Duck universe has plenty of backstory, thanks to Barks establishing some canonicity and Rosa building on that. But mouse universe has practically no past. I guess that's because Floyd Gottfredson, the respective ''Barks'' for mouse universe, wrote his stories in strip forms, making them almost pure comedy and rendering it impossible to create any commonly accepted facts that future stories could be built on. Anyway, let's try to create some backstory on our own. If anyone has any ideas, about Mickey or any related character, he can post them here.
That post reads like someone very unfamiliar with Gottfredson's stories and the general mice stuff. The only real difference is that there wasn't a Rosa for the Mice, to coalesce decades of stuff into something cohesive.
I know Minnie comes from a rural background ("Mr Slicker and the Egg Robbers") and, judging from the very first Disney comic, so does Mickey. Goofy seems to have about a hundred uncles and aunts, which means either his father or his mother or both come from extremely big families with lots of children. In stark contrast, Goofy himself seems to be an only child.
He can't be an only child—he's got a brother in Scarpa (Pappo from "Pippotarzan") who's been isolated from the outside world for many years; and at least one other sibling has to exist to be the parent of Gilbert, who looks too similar to be anything but a blood relative.
(Would like to say more, but too busy... this is an awful week...)
That post reads like someone very unfamiliar with Gottfredson's stories and the general mice stuff. The only real difference is that there wasn't a Rosa for the Mice, to coalesce decades of stuff into something cohesive.
True.
As much as I can remember, concerning relatives, here what I know. In any case, I have not yet read all Gottfredson's stories, and in particular the ones from the 50's only when I was ten or eleven years old. (Now I am waiting for the Fantagraphics reprint to re-enjoy them as brand new, of course!) So my knowledge is probably limited.
We have an uncle and an aunt for Mickey, if you consider also Scarpa's work. Moreover, there is a mother of Morty and Ferty, that Miss Fieldmouse who - as someone was making me notice recently - could be interpreted as Mickey's sister (taking her husband's man). I do not feel very cool with that, but whatever, everyone can have his headcanon - and as you know I do not like very much discussing on these issues.
Minnie's parents and uncle appear in the early thirties. (A couple also in a well-known story by DeMaris and Gottfredson from the forties, but well, you know, no spoiler...). Moreover, there is another couple of Minnies's aunt and uncle appearing in a very famous story by Faraci and De Vita, Mickey and the incredible Vladimir. Since - as you know - Faraci is for me the greatest Mickey's writer after Gottfredson&friends - yep, maybe even more than Scarpa in my heart! - almost everything he put into Mickey's universe is more than canonical to me: it's bible.
Beside a nephew and at least a couple of brothers, as remembered by David, Goofy has aunts and uncles everywhere. Starting from the dead one who left him a certain Detective agency. By the way, in the first Disney story that he was allowed to draw by himself, Casty sent Mickey and Pete to Pippsburgh, a whole town of Goofy-like characters. A touch à la Kinney brothers (in the sense of Jack and Dick, respectively main director and main writer of Goofy's animation series in the 40's and 50's). Kind of weird in comics, but Casty is still Casty, you know, and what he does deserves some consideration. (A similar weird thing was done by another Kinney, namely Sarah, who sent Goofy on a planet inhabited by Goofy-like people in this brief story!)
Are there mentions of Clarabelle's relatives in some stories by Gottfredson? I have the feeling that yes, but I do not remember.
I guess we know nothing about Horace's relatives, except his own joke where he says to have "Arab ancestors", a funny reference to his equine nature. (Was that in Bagglard Castle from 1933?)
More interesting than relatives, it would be to collect references about the geography, the architecture and the history of Mouseton (Mouseville, for RobbK ). What do we have? I am very interested in this, to be honest.
It is in Calisota. This is standard now in the Italian school, which I see as the real heir of Walsh&Gottfredson tradition, so live with it. It has a Clock building in the center. It has a statue to the honor of the benefactor of the town, Fortunio Bancarotta, as we see inthe Delta Dimension. How was the guy translated in English? His name is literally "Lucky Bankruptcy" - an ironic name for a millionaire! As you may remember, the statue was destroyed in one of the most memorable gag in Scarpa's early work. But I like to think that it was rebuilt. It is a pity that none re-showed it, as far as I know. It has a river, whose name I don't remember right now, with a Devil pick (right translation?), where the Steamboat Willie sunk, as told by Artibani-Faraci/Mastantuono masterpiece River of Time. What else?
Probably a lot more of other information, considering the thousand stories produced in Italy in the last 60 years. Yet, I would reject most of what can come from the stories of the 60's, 70's and partially 80's, because they were very bad detective stories, with Mickey reduced to a non-sympathetic character - some kind of degradation of Murry's Mickey - written by bad writers (with some exception: Scarpa, Pezzin, Marconi, De Vita were decent writers, of course...). Nevertheless, the rebirth of the Mouse with the new generation of the 90's (Mezzavilla, Faraci, Artibani, Ziche, etc...) changed everything, not to mention the later arrival of Casty and many others. So I would gladly add to my head canon facts about Mouseton coming from relatively recent stories. But I actually do not know (or remember) much. What do we have? Damn, this is the kind of thread that we should open on the Papersera forum...
Gilberto might well be a multiple-degrees nephew(it would even fit thematically as a pun in English)
Gilberto himself could be the only one who could care about specifying the degrees of separations, but he's still a Pippide so it's likely even he wouldn't really care about it.
I worked on TVTropes's Mickey Mouse Comic Universe Protagonists page a few months ago and it has quite a bit on the main crew's families (generally with sources). It is, of course, not complete (yet. Do add to it if you've got time). Off the top of my head, Minnie's aunt Matilda and niece Melody(Jim Fletcher) is missing, many uncles, at least two aunts, and a cousin ("Party Mix") of Mickey (does anyone know if Loudmouth from "Ice Cream Social" is related?), Frank's brother, two or three uncles and one dogface cousin of Clarabelle, two cousins of Horace, and I don't know how many uncles, aunts, and cousins of Goofy. And then there's numerous niblings with one-time appearances in the gag comics.
Also missing quite a bit on Pete's family. I'm mostly interested in having some info up on an uncle of his named Crowbar(comic title would already be nice) and on his sister Petula.
I believe it's Merrill De Maris who in a handful of gag comics pushed the notion that Goofy is from a large, tight-knit family. De Maris gave Wackeyville as Goofy's town of origin, though I can't say I particularly care for that name.
According to "The Phantom Fires", many of the O'Haras are on the force. The same comic does bring up an exception (cousin) and I know of two other cousins who have different jobs too. Might as well ask for confirmation around here: from the Italian wiki, I get the impression Nataniele Ragnatele (Heath O'Hara) is not related to Seamus in the original Italian. Is this correct?
I rather like Disney's MMA tidbit that Minnie owns an antique store and has various connections through that all over the world. I'd like for the comics to revive her in that role again, especially if it'd mean she and Kodorofsky can interact one day.
Post by Monkey_Feyerabend on Jul 28, 2017 10:28:40 GMT
Ah, how I could forget! Ruffhouse Rat, the boxing champion from that early cool story, is Minnie's cousin! And the Goofy uncle from that Sunday! I tend to forget all the crazy characters saw in Gottfredson's strips. Ruffhouse was quit memorable as a character. Lazy heavy-weight word champion with a burning passione for Shakespeare' theatre! That could be still a source of good gags for some stories...
Whatevs*, you have done a very beautiful job with that page! I cannot believe there are so many Goofy and Clarabelle coming from the 40's and 50's! Two important missing in your list: Mickey's crazy uncle Gudger, relevant as coming from Walsh& Gott, and Goofy's brother Pappo (Gaffy?) invented by Scarpa.
(*By the way, only now I realize that you are not the user named Whatever who has slightly changed his nick... )
He can't be an only child—he's got a brother in Scarpa (Pappo from "Pippotarzan") who's been isolated from the outside world for many years; and at least one other sibling has to exist to be the parent of Gilbert, who looks too similar to be anything but a blood relative.
Gilberto might well be a multiple-degrees nephew(it would even fit thematically as a pun in English)
Since Gilbert has been mentioned as being Goofy's nephew since day 1, I don't see why he would be a multiple-degrees nephew, let alone not being a blood relative. Both his parents are mentioned in his first story, though we don't learn if he's the son of Goofy's brother or Goofy's sister. But we do see Goofy talking to Gilbert's mother at the phone.
Minnie's parents and uncle appear in the early thirties.
True, though they were ignored in this Italian story from 2001, in which she is raised by an aunt and uncle of her for some reason. Goofy is also raised by an aunt and an uncle of him in the same story (sigh). Of course, that story is a mess continuity-wise (for example, Mickey already knows Ellsworth before meeting Goofy), so it's hardly a base to construct a coherent backstory.
By the way, in the first Disney story that he was allowed to draw by himself, Casty sent Mickey and Pete to Pippsburgh, a whole town of Goofy-like characters.
These are the kinds of characters that are called "pippidi" ("goofyids") in Italian comics.
Clarabelle has one cousin, Boinifácio, on Brazil, whose shtick is being very unlucky.
She's got at least one Aunt, as seen in various Italian stories, who was a high-society eccentric woman with whom Clarabelle lived as a kid.
I haven't seen stories with this aunt, but I feel I am going to dislike her for making Clarabelle yet another example of a character being needlessly shown to have been raised by someone else instead of their parents.
According to "The Phantom Fires", many of the O'Haras are on the force. The same comic does bring up an exception (cousin) and I know of two other cousins who have different jobs too. Might as well ask for confirmation around here: from the Italian wiki, I get the impression Nataniele Ragnatele (Heath O'Hara) is not related to Seamus in the original Italian. Is this correct?
It is correct. Also, this recent Italian story shows a policeman named O'Hara interacting with Chief O'Hara... but they are not said to be related, and it's not even implied since they have different surnames, as the latter is known as Commissario Basettoni in Italy:
So, what should we make of this? Not much, I guess, just an inside joke. Still, it really feels weird, like in the story where Paperopoli and Duckburg are portrayed as two different cities.
And, of course, we almost got a marriage between Clarabelle and Horace. Does anyone know if Gottfredson was told no or if abandoning that particular plot point was his own choice?)
I don't know about that, but it's interesting to see what happened in the only two pre-War Italian stories with Horace and Clarabelle (both from 1939, with text by Federico Pedrocchi and art by Enrico Pinocchi). At the end of the first one, he aksed her if she would marry him, and she asks for some time to decide. In the second one, they are married and live together (though sleeping in separate beds).
Horace and Clarabelle are also shown living together in these stories, which I believe is a first.
Only writer Jan Kruse, apparently. It seems like senior Dutch writers are personally receiving the task of introducing relatives of main cast members strict, considering this year's case of Della by Geradts. Interesting...
Minnie's parents and uncle appear in the early thirties.
True, though they were ignored in this Italian story from 2001, in which she is raised by an aunt and uncle of her for some reason. Goofy is also raised by an aunt and an uncle of him in the same story (sigh). Of course, that story is a mess continuity-wise (for example, Mickey already knows Ellsworth before meeting Goofy), so it's hardly a base to construct a coherent backstory. (1)
By the way, in the first Disney story that he was allowed to draw by himself, Casty sent Mickey and Pete to Pippsburgh, a whole town of Goofy-like characters.
These are the kinds of characters that are called "pippidi" ("goofyids") in Italian comics. (2)
(2) I believe such creatures are called "goofs" in American use.
I don't know... I do remember seeing lines like "he's just a goof" in the Super Goof series, but it seemed to me that the term was used like it would be used in real life, i.e. to indicate "he's just an ordinary fool". The term pippide (whose first use was probably in this 2006 series) seems to carry the implication of characters being somehow a "copy" of Goofy, or the implication of Goofy playing different characters. That's why pippide is a term found in reviews of Goofy classic shorts. A similar but fan-made term is pietride ("peteid" ), used to refer to the various incarnation/clones of Pete, mainly found in animation but also, more rarely, in comics.
(3) May I point to "Mayor Beeble", Clarabelle's father in W OS 468-02?
I guess that's one of the two reasons for which there aren't too many mothers and fathers in Dissney comics: with so many writers/artists working independently from each other, the risk of characters getting multiple mothers/multiple fathers is high.