Scouting is supposed to teach survival skills that requires minimal equipment. "Knowing you can buy stuff" is not "wisely using modern techniques".
True that! My "stupidly" was meant as a reflection of the apparent judgment implied in the story, with the decision by the adults that the JWs had to learn from the Chickadees. This was apparently supposed to be the boys' comeuppance for assuming the girls wouldn't meet their standards. Now, if the JW leaders had said what you just said....
I haven't read the story, but I assume it's just done for comedy. There's plenty of other Woodchuck stories that DO say exactly that.
It IS the position of the JW in the story. But somehow the Chickadees declare themselves "winners" at the end, because the skunk saved them from the bear. It's just a weird story. There's no clear position on what proper scouting is.
For example, in one scout story by Nino Russo and Alessandro Barbucci, the girls and boys are possibly the same scout organization with different clothes, but in the Finnish translation it was decided to split them into Woodchuks and Chickadees. But correct me if I’m wrong because I’ve never gotten to read the original Italian story.
So I read the German version and the organizations are clearly separate. The girl gets thrown into the Chickadees and it just happens that the Woodchucks are somewhere in the vicinity, so she meets Dewey.
I just ran across a reference to the appearance of female Junior Woodchucks in a Dutch story from 1984! This would way predate the earliest instance I had so far found. This is from the plot summary on Inducks: "HDL summon their fellow JW's and the JW boys and girls (!) take over the mail-delivery that day." I will see if I can get a copy of a printing of this story--do any of you happen to have access to one? Or Rob, you could just ask Jan Gulbransson about it!
I just ran across a reference to the appearance of female Junior Woodchucks in a Dutch story from 1984! This would way predate the earliest instance I had so far found. This is from the plot summary on Inducks: "HDL summon their fellow JW's and the JW boys and girls (!) take over the mail-delivery that day." I will see if I can get a copy of a printing of this story--do any of you happen to have access to one? Or Rob, you could just ask Jan Gulbransson about it!
I have it. There is indeed a single female woodchuck in it, she has no dialogue and doesn't really do anything beyond just being there. Here's the two pages she appears in: EDIT: Just realized there's a second one in that first panel too, she just kind of disappears from the story after that one panel.
I just ran across a reference to the appearance of female Junior Woodchucks in a Dutch story from 1984! This would way predate the earliest instance I had so far found. This is from the plot summary on Inducks: "HDL summon their fellow JW's and the JW boys and girls (!) take over the mail-delivery that day." I will see if I can get a copy of a printing of this story--do any of you happen to have access to one? Or Rob, you could just ask Jan Gulbransson about it!
I have it. There is indeed a single female woodchuck in it, she has no dialogue and doesn't really do anything beyond just being there. Here's the two pages she appears in: EDIT: Just realized there's a second one in that first panel too, she just kind of disappears from the story after that one panel.
Cool! Thanks much! I have ordered a copy of the Journal de Mickey with this story, so I'll have my very own hard copy. But great to see it here, right away. Inducks says that Gulbransson did the art and writing both, so the female Woodchucks must have been his idea. And unless someone comes across an earlier instance, this may be the very first depiction of girl members of the JWs. Certainly a lot earlier than the first I had found (see my post on Feb 19 2022), which was 2014. And also, interestingly, earlier than DuckTales '87 with its inclusion of Webby in the JWs.
I have it. There is indeed a single female woodchuck in it, she has no dialogue and doesn't really do anything beyond just being there. Here's the two pages she appears in: EDIT: Just realized there's a second one in that first panel too, she just kind of disappears from the story after that one panel.
Cool! Thanks much! I have ordered a copy of the Journal de Mickey with this story, so I'll have my very own hard copy. But great to see it here, right away. Inducks says that Gulbransson did the art and writing both, so the female Woodchucks must have been his idea. And unless someone comes across an earlier instance, this may be the very first depiction of girl members of the JWs. Certainly a lot earlier than the first I had found (see my post on Feb 19 2022), which was 2014. And also, interestingly, earlier than DuckTales '87 with its inclusion of Webby in the JWs.
Jan was, indeed, the sole writer on this story. That one came out, in Donald Duck Weekblad, not so long before I started working with him. I'm surprised I didn't ask him why he didn't have the girls be Junior (Littlest) Chickadees, or why he added 2 girls to Huey, Dewey and Louie's local Jonge Woudlopers' chapter. At that time, in Oberon's stories, we used Carl Barks' Junior Chickadees (Roodkapjepatroelje) as Duckstad's girls' scouting organisation. There were no girls in Huey, Dewey, and Louie's chapter of The Junior Woodchucks; and furthermore, at that time, I don't remember de Jonge Wouldlopers having separate girls' chapters (although I believe Dutch Disney has printed a couple stories with such chapters WITHIN the organisation, after 2000). It is clear, by Jan's having drawn the 2 girls who were at The Nephews' Junior Woodchucks' Lodge meeting wearing "coonskin caps' shows that he meant them to be Junior Woodchucks, rather than having the smaller caps that resemble infantry soldiers' caps that Barks used for his Junior Chickadees.
Jan's original storyboards with the German text written in the balloons has the postman call the little girl Pfad-Finder (Pathfinder), the equivalent of Wouldloper (Forestwalker) in Dutch. The Norwegian version, above, has him call her a Hakkespetter (Woodpecker - the Norwegian name for The Nephews' scouting organisation). If I remember correctly, The Dutch version has the postman calling the girl a "Woudloper". So, our editor, Thom Roep, had no problem with girls being in The Woodchucks.
So, clearly Jan intended for girls to be in The Nephews' Junior Woodchucks' troop. I find it odd, because we worked on about 8 or 9 stories, together, involving The Woodchucks, and we never had any girls in The Nephews troop, or even in their own segregated troops within that organisation. And he NEVER brought up the idea even once! So, I have no idea why he chose to do that in this particular story.
I'm not sure how either The Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts organizations are faring in the various countries around the World today, - or even in the 5 countries in which I reside (at least up until The Pandemic started). But, it seems to me, that they have been less and less visible in public since the 1970s. When I was young, a goodly percentage of the boys and girls were members of, at least the youngest groups of Boy Scouts (Beaver and Cub Scouts), and Girl Guides (Sparks and Brownies), and a lesser amount remained involved into Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. Same in USA, with the Cub and Boy Scouts, and Brownies and Girl Scouts, and Bluebirds and Campfire Girls. They were the children of your neighbours, and could be seen everywhere. I think they have declined very much because we almost never see them, and no one I know has children or grandchildren in those groups. I haven''t noticed them as much in The Netherlands after the 1990s or so, as they had been visible in the 1950s and 1960s. I suppose now there are "tree-hugging" environmentalist youth groups; but they don't wear uniforms.
I'll ask Jan if he was trying to be a trend-setter.
Thanks for filling us in more, Rob! Interesting to know that this story was apparently a one-off regarding girls in the Junior Woodchucks troop. Do please get back to us and let us know what Jan says about it.
Also, if you or Jan or anyone else comes up with any of the Dutch stories since 2000 showing girls' chapters within the JW organization, I'd be pleased to hear about them! The only Dutch one I've come across is Gentina's Easter 2018 one-pager, mentioned above. That one does indeed look like it's imagining separate chapters within the JW organization, girls' troops and boys' troops. In some of the other stories mentioned on this thread, Egmont or Italian, it looks like the girls are integrated into the same troops with the boys.
You can tell Jan that his story is a full 30 years prior to any other (non-DuckTales) story I've found which incorporates girls into the JW organization!
Thanks for filling us in more, Rob! Interesting to know that this story was apparently a one-off regarding girls in the Junior Woodchucks troop. Do please get back to us and let us know what Jan says about it.
Also, if you or Jan or anyone else comes up with any of the Dutch stories since 2000 showing girls' chapters within the JW organization, I'd be pleased to hear about them! The only Dutch one I've come across is Gentina's Easter 2018 one-pager, mentioned above. That one does indeed look like it's imagining separate chapters within the JW organization, girls' troops and boys' troops. In some of the other stories mentioned on this thread, Egmont or Italian, it looks like the girls are integrated into the same troops with the boys.
You can tell Jan that his story is a full 30 years prior to any other (non-DuckTales) story I've found which incorporates girls into the JW organization!
Here is Jan's comment on why he added girls to Kwik's, Kwek's en Kwak's Jonge Woudlopers' troop: "The Junior Woodchuck girls were totally my doing. I brought them in just like that. No deeper thinking about it involved – maybe I’m a natural born feminist?". I also had no memory of The German Boy Scouts opening up their chapters to allow girls in their troops that early. Certainly, that had not happened in The Netherlands. And no Oberon staff member had made such a change in policy. So, I assumed it was just Jan deciding on a whim to do that, and forever after that, forgetting that he had done that. His idea from out of the blue presaged the eventual situation of scouting groups round The World making at least their youngest levels co-educational, which has occurred mostly after 2000.
Thanks for asking Jan Gulbransson about the 1984 story, Rob! And passing on that delightful comment. I'm going to print that out and clip it to my copy of the story (once it reaches me from France!). So unless anyone runs across any counter-example, Jan's story is the first record of Junior Woodchuck girls. Followed later in the 1980's by DuckTales putting Webby in the JWs, followed in the 20-teens by Egmont and Dutch stories with female JWs, followed in the 2020's by the creation of a pair of named female JWs who have appeared in at least half a dozen Italian stories.
This thread is always open for more examples! I'd love to hear of any other Dutch stories showing the separate chapters of the JW organization, with boys' and girls' troops--again, so far I've only found the Gentina one-pager.
Thanks for asking Jan Gulbransson about the 1984 story, Rob! And passing on that delightful comment. I'm going to print that out and clip it to my copy of the story (once it reaches me from France!). So unless anyone runs across any counter-example, Jan's story is the first record of Junior Woodchuck girls. Followed later in the 1980's by DuckTales putting Webby in the JWs, followed in the 20-teens by Egmont and Dutch stories with female JWs, followed in the 2020's by the creation of a pair of named female JWs who have appeared in at least half a dozen Italian stories.
This thread is always open for more examples! I'd love to hear of any other Dutch stories showing the separate chapters of the JW organization, with boys' and girls' troops--again, so far I've only found the Gentina one-pager.
An added memory regarding female scouts in Germany back in the old days: This discussion reminded me of our story writing days in Jan's old studio during the 1980s and 1990s, which was on the 4th floor, and our conference (story writing session) room had a big window overlooking the street. Our story writing conceptualising sessions were only very rarely interrupted by noise from down on the street. But, I'll I always remember when I first heard the loud chattering and giggling of the Padfinderinnen (Girl Guide (Scout)) troop walk on the street sidewalk below our big window. We first heard the low-level noise from a long way off. Then, at one block away, or so, they sounded like a class of school students on a field trip. But, eventually, the sound got louder and louder, to the point where we wondered what was going on down there. A riot? The start of a revolution?. The din reminded me of the gobbling-like chattering of a flock of parrots that I'd experienced while working for The UN in the tropics, or the incredible din of the thousands of turkeys at the turkey farm on Old Soboba Road in San Jacinto, that had inspired Carl Barks to write his Hairy Harry story in which Chief Ten Horse-Tractor's shipped turkeys bit off the villain's beard. When it grew very loud just below us, we looked down to the street and saw that it was only a Padfinderin leader, marching her Padfinderin troop two-by-two, below our window. They were all chattering away and giggling loudly - non-stop. I had already experienced public and private school classes passing below. But they weren't a tenth as loud. I guess that School teachers had the authority to expect discipline from their charges. Whereas, scouting was supposed to be recreation, and so rules of decorum were, apparently, a lot less strict. Clearly, groups of mixed girls and boys were a lot less loud (unless a mischievious boy did something outlandish).
Got my copy of Journal de Mickey 1753 in the mail today! And I was pleased to see that the two girls were here given different colored hair, rather than the coloring in the Norwegian printing shown above, where the two girls have identically blond pigtails with blue bows. The French coloring makes it easier for the reader to register that there are in fact two girls shown.
...although, I do also now notice that the French coloring is wrong in the final panels; the girl in that outfit should be the one with the blond hair, to match the coloring on the earlier pages, and the colorist gave her brown hair!