duck family - they neve call him "uncle" or something (then, being difficult to understand why, in some stories and specially strips, he seems to live at Donald's house...).

It is indeed true that the "fact" that Donald and Ludwig are related often goes unmentioned. Even in recent animated shows, such as Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Mickey and the Roadster Races, and the Mickey Mouse shorts, Donald tends to refer to Ludwig as "Professor Von Drake", and Ludwig never treats Donald like a relative. Was Ludwig stated to be related to the main cast in Quack Pack? In the comics, though, the relationship seems to frequently be emphasized, and he's "Uncle Ludwig".

[Deleted]

Yes, in Roadster Racers, Ludwig uses Mickey as his driver two times in the series instead of his own relative, Donald.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Indeed, for a very long time I thought the idea of Ludwig being Donald's "uncle" was merely fan speculation, as there was nothing in the numerous Ludwig appearances to which I was exposed, including some alongside Donald, that suggested that was the case. They certainly never acted as if they were related. Only much later did I learn that Walt Disney himself mentioned their relationship in one of Ludwig's earliest appearances. The idea became more and more de-emphasized with time (at least in animation). I didn't read a whole lot of stories in the comics featuring Ludwig in those days, so didn't know that the two were related more explicitly in that medium.

Going back to Walt Disney's statement in "The Hunting Instinct" that Ludwig was, as Donald's father's brother, a "drake, of course", it's clear that he thought of "duck" and "drake" as species descriptors, not last names. Seen in that light, the idea that "the drakes are the paternal side of the family" makes sense (but of course, there would have to be female members of the "drake" branch and male members of the "duck" branch, Donald himself being an example of the latter, so it's not a perfect explanation).