Characters' Ages in Your Headcanon

[Patofu]

Jul 9, 2017 9:03:41 GMT drakeborough said:

Jul 8, 2017 22:00:47 GMT Patofu said:

I don't really care that much for how old Donald/Mickey are, but I guess I deviate via focusing on him being fairly young. 30 is too old for my views, but sure, he's not 18 either. Something around 25 for each, their girlfriends at least one year younger. Goofy's probably older by virtue of months only. Horace & Clarabelle are not much older, but they are knocking on the 35 soon.

I've always got the impression that Goofy is older than Mickey by more than just moths. Indeed, in Gottfredson's "The Black Crow Mystery" it is explicitly said that Goofy is older, though their age difference is not stated. I'd say it's at least five years.

Even Horace and Clarabelle are clearly older than Mickey in Gottfredson's stories, and there are several jokes about Clarabelle not being so young anymore. In "The Plumber's Helper" Horace even wears glasses while reading. Like Goofy, I think they are on the same generation as Mickey, but they are older than him (maybe they are even a bit older than Goofy).

I probably should've forewarned that I didn't get much access to stories with those two. I know them more from the cartoons than from the comics, overall [and technically even the games, since Magical Quest 2 having Clarabelle was one point that stuck out to me]. I didn't really see anything evidencing them as being that much older.

Jul 9, 2017 9:03:41 GMT drakeborough said:

Jul 8, 2017 22:00:47 GMT Patofu said:

Grandma Duck is in her 60s to 70s

Isn't that a little too young, given that she is three generation older than her great-grandsons Huey, Dewey and Louie?

Maybe. I'm in a period of my life where I have to deal with my older relatives [mainly female ones] suffering a lot due to age. Suffice to say, I would rather stick to my positive feelings, and given how old the grandmothers I knew were at the time they were more relevant in my life...

Maybe she just happened to be a young mother. Not really unheard of, would justify the large family and still being healthy [which means I'd deage both her and her husband by about ten years in Rosa's chapter 10 if I was including her], and would make the rest make sense. [I'm fairly flexible about that, admittedly; have no problems with stories where she and Scrooge are 'basically siblings'.]

Jul 9, 2017 9:03:41 GMT drakeborough said:

Jul 8, 2017 22:00:47 GMT Patofu said:

Scrooge's definitely an old man. More spry than 80 but definitely past 'middle age'. Technically takes care of himself, so he behaves enough like he's in his 40s, but there's points where realism would take precedence. His family has relatively same ages as the Don Rosa portrayal, but Hortense legit died early [from stressing herself to death], while Matilda is probably a bit older.

"Matilda is probably a bit older": do you mean older than Hortense, or older than Scrooge? Since Matilda and Hortense are basically Rosa-only characters, we can saferly say that Matilda is 4 years younger than Scrooge, and Hortense is 5 years younger than Matilda.

Read the whole paragraph. 'relatively same ages as the Don Rosa portrayal [...] Matilda is probably a bit older'. So Matilda could be more than 5 years older than Hortense.

Any other questions?

[whatevs]

Mickey and Minnie: Gottfredson hinted at an age below 20 for Mickey and Minnie. In "The Black Crow Mystery", Mickey finds he's too young to join the armed forces, so less than 18. In "Mickey Mouse and the Ransom Plot", Clarabelle is asked if Minnie is her daughter, which she takes no offense at. The Walsh era corroborates this indirectly. Drusilla is said to look like a 17-year old in "The House of Mystery" and Minnie views her as a romantic rival. In "The Midas Ring", the newspapers describe Mickey as a "boy financier".

Clarabelle: Clarabelle must have been in the 35-40 area during Gottfredson's run. In addition to the "Mickey Mouse and the Ransom Plot" line, there's the titular lectro box in "Mickey Mouse and the 'Lectro Box". It makes Clarabelle appear as a young woman probably in the age range of Minnie, which Clarabelle defines as "looking twenty years younger".

Horace and Goofy: By virtue of being (on and off) suitors of Clarabelle, they must be about the same age. I estimate the both of them younger. Horace because of how he's depicted as desirable while Clarabelle's not, perhaps due to the 30s age-gender bias, but this works too. Goofy because otherwise him hitting on Kitty, who's depicted as being in Mickey's age range, in "The Black Crow Mystery" would be creepy.

Pete and Shyster: Would have to be 30-40 if they were part of Captain Churchmouse's crew fifteen years prior according to "Mickey Mouse Sails for Treasure Island". Probably towards 40 because I'm more inclined to believe they organized a mutiny at over 20 than below. For fairness, "Treasure Island" is hard to match with the earlier "Death Valley", because Pete and Shyster seemed to only become friends in that story while "Treasure Island" implies they've been a set for much longer.

Squinch: 50 at minimum what with his old guy shtick, and I'd go well above that if that didn't make Clarabelle's positive response to his attention weird.

----

These ages generally work well for modern comics, but I personally imagine modern-day Mickey and Minnie older because ~20 just doesn't cut it. About ~25 works better.

[That Duckfan]

Squinch is another good call. He further reinforces my idea that Clarabelle is much older than Mickey and Minnie. I keep thinking about her catch phrase "Land sakes!", which feels like it would have been outdated even in Gottfredson's time. She might well be in her early 50s, with Squinch being about twenty years older.

I feel like Pete and Trudy are somewhere in their late forties/early fifties, with Trudy being the same vague age that Brigitta is. Shyster was nearing sixty even in the earlier stories with a comparatively younger Mickey/Minnie and Pete.

[drakeborough]

Jul 9, 2017 18:55:15 GMT whatevs said:

Mickey and Minnie: Gottfredson hinted at an age below 20 for Mickey and Minnie. In "The Black Crow Mystery", Mickey finds he's too young to join the armed forces, so less than 18.

I've always found that part strange. I can understand that in the Usa the minimum age for driving a car is 16 and not 18 (assuming it was the same back then), but still, the fact that Mickey lives alone, travels the world alone without supervision, signs documents etc., all things point to him being a legal adult, which I guess it means he is at least 18. Why would he be too young to join the armed forced then? And if he is under 18, why did he bother to even ask?

At any rate, it seems to me that Mickey and Minnie get older as part of their character development, and in later continuities (like the Eega Beeva cycle) I'd say they are about 30-35, which I'll place as their final age.

[RobbK1]

Jul 9, 2017 20:39:37 GMT That Duckfan said:

Squinch is another good call. He further reinforces my idea that Clarabelle is much older than Mickey and Minnie. I keep thinking about her catch phrase "Land sakes!", which feels like it would have been outdated even in Gottfredson's time. She might well be in her early 50s, with Squinch being about twenty years older.

I feel like Pete and Trudy are somewhere in their late forties/early fifties, with Trudy being the same vague age that Brigitta is. Shyster was nearing sixty even in the earlier stories with a comparatively younger Mickey/Minnie and Pete.

Country people were still saying "land sakes!" when I was a child.  So, it certainly wasn't outdated when Gottfredson was growing up.  Both he and Barks were from hicky rural parts of USA.

[sirtao]

Jul 9, 2017 20:41:57 GMT drakeborough said:

At any rate, it seems to me that Mickey and Minnie get older as part of their character development, and in later continuities (like the Eega Beeva cycle) I'd say they are about 30-35, which I'll place as their final age.

I don't quite agree-
30-35 is more their age in the more "down-to-earth" Italian stories, where Mickey is more "domesticated", takes occasionally care of Ferdy&Morty and is frenemy of sort with Pete(who himself became more of a "7-17" thief)
20-30 is him during the "grand aventures" phase and Pete as archenemy
16-20 is Red Pants Mickey

[whatevs]

Jul 9, 2017 20:41:57 GMT drakeborough said:

Jul 9, 2017 18:55:15 GMT whatevs said:

Mickey and Minnie: Gottfredson hinted at an age below 20 for Mickey and Minnie. In "The Black Crow Mystery", Mickey finds he's too young to join the armed forces, so less than 18.

I've always found that part strange. I can understand that in the Usa the minimum age for driving a car is 16 and not 18 (assuming it was the same back then), but still, the fact that Mickey lives alone, travels the world alone without supervision, signs documents etc., all things point to him being a legal adult, which I guess it means he is at least 18. Why would he be too young to join the armed forced then? And if he is under 18, why did he bother to even ask?

I exclusively read the WWII stories meta-wise (couldn't stomach the unsavory bits otherwise), so my answer is meta. An overeager heroic figure like Mickey (and Donald, 99% sure there's a gag comic about him being too young too, and 100% sure another one where he is too short) would have to be depicted as wanting to fight for his country, yet actually sending him off would cause problems. And so, we get this weird construction to keep Mickey "free" to experience the war as the plot demands. Funnily enough, under Walsh he'd fight (explicit) WAKs at least thrice, once in service of the army.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Jul 9, 2017 21:20:49 GMT sirtao said:

Jul 9, 2017 20:41:57 GMT drakeborough said:

At any rate, it seems to me that Mickey and Minnie get older as part of their character development, and in later continuities (like the Eega Beeva cycle) I'd say they are about 30-35, which I'll place as their final age.

I don't quite agree-
30-35 is more their age in the more "down-to-earth" Italian stories, where Mickey is more "domesticated", takes occasionally care of Ferdy&Morty and is frenemy of sort with Pete(who himself became more of a "7-17" thief)
20-30 is him during the "grand aventures" phase and Pete as archenemy
16-20 is Red Pants Mickey

I do like this view. And from this perspective, the behavior of Pete in the Eega Beeva run clearly set those stories in what you describe as the "20-30 years old" period. 

[drakeborough]

Jul 9, 2017 21:20:49 GMT sirtao said:

Jul 9, 2017 20:41:57 GMT drakeborough said:

At any rate, it seems to me that Mickey and Minnie get older as part of their character development, and in later continuities (like the Eega Beeva cycle) I'd say they are about 30-35, which I'll place as their final age.

I don't quite agree-
30-35 is more their age in the more "down-to-earth" Italian stories, where Mickey is more "domesticated", takes occasionally care of Ferdy&Morty and is frenemy of sort with Pete(who himself became more of a "7-17" thief)

The Italian Mickey (and the Mickey of many W-coded stories) is more "down-to-earth" and borguese than early Mickey indeed, but this is because Italian authors (and American authors of comic books) followed the evolution that Mickey had in the strip, where he became less of a daredevil and more adult: that's why I said about 30-35.

I mean, compare the early years, in which Minnie wishes Mickey would settle down to a more normal and safe lifestyle, with the later years, in which Mickey basically did that. Even the change (which happened in 1944) from red shorts to a shirt and long trousers is a sign of that.

I  think the "frenemy" relationship with Pete should not be abused. Also, what do you mean with "7-17"?

Jul 9, 2017 21:20:49 GMT sirtao said:

20-30 is him during the "grand aventures" phase and Pete as archenemy
16-20 is Red Pants Mickey

This puzzled me: which is the difference between the "grand adventures phase" and "Red Pants Mickey"? Gottfredson's serials (before the strip turned into a gag-a-day format) lasted from 1930 to 1955. Are you saying that you see the 1930-1944 phase as not being about "grand adventures"? I think that the consensus was that most of his memorable adventures happened in this period, though there were also big adventures in the 1944-1955 period.

Jul 10, 2017 5:37:01 GMT whatevs said:

Jul 9, 2017 20:41:57 GMT drakeborough said:

I've always found that part strange. I can understand that in the Usa the minimum age for driving a car is 16 and not 18 (assuming it was the same back then), but still, the fact that Mickey lives alone, travels the world alone without supervision, signs documents etc., all things point to him being a legal adult, which I guess it means he is at least 18. Why would he be too young to join the armed forced then? And if he is under 18, why did he bother to even ask?

I exclusively read the WWII stories meta-wise (couldn't stomach the unsavory bits otherwise), so my answer is meta. An overeager heroic figure like Mickey (and Donald, 99% sure there's a gag comic about him being too young too, and 100% sure another one where he is too short) would have to be depicted as wanting to fight for his country, yet actually sending him off would cause problems. And so, we get this weird construction to keep Mickey "free" to experience the war as the plot demands. Funnily enough, under Walsh he'd fight (explicit) WAKs at least thrice, once in service of the army.

I can understand the problems of sending off Mickey, but there could be other ways to avoid that. In the same story, Goofy is said to be old enough to be sent off and yet he was discarded for another reason.

[Patofu]

I think he literally means 'the cartoon-style Mickey Mouse'. Who wore red pants for a while.

So comic stories based around the elements of the cartoons, in short.

[drakeborough]

Jul 10, 2017 12:49:05 GMT Patofu said:

I think he literally means 'the cartoon-style Mickey Mouse'. Who wore red pants for a while.

So comic stories based around the elements of the cartoons, in short.

I guess it would be good to know which years was he referring to.

[sirtao]

Jul 10, 2017 9:05:43 GMT drakeborough said:

Also, what do you mean with "7-17"?

I did mean a Punch-Clock Villain

This puzzled me: which is the difference between the "grand adventures phase" and "Red Pants Mickey"?

The shirt.
If Mickey wears a shirt, he's in his "Grand Adventures" phase and a 20-so-years old.
If he's running around with just his red pants, he's a kid.

[whatevs]

Jul 9, 2017 20:39:37 GMT That Duckfan said:

Squinch is another good call. He further reinforces my idea that Clarabelle is much older than Mickey and Minnie. I keep thinking about her catch phrase "Land sakes!", which feels like it would have been outdated even in Gottfredson's time. She might well be in her early 50s, with Squinch being about twenty years older.

I feel like Pete and Trudy are somewhere in their late forties/early fifties, with Trudy being the same vague age that Brigitta is. Shyster was nearing sixty even in the earlier stories with a comparatively younger Mickey/Minnie and Pete.

The reason I'm imagining Pete and Shyster younger than I might neutrally is similar to why I work with a younger Squinch and younger Goofy. Their (former) obsession with Minnie is bad enough as it is, I don't need the age gap to be "old enough to be her grandfather". And no, "they're villains" doesn't cut it for me.

[drakeborough]

Jul 10, 2017 22:05:23 GMT sirtao said:

Jul 10, 2017 9:05:43 GMT drakeborough said:

Also, what do you mean with "7-17"?

I did mean a Punch-Clock Villain

I get it.

Jul 10, 2017 22:05:23 GMT sirtao said:

This puzzled me: which is the difference between the "grand adventures phase" and "Red Pants Mickey"?

The shirt.
If Mickey wears a shirt, he's in his "Grand Adventures" phase and a 20-so-years old.
If he's running around with just his red pants, he's a kid.

Thanks for the answer, but I am still confused by it. You say that his "Grand Adventures" phases coincides with the stories in which he wears a shirt: how about "The Crazy Crime Wave", "Editor-in-Grief", "Mickey Mouse Joins the Foreign Legion, "The Seven Ghosts", "The Monarch of Medioka", "The Plumber's Helper", "Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot", "The Gleam" and so many other stories from the red pants period? Should I think that these are not "grand adventures" just because Mickey doesn't wear a shirt? If anything, I'd say they are even bigger adventures compared to what came later.

Personally, I think the Mickey of the last yers of Walsh/Gottfredson serials (and the later daily strips) has the same age as the the Mickey of the comic books, both for American authors (Murry, etc.) and for the Italian authors (Martina, Scarpa, etc.).

I dislike the fact that Egmont gave Mickey his red pants back, since they are anachronistic, but at least it seems that recently they went back on giving him his shirt and long trousers.

And how about animation? After 73 years of honored career in the comics, I'd guess the shirt and long trousers deserve to also appear in some movie or tv show. Or maybe they already have: I know that some of the later classic shorts dropped the red pants, but I don't know or remember what Mickey wore in these.

[Minotaur]

Jul 4, 2017 12:01:46 GMT whatevs said:

I'm not all that invested in this topic, but I'm curious if A.) people accept Ludwig's mother still being alive as canon, and B.) what age you assign her?

Never like this idea. Especially in cartoons, when "his mother" yelled at him. That scene looked so bizarre that I doubted the scriptwriter understood the difference between creepy and funny.