I don't believe I've read any of them, so I can't comment knowledgeably. The only reason I've even been curious about them is that Korhonen wrote a bunch of them, and I'm a big Korhonen fan. But the stories could never become "real" to me personally, because in my headcanon Donald and Della were raised by their parents until the parents died, when D&D were in late adolescence or early adulthood. Donald may have spent some summer months at Grandma Duck's farm alone, if Della was able to go to Chickadees camp while Donald had been kicked out of the Junior Woodchucks (and the Little Booneheads aren't organized enough to run a summer camp!).
I love the ones Bruno Enna did, its more dear to me than grown up italian ducks, because I prefer Barks/Rosa as those are concerned, the farm settings in general I like a lot
Post by Scrooge MacDuck on Nov 29, 2017 17:32:03 GMT
I am fine with the "Donald grew up on the farm" idea, mostly because it's too well-accepted at this point to be ignored for one such as me who tries to take as many stories overall into account. I imagine Hortense and Quackmore live around the farm too but have trying, time-taking jobs and are away for most of the week. As for Della… I dunno, in a boarding school or something?…
The stories, though… I like few of them. The artstyle of the Italian-produced ones isn't really my thing, I rarely like the plots, and am extremely annoyed at the apparent 1950ish setting of Donald's youth — it makes no sense either for a present-day Duckburg (where Donald would rather have grown up in the 80's), or an absolute-chronology view.
But the stories could never become "real" to me personally, because in my headcanon Donald and Della were raised by their parents until the parents died, when D&D were in late adolescence or early adulthood.
In your headcanon, did Hortense and Quackmore live long enough to see their grandsons be born? I kind of like the theory discussed on other threads that Hortense is the "boys' grandmother" referred to in a few early, pre-"Christmas on Bear Mountain" Barks stories, and that she may have passed away shortly before Donald, HD&L met Scrooge. By this theory, Quackmore would have predeceased her.
It's okay for some fun one-page gag jokes. But, it screws up Barks' Duck Universe to some extent. I don't like Donald's 2 parents not being around if their 2 kids are. They should have had a dog, too (The first Bolivar?). But, then, Barks would have called Bolivar "Bolivar III".
It's okay for some fun one-page gag jokes. But, it screws up Barks' Duck Universe to some extent. I don't like Donald's 2 parents not being around if their 2 kids are. They should have had a dog, too (The first Bolivar?). But, then, Barks would have called Bolivar "Bolivar III".
From what I am given to understand (never having read the series myself), it's considered a somewhat insular entry into the "alternate Donald in the Italian comics" genre; not necessarily meant to fit into larger mainstream Duckburg continuity, like Duck Avenger and Double-O-Duck, both of which are no more or less disruptive of Barks continuity (in the sense that there's nothing that directly contradicts Barks' work, just that it seems very alien to it, IMHO). The "Donald Duckling" series is discussed in greater detail here, so this particular thread is a little redundant.
But the stories could never become "real" to me personally, because in my headcanon Donald and Della were raised by their parents until the parents died, when D&D were in late adolescence or early adulthood.
In your headcanon, did Hortense and Quackmore live long enough to see their grandsons be born? I kind of like the theory discussed on other threads that Hortense is the "boys' grandmother" referred to in a few early, pre-"Christmas on Bear Mountain" Barks stories, and that she may have passed away shortly before Donald, HD&L met Scrooge. By this theory, Quackmore would have predeceased her.
I'm good with Hortense and Quackmore still being alive when HDL were born. In fact, I'd be pleased to see fan art (you listening, you artists?) showing H&Q holding their three grandbabies--I envision this as Hortense holding two of them, Quackmore having one arm around her shoulders and holding #3 in the other. The boys are already color-coded.
AND to go off-topic from this already off-topic discussion: I must insert here that on NPR today I heard a mother of adult triplets advising parents expecting triplets that they should color-code the babies, because otherwise you'll never keep track of which one you just fed! So Della probably did color-code them in infancy...
Back to H&Q: I prefer to believe that H&Q died while HDL were still very little. This is mostly to preserve the boys from experiencing yet two more major losses, in addition to the death/disappearance of their parent(s). If the grandparents were still alive when Della (and in my headcanon, her husband) died/disappeared, they would have become even more important to the boys than they had been earlier. In that case I hate to think of HDL losing them, as well. That's a boatload of bereavement, all within several years at most.
I normally don't think of the Ducks quite so psycho-realistically, but I find I can't avoid it when I imagine children experiencing such a run of losses. Given how many adults in the Duck family seem to die fairly young, I do sometimes think about how grief might have shown up in the Ducks--for instance, in HDL, their initial Katzenjammerish behavior could be seen as a symptom of grief at the loss of their parent(s).
There have been some pretty good ones, I liked the Halloween story and the one with the snowmen (can't be bothered to look them up now).
For me the point isn't so much to show Donals's youth and to fill in the gaps of his history, but rather to do things you couldn't do with HDL because they're not... childish enough.
For me the point isn't so much to show Donals's youth and to fill in the gaps of his history, but rather to do things you couldn't do with HDL because they're not... childish enough.
The stories, though… I like few of them. The artstyle of the Italian-produced ones isn't really my thing, I rarely like the plots, and am extremely annoyed at the apparent 1950ish setting of Donald's youth — it makes no sense either for a present-day Duckburg (where Donald would rather have grown up in the 80's), or an absolute-chronology view.
I don't think they are necessarily set in the 1950's, as the setting is very vague and even changes from story to story.
The stories, though… I like few of them. The artstyle of the Italian-produced ones isn't really my thing, I rarely like the plots, and am extremely annoyed at the apparent 1950ish setting of Donald's youth — it makes no sense either for a present-day Duckburg (where Donald would rather have grown up in the 80's), or an absolute-chronology view.
I don't think they are necessarily set in the 1950's, as the setting is very vague and even changes from story to story.
Hence my saying "1950ish", but from the clothing to that story where 1900 is the not-so-distant but still kinda-alien past, photos from which puzzle Donald and the other kids until the young version of an old guy is located on the photo.
