Gyro or not?

[Baar Baar Jinx]

"Dinner Date", published in Daisy and Donald#1 (1973), writer unknown, art by Bob Gregory, has this character who looks like Gyro, but is never identified as such, seems not to know Donald, and acts very unGyro-like:



INDUCKs identifies him as Gyro, but although he's dead ringer, I don't think the writer meant for him to be Gyro. Was this just improvisation on Gregory's part?

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Very interesting finding! If I had to guess, I'd say Gregory got lazy with character design without the writer's knowledge. In-universe, maybe this chemist fellow could be Gyro's unseen younger brother, father of Newton "Giggy" Gearloose? I could imagine him looking up to Gyro growing up for his smarts, and trying for science studies to make up for his lack of native talent — ending up as a not-that-well-respected chemist in the end, and drifting apart from Gyro and his friends in the process. Of course, all of this is fanfiction at this point, but why not?

[RobbK1]

It's not Gyro. Why can't there be other characters in Duckburg that are tall chickens and look like Gyro? There are lots of other Ducks that look just like Donald.

[Hector]

Considering Donald did not comment on him being Gyro (or striking any
resemblance to him, if he isn't), my explanations are...
1. The story takes place before Carl Barkses story where he became a
well known inventor (the one with the ray that made animals smart),
when Gyro is still someone not held in high regard and Donald is not
familiar with him.
2. It takes place in a parallel universe, where Gyro's life did not
turn out so well.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Oct 21, 2017 20:21:04 GMT Hector said:

1. The story takes place before Carl Barkses story where he became a well known inventor (the one with the ray that made animals smart), when Gyro is still someone not held in high regard and Donald is not familiar with him.

Perhaps you disregard those stories, but there is a somewhat accepted tradition of Donald and Gyro having been childhood acquaintances, which actually goes back to Barks. 

[RobbK1]

Oct 21, 2017 22:37:01 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Oct 21, 2017 20:21:04 GMT Hector said:

1. The story takes place before Carl Barkses story where he became a well known inventor (the one with the ray that made animals smart), when Gyro is still someone not held in high regard and Donald is not familiar with him.

Perhaps you disregard those stories, but there is a somewhat accepted tradition of Donald and Gyro having been childhood acquaintances, which actually goes back to Barks. 

Barks had Gyro and Donald playing baseball together in school as young teenagers.  So tge character above CANNOT possibly be Gyro, unless Donald has amnesia or is only pretending to not know who he is.  Furthermore, Daisy must know that Donald and Gyro knew each other as adolescents.
Again I ask the question, why can't characters look reasonably similar to Gyro, when lots of "Ducks" look similar to Donald, Daisy, Gladstone, Scrooge, Ludwig, etc., and lots of "Mouses" look similar to Mickey, Minnie and others, and lots of "Dogs" look similar to Goofy, etc.?

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Oct 22, 2017 1:41:26 GMT RobbK1 said:

Again I ask the question, why can't characters look reasonably similar to Gyro, when lots of "Ducks" look similar to Donald, Daisy, Gladstone, Scrooge, Ludwig, etc., and lots of "Mouses" look similar to Mickey, Minnie and others, and lots of "Dogs" look similar to Goofy, etc.?

It's always possible of course, but the crux of the thing is that Mickey and Donald are essentially the "template" of most other Ducks and Mice. Though that may not be a conscious decision from any particular writer, you do get the notion that Donald in particular just looks amazingly average for a duck. Take off the sailor suit and he could literally be anyone of at least a hundred different ducks introduced over the years, who can be told apart from Donald only by facial hair, glasses, and dressing habits (plus presumably sexual organs in the cases of Daisy or Grandma, but let's ignore that). By contrast, it's essential to Gyro's design, methinks, that he's an eccentric loon with a crazy haircut. The only characters looking like him we ever saw were part of his close family.

And besides, what coincidence would it be that not only would Gyro happen to have a near-perfect lookalike living in Duckbug, but that lookalike would also be a scientist of some kind? Not to mention, if you're right and the character is a lookalike of Gyro rather than Gyro himself… how comes Donald didn't get confused as he invariably would in a story that introduced a lookalike of the main cast on purpose? 

[Hector]

Oct 22, 2017 1:41:26 GMT RobbK1 said:

Again I ask the question, why can't characters look reasonably similar to Gyro, when lots of "Ducks" look similar to Donald, Daisy, Gladstone, Scrooge, Ludwig, etc., and lots of "Mouses" look similar to Mickey, Minnie and others, and lots of "Dogs" look similar to Goofy, etc.?

The problem is Donald did not comment anything like ''gee, this looks like Gyro''. And, considering he's supposed
to have known Gyro since childhood, i think it's fun to place that story in a parallel universe where something
happened to Gyro during his childhood (i could go into more detail in adult section) that caused him psychological
problems and ended up as an outcast instead of an acknowledged inventor.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Oct 22, 2017 1:41:26 GMT RobbK1 said:

Barks had Gyro and Donald playing baseball together in school as young teenagers. 

Where was this? We had a discussion about Donald and Gyro's relationship on another thread, but I don't think this came up.

As to the Gyro doppelganger ... I like the idea that he's Gyro's brother, who doesn't really know the Ducks (except Daisy as a co-employee). Maybe he's bitter about not being as successful as his older brother, and being stuck at a low-paying, low-profile job at a cosmetics company, resulting in a somewhat asocial, dour persona. I'd rather not put stories in alternate universes if there's no compelling reason to do so. (Also one could hypothesize that the story didn't capture an in-between exchange where Donald says, "Say, you look familiar, are you related to Gyro Gearloose?" and the chemist says, " Oh, you mean my brother, the failed, struggling, self-proclaimed inventor? But enough about him, I have gunk to rub in your hair." Comic book stories don't capture every word of every conversation, do they? Maybe that's a bigger discussion.)

[RobbK1]

Oct 22, 2017 13:21:01 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

Oct 22, 2017 1:41:26 GMT RobbK1 said:

Barks had Gyro and Donald playing baseball together in school as young teenagers. 

Where was this? We had a discussion about Donald and Gyro's relationship on another thread, but I don't think this came up.

As to the Gyro doppelganger ... I like the idea that he's Gyro's brother, who doesn't really know the Ducks (except Daisy as a co-employee). Maybe he's bitter about not being as successful as his older brother, and being stuck at a low-paying, low-profile job at a cosmetics company, resulting in a somewhat asocial, dour persona. I'd rather not put stories in alternate universes if there's no compelling reason to do so. (Also one could hypothesize that the story didn't capture an in-between exchange where Donald says, "Say, you look familiar, are you related to Gyro Gearloose?" and the chemist says, " Oh, you mean my brother, the failed, struggling, self-proclaimed inventor? But enough about him, I have gunk to rub in your hair." Comic book stories don't capture every word of every conversation, do they? Maybe that's a bigger discussion.)

That Barks reference occurred in the Gyro Gearloose story "Madball Pitcher", which was printed in a Gyro Gearloose comic book from 1960 (I believe).  In the story, Barks reveals that Gyro was born on Duckburg's Northside, and he moved to The Southside, later.  Donald remembered that Gyro was a star baseball pitcher during school (presumably high school.  He might have played for Northside High School, or Southside High School.  But, Donald either knew Gyro personally, or knew of him.  Given Evert Geradts' one page gags/stories showing Donald and Gyro together as young children, I believe that Gyro's parents moved from The Northside to The Southside, within 3 years of Gyro's birth, and Gyro grew up on The Southside, and played on Southside High School's baseball team, together with Donald.  THAT is why Donald remembered Gyro's pitching effectiveness so well, and knew Gyro should be playing on The Southside team.