Atypical anthropomorphisms in Duck/Mouse comics

[Baar Baar Jinx]

I didn't want to hijack the "Ducks in Mouse comics" thread, but this is a related topic of interest that was briefly touched upon in another discussion. Most characters in the Duck comics are anthropomorphic dogs (dognoses), pigs, or various birds (ducks, owls, and at times undefined birds); in the Mouse comics it's generally limited to the former two (and mice if they're related to Mickey or Minnie), with the notable exceptions of characters created early on, like Pete, Horace and Clarabelle.  But are there any examples of bizzare anthropomorphisms in Duck and Mouse comics that violate this rule? An elephant mayor of Mouseton was mentioned. Disney Comics, Inc., tried to give Mickey a wider array of villains (Wildebeest the tiger, a vixen, Prince Penguin, etc.) but what about the old Western stories or in European comics?

[The KKM]

The team of Radice and Turconi are fans of using wider varieties of animals in their stories, normally as extras. Both wider varieties of just birds, and wider varieties of animals themselves.

[drakeborough]

There's this 6-page thread on the Papersera Forum about the same subjet, and also this 4-page thread about a similar subject.

Plus, there's a Barks website which, among other things, lists the various species of Barks' characters, including some weird ones. Here is the page about "button-nosed" characters, and here is the page about "beaked and others". Unfortunately, the images shown are not associated with the title (or issue) of the story, and we are also shown characters in stories that Barks drew but didn't write (like the Big Bad Wolf).

[Scrooge MacDuck]

One Italian story featured Donald's distant relative, a penguin. Note that a civilization of penguins is seen in the DuckTales pilot, but it's implied to be a surprise for the Ducks to discover sapient penguins. (There's a Scarpa story with a similar plot, with Mickey kidnapped to the secret penguin empire or something.)


The awesome Treasure Island parody drawn by Stefano Turconi has an alligator and a snake as part of the pirate crew.

Mickey Mouse stories occaisonally have anthropomorphic sheep: 



And Emil Eagle is, well, an eagle. Even more unusual, in his debut, he was a bald eagle, and only later came to resemble a more normal eagle because (in a rare case of continuity) one of his early stories ended up with him being sprayed by Gyro Gearloose's overpowered hair-growing tonic.

[Matilda]

Ducks and sapient penguins: "The Coldest Warm Place" (Korhonen) and "Antarctic Antics" (Phil/Andersen).

Scrooge MacDuck: Where's the anthropomorphized sheep in the Sleuth panel? Is the Sleuth a sheep?

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jun 29, 2017 13:57:06 GMT Matilda said:

Scrooge MacDuck: Where's the anthropomorphized sheep in the Sleuth panel? Is the Sleuth a sheep?

I'm pretty sure he is, yes. Look at his nose, it's definitely not a regular dog nose, and his hands are sometimes drawn looking more clearly like sheep hooves. Not to mention that in the aforementioned Treasure Island costumed story, the Italian printing colored his skin white, making the resemblance even clearer.

[Matilda]

Jun 29, 2017 14:02:17 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Jun 29, 2017 13:57:06 GMT Matilda said:

Scrooge MacDuck: Where's the anthropomorphized sheep in the Sleuth panel? Is the Sleuth a sheep?

I'm pretty sure he is, yes. Look at his nose, it's definitely not a regular dog nose, and his hands are sometimes drawn looking more clearly like sheep hooves. Not to mention that in the aforementioned Treasure Island costumed story, the Italian printing colored his skin white, making the resemblance even clearer.

Yes, I can sort of see it in his nose. It never occurred to me to think he might be a sheep, even though it wasn't clear what he was supposed to be. I never noticed hoof-like hands. I'll look through the Sleuth stories I do have to see whether that shows up in any of them.

[Zantaf]

There are many rather unusual anthropomorphic animals in Egmont's Mickey Mystery series. For example a hare/rabbit in "The Rogue Cops", a goat and a wolf in "Horror in the Wax Museum", three rats in "Too Close for Comfort", a few bulls and a rooster in "A Scandal In City Hall", a reoccurring hippopotamus in both "The Roman Puzzle" and "The Black-Tie Affair",  a camel, a horse and a bull in "The Purloined Password", a frog and two weird-looking rabbit/mouse hybrids in "Rosemary", a reoccurring mole in "Rosemary", "The Pimpernel" and "All in the Game", a donkey, a horse and what seems to be a camel in "Duet for One", a monkey in "The Werewolf of Duckburg", a goat and two weasels in "The Lost City Of Duckburg", a ram in "The Brisbane Conondrum", a seal and yet another camel in The Queen's Safe" and many more. There are also a lot of cats as well as birds of all kinds (including ducks) throughout the series.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Jun 29, 2017 10:46:35 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

One Italian story featured Donald's distant relative, a penguin. Note that a civilization of penguins is seen in the DuckTales pilot, but it's implied to be a surprise for the Ducks to discover sapient penguins. (There's a Scarpa story with a similar plot, with Mickey kidnapped to the secret penguin empire or something.)

It's been a while since I watched it, but I hated those penguins in the DuckTales '87 pilot. Precisely because of the anthropomorphic problems they caused. If the Ducks are MEAS-4Bs (as we discussed on the "what's a person" thread), then those penguins were MEAS-3, and had no business being in the Duckverse. But then DuckTales is non-canon to me, so it ultimately doesn't matter (but, come on, "Skittles"? Condescending and nauseating).

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jun 29, 2017 15:45:07 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

Jun 29, 2017 10:46:35 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

One Italian story featured Donald's distant relative, a penguin. Note that a civilization of penguins is seen in the DuckTales pilot, but it's implied to be a surprise for the Ducks to discover sapient penguins. (There's a Scarpa story with a similar plot, with Mickey kidnapped to the secret penguin empire or something.)

It's been a while since I watched it, but I hated those penguins in the DuckTales '87 pilot. Precisely because of the anthropomorphic problems they caused. If the Ducks are MEAS-4Bs (as we discussed on the "what's a person" thread), then those penguins were MEAS-3, and had no business being in the Duckverse. But then DuckTales is non-canon to me, so it ultimately doesn't matter (but, come on, "Skittles"? Condescending and nauseating).

I believe they would have been 4As — except undiscovered ones. It was a sci-fic plot, basically — the discovery of an unknown sapient species with its own civilization, in an undiscovered continent. Nothing in their behavior suggested "animalistic" penguins in any way.

[Zantaf]

Jun 29, 2017 14:02:17 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Jun 29, 2017 13:57:06 GMT Matilda said:

Scrooge MacDuck: Where's the anthropomorphized sheep in the Sleuth panel? Is the Sleuth a sheep?

I'm pretty sure he is, yes. Look at his nose, it's definitely not a regular dog nose, and his hands are sometimes drawn looking more clearly like sheep hooves. Not to mention that in the aforementioned Treasure Island costumed story, the Italian printing colored his skin white, making the resemblance even clearer.

The Sleuth as a sheep is a revelation to me! It never crossed my mind! But I can sort of see it now too, especially taking "Treasure Island" into consideration. 

[The KKM]

Pretty sure the fact he's white-skinned in Treasure Island is not relevant to this- it's a relic of how his stories were printed in Italy before, surely? Same as with, say, some countries printing Joe Carioca's girlfriend as white instead of pink. Doesn't mean she's a chicken.

The Sleuth seems like a dog to me. Different nose and all since I'd imagine the whole idea is to resemble a more dignified hound-like muzzle, fitting both the detective job and being a British character.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jun 29, 2017 19:46:10 GMT The KKM said:

Pretty sure the fact he's white-skinned in Treasure Island is not relevant to this- it's a relic of how his stories were printed in Italy before, surely? Same as with, say, some countries printing Joe Carioca's girlfriend as white instead of pink. Doesn't mean she's a chicken.

The Sleuth seems like a dog to me. Different nose and all since I'd imagine the whole idea is to resemble a more dignified hound-like muzzle, fitting both the detective job and being a British character.

I guess it's possible. I always did think of the Sleuth as a sheep even before Treasure Island, though. That nose looks really undoglike to me, hound or not. Say, by the way, how do people on this forum like the Sleuth (and his stories for that matter)? Personally, I always loved him and his nemesis Professor Nefarius, though not all of their stories are, in practice, all that great.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Something weird: in a 2012 Italian Scrooge story, a random extra was Goof-headed (not a Goofy lookalike, but the same face structure as Goofy and his relatives; you'd swear he was right out of one of the Goofy-Lookalikes cartoons we've been discussing as of late).

[Matilda]

In one of several stories titled "Birthday Blues", coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=S+65030 by Lockman & Strobl, first published 1965, the millionaire who invites Scrooge to visit for Scrooge's birthday is a vaguely Arab cat-person, and all his people are also cat-people. You can see the millionaire on the French first page on Inducks (since the Journal de Mickey printing put more panels on each page). I personally love the panel where the cat-people put on an acrobatic show for Scrooge...if I have time, I'll try to post that panel here.